Part 3 (1/2)

”Some of us have to pee out here!” a woman-who sounds like a man, due to her chain-smoking-shouts at us, breaking us out of our moment.

”Oh my gosh, sorry!” I shout, waving apologetically at her before hurrying into the stall.

Tamara threw up two more times before our cab pulled up. Thankfully, that was the last time she got sick, because if she would've gotten sick in the car, I think it'd be safe to say I would've been upchucking too.

As soon as the cab dropped us off at our beach house, Tamara headed straight to the bathroom to brush her teeth and then headed to bed. Nikki, Becca, and I got out of our clothes and into cotton shorts and tank tops. It's a warm night tonight, so we each poured ourselves a gla.s.s of sweet tea and went out onto the deck.

It's so relaxing here. The only sounds are crickets and the ocean waves cras.h.i.+ng against the sh.o.r.e. There's a gentle breeze that feels amazing right now, because it's so humid tonight. I can see lights on in a beach house about a quarter mile down the beach, but other than that, it's deserted around here. More than likely, everyone is down at the boardwalk partying it up, celebrating Independence Day.

We spend the next hour talking about anything and everything. I love just hanging out with my friends. We talk about Chase and Liam, both of my girls picking on me about how they wish they were stuck between two hot guys vying for my attention.

Liam tried to come home with me tonight, but I let him know with Tamara being sick it was probably best he didn't. I could see the disappointment in his eyes, but I knew if I invited him back here, he'd get the wrong idea, and I just don't want to deal with the drama of trying to keep things platonic between us.

He leaves in two days, so I told him to text me tomorrow so we can get together to explore the boardwalk some more. He could tell things with me were off by my behavior, but it was hard to hide the fact that my run-in with Chase had dampened my mood.

We hear a car pull up out front and the sound of Chase, Vance, and Parker's voices traveling through the night air echoing around us. They're laughing and cursing as they make their way towards their beach house.

Nikki smacks my thigh and raises her eyebrows up at me. ”Well, now's your chance to try and fix things. There's no one around to interrupt you two.”

I feel my stomach drop as I stand. My palms are sweating, so I wipe them on the front of my shorts. ”What if he's brought a girl home with him? I'll look stupid showing up on his doorstep, and not to mention desperate.”

”Do you hear a female voice? No! Now drag your a.s.s across the lawn and go knock on his f.u.c.kin' door,” Becca snaps at me, whipping her hand out towards their house.

Resting my hands on my hips, I glare down at her. ”What about you, miss bossy pants? Why don't you drag your a.s.s over there right beside me and talk to Parker?”

Huffing out a loud sigh, Becca jumps to her feet. ”Unlike you, I'm not chicken s.h.i.+t. I'll march my a.s.s over there, bang on the door, and take exactly what I want.”

Laughing, I roll my eyes at Becca and her overdramatic behavior. ”Fine, let's do this. You're lucky I'm still kind of drunk.”

I'M JUST HEADING UPSTAIRS to shower, when I hear a knock at the door. Parker and Vance are in the kitchen making a frozen pizza, so I keep climbing the stairs, figuring they'll get the door. I pray it isn't Sophie and her friends showing back up here. If so, I'll pretend I've had too much to drink so I can avoid her.

”Chase!” Vance hollering my name causes me to stop mid-step.

s.h.i.+t.

”What?” I shout back down the stairs to him.

”You have a visitor, douchebag; that's what.”

Sliding my hands over my face, I go back down the stairs, preparing myself to fend off Sophie, but I'm shocked when I find Ashlynn and Becca standing in my kitchen.

She looks just as beautiful as she did earlier tonight, except now she's even more stunning standing before me without a drop of makeup, her blonde hair up in a messy bun, and wearing adorable, cotton, heart-covered shorts and a red lace tank top.

”Ashlynn, what are you doing here?” Walking towards her, I rest against the kitchen island and take her in, my eyes roaming over every inch of her. A ghost of a smile forms on my lips as a tiny grin appears on her face.

She loves it when I stare at her; I can see it in her eyes as she stares back at me. She's like an open book, revealing everything she's feeling in those beautiful blue eyes.

”I wanted to see if maybe we could go somewhere and talk.”

Pus.h.i.+ng myself off of the island, I walk towards her and grab the door handle. ”Sure, let's go outside.”

Becca is grabbing Parker's hand, leading him into the living room as Ashlynn follows me out onto the wraparound deck. It looks like they're going to do some talking too, or maybe not so much talking...but things are looking up for us, so that's a plus.

