Page 84 of Memories By the Shore
Bailey’s eyes grow wide. “Youarenaked.”
“This is going to be good. I need to step out,” Piper tells someone off-camera. Then I hear her husband Jack’s voice in the background, “Tell them I said hello.”
“Are the rest of you alone?” I ask cautiously.
Bailey’s standing in the kitchen cutting an apple. “I am. Mason and Luca are at soccer practice.”
“Carter is flying,” Lina chimes in, falling into an oversized white couch. “Spill it. Why are your boobs hanging out?”
Laughing, I blush. “I tried to cover them.”
Piper waves her hands in front of the camera. “You have this energy to you too.”
“I know that look! You got laid!” Lina shouts, proud of herself for figuring it out.
I rub my lips together bashfully. “Um, well. Jasper and I—”
Lina clicks her tongue. “Stop it.”
“You were supposed to divorce him, not fuck him,” Bailey affectionately quips.
Piper’s grin is the size of the entire state. “The body wants what it wants, doesn’t it?”
“I knew you two weren’t done,” Bailey comments, shaking her head.
“So, what happened?” Lina anxiously asks.
I sit straighter, pulling my knees into my chest. “I don’t know. It was all such a blur, to be honest.”
“A sex, lust-filled blur,” Piper jokes.
Bailey nervously picks up her hair, gathers it, and then drops it again. “What did he say about the divorce?”
Biting my lip, I attempt to formulate a response. The truth is, I don’t know why Jasper is refusing to divorce me. The only rational explanation I can come up with is that even though there is still flaming chemistry between us, he’s trying to get me back for leaving him all those years ago.
“I honestly don’t know,” I admit.
They’re silent for a beat before Lina speaks. “Maybe he’s not over you.”
Bailey and Piper both have the same expressions of agreement on their faces.
“Or maybe he’s still upset that I left him all those years ago, that he’s getting back at me,” I counter.
“But there’s enough between you two that you hooked up less than two days after seeing each other again,” Piper points out softly.
“That is fast, by my standards,” Lina jokes, holding up a finger. “Also, you don’t have to like someone to have sex with them.”
We all laugh.
“Okay, very funny,” Bailey dismisses. “Lina does make a point, though.”
With a prideful expression, Lina continues, “We all know you still have major feelings for him.”
“I know. They’re confusing. In so many ways, I’m still angry with him for leaving me alone. Something he said he’d never do.”
Bailey frowns. “We get it.”
“Look, people make mistakes. We were so young that I feel guilty for being upset after all these years, but I can’t help how it made me feel,” I explain.
