Gravity Happens (Forcing Gravity) (5 page)

“I’d rather kiss you. Why can’t you be in my movie?” he suggested.

Uh, because I’m not about to bare my breasts to the world.

“Because I don’t act.”

“You could,” he said, getting all excited.

I rolled my eyes playfully. “Keep dreaming. Acting is your gig, and I’m supportive, but it’s not for me. I’m sorry your co-star sucks, but just think of this as a sacrifice you have to make for the greater good of the movie, which is going to be so awesome.”

He grinned. “You’re such a cool girlfriend.”

I shrugged and smil
ed. “I’m just trying to help keep things in perspective for you.”

“And I love you for it.
I was truthfully really nervous about telling you. I got the call when we were at the airport, and all throughout the flight I just kept picturing your reaction. Thank you for being understanding. It means a lot to me.”

Yeah, I’m a pretty awesome girlfriend.

He leaned down and kissed me then, but it was just a brief kiss as I was sure he was paranoid that my dad would walk back into the kitchen at any moment. When he released me, he hugged me against his chest, and I suddenly had visions of Chloe in that same spot. It made my stomach turn, and I had to remind myself when she was in that spot and he was looking into her eyes like he looked into mine, and when he was kissing her body, it wouldn’t be real.

What we had was real. I got the real Jase. She got Jason Brady, the actor.

I just had to keep things in perspective.

Chapter Four

Ethan

“E? Are you home?”

My ears perked up as I heard Logan come in the front door. I hadn’t seen her in three weeks, and I’d missed her like hell.

I jumped up from the couch and ran into the front hall, wrapping her up in my arms and spinning her around and few times while she screamed at me to put her down. So I complied, lowering her slow to the ground but taking the opportunity to let her slide down my body along the way. I was
so inappropriately capitalizing on the moment, and I knew it. I was shameless.

“How are you?” she asked brightly, as she pushed past me into the house
, not thinking twice about what I’d done.

We’d been close our whole lives, had shared beds, hugged, and even cuddled with each other, but it had always been stric
tly platonic on both sides, so fortunately my gratuitous, opportunistic touching had gone unnoticed. Thank God.

“I’m f
antastic,” I responded cheerfully, because I was always in a great mood when she was around.

“
What did you do over break?”

Lizzie.
And Kara.

Okay, I wasn’t actually going to say that out loud.
Logan knew I hooked up a lot, but for some reason, now I didn’t want her to know. I wanted her to think I was a good guy, worthy of her, and she was pure and innocent. Jase was the first guy she’d ever slept with.

I shrugged. “Surfed, hung out with the family. Gare and I went up to San Francisco to see Kelly and Devin, and I got this.”

I turned and lifted my shirtsleeve so she could see bright blue and black tribal symbol of waves on my shoulder. My sister Kelly’s best friend, Harper, was a tattoo artist, so I’d let her ink me while we were there, wanting to get something symbolic that echoed the thing I loved the most – surfing.

It was my first tattoo, but I hadn’t even noticed the pain since my attention was fully on Harper while she worked on me. S
he was hot as fuck. If she didn’t have a boyfriend, I probably would have tried to tap that, but later that night we’d all hung out and her boyfriend had been there, so I’d begrudgingly stayed away.

“Nice,” Logan said, and I wondered if she
even liked tattoos. She’d never said anything either way about them. What if she wasn’t a fan?

“Oh, my God, the weather is gorgeous today,” she gushed, walking forward to the windows that made up most of the back wall of
our house on the beach. She spun and face me, pulling her tank top over her head as she did, giving me a prime view of her perfect breasts. “I’m going out. The waves look awesome. You want to come?”

I grinned. “Definitely, but unlike you, I didn’t come over wearing my bathing suit, so I need to change.”

“Meet me down there,” she said, as she slid her jeans off to reveal the pink bikini bottoms that I loved because her ass cheeks peaked out of the bottom.

Her shoulder length blond hair was pulled into pigtails, and she looked so freakin’ sexy. She had the hottest, tightest little body, and I seriously wanted to run my hands all over it. She’d probably have her full wetsuit on in about five minutes, so I needed to drink in the view while I could.

It was too cold to go without coverage. The water was like ice, but maybe that’s what I needed since I was sort of starting to sprout wood just looking at her. That would be incredibly awkward if she saw, and then I would have to explain myself, and that would be bad. Yeah, cold water would be great.

Ten minutes lat
er we were paddling out into that icy water and trying to get used to the temperature. Thankfully the sun was out, and thankfully my hard-on was long gone.

“So how’s the actor?” I asked her
, purposefully not using his name.

She gave me a look that told me not to cross any lines. “
You know his name is Jase, and he’s good – really good. He’s at the studio right now for a meeting with his agent and some of the producers from his new movie, so I figured I’d squeeze in some time with you.”

“Aww, I feel honored,” I said,
feeling like second prize.

I looked ba
ck. The waves had taken a break, but I didn’t want to look at Logan right then.

“I saw he visited you in Florida,” I said, keeping my gaze on the horizon.

I didn’t want to see her face light up when she responded. I’d seen pictures of her and Jase all over South Florida. The media had catalogued their every move, so I got to see a play-by-play of everything they did while he visited. And Logan had looked so happy with him.

“Oh, my God, E, he totally surprised me. He’s so awesome.”

Yeah, so I’ve heard – every fucking day for the past few months.

“That’s awesome. I saw you took him surfing,” I said, finally looking back at her.