As soon as I shut the door, Ashlynn follows me to the railing of the deck and stares down at the dark beach. Standing next to her, I rest my forearm on the banister and face towards her. I have an overwhelming urge to touch her, so I reach out and run my hand slowly down her back.

”So what did you want to talk about?”

Spinning, she gazes up at me with her face glowing in the porch light, making her beautiful face appear angelic. She's so d.a.m.n gorgeous.

”I wanted to talk to you about you...us. I really like you, and I think you like me, or at least I thought you did.”

How can she even doubt that? I thought I made it pretty clear yesterday I liked her.

She lets out a soft sigh before continuing. I don't dare interrupt her, since she's finally talking to me again. ”You're so hard to read...G.o.d...I know I'm rambling. It's just...yesterday was so much fun, and then I saw you with that other girl and I didn't know if I was imagining everything between us.”

I need to hold her, show her my feelings for her are real. Reaching out, I wrap my arms around her waist and pull her to me. At first, she keeps her hands down at her sides and just stares up at me with her big blue eyes sparkling.

”You weren't imagining anything, Ashlynn. I really like you...I think more than I've liked any girl. It's pretty crazy and making me question my sanity, because I find myself thinking about you every single second of the day.”

I can't believe I'm really saying all of this to her. I think h.e.l.l froze over the day I met Ashlynn, because just in the matter of three days, I've turned into a totally different person.

”Is that so?” she asks with laughter in her sweet, soft voice. ”If you like me so much, what were you doing with that girl last night?”

Ahh, h.e.l.l. I was a dumba.s.s for thinking I wouldn't have to confess I'd messed up.

I inhale deeply and then exhale slowly as I try to think of the best way to go about this without Ashlynn getting p.i.s.sed off, kneeing me in the b.a.l.l.s, and then hauling a.s.s back to her house.

”I f.u.c.ked up. Plain and simple. After y'all left last night, the guys wanted to go out, so we texted some girls we'd met the night before. It was stupid. The truth is I wanted to go out with you last night, but I didn't want to come off as overeager, because we all know girls love it when guys play hard to get.” I give her a devilish smirk and relax a bit as she smiles back up at me and finally wraps her arms around my waist.

Holding her in my arms feels perfect. We feel perfect.

”Well, playing hard to get does work, Chase, but there's a difference between leaving me wanting to see you again, and just being a plain a.s.shole, going out with another girl, and making me never want to see you again.”

”What about you and Mr. Ain't I just irresistible with my British f.u.c.kin' accent'?” I'm feeling defensive and don't think before speaking like usual. I mentally cringe as soon as my question comes out, but d.a.m.n, she's p.i.s.sing me off.

I'm a guy for Christ's sake. We're bound to mess up. We will definitely not just mess up once or twice, but a whole h.e.l.l of a lot of the time. We'll do more s.h.i.+t wrong than we ever do right, but that's just life. Women just have to learn to accept that and find a way to like us anyway, because there's no chance in h.e.l.l I'll ever be perfect.

She slaps my chest before hooking her hands back around my waist. ”Oh stop! Liam is very nice, but there's nothing going on between us. I met him this morning while Nikki and I were getting ready to go for our run. He asked if we had plans tonight and we said no, so he invited us to go out with him. You were with your little friend from last night, so I saw no reason I should tell him no.”

I suddenly feel sick at the thought of my major f.u.c.k-up last.

I don't know why the h.e.l.l I brought Sophie back here last night. It was wrong on so many levels. The entire time, I was thinking about Ashlynn, even while we were having s.e.x. I was three sheets to the wind, but that's no f.u.c.king excuse. I still knew what I was doing, and knew it was wrong, but I still used Sophie to try to push the thoughts of Ashlynn from my head and it backfired. Being with her only made me think of Ashlynn more, and then I felt like the world's biggest a.s.shole afterwards.

I've never regretted anything in my life, but for the first time, I actually regret something I've done.

Pus.h.i.+ng the thoughts of Sophie out of my head, I focus on Ashlynn. ”Sophie means nothing to me. I don't plan on ever seeing her again, but you, on the other hand, are someone I want to get to know very well before you leave to go back to Georgia.” I slide my hands down to her a.s.s, giving it a gentle squeeze, pressing her into my now semi-hard d.i.c.k that's tenting my shorts.

Her eyes open wider and her mouth forms a small O. It's taking everything in me not to lean over and kiss her perfect lips.

”I'm not gonna lie. I really want to get to know you too, every single inch of you...but we gotta take things slow. I just got out of a relations.h.i.+p, and this whole casual thing is new to me. I don't know if I can be what you need me to be, but I'm going to try.”