Sharing Hailey (8 page)

She stepped under the warm water and moaned. Amazingly, she wanted Mark and Tony in the shower with her. Would she ever get enough of them? She’d probably need a couple of weeks of full-time sex to even begin to sate all of the longing she’d bottled up over the years.

Her fear of Jake finding her in Mark and Tony’s room made for a quick shower. She wrapped a towel around her when she remembered she didn’t have any clothes in the bathroom, unless she counted Mark’s shirt.

Great. Another appearance before Meredith
en dishabille.
Well, at least this time she didn’t smell like sex.

She grabbed the hair dryer hanging on the towel rack by the sink and blew out her hair enough that she didn’t look like she’d just stepped out of the shower. When she turned it off, it was still quiet outside. That meant Jake hadn’t dropped in yet.

A knock on the door, and Meredith slipped in without waiting for an invite, quickly closing the door behind her. She had one of Hailey’s swimsuits and clean clothes in her hands. “I’ve stuffed the clothes you were wearing last night in one of the boys’ duffle bags. You couldn’t put them back on. They smelled like sex. I slipped these out of the house.”

Hailey took the clothes from Meredith. “Thanks,” she said, trying to smile but only succeeding in a grimace.

“Let me give you a little advice,” Meredith said as Hailey dropped the towel and began to get dressed. “Tell Tony to start responding to me and stop following you with those puppy-dog eyes of his when Jake’s around. He can do what he wants in private. I don’t care. I have no interest. If he can’t play the game, I can turn my attention to Mark. But if Jake finds out they’re
both
sleeping with you, all hell will break loose, and Nikki doesn’t need that right now.”

“Meredith, she’s pregnant, not sick,” Hailey said matter-of-factly.

When she didn’t respond, Hailey finished pulling her board shorts over her swimsuit bottom then stared intently at her. Meredith’s eyes were watering and her lower lip trembled.

Hailey’s heart plummeted. “What’s wrong? Nikki told me everything was okay. Morning sickness gone. She’s feeling great.”

Meredith took a deep breath. “I shouldn’t have said anything. She doesn’t want anyone to know. She doesn’t want us hovering.”

“What is it?”

Meredith waved her off. “She’ll be fine. Don’t worry about it. Don’t treat her any differently. Let’s just try to keep the drama to a minimum, okay?”

“That’s why you’re here. You’re worried about her. And I don’t mean just
here
, keeping me out of hot water with Jake. That’s why you came to Hawaii with them.”

Meredith’s pressed her lips together, her eyes mutinous.

Hailey wasn’t giving up. “Does Tony know what’s going on?” Granted, Tony was a pediatric surgeon, not an obstetrician, but he should know.

“No, and don’t you dare tell him. I’ve already said too much. If Nikki finds out, she’ll blow. Promise me you won’t tell anyone.”

Hailey was reluctant. But Meredith had saved their butts this morning. It was the least she could do. “Okay. I’ll keep quiet.”
But I’m not done trying to get answers from you
.

Meredith sighed. “Thank you.” She cocked her head to the bathroom door. “Now, we need to get out there before Jake shows.”

She was right. Hailey would have to wait to pry more information out of her. She hurriedly put on the royal blue rash guard that Meredith had brought with her swimsuit. It would offer extra protection against the sun’s rays while they were kayaking and snorkeling. “Thanks for your help this morning. I’ll let Tony know what’s up and convince him to cooperate.”

Meredith shook her head, but her tone was softer than it had been, more pleading than angry. “All three of y’all knew the plans for this morning. I can’t believe you’d risk Jake finding you together. What were you thinking?”

“Obviously, we weren’t,” Hailey said irritably. But she was angry with herself, not Meredith. They had screwed up, plain and simple. They would have to be more careful.

She followed Meredith out of the bathroom to find Mark on the futon watching CNN and Tony in the kitchen. The vertical blinds were open on both doors, and sunlight filled the room.

