Page 185 of The Bet
Chapter 52
The Stone mansion in the Hamptons wasn't so big as to be imposing, or impersonal.
She liked the look of it from the moment she climbed out of Xavier's Ferrari. According to him the shingle-style house with its 8 bedrooms, and 10 bathrooms was a 5 minute walk from the beach, and a short drive from the quaint town center.
“There’s nice places around here,” he told her. “Some nice restaurants, and bars we can go to.”
Different to New York. She could already tell that the pace of life here was slow, and calmer. Exactly what they needed.
She had taken the chance on him, and things between them were almost back on track, back to how they had been before they had split. Everything about him, everything she had learned as they rediscovered one another again had made her believe they had a chance to salvage what they’d once had.
But even though they had both been looking forward to this weekend, each of them seeing it as the chance to spend much needed time away, she had noticed that Xavier had seemed quiet. He seemed more guarded, more careful with his words, and his touch.
Sometimes she missed the old Xavier. She missed his raw manliness, his assured cockiness, and the swagger that was so him.
They hadn’t bothered to unpack, but he had given her a quick tour of the house, “So that you can get your bearings,” and then, they had gone out for a walk along the beach. The sand here wasn’t as powdery and as white as the sand on Kawaya, but darker, and dense, packed together, so that it stuck in clumps as they walked along the shore.
It was while they were walking along on the beach, that he took her hand, and, like always, she let him, then pressed her fingers in a little more, getting used to the feel of his warm flesh.
Every now and then he would turn at her and smile, as if he needed to know everything was fine, that she was okay. That they were okay.
“You don’t have to look so scared,” she said.
“I’m not scared.”
“You seem different, sometimes.”
“I’m trying to be a better version of me.”
“I don’t want a better version. I want you, the guy I was getting to know, once upon a time.”
“You want him back?” he asked, stopping and looking at her, “The cocky, arrogant, asshole?”
She tilted her head, as if deciding. “Yes, maybe lose the arrogance and the asshole-ness, though.”
She had scared him, and it had been for good reason. He'd hurt her, and at least now he seemed to understand how much.
Only, she sensed that they were going to be okay, because she trusted him, and she believed him, and because she had always believed that actions spoke louder than words. It had been the thing that made her repel his advances before, seeing him in action on the island, seeing the way he worked. No amount of his words back then could have convinced her that he was a nice guy hiding in a wolf's clothing.
But ever since she'd started looking after Jacob, ever since she'd started working for him, it was the things he'd done for her that shone the brightest. The small things that had mattered.
And even later, after their break, he hadn’t stopped doing those little things that mattered for her. And so, she knew they were going to be fine.
Because when a guy who wasn't with you, who knew you hated him, still did the smallest things to make your life better, that was a guy you couldn’t let walk away so easily.
That was a guy who had earned himself a second chance.
She tugged at his hand, as her heels dug into the sand, and he pulled back, and stopped.
His eyes asked 'what', but his lips said nothing.
“I want you to know that I get it. I get what you did and why, and I believe that you're sorry. And I know we already discussed all this before, but I just want you to know one more time.”
“Okay.”
“Because I don't want you to be here with me and still be worried.”
“Do I really look that worried?”
