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“Not anymore. I feel like the rug has been pulled out from under me. Everything I thought I knew is based on a lie.”
“Please, Summer. Come home. We can work this out.”
“I’m staying here. Good-bye, Mom.” Summer hung up as her mother yelled protests. Her cell phone rang immediately. Summer turned it off and let the tears stream down her face.
Chapter Thirteen
Cody slowed to a walk the second he entered the property along the coastal side. Normally, he’d stop and take a few minutes to enjoy the view. Sometimes he even went down the stairs to the beach. But he thought he saw someone sitting by the pool through the misty morning and headed that way without thinking, like some force was pulling him in that direction.
It all made sense when he got close enough to make out Summer, sitting on the end of the lounge chair dressed in tight black pants, a light blue hoodie, and running shoes, her long dark hair tied in a ponytail.
It didn’t take a genius to figure out why she was crying when he spotted the phone in her hand.
He squatted in front of her and put his hand on her knee. “If I’d known you like to run in the morning, I’d have waited for you.” He’d be happy to go with her now, except he needed to get to work soon.
It took her a second to wipe her tears and look at him. “How far did you go?”
“Five miles.” He could do five more. “Did you sleep well?” He didn’t think so, judging by the dark circles under her bloodshot eyes.
She looked tired and defeated. She pressed the back of her hand to her forehead. “I slept some. Mostly, my head kept spinning.”
He didn’t like the strain in her eyes and voice. “It must be incredibly hard to talk to your mother when she just doesn’t get it and never will.”
His knees started to ache, so he turned, sat on his ass on the stone patio next to her, knees up, his forearms balanced on them.
She stared off into the distance. “It’s been a long time since I cried over something she did.”
He believed it. Why cry when the other person didn’t care if you hurt or not? “This one deserved a good cry. Feel better?”
“About her? No. Plus I’m embarrassed you caught me looking like a complete ragged mess.”
Cody bumped his shoulder against her arm. “You’re beautiful no matter what.”
Tears gathered in her eyes again. “Don’t be nice to me. Not right now. It’s just not fair.”
He hated that a little bit of kindness undid her all over again. But she’d have to get used to it, because he didn’t know how to be any other way when it came to her.
“Get used to me being nothing but nice to you.” To prove it to her, he stood, straddled the chair behind her, and slid his palm up her back and massaged the tight muscles in her neck.
She sighed out her pleasure and relaxed as the quiet morning surrounded them and the ocean kept its beat against the beach and rocks in the distance.
“You don’t have to do that.”
“You’ve still got that headache. If it means you feel better, I’ll sit here all day doing this.” He’d cancel all his meetings if it made her happy.
“Even if you freeze your ass off?”
“Even then,” he assured her, though the cold was starting to steal the heat from his sweaty body.
Silence wrapped around them as they sat quietly, peacefully.
He didn’t feel the need to talk.
She seemed content to sit and stare at the pool and gray mist beyond, with him working out the knots in her neck and shoulders.
He’d never experienced a comfortable silence. Not like this.
He liked it. With her. He loved the feel of her, the sweet, intoxicating scent of her, and the way she sat in this moment with him, content to just let it be.
