Love the One You're With (20 page)

Because of that, or because of the champagne, Avery turned and boldly brushed her lips against Rhys’s cheek. So
what
if Owen saw. What could he do?

“Are you sure? People can see us,” Rhys whispered, squeezing Avery’s hand tightly under the table.

Rhys’s cell beeped loudly, just as the steel-drum band was finishing a reggae version of “Over the Rainbow
.
” He quickly dug into his pocket. Just to be an asshole, Owen had changed his ringtone, so the song “Big Pimpin’” came on whenever he got a text from Hugh.

“That’s a nice song!” Edie said, bopping her head to the ringtone, completely oblivious to the lyrics. Remington smiled fondly at his fiancé.

“Sorry, it’s my phone,” Rhys admitted, quickly snapping it to silent.

“So, do you think we should do performances tonight? Or tomorrow?” Edie said to the group.

Avery glanced up in horror. Her mom had this thing about making the guests at any of her parties do a performance after dinner, citing it as a Native American ritual. When she and Baby had been younger, they’d had to sing songs or recite poems together. Now she was really hoping they wouldn’t have to participate.

Besides, she’s already given her high-maintenance-bride performance today….

“I think tomorrow might be better. During the reception,” Avery murmured, making a mental note to speak to Yvette and make sure performances didn’t happen.

“Good idea!” Edie nodded thoughtfully. “That way, all your friends will be here!” Edie clapped eagerly, then resumed feeding Remington bites of soufflé from her plate.

Avery shuddered. Remington had gotten the idea to fly some of their friends down tomorrow in his Gulfstream. She wasn’t sure
how many people were actually going to show up, but she’d invited Jiffy and Genevieve, and Rhys and Owen had invited some
of the swim team guys. She certainly didn’t want everyone to get an eyeful of weird performance art. But she was looking forward
to showing off being a couple with Rhys.

A performance in its own right.

Avery lightly caressed Rhys’s leg under the table. All her life, she had wanted just one thing: to find love. But even for
all her dreaming, wishing, and hoping, she’d had no idea how
good
it could really be. Yesterday, Rhys had sent her cute messages first thing in the morning and last thing at night. He squeezed
her hand or caressed her face at every opportunity—any sweet gesture to let her know he wanted to touch her but couldn’t.
And best of all were the times where they really
could
be together. He had sneaked into her room for a quick kiss before dinner, and her lips were still tingling from touching
his. She couldn’t wait to just tell Owen and make their relationship public, so that she could kiss him whenever she liked.

Rhys’s phone beeped again, and he hastily pressed silent on his phone. In his excitement over coming to the Bahamas tomorrow,
Hugh had outdone himself with texts. He didn’t even want to
think
about what would happen when Hugh showed up in person.

“Dude, it’s Rhys’s mom,” Owen teased, drunkenly holding up his champagne flute in a mock toast. He’d been in better spirits
ever since his boat ride with Remington, and had been drinking and toasting their nuptials all night long.

“Oh, how sweet!” Edie cooed, clearly thrilled at the concept of Rhys being so close with his mom.

“I need to see what Lady Sterling says!” Avery said, grabbing Rhys’s phone and flipping it open. She
loved
that one of the privileges of having a boyfriend was having carte blanche to their texts.

When I see you tomorrow, I expect a full report on your sexcapades. Not getting some is not an option.

Avery couldn’t bring herself to read the rest of the text. She closed the phone, her heart dropping like it was in free fall.
Was that what all this was about? Did Rhys just want to get laid?

Avery’s head spun as she mentally reviewed the last few days, suddenly seeing everything in a new light. Rhys had flirted
with her from the start, but when they hadn’t so much as kissed, he’d gone to those pool skanks instead. She and Rhys had
made out a few times—but clearly he wanted more. His provocative texts from the last few days didn’t seem so
sweet
anymore. Even the way he had apologized to her the other day, telling her about his dream, seemed cheap now. He hadn’t dreamed
about them holding hands, skipping down the beach. He’d dreamed about them
hooking up
. Avery felt incredibly used. She’d been
played
.

Don’t hate the player, hate the game.

