He laughed again, but I sensed the strain. He really did want to fix things with Laurie—he just had a strange way of going about it.
“I’m out. If you need a ride home, text me. Or a few of us will be heading over to The Shack later if you want to come?”
I looked to Laurie to answer, I didn’t want to force her into a situation she would rather avoid. “Maybe,” she said earning her a goofy grin from Kyle.
“Enjoy the sun and don’t burn.” He gave her a pointed look before running back to his friends.
“He’s so bossy.”
Just like his stepbrother. I smiled to myself. Maybe the Stone-Prince boys weren’t as different as I first thought.
Laurie and I sunbathed for another hour until my skin felt tight and Laurie told me a smatter of freckles had appeared across my nose. “I’m done,” I announced, pulling the loose vest over my bikini top. Unlike Laurie who had stripped down to her bikini top and bottoms, I’d kept my shorts on.
“What do you want to do?” She pushed her glasses onto the top of her head and craned her neck as I stood up and dusted myself off.
“I’m easy. If you don’t want to go to The Shack, we don’t have to. I need food though.”
“Ugh. Okay.” Her smirk told me she was more than willing to go despite her attempt at being indifferent.
After rolling our towels and dumping our stuff in the boot of her car, we walked the short distance to The Shack which was exactly that—a wooden beach hut style diner with a wraparound deck housing tables and chairs. She held the door for me and I slipped inside. Kyle spotted me immediately. “Cous, get over here.”
“Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea,” I muttered to Laurie, but she laughed me off, moving toward the group huddled into a booth with a circular table.
“Scoot up, Stone,” she said to Kyle, and he shuffled along to let us in.
“Lo, you remember Matty and Trent?” He thumbed to the two guys on his other side. “Guys, meet Lo Stone, officially, and you already know the light of my life.” Kyle tried to slip his arm around Laurie’s shoulder but she elbowed him in the ribs.
“Don’t be a dick, Kyle. We’re here to eat. That’s it.”
“Yeah, yeah, keep telling yourself that.”
“So, Lo, how is it living with this jerk?” one of the guys said.
I shrugged. “It’s alright. Technically, I live in the pool house.”
“Your accent is so cool. Say something British.” He flashed me a smile that had me cocking my eyebrow.
“Like what?”
“I don’t know, something posh or whatever.”
“Dude, she’s my cousin, not a freak show.”
“Kyle,” Laurie and I hissed at the same time, but his friend was watching me eagerly so I sat straighter and said, “How now, brown cow.”
Four pairs of eyes stared back at me and then the booth erupted with laughter, but the mood changed when someone came up to the table. Kyle grumbled something under his breath.
“Stone,” JB Holloway’s eyes flickered to me but I knew he was addressing Kyle. “You said he wasn’t going to be a problem. He came into my home, to my party—”
“Chill, JB, it was a misunderstanding. No harm, no foul, yeah?”
“You’re on the team because I say it’s okay for you to be on the team. Rein. Him. In. This shit is getting old.”
“Everyone needs to chill the fuck out.” Kyle laughed, but I heard the strain there. “You know how he gets.”
“I don’t need Prince fucking up the season for me. We clear?”
“Crystal.”
JB turned his attention to me. “Feeling better?” He slid his thumb across his bottom lip, the way he had in the kitchen at the party and it made me shudder.
“Much, thanks.” I flashed him an over-the-top smile.
“See you around, Stone.” I heard the same promise in his voice I’d heard before. What was his problem?
“What just happened?” Laurie broke the silence.
“JB’s just pissed Maverick turned up at the party looking for a fight.”
“But they didn’t fight, right?”
Kyle flashed me a knowing look. “No, because someone got in between them.”
Laurie craned her head around to me. “Seriously, Lo, you didn’t tell me it was you.”
“I…” She was right. I hadn’t. After my ride home with Maverick, I didn’t know what to make of it all so I did what I did best, pushed it down and acted like nothing had changed.
And it hadn’t, really.
When Maverick made a brief appearance in the kitchen this morning, he’d acted like the party never happened. So, I did the same.
“I can’t believe you did that,” her voice was low as the boys went back to talking about the giant stick up JB’s arse.
“What was I supposed to do? Let them go at it? Maverick looked ready to kill him.”
“It wouldn’t be the first time.” She glanced back at Kyle clearly uncomfortable discussing his stepbrother with him present.
“You’ve been holding out on me.” I cocked my eyebrow but Kyle cleared his throat ending our conversation. “You girls okay?”
“Peachy,” I said. “I’m starving. What’s a girl have to do to get fed around here?”
The conversation turned to food, and all talk of JB and Maverick was pushed aside.
“Dad?” I stumbled over my slippers and reached out to steady myself. Light streamed in through the blinds even though it was the middle of the night. I didn’t need to flip the switch to see his bed was still made, and for a brief second, I understood how it must have felt for him all those nights I stayed out, too drunk or angry to make it home. But my empathy quickly turned to irritation. It was two-thirty in the morning. Where the hell was he?
I stalked over to the windows and I peeled back the blinds. The main house was pitched in darkness, except for a light in the kitchen. Maybe he was in there, back from wherever it was he'd been. Slipping out of the pool house, I cut across the patio to the back door. It opened with ease, but the place was empty. I tiptoed through the house to the front door and peered out of the glass panel. Gentry's car was parked in its usual spot. So where was Dad? Hurrying back through the house to return to the pool house, I stopped to grab a drink. When I turned around, I almost jumped out of my skin.
“Maverick?” I squeaked. He was in the shadows, arms folded over his chest, watching. “Are you trying to give me a heart attack?” My voice wavered as I tried to catch my breath.
“It’s late, London. What are you doing creeping around?”
Irritation etched into my face, I ignored the way his hooded gaze danced over my thin vest top, lingering on my chest for a little too long.
“Dad didn't come home yet.” I raked my eyes down his body. It was impossible not to look. The way his t-shirt rippled over his muscles. Ugh. But that wasn’t what caught my eye, it was the blood smeared across his knuckle. My gaze flickered back to his. “What are you doing up?”
He jammed his hands into the pockets of his sweat pants. The ones hanging far too low on his tapered waist. “You ask a lot of questions.” Maverick stepped into the room taking the air with him and I gulped, suddenly feeling exposed in just my summer pyjamas.