Mark stood and picked up a coffee cup from the end table. “Got your coffee right here, babe. Come sit.”

“Thanks.” Hailey was relieved to see he’d found some board shorts and put them on.

Tony left the small kitchen with two plates of eggs and fruit. He handed one to her and one to Mark and started for the bathroom, watching Meredith with newfound respect and a touch of wariness. Hailey smiled for the first time that morning. She hadn’t been the only one fooled by Meredith’s ditzy act.

Once she got comfortable on the futon, the plate balanced on her lap, she asked Meredith, “How did you know?”

Meredith rolled her eyes. “I suspected the moment y’all walked into the house that first day. That evening while Jake was grilling, you sealed it…both of them following you around like hound dogs.”

“They don’t follow me,” Hailey argued.

“Their eyes do. And most of the time their tongues are hanging out of their mouths.”

Hailey threw a questioning glance at Mark, who just shrugged as he shoved a forkful of eggs into his mouth. She returned her attention to Meredith. “But we hadn’t…um…slept together.”

“Doesn’t matter.”

“You must think I’m a real slut.”

“No, I don’t think—”

Nikki’s voice, which seemed a little loud, warned them from outside. “Calm down, Jake. We’ve got plenty of time.”

They all dropped the conversation. Hailey focused on her breakfast, hoping she appeared more innocent than she felt.

Jake and Nikki stepped through the open door. “Let’s get out of here before the surf gets rough,” Jake said.

“Tony’s in the shower. It won’t be much longer,” Mark answered, never taking his eyes from the news.

“Are you ready, Hailey?” Nikki asked pleasantly.

“Just finishing my breakfast,” she answered. “Where’s Landon?”

“On his cell. Said he’d be right behind us.”

“I hope it’s not that bitch,” Meredith snarled.

“No, it was work,” Nikki said, but she wasn’t really paying attention to her sister. She was looking back and forth between Mark and Hailey, her brows furrowed as if she were trying to figure something out.

Just then, Tony came out of the bathroom dressed in black board shorts and a white rash guard. Face shaved, hair combed, sex oozing from every pore, no one would know he’d just rolled out of bed.

“Ooooh, don’t you look yummy,” Meredith cooed.

Hailey blinked, stunned at the rapid transformation from protective sister to flirtatious blonde.

Tony gave Meredith his three-hundred-watt smile, dropped an arm around her shoulders and said, “You’re riding with me, right?”

The performance was good enough to make Hailey jealous. Hell, it was good enough to earn them both Oscars. At least, she hoped it was a performance on Tony’s part.

Yeah, sure it was. Tony wasn’t the type to jump from bed to bed.

Unless he was still upset about kissing Mark.

Nikki interrupted her mental fit. “Hailey, you should ride with me, Jake and Landon. We can catch up. Mark and Tony get to see you all the time.”

Catch up, my ass.
Nikki didn’t want to catch up. She wanted to play matchmaker. But it was probably for the best. Separate her from Mark and Tony. Give them a chance to cool off or down or whatever you did when you were hornier than hell. And it would make Nikki happy. Hailey wished she’d been able to get more out of Meredith about Nikki’s health problems. What was going on with that? Suddenly, Jake’s overprotectiveness didn’t seem so funny.

“What happened to your arms?” Jake asked as they left the guesthouse.

Hailey feigned ignorance. “What do you mean?”

“They’re bruised. What happened?”

Hailey rubbed the fading green splotches, stalling for time and hoping Tony kept his mouth shut. She shrugged. “I dunno. Must have happened yesterday when we were boogie boarding.”

Jake frowned but didn’t question her any further.

Trying to calm all of her worries, she took a deep breath and let it slowly escape. She loved kayaking Kealakekua Bay—watching the spinner dolphins twisting and arcing through the air, and exploring the tidal pools around Captain Cook Monument. The snorkeling in the bay was the best she’d ever experienced.

And the water was cold enough that it might dampen her need to spend the day having mind-blowing sex with Mark and Tony.

