Starfish and Coffee (15 page)

“You want me to do your back next?” Holly offered graciously. “Or will Matt do it for you later?”

“I’m not hanging out with him tonight.”

“What?” Holly craned her neck to look up at him. “Are you fighting?”

“No, we’re just cooling off a little.” Alex hated the pang of loss just saying those words caused. Warning bells were going off everywhere. He needed Matt too much, thought about him too often, and made too many little mistakes when he was around. “We both need to start thinking straight again.”

Holly laughed. “The last thing you two do when you’re together is
think straight
.”

“Well, yeah, exactly.” Alex shook his head. “Frank caught us touching this morning in the back parking lot. Right there in the open. I don’t know what I was thinking. I just lose my mind when I’m around him.”

“Touching how?”

“I was holding his hand, looking at his wrist.”

“That’s not that odd.”

Alex snorted. “Straight guys don’t hold hands, Hol. You spend too much time in Key West and South Beach with me.”

“As long as you weren’t skipping together.”

“Very funny.” He rubbed extra hard to make his point, but all it earned him was a pleased moan from Holly.

He was still taking out his frustrations on Holly’s back, which was turning out to be mutually beneficial, when the front door opened. Holly jolted in a rare show of nervousness, dropping the bottle of baby oil she’d been holding for him.

Holly gasped when Will walked in. She pushed Alex off her, one arm across her bare breasts as she struggled to get up. The second her feet hit the floor, her heel caught on the oil. She promptly slipped and ended up flat on her ass while Alex sat there gaping at the disaster. Holly’s shin had smacked against the coffee table on the way down, which made it all the more painful to watch. She forgot about her tits to grab her leg in pain.

“What the hell?” Alex scrambled to get off the couch, not sure what to do first. There was still oil spilling all over the floor, and Holly was sprawled out on her ass. He ignored the oil when he saw the way she was clutching at her shin. “Are you bleeding?”

“I don’t know.” Holly let out a pained whine, making it obvious she was near tears. “Oh my God, ow!”

“Just back off, Alex,” Will snapped furiously. “I think you’ve done enough.”

Alex turned to look up at his brother incredulously as Will stormed over to them. “You saw what happened. I had
nothing
to do with this.”

“You have
everything
to do with this,” Will said with a low growl as he dropped his backpack and crouched on the other side of Holly. “Lemme see it.”

Holly pressed her chest against her raised thighs and rested her forehead against her knees as she mumbled, “I need my shirt.”

Instead of questioning her sudden shyness when Holly had been lying out naked in the backyard for years, Alex grabbed her shirt for her. She did an awkward shimmy into the tank top that didn’t really leave much to the imagination anyway. Putting it on was pointless, especially considering they’d both seen everything she had to offer—many times.

“It’s bleeding,” Will announced and then slid his arm under her knees to pick her up as he glared at Alex. “Be good for something. Clean up the oil.”

Holly tried to struggle out of Will’s hold, but he’d have none of it. Bigger than Alex, he stood with her in his arms, bearing Holly’s weight easily despite her colorful complaints against it.

“Why do I feel like I’ve fallen into an alternate reality?” Alex asked as he watched his brother carry Holly toward the kitchen.

Neither of them answered him. They were having their own battle over Will’s determination to be the big, growling alpha male of the house. Alex considered it a minor miracle he managed to keep his opinions to himself as he picked up the oil bottle and just dropped a beach towel over the mess to prevent anyone else from slipping on it.

He walked into the kitchen, finding Holly sitting on the table, with Will in a chair in front of her, cleaning her bleeding shin. “How bad is it?”

“Why do you give a fuck?” Will asked angrily. “This is the first night you’ve been home in a month.”

“I’m pretty sure it hasn’t been that long.” Alex was trying very hard not to lose his temper. “Anyways, what does it matter? I’m still paying the bills. What’s got your panties in a wad?”

“It matters because you’ve been so busy with your boyfriend Matt Tarrington that you haven’t bothered to notice Holly’s been stuck in this house for a month. Her car’s broken again, and her best friend doesn’t spend any time with her.” Will cast him another furious glare. “Now all of a sudden you’re pretending to care. Fuck off, Alex.”

Alex held up his hands, stunned from the attack.

“Do you have something you want to tell me?” Alex studied the two of them suspiciously. Holly’s face was in her hands as if she wanted the kitchen table to swallow her whole, and Will looked ready to actually fight him. “Has something happened between you two that I don’t know about?”

“No,” Holly denied a little too quickly as she lifted her head and looked at Alex. “It’s nothing, really. It’s just—”

“She should be more than the girl you fall back on when you can’t find someone else to fuck,” Will answered for her.

“I think I can speak for myself.” Holly shoved at Will’s shoulder to prove her point. “This he-man act is getting
very
old.”

“What she said,” Alex agreed with Holly as he narrowed his eyes at Will. “Are you fucking my best friend?”

“If I
was
fucking her, I wouldn’t be off partying every night—without her.” Will’s gaze leveled at Alex with brotherly disapproval. “If Mom knew what you’ve done to Holly, she’d be rolling over in her grave.”

“I was just rubbing her back after a long shift, and you’re losing your mind about it.” Alex gestured wildly to Holly. “What the fuck have I done to her?”

“Nothing!” Holly said quickly. “He’s just got all these ideas. I never said anything like that. You know I didn’t.”

“She didn’t have to. I see her home every night while you’re off making out with Tarrington.”

“Fuck you, Will,” Alex said slowly as every hair on his body stood on end in fear and fury. “Fuck you and your goddamn high horse. You don’t know shit about anything.”

