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“He’s always been a flirt, you know?” she shrugged. “He has that ‘captain of the football team’ syndrome where he still thinks he’s the coolest guy in the world and that every girl wants him. He doesn’t mean anything by it, though.”
I reached around and rubbed her back. “Okay. If that’s how you really feel, and you’re happy…then I support you.”
She flashed a grateful smile, then laughed. “Besides, men are afraid of you. They know you’ll kick their ass if they try anything. Chris is no exception, and I bet it’s the same way with Keith at the marina.”
I forced myself to laugh along, unsure if it was at all convincing or not. I probably just looked like a crazy person who was about to combust.
“Right. You know it. Totally,” I said, playing along. “Keith is terrified of me. He would never try anything.”
I couldn’t bring myself to tell her anything that had happened. Days ago, I could hardly wait to talk to her and tell her about the kiss. It was literally eating me alive to be able to talk to her. By the time I finally had my opportunity, Keith and I had already slept together. And that was too mortifying to admit to Claire. That was the danger in women not being able to blurt out all of their secrets to their best friends right away. If we bottled up inside, it made us do crazy things.
Everyone, including Claire, knew Keith was a womanizer. If they knew I had fallen for it and was sleeping with him right along with all those other women in town, they would think I was too stupid to see him for what he really was. That was a nightmare for me. As a woman who surfed and also worked in business, I had to prove myself enough as it was. I didn’t want to go adding more things to make people question me on top of that.
“Thanks for telling me,” Claire said after a while. “You know you can tell me anything, right? Even if it’s about Chris. In fact, promise me you will. I’m happy with him now, but…if he ever says or does something worse…with you or with anyone…you’ll tell me?”
“Yeah,” I nodded. “If that’s what you want.”
As we cleaned up and headed home, I thought about how crazy people became when they were in love, and how badly I didn’t want to succumb to that. Underneath everything, I tried to insist to myself, Keith, or anyone else…I did see him for what he was, which happened to be a womanizer, yes. But he was also sweet, kind, and wonderful. I didn’t know how both of those things could be true at once, but they were.
The last thing I needed was to end up like Claire—in a miserable relationship, insisting everything was fine, endlessly defending the man. But deep down…I did have deeper feelings for Keith. And the truth was, if I didn’t put up my guard with him…I was probably going to get hurt.
17
KEITH
I tried not to stare at Lana as I put the finishing coat of paint on the hallway leading to the bathrooms. She was looking over the design plans and scribbling notes, biting her bottom lip. It drove me wild every time she did that, especially when her eyes were so intense with deep thought.
I did try not to stare…but apparently, I didn’t try hard enough. I got sucked into the sight of her like a moth to a flame and didn’t notice that my roller was no longer gliding up and down the wall I was supposed to be painting. At some point, it slipped over to the door that was meant to be a different color entirely.
“What the hell are you doing?” Derek barked, coming in to notice my mistake at the same time I did.
“Sorry,” I grumbled, dropping the roller back down to the tray and wiping sweat from my brow. Sweat that had less to do with the heat and more to do with the dirty thoughts Lana conjured up in my brain. “I zoned out.”
“I’ll say,” he laughed, shaking his head. He followed where my line of vision had just been and realized what had me so distracted. “What’s going on with you two? Why do I get the feeling your animosity for each other has blossomed into something else?”
“Will you keep it down?” I hissed, not wanting her to hear us.
A teasing grin spread across his face. “Ah, so maybe I was onto something before when I said I always thought there was something more between you two?”
“Look, I’m busy here.”
He glanced over my shoulder at the door streaked in paint. “Busy messing things up because you’re so wrapped up in Lana. Anyway, I didn’t come in here to talk about your latest pursuit or exploit or whatever.”
“It’s not like that,” I scowled.
“So you said.”
“No, I mean…it’s not like…I’m not just trying to hook up with her and mess around.” I looked up and noticed Lana was staring at us, maybe straining to hear what we were whispering, so I grabbed Derek by the arm and led him out the side door. We walked down the docks and looked out over the water as I groaned and raked my hands through my hair.
“What’s gotten into you?” he pressed, noticing how distraught I was.
“God, I never thought I’d be coming to you for advice about women,” I groaned.
He crossed his arms and shifted his weight, looking smug. “But obviously you are, so…spit it out. What’s up?”
“You know as well as anyone that I have no problem getting a woman into bed,” I tried to explain through my humiliation. “But…I don’t know jack shit about…you know, romance or whatever. You’ve been involved with two women in your life. The first one you married, and now you’re engaged to the second one.”
“What’s your point?”
