Page 6 of The Other Plan

“Can’t be what? What the hell is going on? Do you know him?”

I shook my head, even though I should have been nodding. “I, uh, I think that’s—”

He turned toward me, and even though his eyes hadn’t found me yet, the minute I saw them, it erased any doubts about his identity.

Holy shit.

“It’s... it’s Carter,” I choked out the words, but they sounded more like squeaks than syllables.

He continued turning as he surveyed the property, and then those unmistakable emerald orbs headed straight for me.

“Shit!” I dropped to the grass behind the bar and pressed my back into the wine barrel.

“What the hell, Jenna?” Jo stared down at me, crouched by her feet.

Memories crashed into my mind like movie clips playing in fast forward. His toned, tan body jogging out of the ocean with his surfboard in hand. His smile that caused my stomach to tumble and turn like a tilt-a-whirl. Those vivid green eyes staring into mine just before his lips crushed me with a kiss so deep, I didn’t think I’d ever come up for air.

And I hadn’t wanted to.

As I pressed my back into the hard wood of the wine barrel, I closed my eyes and whispered on repeat, “It can’t be him. It can’t be him. It can’t be him.”

But after taking a deep breath and praying that I had been hallucinating, I peered around the wine barrel for one last look. Instead of a hallucination, I still saw a very beautiful and very real man. And now, the full, clear view of his face confirmed my greatest fear.

It was Carter Sullivan.

The man who’d broken my heart a decade ago.

Jo stared down at me while I ducked behind the wine barrel again. “Okay, you need to use your words because I have no idea what’s happening here.”

“Don’t look at me! Pretend I’m not here! Look away! Look away!”

“What?” Jo furrowed her brow, but I waved a hand quickly at her to look up. Instead of arguing, she fixated her eyes back out into the lawn.

“Just don’t look at me, or he’ll see me!”

“Who?” she whispered through the corner of her mouth.

“Carter. It’s Carter Sullivan.”

“Who the hell is—” Before she finished the sentence, her head whipped at me, and her eyes tripled in size. Her mouth formed a perfect “o” while she whispered, “Noooooooo.”

“Don’t look at me!” I snapped, and she lifted her eyes quickly. “And yes. It’s him. It’s definitely him.”

She pulled her lips into a tight, unnatural smile as she talked out of the side of her mouth again. “Carter. The Carter. The dickhead you met in Hawaii, and then he slept with your hotel roommate? That one?”

My stomach tightened as the painful memory invaded my mind. The memory of opening the door to my hotel room and seeing him in my roommate’s bed. Seeing him shirtless with her wrapped up tight in his arms. After meeting him on the beach and spending eight incredible spring break days with him, that memory still stuck with me the most.

The memory that stripped me of any desire to ever fall for a guy again.

“Yes. That one. Oh my God. What is he doing here?”

Even though I wanted to peek out from behind my wine barrel and look at him one more time, I resisted the urge.

“I want to kill him.” Jo continued holding her strange, frozen smile. “Please tell me I can hop this bar and chop off his lying, cheating head right now. Matt can help. He’s a builder. He’s really good with a saw.”

As much as I appreciated my sister being ready to murder the bastard who’d broken my heart, my desire to just get the hell out of this situation unnoticed overtook my desire for his blood. “Just act natural! Don’t let him see me. Please, please don’t let him see me.”

“That’s going to be hard. You can only sit behind that barrel for so long. And you definitely cannot dazzle from down there.”