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“Thanks for the invite.” I turned to my friends. “This is Vera, and this is Kaia. Ladies, meet Lincoln.”
“Pleasure, ladies.” He shook their hands, but his attention came right back to me. “You look amazing.”
My cheeks heated, and I shot my friends a warning glare because they were wearing shit-eating grins.
Alex came to greet us too. “Ladies, ladies. Looking lovely. Char…” He gave me exaggerated air kisses that made me chuckle. I then introduced him to my companions.
“So, which one of you is the eighteen-year-old?” he asked.
Kaia held up a finger.
“Ah.” He took her hand and gave it a friendly pat. “Nice to meet you, kiddo.”
Kaia pouted at that, and I had to stifle my amused snort.
He turned to Vera. “And you are…?”
“Twenty-six,” Vera announced proudly. She batted her eyelashes with such force they could have kicked up a stiff wind.
“Hello,” Alex purred, kissing the back of her hand, which elicited the girliest giggle I’d ever heard from Vera.
Kaia and I exchanged amused glances while Lincoln shook his head and looked skyward. He said he and all the guys had been friends since college so that meant he’d been putting up with Alex’s antics for over a decade. That also meant he knew a lot about Jamie…
Damn. Why couldn’t my mind just stay away from him? I’d refrained from asking Lincoln too much about Jamie because it might be weird to badger my ex for information about one of his friends whom I was interested in.
As Lincoln escorted us to their tiki hut, I saw Jamie scowling… at me? It was disheartening and annoying because our interactions leading up to tonight had been warmer than when we first met. So what was the problem now?
8
JAMIE
I wasn’t surprised when Charlotte showed up for dinner because Lincoln had asked us if it would be okay. The others had accepted with gusto. The guys loved Charlotte, which said a lot about her because my friends were typically guarded around people they just met.
I didn’t blame them for loving Charlotte already. She was as amazing as Lincoln had said. So sweet, funny, authentic, and full of energy. She was witty too… the complete and perfect package.
However, I would have preferred if she wasn’t invited to dinner, but I couldn’t voice that when everyone else got so excited about the idea. They would have demanded to know why, and I couldn’t tell them that I was uncomfortable watching Lincoln try to win her back because I had the hots for her.
Looking around the table, it was clear that the guys loved having Vera and Kaia around too. Animated conversations circulated, but I didn’t take part. My emotions were out of whack. It was caused by a mixture of my disturbing feelings for Charlotte and my upcoming birthday. I'd be thirty-one in two days. Thirty-one years of carrying the heavy burden of guilt…
“We need to do something awesome for your birthday, Jamie,” Lincoln said.
“When is his birthday?” Charlotte asked. She looked from me to Lincoln with the usual curious glint in her eyes.
My jaw was locked tighter than a vise grip. “In a couple of days,” I grumbled.
“That’s why we took this trip,” Lincoln shared. “Every year?—”
“I’m sure Charlotte isn’t interested in what we do every year, Lincoln,” I growled.
Silence ensued as everyone gawked at me. Charlotte’s expression crumbled, and my heart dropped. She misinterpreted, and it was my fault because my tone was gruffer than I intended. It wasn’t that I minded her knowing more about me. I didn’t want Lincoln to tell her. I wanted to be the one to share things with her… to have her to myself for a little while without Lincoln getting in the way. I felt terrible about what I wanted because I shouldn’t want it.
“So… Vera, Kaia, you both work here too?” Spencer jumped in to save my ass. “What is it that you do?”
The others dove into the new topic… to quell the tension, I guess. However, Lincoln stared at me, his expression stony and his eyes blazing with fury. Yeah, I knew that I came off like a huge dick.
“Excuse me, I…” I was about to say that I was going to get some air, but we were already outside. “I’ll be back.”
I stepped out of our rustic beach hut and trekked through the sand to the bar, passing other chatting and laughing diners. Lanterns lit the way, creating a glowing, peaceful ambiance. The waves lapping against the shore were like music of nature made to calm the soul, but it didn’t work on me. I stayed wallowing in my emotional turmoil and regret about hurting Charlotte’s feelings. The look on her face would be another thing to haunt me.
