I tear across the sand, back towards Summer’s place. While it’s as I’ve left it and no noises come from inside, I won’t rest until knowing she’s absolutely safe.
With my key card, I slip inside. The room is dark, lights drawn, the body in the bed resting on her stomach again, passed out. I cross to her, visually tracing the lines of her body up to her shoulders.
Given I’m without my mask, I leave before she wakes, checking the bathroom, second bedroom, every shadow and corner, before leaving.
I return to my rooms, dragging a chair from the back deck to settle into.
There, I watch and wait.
FOURTEEN
SUMMER
Rather than working,Levi has been hanging out with me…except he’s acting strange. Normally, I’d be thrilled to have him around, but he’s so on edge, it has me unsure how to act, lost in ways I haven’t been since the start of our friendship.
Besides, while he’s around, he’s not reallywith me. He refuses to swim, trails me around the property, and spends a lot of time on his phone. When I ask, he glares and seethes, though less so at me. He’s mad in general.
With a sinking feeling, I presume it has to do with the picture from last night. Levi obviously knows something about it, and it has him on edge. Asking him won’t work, though, not when I’m not supposed to know he’s aware.
So, I force myself to remain calm and act as though all is well for the sake of this lie that’s feeling too large to maintain.
“Something wrong?” Given the number of times his jaw clenches, he’ll be well on his way to deforming his face.
“Nope.”
Liar.
Then again, so am I.
His weirdness continues throughout the day, so I distract myself with thoughts of last night, all while trying to veer away from reliving that picture. Once blocked, the message with it was hidden, and I have to stop myself from looking at it over and over, trying to figure out who could have sent it.
I would have liked to believe Levi paid someone to keep up the ‘always watching’ Hunter game, but he wouldn’t be acting like this if he had.
After dinner, Levi nudges me in the direction of our rooms. “I’d prefer to stay away from crowds tonight. Let’s hang out in your pool and I’ll order us a bunch of drinks.”
Nodoesn’t seem to be an option. Besides, maybe alone and after a few drinks, he’ll finally disclose what’s going on.
At my cabana, I head inside to change while he waits by the pool for staff to bring the order he placed when we walked by one of the bars. By the time I join him, he’s holding a cup of something red balanced on his knee. His glare continues, this time the ocean being his victim.
I slip into the pool made warm by the hot temperatures and practically chug one of the drinks for liquid courage before playfully flicking water his way. As his dark look shifts from the ocean to me, my hand quickly lowers back into the pool as a different face with the same kind of expression sends warning signals through my brain. Not that Ieverbelieve Levi would harm me, but old fears dredge up, my knowledge of what angering a man could lead to making me hold my breath.
“Something’s obviously up. What changed between now and yesterday?”
“Just some bad news. Sorry, I’ll try to relax.” The hand clenching his drink says otherwise.
Relaxingseems impossible, his jaw in a permanent hard state. I rest a hand on his knee. “Don’t apologize. I’m worried about you, that’s all.”
And what you know.
He says nothing, so after another beat of my heart, my hand lowers back into the pool with a sigh. “Come swim?”
Without looking away from me, he lifts his phone, which has been glued to him all day. “Can’t. I’m working.” He mumbles something else beneath his breath I don’t catch, though it sounds awfully like, “Protecting you.”
For the next couple hours, I swim and drink and swim some more. Then, I climb out to drink more. I’m entertaining myself while battling the need toknowwhat Levi is hiding.
Eventually, I resort to having private conversations between me and my cup and envisioning his responses, but my buzzed mind isn’t coming up with anything realistic.
The photo was your imagination.