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Cam’s back is to us, so I can’t see his face, but the way he stills makes me think he’s not happy about it. Meanwhile, Hayes’s brows raise.
“I’m sorry,” he says through a laugh. “All the banging must have damaged my hearing, because it sounded like you said you’redatingMonty.” When neither of us say anything, it clicks. “Oh my God, you’re dating Monty.”
“Can we not make this a thing?” she pleads.
But Hayes isn’t going to let it go that easily. “How can we not? It’s Monty. You aredatingMontgomery Rollins.”
She scoffs. “Thank you for that information. I thought I was dating Monty Python.”
“All of them?” I question, but she just flips me off.
Mali looks over at Cam with a solemn expression on her face. “Cam?”
He finally turns around. “Huh?”
“You’re quiet,” she murmurs.
My brother forces out a laugh. “Sorry, I was trying to figure out which hammer I want to use. That’s great, Mal.” He comes over and wraps his arms around her. “I’m really happy for you.”
Her eyes fall closed as she hugs him, and when he pulls away, she runs her fingers through her hair. “Thanks.”
Grabbing a hammer off the table, he goes back upstairs. It stays quiet for a moment, the tension in the air too thick to speak, and then we hear it—the sound of Cam slamming the hammer into the wall with force. He’s always been so careful, and when Hayes hit a pipe, he lectured him on why using a hammer is a bad idea for hours while they fixed it. He’s pissed, that much is clear, but what I can’t understand is if he wanted Mali, why has he never asked her out?
The sound of something cracking follows, with Cam screaming, “Motherfucker!” at the top of his lungs.We all cringe.
“I should…” Hayes starts, but Mali stops him.
“No,” she says. “Let me.”
With a deep breath, she heads toward the back room and upstairs, while Hayes nods to the door. “We should go for a walk.”
He holds the door open for me and then laces my fingers with his. The temperature is starting to cool, but in the best way. It’s not as hot and humid as it was a month ago. Instead, it’s the perfect temperature.
The waves crash, sending water up the beach. It almost hits us, but we walk just outside of it.
“I still can’t believe she’s dating Monty,” I tell him.
It’s hard to wrap my mind around it. Mali might love money, but she’s not the kind of girl to settle because a guy has a lot of it. She’s a lot of things, but a gold digger is not one of them.
“About that.” He pauses for a second. “Do you think he’s with her for the right reasons?”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know. Do you think he’s just using her because he knows she would do it? Is he taking advantage of the opportunity?”
I let go of his hand. “Are you kidding me? You’restillholding that shit against him?”
He looks at me like I’ve lost my mind. “Uh, yeah, and it’s a little frustrating that you’re not. He broke us up.”
“No,” I correct him. “Youbroke us up. He just gave you a reason to.”
“He threatened to tell Cam about us.”
“Because you weren’t going to!” I cross my arms over my chest. “You might not like it, but if it weren’t for what he did, we’d still be sneaking around and I’d still be grasping for whatever parts of yourself you were willing to give me at the time.”
He huffs. “What Idon’t likeis him. The way he watches you? I’m telling you, Laiken. I get a bad vibe about that guy.”
I look away for a second, muttering that this is bullshit. “You get a bad vibe about any guy that comes within ten feet of me. And yeah, sometimes it’s hot when you go all caveman, but right now, it’s just annoying. Imarriedyou. Literally swapped my last name for yours. I don’t know how else to show you that no other guy even exists on my radar anymore.”
