Page 34 of Scandalous Lover

I guess I’m not so special after all.

“It’s just Fran these days. Avery made sure of that.”

There’s humor in her voice, and I’m sure the story she’s hinting at would be funny and worth hearing, but I’m struggling to rally my excitement for this dinner all of a sudden.

I was less than stoked to hear that these two women had been invited to dinner at all. I was hoping for a few hours alone with Sam so we could get some things straight.

So I could get something off my chest.

And now I get to spend those hours sitting at a table with these two perfectly skinny, effortlessly beautiful twenty-somethings.

I know it’s not a competition, but…I mean, isn’t everything?

Reina takes my hand along with one of Fran’s and we walk together down the hallway toward the restaurant entrance. As soon as we pass through into the bright, airy dining room, I spot Sam leaning against the bar, chatting with one of the employees.

A male employee, my jealous heart notes with relief.

I’m going to have to get this shit under control.

That man is not mine, as much as I wish things could be different.

Even if I flew down here with the tiniest kernel of hope that maybe, just maybe, he’d be interested in hanging out a bit.Hooking up a few times in secret. That possibility gets less and less likely every hour that goes by in this place.

From the perspective of a city girl, a secret affair seems easy to pull off. Now that I’m here, on this tiny island, in this small resort, communing with this tight knit group of friends, I can see his hesitation.

Hell, we’ll be lucky to get through this dinner without throwing off some kind of vibe that everyone in the room picks up on.

I wait by the hostess station while Reina crosses over to the bar and lays her hand on Sam’s shoulder to get his attention. He turns and smiles down at her and then his gaze lifts to mine.

Even across the room, I can feel the impact of that gaze like a shot to my heart. My mind takes this opportunity to flash a few choice images from that night in Austin across the movie screen of my mind, and I lose the ability to breathe for a moment.

I pretty much have the whole night memorized, from the first touch on my love seat to the adorable way he curled around me in bed while assuring me he was going to get up and head back to his hotel. And every hard, wet, orgasmic moment in between.

I’m startled back into the present by the hostess saying something, and I smile over at her, nodding, even though I missed the words. She leads Fran and I toward a table near one of the windows overlooking the beach. Reina and Sam follow.

The table is set for four, and I choose a window seat, arranging my bag to hang on the back of the chair within reach. I don’t want to be involved with the decisions about where everyone else sits, so I busy myself checking my phone for a moment until everyone else is seated. When I glance back up, Ifind Reina across from me and Fran to my right. Sam is diagonal.

As far from me as he can get.

With a quiet sigh and forced smile, I turn to Fran, determined to make this evening fun—even if my heart is aching for the man across the table. “I had the biggest crush on Avery when I was a little girl.”

Fran and Reina both laugh in surprise, their faces lighting up at my admission.

Fran leans in conspiratorially. “I am here for all the embarrassing childhood stories. Don’t hold back.”

I smile back at her, happy to have broken the ice, but I’m grateful for the interruption of our server with the first wine of the evening. While it’s true that I idolized Avery and all my brother’s friends, I wouldn’t say I was privy to many of their embarrassing stories. Or any stories, really. They were all ten when I was born, coming into the world and leaving it irreparably changed. By the time I was old enough to really hold a conversation, they were all packing for college.

I distract myself from unwanted feelings from the past and present by arranging an artsy shot of my wine glass against the backdrop of the window, complete with rising colors from the impending sunset. I try out a few filters before capturing the moment, and when I look up, I find everyone watching me. And none of them have their phones in hand.

I glance quickly around the table and don’t see another phone at all.

In the city, it’s considered perfectly normal for everyone to have their phone face down on the table in front of them. As a matter of fact, if I joined someone for a meal out and didn’t see their phone on the table, I would worry they had seriously bad news or I was about to get dumped or something.

That doesn’t seem to be the case here. I put my phonedown beside my napkin again and smile at everyone. I’ll try to keep my phone time to a minimum if that’s what everyone else is doing, but I’m hardly going to put it away. This meal is bound to be photogenic as hell. And I have content to create.

“I guess you guys all have phones full of tropical sunset wine glass shots already, huh?” I try to lighten the mood with a joke and the girls smile, but I can tell I missed the mark.

“Naomi, you’re going to love Raft. It’s a foodie’s dream, and every plate is worth a picture.” Sam’s words of familiarity, as if he knows me, are a surprise, and not just to me. The girls both glance over at him as silence falls over the table for a moment.

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