Page 125 of P.S. I'm Still Yours

I lie down on my beach towel, a curse rolling off my tongue as I stare at the unanswered text on my screen.

Hadley

What happened to you back there?

If I’m being honest, I don’t think Kane even opened it.

I sent that text five days ago, more specifically the morning after he dropped the ultimate romantic speech on me and then claimed my mouth like there was no tomorrow.

We’ve barely seen each other since that night. Even when I was working full-time, I’d run into him around the house, but he’s been busy lately.

He spends most of his days—and evenings—locked away in the upstairs office with Drea, taking business calls I’m sure have to do with his eventual comeback to the music industry.

I’d be willing to bet he’s been having legal meetings as well, discussing the upcoming trial—word online is they finally set a date for the end of the summer.

“What are you looking at?” Jamie plops down right next to me, wiping the sand off her yellow towel with the back of her hand.

I’m quick to shove my phone into my beach bag and sit up, crossing my legs. “Nothing. Just scrolling.”

She nods, but I can’t tell if she believes me, her large sunglasses too dark for me to discern the look in her eyes.

“Got you one, too.” She hands me one of the ice-cold water bottles she just went into the house to grab.

I thank her with a smile before lying back down on my towel and using my beach bag as a pillow.

When Jamie suggested that we have a beach day, I was ecstatic. For once, we had our day off on the same date, and we’ve barely hung out since I got hired at Sandy’s.

We needed to catch up stat, and I couldn’t think of a better place to do it than the private beach across from the house. I found an old beach umbrella in the garage and anchored it into the ground to shade us from the sun.

I nudge the sunglasses resting on top of my head in front of my eyes, remembering the text Jamie sent me a few days ago. “Girl, I almost forgot. You wanted to tell me something?”

After she texted me she had something to tell me, I begged her for some details.

Of course, she hit me with the most painful response a girl who’s hungry for some hot goss can receive: I’d rather tell you in person.

“Oh, right,” she says, rubbing sunscreen up and down her arm. “It’s, um… Remember that time we all hung out at the docks not too long ago?”

I immediately know what she’s talking about. I’m the only one who didn’t show up that night. I’d been working late a lot, and I just wanted to go to bed.

“Of course. Did something happen?”

She clears her throat. “So… Cal and Vince were completely gone by the end of the night, and my car broke down when I tried to drive everyone home.”

I’m not surprised to hear that her car finally broke down. The clunker deserves a medal for toughing it out this long.

My brain dissects her sentence from start to finish. She said Vince and Cal were drunk, but she said nothing about Kane.

He was drinking the night he kissed me, but before that, he hadn’t had a sip of alcohol in a while. He was doing so good. I wonder what made him want to start again.

I roll onto my side, propping my head onto my bent elbow. “Shit, what did you do?”

“I tried to get a cab, then a tow truck, but the Hillford cab company closes so early it’s a joke, and the only tow truck available at 3:00 a.m. would’ve cost me my firstborn, plus a couple organs.” Her comment makes me snicker. “I didn’t know what to do, so I called Shay to come pick us up.”

I’ve only seen Shay once since I moved out here. She’s one of Jamie’s friends, a cute brunette with tanned skin and a shy personality.

I met her the day Jamie invited her, Brooke, Drea, and me over to her place for dinner. Then there was the whole matter of the girls signing an NDA so that they could hang out with us and not tell everyone about Kane, an idea he turned down faster than a speeding bullet.

“Did she?” I ask, curiosity gnawing at me.

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