Life After Taylah (8 page)

“Um, soon-to-be,” I murmur. “I suppose.”

“Avery!” Jacob barks. “Don’t bother carrying anything, will you?”

He’s got his hands full and I do feel a little guilty.

“Excuse me,” I say to Nate and Lena before rushing towards Jacob.

“Who invited the fuckin’ stiff?” Liam barks.

I drop my head down with a deep sigh. It’s not news to me that Liam hates Jacob but he doesn’t need to be such an ass about it. I try to keep calm, though. Jacob is a grown man and I need to stop interfering and treating Liam like I’m his mother.

“Hello Liam,” Jacob says, straightening his back. “It’s nice to see you.”

Kill me now.

“Perhaps for you,” Liam snorts. “Ain’t nice for me.”

I drop my head into my hands.

“He’s charming.”

I shiver all over as a voice whispers in my ear. I spin around and see Nate, grinning at me. Damn him. It’s not funny.

“Don’t even, Nathaniel,” I say, wagging my finger in his face. “I can hurt you.”

He winks and steps past me, extending his hand. “Nathaniel Alexander, I’m Avery’s BFF.”

I want to die in shame.

“BFF?” Jacob asks, taking his hand and shaking it.

“You know? Best Friends Forever. Or fo’ life—either way works.”

Jacob narrows his eyes and I want to sink into the ground. “Funny,” he mutters. “She’s never mentioned you.”

“Oh,” Nate says, turning to me with an expression of pure shock. “You didn’t tell him about me? Was it because I lick-windows? Jesus, Avery, it was a once-off.”

I bite my bottom lip, trying to stop myself from laughing. I can’t see Nate’s wife, but I’m sure she, too, wouldn’t appreciate his joke.

“Your name is familiar,” Jacob says, ignoring Nate’s outburst.

“I ride motocross.”

Jacob’s eyes widen and he turns to me. “You went to a motocross race the other day?”

Oh shit.

“Yes, Nate happened to be riding in that one. It was rather lucky.”

“It was a nice surprise,” Nate says, watching me with those eyes again.

“Hmmm,” Jacob mumbles. “Well, I’m going to set up this shade so I can get out of this God-awful sun.”

“You don’t want to come for a swim?” I say, watching him retreat.

“Hell no.”

“Of course not,” I mutter, turning to Nate, “Are you pleased?”

He grins at me, big and beautiful. “Completely.”

I shake my head and finally crack a smile as he walks off. I undress and go for a quick swim before joining everyone around the fire as the sun begins to set.

“So, Avery,” Lena says. “What do you do?”

“I’m a dancer. I’m studying to teach.”

“Oh, what kind of dancing?”

I cross my legs and balance my light beer in my lap. “Ballet.”

She nods, pulling Nate’s hand into her lap. He stiffens, noticeably. I pretend I don’t notice.

“Avie is going to teach me how to dance,” Macy cries, leaping up and spinning in a circle.

“Is she now?” Lena says. “I didn’t even know you’d met Avery before.”

“I did. I saw her at Daddy’s race.”

“Oh, right,” Lena says, getting a guilty look on her face.

“She can dance so pretty.” She claps. “Show me, Avery!”

“No.” I laugh. “I can’t dance in the sand.”

“Course you can,” Nate says, his voice low and husky. “Don’t let the child down.”

“We’d love to see it,” Lena says.

“Go on, Avery,” Kelly grins. “Show us what you’re doin’ lately.”

“I can’t dance on the sand,” I say again.

“Doesn’t have to be fancy, just show us,” Liam mutters.

Because Liam has asked, I find it hard to turn away. I take another sip of beer and I get up, shoving the sand as flat as I can with my foot. There’s no way I can dance nicely on it, but I’ll do it for the sake of silence. I do a basic few twists, turns and sweeps. I close my eyes and spin, doing the best I can, mostly focusing on my arms. I bend my knee, and soar up, letting my leg stretch out behind me. Then I spin and stop, bowing.

“Ta da!”

“Yay Avie!” Macy claps wildly.

“You got good, girl,” Kelly says. “Fuck, you look damned fine doing that.”

“Dude, that’s my sister,” Liam says, punching Kelly in the shoulder.

“Don’t mean I can’t look.”

“She’s taken,” Jacob says, straightening.

Kelly gives him a once-over and smirks at him. “That wouldn’t be hard to change. Come here, Avery, darling, I want another birthday hug.”