“What the hell?” Her voice was icy and shaky, and she knew any second she’d burst into tears. She thrust the phone toward
him. “That’s what you’re trying to do? I thought you were different.” Avery stood up at the table, rage coursing through her
veins.

“Oh dear,” Edie murmured. She’d always ascribed to the hands-off parenting theory that it was better to let your kids work
out their own problems and only offer input when they asked you. “Remington, we have a big day tomorrow, so let’s retire to
our villa. We should let the kids enjoy without us oldsters hanging around!” she announced, dragging Remington—who was still
holding his plate of soufflé—after her.

“Avery, I need to explain. It’s Hugh, it’s the swim team, it’s this—” Rhys went to grab her hand, but she shook him away.
She pushed her chair back, ready to storm out.

“Avery?” Jack asked questioningly, standing as if ready to follow her out.

Avery ignored Rhys, turning toward Jack. Of course, Jack had nothing to do with this. But Rhys wasn’t the only one who’d been
a colossal jackass on this vacation, and Avery had had enough. “You’re just like him,” she spat, watching as Jack’s green
eyes went wide with shock. “A total fucking user, and a liar. You tell me you’re here because you missed me, but really you
just want my brother. And who knows what you’ve told
him
. You have a boyfriend, for fuck’s sake!” Registering the shock on everyone’s faces, Avery knew she’d done enough. “Just—everyone—leave
me alone.” She turned on her heel and marched out of the restaurant with her head held high.

Baby scraped her chair back, then paused. After all, wasn’t she also lying and using the people around her? She hadn’t spoken
to Riley at all today, even though he was sitting just two seats down from her at the table. Yesterday, he’d made her feel
on top of the world. Today, what they’d done had made her feel… confused. She still liked him, but she liked Layla. And Layla
was her almost-sister. She pulled her chair back toward the table.

Rhys stood up, ready to run after her, ready to make her believe that the text wasn’t what it sounded like. Because he knew
how very bad it sounded.

“Don’t even
think
about it,” Owen hissed, practically pushing Rhys back onto the wicker chair. He couldn’t
believe
his best friend had been hooking up with his
sister
behind his back. The fact that Rhys had lied to him about “not being over Kelsey” was just icing on the fucked-up cake. “You’ve
done more than enough,” he spat. Owen quickly ran outside to the marble patio, chasing after Avery.

Rhys sat back in his chair, watching helplessly as his best friend and his almost-girlfriend ran away. He couldn’t believe
he’d fucked things up with them
both
in one fell swoop.

Jack watched them go, too, feeling exactly the same way.

Misery loves company….

“Yikes,” Layla murmured, after Jack and Rhys had excused themselves, both looking shell-shocked. Only Layla, Baby, and Riley
remained at the table.

“I hope they work it out before the wedding,” Riley added unhelpfully.

“Yeah,” Baby murmured, not really listening. She topped off her champagne. Baby didn’t usually drink, but she couldn’t deal
with herself right now. She was terrible at not showing her emotions, so she’d avoided being in the same room as Layla as
much as she could since their dinner last night. Luckily Layla seemed to have attributed Baby’s odd behavior to having mixed
feelings about the wedding, like Owen, who had thrown tantrums the whole trip before finally seeming to come around.

Baby took a long swig of her champagne, enjoying the hazy, floaty feeling as the bubbles coursed down her throat. She closed
her eyes and wished that when she opened them, she’d be alone with Riley, in some fantasy land where his soon-to-be-ex-girlfriend
wasn’t becoming part of her immediate family tomorrow.

“Well, isn’t there a saying, like, bad rehearsal dinner, good wedding?” Layla shrugged her shoulders as she glanced between
Riley and Baby. “I mean, at least it’s not your mom and my dad fighting!”

“True,” Baby allowed. She was happy for her mom, and definitely didn’t want anything to go wrong with the wedding tomorrow.
But she couldn’t help but think that if Remington were out of the picture, Layla would be too. “Baby, would you be okay if
Riley and I go work on the music for our set?” Layla asked. She adjusted the sleeve of her blue American Apparel tunic dress
and her tribal tattoo came into view. “I swear, this guy’s been avoiding me”—she punched Riley playfully in the arm—“and we
haven’t worked out which songs we’re going to do yet.”