Surfing was our thing, and I was kind of annoyed that she’d made it theirs too.

She scrunched up her face and then smiled. “Yeah, he’s not very good,” she said, laughing lightly, the sound
was music to my ears. “I tried to teach him, but I’m not sure it’ll be a regular thing for us. Jase is better on dry land.”

Best news of the day.

“It takes talent to keep up out here,” I said, incredibly confident in my ability to shred, but it was the one thing that I’d always been good at.

I had a natural talent for it, and
I fucking loved it.

“Tell me about it,” Logan said, shaking her head. “I’ve been working my ass off to keep up with you for years.”

“And it’s paid off. Your ass is hot,” I said, completely playing off of her words.

Logan
just stuck her tongue out at me before she started paddling away to catch a wave that had snuck up on me. I’d been too busy watching the water glisten off of her tanned face as her eyes sparkled in the sun. I was a wasted son of a bitch over this girl.

* * *

“You decent?” I asked as I passed the hall bathroom upstairs.

Logan smiled at me in the mirror. She’d stayed and hung out after we’d surfed, and we’d ordered in Thai food. Then she’d showered
for the party we were having that night and was halfway dressed.

I’m sure she didn’t think anything of it, because I’d seen her in various states undress throughout our lives, but seeing her standing there in a short skirt and a bra was enough to get me going again aft
er I’d done my best to calm my hormones in the shower.

“You look hot,” she said to me, eyeing me in the mirror.

I was wearing jeans, a fitted graphic t-shirt and a black blazer, and I was ready to let loose. Being with Logan all afternoon had me wound up in knots and jerking off in the shower did nothing to ease the tension. I rolled my neck around a few times, trying to loosen my shoulders.

“So do you,” I sa
id, only serious in my head. I made comments like that all the time, so they didn’t faze her.

“Thank you,” she said playfully since I’m sure she didn’t think she looked presentable. Her hair was still damp, and she was putting
on her make-up. Not that she needed it. She looked really pretty without it. “You okay?”

I shrugged. “I think I tweaked my neck when I was surfing. I don’t know.” It was a plausible excuse. “I’m heading down,” I told her then. I knew my friends would be there soon.

“I need like ten minutes.”

“Take your time. When’s the boyfriend arriving?” I asked.

She smiled, and it annoyed me that he made her so happy. That should be my job.

“He’ll be here soon. He was going out to dinner with his boys, and they were going to stop by afterward. You know
, you and Gare are becoming quiet reputable party throwers.”

She winked at me, and I smiled. “It’s my gift in life. Please the people. Give them what they want.”

“And what’s that?” she asked, playing along.

“Alcohol and hot girls.”

She laughed. I loved it when she laughed, and the sound followed me downstairs.

Garrett was in the kitchen pulling our alcohol from the cabinet underneath the island and setting it on the top
when I got downstairs. The fridge was stocked with beer, so we were good to go. It was the last Saturday before the spring semester of classes started, so I’d convinced my brother to throw a party. We needed to cut loose – well, I needed to cut loose.

My brother didn’t have anything
going on since his last movie had wrapped in December. He’d filmed three back to back, so I guess now he was taking a break until the second
Earthbound
movie started shooting.

He played a fallen angel in the movies that had been converted from three really popular books. And it was the role of Lucas, the bad boy fallen angel, that had made him famous overnight.
The girls loved him, and it was cool since I completely benefited from it.

Before he’d been shy and reserved, but fame had brought him out of his shell. He’d always been good looking, because let’s be honest, we looked a lot alike, but he didn’t use his looks to his advantage for most of his life. He did now though. He was dating a former Disney star turned pop star who was ridiculously hot, and she had hot friends.

“Looking sharp, little bro,” he said, as he set the last bottle on top of the island.

Damn, we had a lot of alcohol.

I ran a hand back through my hair. It was getting long. I usually kept it that way, but I hadn’t cut it in a while. Maybe I needed to.

I smiled at my brother, but it felt forced. “I gotta get over this shit with Logan,” I told him
, keeping my voice low.

Garrett
nodded as he started mixing me a strong drink. I didn’t even have to ask. I must have looked tense as hell.

“Well, you tried the getting under someone else
angle, and that didn’t work.”

“Ha, ha,” I said as I took big drink of the concoction he’d whipped up. I wasn’t sure what was in it, but it tasted strong.

“Dude, I’m serious,” he continued. “You did the whole FWB thing with Lizzie, and I know you and Kara hooked up a few times, but maybe you should try not to bury your feelings anymore. Maybe you should try to overcome them.”

I raised an eyebrow at him. “What
the hell kind of self-help book do you get that shit out of? I don’t even know what that means.”

He leaned back against the stove and crossed his arms over his chest. “
I’m not reading self-help, you jackass. I just know much more about women than you do.”

I laughed out loud. “Yeah, right. That’s not even remotely possible.”

Garrett raised an eyebrow at me, and I got the message. My number might have been triple what his was, but he probably did know more about girls – at least on an emotional level. I just knew what would make them scream my name in bed, but I didn’t know shit about relationships.

“
Maybe if you get emotionally involved with someone else, then your feelings for Logan will go away,” he finally said.

“
Dude, I don’t even know how to do that,” I said quickly, because an emotional connection was a completely foreign concept to me.

Besides, how was I supposed to get emotionally involved with someone when my heart belonged to the girl upstairs.

“Sure, you do. I know you play dumb because you don’t want a relationship, but you’re not a complete idiot.”