I bite my lip to stop from laughing. Kelly loves to stir Jacob, and I must admit I enjoy it. I step over the log I was sitting on and give Nate a glance. He’s watching me . . .
again
. His expression is unreadable; I can’t quite make it out. It’s intense, though, a look I’ve never received from a man before.

Kelly’s arm snakes out and curls around my waist, pulling me down onto his lap. I laugh as I go down. I circle my arms around his neck and ruffle his golden locks with my fingers. “You’re horrible,” I say near his ear.

“I can’t help it. He pisses me off.”

“Avery, can you please join me at the car for a moment?” Jacob says, standing.

I sigh and get off Kelly’s lap. “Can’t we just speak down here? I don’t want to walk back up to the car.”

“Fine,” he mutters, taking my hand and pulling me out of the group. I can feel a lot of eyes on me as he pulls me to the side, probably not even far enough away for them not to hear.

“What are you doing?”

I shake my head. “Having fun.”

“You’re flirting!” he snaps, curling his fingers around the top of my arm and pulling me close. “And I don’t like it.”

I try to jerk my arm away, but he holds it firmly. Asshole Jacob is out, and Asshole Jacob tends to get a bit rough. He’s never hit me—I don’t think he’d dare—but he handles me quite roughly.

“Let me go, now, Jacob.”

He growls but his arm drops. “We’ll talk about this at home. We are going now.”

“No,” I say, firmly.

He leans in close. “Don’t start with me, Avery.”

“I’m enjoying my friends and I’m not going. You can do absolutely nothing to make me. If you want to go—then go.”

He takes my arm again, his fingers pinching into my skin.

“Best you get your fuckin’ hand off her arm, right now,” Nate suddenly growls.

I look over to see the lot of them staring at us, all the men with angry expressions.

“I agree,” Kelly grunts. “Move it. Now.”

Liam rises to his feet, his eyes on Jacob’s arm. “You touchin’ her harshly, you cocksucker?”

Typical Liam. He goes right in for the kill.

“I’m speaking to her,” Jacob says, but his hand drops again. “It’s none of your business.”

“It’s my fuckin’ business if you’re touchin’ her like that,” Liam snarls.

“It’s okay,” I say to Liam, meeting his angry blue gaze. “I’m okay. I promise.”

He holds my stare, but slowly lowers back onto his chair. I turn back to Jacob. “You should leave now. This is going to get out of hand soon. I’m okay; I’ll be home soon.”

“Your dad isn’t going to be happy about this,” he snaps.

“I don’t honestly care,” I say, telling the one hundred percent truth.

“You should care,” he growls, looking over to Liam and then back to me. “Your momma would be ashamed.”

“What the fuck did you just say?” Liam roars, leaping from his chair.

My eyes instantly go to Macy, to make sure she’s okay. I see her curled up on a blanket, sleeping. This isn’t a scene for a little girl. Kelly reaches out for Liam, and I snap my eyes back in their direction. Liam leaps—I kid you not—over the small fire and charges towards Jacob. Nate stands, wrapping an arm around Jacob’s chest and hurling him back. Liam might be smacked up on steroids but Nate is a strong man, stronger even than him.

I turn to Jacob. “How dare you,” I whisper, my voice shaky.

“I’m only saying the truth! You don’t even know if she’s alive or dead and this is how you’re respecting her? By flirting, by mistreating your father whom she loved?”

“Go home,” I bite out.

He leans in close. “You better be there soon.”

He turns, lifts his bag and glares at Liam, who is still struggling in Nate’s grips, and then storms up to his car. When it speeds off, I turn to Liam. He’s watching me, his hands shaking. It hurt him, those comments. He loved Momma as much as me, and it broke him just as much when she went missing. Jacob knew that, and that’s why he said it.

“It’s not true, Li,” I say. “He knows nothing.”

Liam shoves Nate off him, takes his drink and walks off down the beach. “I’ll go after him,” Kelly says, standing and giving me a warm smile.

I turn back to Nate and Lena. The other few mates of Kelly’s are minding their own business, pretending like none of that just happened.

“I’m going for a walk.”

I turn and walk off in the opposite direction of Kelly and Liam. The sand is soft beneath my toes, and the cool night air has come out, crisp as ever. I wrap my arms around myself and walk, just taking the chance to calm down. Jacob had no right to say those things, and I fear going home and facing him. He’s going to be angry, he’s going to make my father angry, and that’s something I don’t want to deal with.

I find a spot on a slight dune, and sit down. I stare out at the ocean, listening to the waves crash against the shore. It’s a clear night out, and the stars are shining brightly. “You okay?”

