Page 74 of New Day at the Beach House

Alex put his hands up like a shield. “Listen, buddy. Why don’t I take you to a hotel in town and we can get you a room where you can sleep this off?”

“Are you sleeping with my fiancée?” Ray blurted out. He came closer. “Are you the reason she left me?”

Kat was quickly getting fed up. “Ray, shut up. You’re the reason I left you.”

He looked like he’d been crying. He wiped at his face with the back of his hand. “Just give me one more chance, Kat. Please. I’m dying without you.”

“I doubt that very much. You need to call a ride and get out of here.”

Alex still had his hands up. “The woman wants you gone, friend. Time to act on that.”

Ray blinked a few times and seemed to finally focus on Alex. Ray looked him up and down. “I don’t take advice from Ken dolls.”

Alex said nothing to Ray but spoke to Kat again over his shoulder. “You say the word and I’ll get him out of here.”

She didn’t know what to do. He obviously couldn’t drive. “Ray, you’ve really made a mess of things, you know that?”

Ray started sniffling. “I just want you to love me.”

“You should have thought about that before you slept with Heidi. Speaking of, if you were sleeping with her, why aren’t you two a thing now?”

The tears began for real. “She broke up with me, too.”

“All right,” Alex said, pulling his phone out. “I’m getting you an Uber on my dime. I’ll have him take you to the Best Western in town. They should have a room available.”

“No,” Ray shouted. “I’m not leaving without Kat.” He swatted the phone out of Alex’s hand, then lunged toward Kat. “Just talk to me.”

She shrieked and jumped back.

Alex, ignoring his phone on the ground, grabbed Ray by the shoulders and held him away from Kat. “That’s enough.”

Ray swung wildly at Alex, missing. “You dumb piece of—ow!”

Alex moved so quickly Kat wasn’t entirely sure what he’d done or how he’d done it, but he had Ray’s arm up behind his back, which had effectively made it impossible for Ray to do anything else.

Lights came on next door at the Rojases’ place.

“Babe, can you grab my phone? Just need to hit Send on that Uber request.”

Ray was sobbing and mumbling and complaining that Alex was hurting him. She picked up Alex’s phone, but shook her head. “I’ll call one. You don’t need to pay for this idiot.”

Her mom and Danny appeared on his front porch.

“Kat?” her mom called out. “Is that you?”

“Yes,” Kat called back while she brought up the Uber app on her own phone.

Danny and her mom came down the steps and walked over. Danny nodded. “Is this the ex?”

“Yep.” Kat typed in the Best Western as a destination.

“Did he put his hands on you?” Danny asked.

“No,” Kat answered.

“He tried,” Alex said. “But he was too drunk to make contact.”

Her mom put her hands on her hips and stood directly in front of Ray. “You should be ashamed of yourself, young man. After what you did to my daughter, you have the nerve to come here? How dare you? I considered you family, once upon a time.”

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