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She didn’t even know she’d cried.
“They’re still out there, Jack. Or not. They could be dead because of me.”
Jack instantly froze.
Instead of bringing her back to their hut and the other two guys, he passed them on his way to the other side of their beach. He sat her down behind a large rock, giving them some privacy from his friends, who probably were questioning why he would even talk to such a nut job.
“You don’t have to do this, Jack. I’m fine.”
Jack shook his head. “You’re nowhere near fine and about to have a panic attack. The way I see it: you’re lost.”
His words struck a nerve. “Ouch.”
“It’s the truth,” he said, while his green eyes held her captive.
She didn’t want him to see her for what she really was: some pathetic girl all alone in the world. Without thinking things through, she struck back.
“You don’t know me, Jack. You may have stuck your fingers and tongue inside of me, but you don’t actually know me well enough to say that.”
His hand slid over hers on the sand, but she snatched it back from under his.
Jack sighed as he fisted his longer brown hair on top of his head.
“I’ve been there, Adi. Twelve years ago, I lost my parents and sister. I know that you’re grieving. When did your mother…?”
She gulped for air. How did he know about her mother? Did she tell him?
No. It must have slipped her somewhere these past two days.
She threw a small rock into the wave in front of their feet before it rolled back into the ocean. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“I understand. I did the same when my family died.”
She shot him an irritated glance over her shoulder. “What do you mean?”
“Pushing people away. I told everyone I was fine while I was actually heading for my grave by doing drugs every night with people I barely knew.”
Her eyes grew wide. “You were a drug addict?”
“I wasn’t living on the streets or anything. I was a raging, out-of-control teenager living in a crappy apartment that I rented from the small inheritance I received.”
They both watched the waves crash against the rocks ahead. They needed to move soon if they didn’t want to get swept away into the ocean with the upcoming tide.
She broke their silence first. “What happened to your family?”
Jack held his palms against his forehead.
“I only ever told the five guys on this island and Zane’s family about that day.”
She’d heard that Zane’s family had taken him in after a car crash. She didn’t want to interrupt him, so she nodded in silence.
Jack cleared his throat, but his voice still got stuck in his throat. “I was eighteen. My little sister, Nicole, was twelve. She had this thing about polishing off a cone of cherry ice cream before going to ballet practice.”
Jack snorted. “Nicole despised her teacher, who once told her she needed to watch her diet. But damn, she loved to dance. She was a natural, too. Nicole would have all eyes drawn to her on stage—even surrounded by a group of older, more experienced dancers.”
“Did she take the ice cream into class?”
Jack’s upper lip pulled. “Of course. Every damn class… and she still got the lead part since she was that good.”
