Page 77 of Told You So
“Take it back!” Mac gasps with feigned fury.
“No way. It’s true.” Sam’s head lolls to the side and she grins. “And that look on your face is priceless.”
When I’m finished with the sunblock, I scoot back on the blanket, ignoring the goosebumps over my skin as I ball my beach towel up under my head.
“Well, I think Bethany would agree with me,” Mac continues. “It’s nice to treat yourself every now and again, right?”
I nod. “Yes, it’s nice, especially if you need tounwind. Getting my nails done is sort of my ticket to escape for an hour or so every once in a while.”
“I totally get it,” Mac says. “I have brothers, too. I think I might over compensate with the girlie thing just so I can remind myself I’m not a greasy slob, like Bobby is.”
Sam and I both chuckle and drift into an easy quiet. The sounds of the ocean and the guys laughing and grunting as they hit the ball off in the distance becomes a serenade, and I lose myself to the warmth of the sun on my face. An airplane echoes somewhere far away. “I didn’t realize how nice this was going to be,” I muse, the sun melting every tightly wound muscle in my body.
“Did Jesse have fun yesterday?” Sam asks, her voice muffled by the blanket.
Recalling the pure joy on Jesse’s face as he and Nick brushed out the horses after our ride was priceless, and I know I couldn’t have asked for him to have a better experience. “Yeah, he did. He loved Shasta,” I say and look at her. “Thank you for letting us come out and ride.”
“It was all Nick,” she says. “Of course I’d never tell him no.” Her eyelashes flutter behind her glasses, and I can feel her gaze on me. “Bethany,” she says with a thoughtful pause.
“Yeah?”
She waits a drawn out moment, then continues. “Don’t hurt him this time.”
I stare at her, shocked and a little offended by her request. Nick and I have had our share of issues, but I can’t take credit for all the turmoil that’s passed between us. This is the moment I assumed would come, though, and I’d tried to prepare for it.
“I’m not trying to hurt him,” I tell her. “I’m nottryingto do anything. We’re just friends.”
“What were you before?”
Nick and I have always had a connection, but we’ve never been anything to one another. “Nothing, I guess.”
“That’s my point.”
“What Sam istryingto say,” Mac interrupts, “is that even asnothingto each other, all the back and forth between you guys has been really hard on him. So, imagine our concern now that you guys are actually friends.” I’m too busy trying to ignore the burn of discomfort blooming in my chest and cheeks. I peer up at the blue sky. The sun burns my eyes, but I let it.
“I don’t care what you guys say,” Sam grumbles. “It’s clearly more than just a friendship. He rode a damn horse for you. That’s not nothing.” She sounds a little awed, even if she doesn’t sound terribly happy about it.
“He was just doing something nice for my brother, it doesn’t mean anything.”
Sam snorts, making me bristle.
“Maybe, but...” Mac sprays herself with more tanning lotion then looks down at me. “Nick’s never come to me about a girl before,ever. So, that’s big—that means something too.”
My heart beings to hammer against my breastbone, bringing unexpected anger and hurt just beneath the surface.He talked to Mac about me?Rationally, I know it makes sense. They are best friends. But, the knowledge makes me feel exposed and a little betrayed.
“See, he’s clearly losing his mind already,” Sam jokes, but I don’t find it funny.
I reach for my dress. “I get that you’re protecting your friend,” I say, tugging my dress over my head. “But despite what you both think, you don’t know me. I don’t control what Nick does or feels. I’m not saying that I haven’t helped make things complicated between us, but you only know his side of things.”
“By all means,” Sam says. “Enlighten us.”
As much as I want to tell her to shove her judgements up her ass and explain ten years’ worth of “my side” of things, I’m not sure there’s much I can say right now that will make this situation any better, not while I grow more bitter by the second.
“Why?” I say, rising to my feet. “You’ve clearly made up your minds already.” I straighten my dress and peer around for an escape. “I’m gonna stretch my legs.” I head toward the beach, away from them and the group, uncertain how things turned from conversational to toxic in a matter of seconds. My feet sink into the sand, making it difficult to walk away from them fast enough. I’d like to go play with the guys, maybe bat playfully at Reilly and give Sam a real reason to hate me, but that’s not who I am anymore. I’m not sure it ever really was.
“Hey!” Sam says, jogging up behind me. “I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable.”
I laugh bitterly and continue walking. “Wasn’t that the point?”
