Love on the Rocks (Love on Tour #1) (8 page)

“It got warm,” Sean commented.

I nodded. The sun was beating down on us. It was not exactly hot, but warm enough for shorts. Apparently, it was too warm for Sean because he stood up and stripped off his t-shirt. I looked down to see that at some point during lunch he’d removed his boots. Now he stood before me in nothing but his shorts. He pulled those off too, and clad only in his boxers, ran into the small pool formed at the base of the waterfall.

I watched in admiration as his body cut through the water. He made it to the bottom of the falls and stood up. To my surprise, the water only reached his waist. With the falls pelting his back he turned and gestured to me to come in. I shook my head and laughed. Either I was dreaming, or I was trapped in a cheesy 80’s movie.

Sean made his way back to shore and wandered up to where I sat. He stood over me, dripping. Then he dropped down on his hands and knees quickly, so that his body was hovering over me. His face was just inches from mine. He dripped cold water onto my Oakland A’s t-shirt.

We stared each other down for what seemed like an eternity. I could imagine him coming just a little closer, leaning in for that incredible kiss that was now practically required in this situation.

Instead, he shook his head and his long locks sprayed icy droplets all over me. I screamed and tried to roll away from him. But there was no escape. His arms and legs created a cage around me. My squirming only served to get me more evenly drenched.

Sean sat up and freed me. Then he lay out on the ground in the sun to dry off.

“Don’t even try to tell me that wasn’t cold,” I chided.

“It was definitely cold,” he said.

“Why on earth would you jump in there?” I asked, shaking my head.

“I have my reasons.”

He closed his eyes and lay still for a long time. I alternated between watching the waterfall and watching him as I ruminated the dilemma I had been avoiding all day. Everything had changed between Sean and me. There was physical attraction between us now. On my end it was an all-consuming lust, the likes of which I hadn’t ever experienced. I had come close to this level of desire, usually with strangers or acquaintances. So I knew what it was, but I had no idea what to do with it.

For Sean, I wasn’t sure what this was. Was it just that my proximity created a physical reaction because he was a healthy adult male, or was there more to it than that? If there was more to it, why hadn’t he made a move? There was no doubt in my mind that this man knew how to charm his way into a woman’s bed. So there had to be a reason that he was choosing not to seduce me. Perhaps he thought of me as just a friend.

One thing was certain, Sean was the one who had his head on straight. I needed to get mine fixed or I would have to leave. Of course, the perfect opportunity for that was approaching. They were slated to drop me off at Melanie’s in a couple days. I could simply stay there and end my tour. It was the easiest solution. It was definitely the safest solution.

9

Baby, I went fishing with some of the guys. Lyle’s coming and Sue will be lonely. Maybe keep her company today? Have fun! – Sean

I’d been exhausted last night and went to bed while Sean was still at the barbeque.  When I woke up to pee sometime in the middle of the night Sean was there, spooning me. But in the morning, instead of finding a hot and sleepy Sean in my bed, I found the note.

Pushing aside my disappointment, I headed to the bathroom. Sitting on the edge of the tub was Sean’s towel, still damp. I looked around the tiny room, like a criminal afraid to get caught in the act, before pressing the fluffy white cotton to my nose.

It smelled amazing. And I was officially a stalker.

I found Sue at the lodge restaurant eating breakfast with Henry and a blonde I hadn’t remembered seeing before.

“I thought you were going fishing?” I asked Henry as I sat down at the table next to Sue.

Henry stood up, leaned over the table and kissed my cheek. When he sat back down across from me the blonde gave me a dirty look.

“Hey, Baby. You look so much better. You feel better?”

“Yeah, I’m doing good.”

“It was too friggin’ early for Hank. That’s why he isn’t fishing with other boys,” Sue said, rolling her eyes.

“I kept him up too late,” the blonde said, prompting another eye roll from Sue.

I looked pointedly at Henry, who seemed to grasp that he had something he needed to do. “Oh, hey, Baby this is Tanya. She’s part of the Olympic gymnastics team.” He waggled his eyebrows. “They are staying here, too, for a couple nights.”

“You’re actually still trying out for the Olympic team though, right?” Sue said in a snotty tone that I found highly amusing. I guessed that one of these girls had been hitting on her husband last night.

“Well, yeah,” Tanya said. “What are you, like a wife too?” she asked me.