God, she was such a slut.

Worse, she didn’t care.

* * *

Hailey and Landon shared a tandem kayak across Kealakekua Bay—Hailey in front, Landon in back. Of course, Tony and Meredith kept up their show by sharing another. That left Mark in a single, but he stayed close to Jake and Nikki. Jake wouldn’t let Nikki exert herself by paddling, so the three of them were farther back. The sky was a deep clear blue and so bright that Hailey wished her sunglasses were darker. Vividly colored fish swam just below the surface of the shimmering turquoise water. When Hailey and Landon were far enough away from the other boats that they couldn’t be overheard, Landon cleared his throat.

Hailey cringed, and her paddle dragged for a moment in the water, slightly altering their course until she picked it up.
Please don’t ask me out. Please, please, please.

“Hailey?”

“Yeah.”

“My sister’s trying to get us together.”

“Did she say something to you?”

“Nah, but she’s not very subtle, at least not when you’ve known her as long as I have.”

That was an understatement.

“We have two choices,” he continued. “We can ignore her.”

Hailey snorted.

“Yeah, that’s what I figured,” he said.

“Or we can go to dinner one night and get her off our backs.” He rushed on. “Purely platonic. I know you’ve got your hands full with Mark and Tony.”

Hailey stiffened. Her skin burned, but not because of the sun. Thank God he was behind her and couldn’t see her embarrassment. Had Meredith told him? “How did you know?” she squeaked.

If Landon had figured it out on his own, there wasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell she’d be able to keep it from her brother. He knew the three of them much better than Landon did. His obsession with Nikki’s pregnancy had blinded him to the situation so far. That couldn’t last much longer. Which left her wondering if Nikki knew, as well.

“I don’t know. The three of you just kind of gravitate to each other.” He paused a moment. “Like an atom.”

“An atom?” Hailey asked, her voice pitched higher in disbelief.

“Yeah, you’re the nucleus and they’re the electrons and there’s an electromagnetic force keeping you together.”

Hailey had to laugh at his scientific analogy. “That’s so romantic. Couldn’t you have compared me to the sun and them to the planets?”

He chuckled. “Nah. Too much of a cliché.”

Tony and Meredith had stopped paddling about two hundred yards in front of them and were looking toward the shoreline. When Hailey saw the spinner dolphins they were watching, she rested the paddle across her lap and pointed. “Look, dolphins.”

Landon stopped paddling, and the surf gently rocked them.

“Nikki’s just worried about you,” Hailey said gently, still dumbfounded that anyone would dump the gorgeous man behind her.

“I know. She thinks my heart is broken. It’s not, but how to convince her?”

“FYI, Meredith’s not too happy with the bitch either. You might want to keep an eye on that one. It wouldn’t surprise me if she took out a contract on her. She might even do the deed herself.”

He sighed and dipped his paddle into the clear blue green water. “I love my sisters, but sometimes they’re a real pain in the ass.”

Hailey didn’t disagree, even though Meredith had saved her ass from Jake this morning. She lifted her paddle and began stroking again in sync with Landon.

“Hailey, all Jake needs to know is that they’re there for you, that they treat you right. He won’t care about the rest of it. Take it from a guy with two sisters.”

She frowned over her shoulder. The sun glinted off the silver hoop that pierced his ear. “Hey, I thought we were discussing your love life.”

Landon’s eyes crinkled with mischief. “Yours is a lot more interesting.”

She sighed and faced forward again, dipping her paddle into the water in time with his. “Well, I guess we’ll find out soon enough just what kind of brother I’ve got. I hope he turns out to be the one you’re describing.”

“Go out with me tonight and you’ll find out later, rather than sooner.”

Hailey shook her head. “Tony’s already nixed that.” She hoped he hadn’t changed his mind. She really needed to talk to him to get a read on how he felt about their threesome after last night.

“He and Meredith can come with us. Give a little more cred to their act.”