I turn to see Nate, two beers in hand, standing beside me. He sits down and hands me one. I look around him to see if Lena is here, but he’s alone.

“Where are Lena and Macy?”

“Gone home. Macy is tired.”

I nod and take a sip of the beer.

“So, are you okay?” he asks again.

“I’m okay. I just needed a minute.”

“He always like that?” he asks, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it.

“Those will kill you.”

He grins at me, showing me perfect white teeth. I smile back.

“There are worse things.”

“Don’t I know it.?”

“So,” he says again, “is he always like that?”

“Mostly,” I sigh.

“Why do you do it then?”

I shrug. “I can’t explain it without sounding completely whacked.”

He leans back. “Try me.”

“Well, he’s close to my father, and my father is the only family I have left. The business is important to him and Jacob’s dad is his closest partner. Because Liam can’t take it over, Jacob will inherit both. I’ve known Jacob my whole life; it seems the right thing to do. We dated when I was younger and then it ended.

“After . . . my mother went missing . . . my dad changed. He shut down. I guess Liam and I were all he had. He set me up with dancing; he pays for every cent of it. I don’t know—I feel like I’m letting him down if I walk.”

“You can’t be with someone forever just because your father wants it.”

“He’s all I have, Nate. What else am I to do?”

“Live,” he offers. “
Love
.”

“And leave him to do what?”

“Figure it out on his own.”

I shake my head and look at my fingers. “She went missing when I was just thirteen years old,” I whisper.

“Your momma?”

“Yeah. She smiled at us as we walked out the door for the bus and we never saw her again. They searched; they investigated. All they ever found was her car on an old abandoned road. No clues. No blood. Nothing. She just vanished. That was ten years ago.”

“I’m sorry, Avery,” he says, softly. “I don’t know how that would feel.”

“People think it’s something that only happens in movies or in books. I mean, how can a person just go missing? There are so many theories. One is that she stopped to help someone—which is something my mother would do—and she was taken. The other is that she has taken her own life and they never found the body—maybe she jumped into a lake or the ocean. It’s unlikely; she was happy. The third is that she is alive somewhere, and not wanting to be found. That hurts more than all of them.”

“What do you think?” he asks.

“I think something happened to her, I just don’t know what. She wouldn’t leave us. She was one of those mothers—the ones who live for their children.”

“Do they still look?”

I nod. “The investigation will always be open, I suppose. If they have leads, they investigate them. We’re kept in the loop as much as possible. The police have come to know our family very well.”

“I can imagine.”

We sit in silence for a long while.

“Liam is hurt,” I say. “So hurt. He hates my father—he thinks Dad favors me. It’s not like that. I try to stand by my father because I know how hurt he is. I don’t like it though, not one bit. He hardly speaks to me. There is no emotion left in him. I’m scared if I walk away and don’t do as he wants, that he’ll just break for a final time.”

“Now it makes sense,” he murmurs.

I turn to him, but he keeps speaking.

“You think if you don’t do what your father wants, you’re letting him down. You’re scared it’ll be the end of him, because he won’t be able to cope.”

I turn back and stare at the ocean.

“You can’t live like that, Avery. It’s not fair to you.”

“I’m fine with it, Nate. I care about Jacob.”

“Is that the truth?”

I turn to him. “Yes.”

It’s not.

He sighs and drops it. “All this sadness calls for only one thing.”

I look at him as he stands and stretches his hand out towards me.

“What?” I ask, hesitating.

“The best thing for sadness . . . is dancing.”

I shake my head and roll my eyes. “No way.”

“Come on, Dancer, I swear it’ll make you smile. Don’t let all this ruin your night.”

“No thanks.” I laugh softly.

“Fine, I’ll bring out the big guns.”

He stands in front of me, and, I’m not even kidding, he begins wiggling his hips. He starts making sounds to match the intro of “Knee Deep.” He does a great version of an air guitar and then he slaps his thigh while spinning in circles.

“What are you doing?” I laugh.

“
Knee deep in the water somewhere
,” he sings, slapping his thighs. “Come on, Dancer!”

I shake my head, giggling uncontrollably.

He keeps singing the song at the top of his lungs, spinning around and waving his arms about like a lunatic. He reaches down, takes my arm and pulls me to my feet. He spins me around and I squeal. He jerks me back and we’re dancing wildly, his arms around me, our hands pointed out beside us. He struts us down the beach, and I throw my head back laughing, unable to stop the feeling of pure joy spreading through me.