Henry laughed. And before I could respond he said, “Yeah, she kinda is.”

“Shut up, Henry.”

****

I spent the day sitting on a chaise lounge drinking hard lemonade and eating cheese and crackers with Sue. We talked some, we dozed some, we read trashy novels. It was fantastic.

By late afternoon we decided to get off our butts and get a barbeque going. We forced Henry and Mike to help.

I was standing in front of a folding table cutting onions when Sean, Raif, and Lyle returned with a cooler full of fish. They left the fish with Mike to grill. Sue abandoned the corn she was shucking and ran to Lyle.

Sean sauntered over to me. He watched me as he approached. He took his gaze away only long enough to grab a beer from Henry, who was sitting next to a massive cooler and acting as the bartender.

“Hi,” I said, once he came to a stop in front of my table.

He took a swig from his beer. “How was your day?”

“Awesome.”

“Yeah, what did you do?”

“A whole lot of nothing.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, Sue and I just hung out, laid around, ate, and drank. It was pretty great.”

“Did she grill you?” He asked, taking another swig of beer, looking like a Greek god while he was doing it.

“Grill me? No, what do you mean?”

“Huh, she gave me the third degree last night.”

“About what?” I asked, using my fake innocent voice.

Of course Sue had tried to ask me questions about Sean and me, but I had evaded them and distracted her. It was a gift. Sean didn’t have that gift. His special talent was silence.

For the first time in our conversation Sean looked away from me, studying the onion pieces that lay all over the table. “Us.”

“Oh really? What did you say?”

His eyes met mine again. “Wouldn’t you like to know?” Then he turned and walked over to talk to Mike.

Things were intensifying, and I hadn’t made a decision about what I was going to do yet. Would I have a one-night stand with a rock star and then run away? Or would I hold out, knowing that I really couldn’t go down that path, and then run away? Was there any scenario where I could stay and not get hurt?

“Henry, bring me a drink, something strong.”

“I got just the thing, Baby,” my recovering alcoholic bartender said.

****

I was definitely drunk. The flames from the bonfire were getting a little blurry and I was having trouble paying attention to the conversations around me. But I had a laser focus on what was happening across the fire. 

“He’s not drunk,” Mike whispered.

He was sitting on my right. Henry was on my left. We had squeezed together closer and closer as the ring around the bonfire had grown from just the band members to half the people at the resort, including the entire damn women’s Olympic gymnastics team.

Sean sat on a ‘big man’s camp chair’ opposite me, looking very happy and relaxed.

“Humph,” I grunted.

I would be less disgruntled if he was drunk, because Sean was not at all discouraging the tiny toothpick of a girl who sat beside him, flirting for all she was worth.

“But, ya know, I could be wrong,” Mike hedged.

The girl was small and flexible, and with defined gymnast muscles, that told me that despite her size she could probably kick my ass. Her ridiculously long bleached hair kept touching his thigh as she moved closer and closer to him.

“We all know he likes blondes,” I said quietly.

There was no denying I was jealous. It was the overriding emotion I was feeling, and because I was drunk, there was no way to rein it in.

“Baby, listen,” Henry said, leaning in close to me. “I happen to know that there is no reason for you to let this bother you.”

Henry could tell by the expression on my face that his reassurance wasn’t going to be good enough.

“You want me to take you back to the cabin, Baby?” Mike asked.

“That’s a good idea,” Henry said. “Yeah, Baby, maybe you should go back to the cabin.”

“I don’t know,” I said, folding my arms across my chest, the way Sean always did when he was feeling stubborn. “I think I need to stay here and keep an eye on things.” I slurred my words pretty badly, and was grateful that Henry had cut me off a while ago.

“Oh shit.” It was almost a whisper. It came out of Mike’s mouth at the same moment that I watched little miss tiny dancer crawl into Sean’s lap.

I saw red. But I was in no condition to deal with this. My feelings were completely uncalled for. After all, I was not sleeping with this man. Okay, I was sleeping with him, but I was not
sleeping with him
. I was completely undecided about whether I was going to stay, and I had given him no indication that I thought he shouldn’t be playing around with gymnasts. Damn it!

“Mike, take me back to the cabin,” I demanded.

At the same time I tried to get out of the stupid sling-back chair and stumbled forward. The chair shot out from behind me. Only Henry’s quick reflexes kept me from falling, face first, into the fire.