“Yeah, let’s go work on the set, but let’s wrap up early….” Riley shot Baby a meaningful look. “I want to get a good night’s
sleep
.” Even though he was speaking to Layla, he didn’t break eye contact with Baby the entire time.

Baby felt her stomach twist. He was inviting her over to his room later. And while there were a million reasons why it was
wrong, just one glance at Riley’s lopsided smile reminded Baby how
right
they’d been yesterday. Maybe they could hook up and then Layla would break up with him and she’d never have to know. After
all, they were
practically
broken up. Layla had said as much yesterday. And after tomorrow, Riley would go back to Ithaca, and Baby wasn’t sure when
she’d get to see him again. It was just so confusing. She took another long sip of her champagne.

At least she’s not confused about her feelings on drinking.

“You’re okay, right?” Layla seemed hesitant to leave Baby alone, after the evening they’d all had.

“Yeah, I’m going to turn in early too,” Baby said, speaking in code. She glanced away from Layla. After all, she wasn’t doing anything
wrong.
After all, Riley wasn’t hiding anything. He was sweet and sincere and didn’t want to hurt his girlfriend. It was understandable. If she’d been a student at Ithaca and had met Riley in the dining hall or philosophy class or at some coffee shop in town and he’d given her the same explanation about his and Layla’s relationship, she wouldn’t have thought twice about hooking up with him.

Toto, we’re not in Ithaca anymore….

“You ready, Layla?” Not waiting for an answer, Riley stood up and walked out. But not before giving Baby a parting wink.

Even though his back was already turned, she couldn’t help but wink back.

An hour later, Baby made her way back to the villas. She’d sat at the restaurant for a while alone, sipping champagne, listening to the steel-drum band, and sort of enjoying the feeling of being in such a complicated romance. At least, it had seemed hazily romantic, after she’d polished off all the champagne left at the table.

She crossed the villa’s shared deck and made her way to the sliding door of the guys’ villa, pushing it open gently. Baby tiptoed inside the room. The lights were off—Riley had probably kept them low so that if the boys came home, they’d think he was sleeping. She padded silently through the living room and gingerly opened the bedroom door. She could just make a figure curled up in bed. She moved toward Riley, when the figure moved and she saw that it was not one body but
two
. They were entangled, a bundle of writhing limbs. Through the sliver of the moonlight coming through the window, she could just make out a very feminine arm.

One with a tribal tattoo.

Baby turned and darted from the room, careful not to make a sound. She ran over to the deck outside the girls’ villa and threw
herself down onto one of the chaises. She felt like she was going to be sick and closed her eyes, hoping that the world would
stop spinning.

Riley hadn’t been waiting for her in his room.

He’d been hooking up with
Layla
.

Because she was his
girlfriend
.

Somehow, Baby’s life had veered so far from where it had been just a week ago. She didn’t cheat. She didn’t believe guys when
they swore to her they were about to break up with their girlfriends. And she certainly didn’t get drunk and start crying
about it. Tears ran down her face and she angrily wiped them away. She heard footsteps but didn’t look up. She didn’t want
to talk to anyone.

“Hey.” Jack’s voice floated over to her.

“Hey.” Baby didn’t look up. Maybe if she ignored her, she’d go away.

Nice try.

She heard a chair scraping on the deck floor next to her, then Jack settling into the chair next to her.

Baby wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and stared at Jack. She was wearing a tight black dress and looked effortlessly
beautiful, as usual. Other than Riley, she was pretty much the
last
person Baby wanted to see.

“Are you
crying
?” Jack asked. She pulled a Tiffany lighter from her bag and lit up a Merit. “Want to smoke?”

“No, I just think I need to be left alone,” Baby said.

Jack exhaled smoke up into the night air. “Well, that’s not an option,” Jack said firmly. “I’m an expert in fucked-up drama,
and your sister currently hates me, so just lay it on.” She lit up another cigarette and passed it over to Baby.

Baby struggled to stand. Maybe if she crawled into the villa right now and fell asleep, in the morning it would all be better.
Maybe when she woke up, she wouldn’t be a wannabe boyfriend stealer. Or a traitorous stepsister. Or whatever she was.

“Well, at least sit down,” Jack commanded.