By the time they had me righted and in Mike’s grasp, Sean had jumped up and made his way around the fire to us. “Jesus Hank, how drunk did you get her?”

Henry, Sean, Mike, and I were all standing in a clump where my chair had once been. Henry looked pissed. He and Sean were squaring off. Holy crap!

“Hey,” Mike said, looking as alarmed as I felt. “I’m going to take Baby back to the cabin now, it’s all good.”

“No, I’ll do it,” Sean said tersely.

“Goddamn right you will,” Henry replied.

The standoff ended abruptly when Sean moved around Henry and literally picked me up and carried me off. I’d always been a pretty good feminist, but I sure liked being carried
Officer and a Gentleman
style through the woods to our little cabin.

Sean didn’t put me down until we reached the bed. He laid me on it gently. I shot up as soon as I was out of his arms. I knew better than to try to stand, so I settled for sitting up.

I gave him my best mean face. “Thanks for the lift. You can go back to your little girlie now.”

Sean stood beside the bed, staring down at me. He crossed his arms and cocked one side of his mouth up. “Huh… you’re jealous.”

I leaned back on the headboard and pouted. “I don’t know what you are talking about.”

Sean laughed and sat on the edge of the bed. Which was great, because then I didn’t have to crane my neck so far up to look at him, an action that was making the room spin.

“You are definitely jealous.” He was definitely amused.

But I was angry, at him for letting that girl sit on his lap, and at myself for being upset by it.

“I’m mad, is what I am,” I told him.

“I see,” he said, clearly still amused. “And you’re angry with me?”

“Yes.”

“Because of Lila?” He suggested.

“Oh, is that what the tart’s name is?”

He laughed again. “You are so jealous.”

“Why are you so happy about it?” I snapped.

He grinned, a full-fledged, Henry-esque grin. Then he shrugged.

But I wasn’t amused. I was on an emotional rollercoaster and we’d just dropped from a great height and headed toward a sharp curve.

Tears pooled in my eyes. “It’s total bullshit!” I shouted. Then the crying really started.

For a moment Sean had a look of pure panic on his face. Then he scrambled up to the head of the bed beside me and pulled me into his arms. “Hey, don’t cry. Why are you crying?”

“Because I suck.”

“Baby, I don’t see why being jealous is so bad. I think you’re making something… ya know… not bad… into something bad.” Never had Sean been so inarticulate.

“But I have absolutely no right to be jealous,” I sobbed.

“Why not?”

I looked up at him. He had a look of genuine confusion on his face.

“Because I’m not putting out!” I cried.

He laughed, which seemed to stall my tears a little. The anger started to make its way back. “Why’s that funny?”

Sean shook his head. “I don’t know, Baby. I think maybe we should discuss this in the morning. I should get you a glass of water and some aspirin.”

He started to get up, but I pulled on his arms. “Wait.” I looked up into his eyes. “Stay here for a minute.”

Sean complied with my request and stayed put on the bed. “Okay,” he said softly. “You want me to hold you until you go to sleep?”

“Um… no… maybe I want something different.”

I knew I was a mess, red eyes, messy hair, and smelling like bonfire. I was wearing jean shorts and an old t-shirt with Woodsy the Owl on it. My underwear was big, cotton, and had purple polka dots. And yet I was contemplating competing with the next U.S. Olympian.

I looked up at Sean, bringing my mouth as close to his as I could without him leaning over further. “Maybe we should stay in bed but we shouldn’t sleep.”

“Oh, Baby,” he sighed. He hung his head in the one hand that wasn’t around my shoulders and took several deep breaths before looking at me again. “No can do, sweetheart.” He kissed my forehead and started extracting himself. “You’re definitely drunk.”

I was stunned into silence by my own request, and his reaction. So I didn’t speak or move as he managed to get away from me and out of the bed. I watched him walk over to the kitchenette to pour me a tall glass of ice water. Then he rummaged around in his bag until he found a bottle of aspirin. By the time he brought them both back to the bedside table I had found my voice.

“So it’s because I’m drunk?”

“Don’t try to deny it, Baby.”

“Oh, I’m not. I’m just wondering… is that the only reason?”

Sean looked at me for a long time. He had that amused look back on his face. He leaned down over me, so that his nose was touching mine.

He whispered, “the
only
reason.”

Then he straightened up, said goodnight, and flipped off the lights before leaving the cabin altogether.