“I know that while you’re off picking up girls with that preppy fuck Tarrington, I’ve been going down on your girlfriend,” Will said with a dark look. “And it seemed like it’d been a
really
long time.”

Alex stood stock-still as the blood pounded in his ears. There wasn’t a damn thing he could say about that. He was still in shock that all this was happening to begin with. He’d known Will had a thing for Holly, but he hadn’t expected him to act on it when every plan Will had made for the past five years put him off Mirabella Island the second he got that law degree in his hands.

Holly loved the island. She’d never be happy in a city.

All these thoughts poured through his mind, along with the absolute fury over all the jabs Will had made about Matt. He’d said it in the same mocking way every straight asshole did, like kissing another man was the most insulting thing he could think of, never knowing that making out with Matt had become Alex’s reason for living.

“He’s not my boyfriend.” Holly hissed at Will. “I keep telling you that. We’re
friends
.”

Will snorted. “With benefits. You were just naked under him when you swore to me it wasn’t happening anymore.”

Unwilling to hear any more, Alex turned on his heel and stormed out of the kitchen before he did something horrible, like get into an actual fistfight with his brother. It was anyone’s guess who’d win. Will was a little bulkier, but Alex was considerably faster, and both of them knew how to fight if they had to.

Alex knew he had to get out of the house before they ended up doing something that traumatized Holly more than they already had. He grabbed his keys off the side table by the door and walked outside in nothing but a pair of jeans.

“Alex, wait!”

Alex turned to see Holly fly out the door with his helmet and shoes in her hands. “I’ll talk to him. He’s just stressed with school and—”

“Whatever.” Alex grabbed his helmet before she could start with the explanations. Then he slid on his sandals that she dropped in front of him. “Have fun.”

“You cannot possibly be mad at me about this,” she countered with a look of hurt. “You’re not my real boyfriend, Alex. I don’t care if you spend time with Matt. I’m happy for you, but I thought you wanted me to find someone too.”

“I don’t give a shit if you fuck Will. If he’s your someone, fine,” Alex barked with a wild look toward the house. “I just can’t believe you didn’t tell me. At least give me a heads-up. Did you hear what he said to me? He thinks I’m the biggest dick in the world!”

“I haven’t actually slept with him.” Holly winced. “This has all been sort of unexpected.”

“But you want to?”

Holly looked away. “Well, not right now when he’s being an asshole.”

“Look, Hol, I love you, and I’m sorry you hurt your leg.” Alex took a steadying breath. “But I gotta get out of here before I kick my brother’s ass, okay? I don’t want to do that.”

Holly nodded. “I understand. I’ll come see you at Matt’s later.”

“I don’t even know if I’m going to Matt’s.”

“Will you call me?”

“Yes,” he promised her and then leaned down and kissed her forehead because that gash on her shin looked painful. He felt terrible leaving her. “Are you going to be okay?”

“I’m fine.” She pushed at his bare shoulder. “Go cool off. I’ll calm him down.”

He didn’t want to think about how Holly was going to calm his brother down. This whole thing was giving him some seriously fucked-up mental whiplash. Alex got on his bike before Will came outside and said something that would make forgiving him impossible.

Chapter Ten

“Now you’re riding around on that motorcycle like some sort of Hell’s Angel.”

Matt couldn’t help the laughter that burst out of him. “I think any respectable Hell’s Angel would be thoroughly insulted by that comparison. You know parking on the island is a nightmare. Having a bike makes life easier.”

“So have Charlie drive you,” his mother said dismissively. “We pay him too much as it is. Make him earn his paycheck.”

“He earns it. In fact, I’m thinking of giving him a raise.” Matt took another drink of his scotch and rubbed at his temples where a headache was forming. “If the only reason you called is to bitch at me about the bike, then I’m hanging up again.”

“You know I don’t like that sort of language.” Her voice was shrill with disapproval. “Those restaurant people are teaching you to talk like that.”

“Yeah, it wasn’t college.” He snorted. “You sent Charlie all the way over here to tell me to pick up the phone. I’m talking to you. What do you want?”

“You said you’d take me to the club this week.”

“I was going to take you tonight until the little incident at Frank’s today,” he said, knowing it was mean to do so, but he was halfway to being drunk.

“You are wretched! Your father would’ve never treated his mother like this. He put your grandmother on a pedestal until the day she died. If she wanted to do something, we all had to bow to her wishes. He certainly never gave me that sort of respect.”

“Oh Jesus.” Matt took another drink, thinking he was just going to skip dinner and get completely shitfaced.

“Now my own son deliberately embarrasses me in front of all my friends,” she went on as if she hadn’t heard his moan of complaint. “Do you know how mortifying that was?”

“Yeah, I’ve got a pretty good idea,” he barked, knowing he was falling into her trap. “You’ve been embarrassing me in front of
my friends
since I was old enough to have any.”

“Well, you never had any taste when it came to friends. I thought that Trevor Hart was bad until you decided to bring the scum of society into your inner circle just to make your mother miserable.”

Matt closed his eyes and counted to ten before he took a steadying breath and said, “First off, it’s not always about you. I don’t choose my friends based on how much it’s going to piss you off. Secondly, there is nothing wrong with Trevor. He just got accepted into Harvard medical school. He’s brilliant.”

“Probably on scholarship.” She sniffed in disapproval. “That fraternity has certainly gone downhill since your father’s day.”

“I’m not playing anymore,” Matt said tiredly. “There’s nothing wrong with Trevor or the friends I’ve made at Frank’s. If you can’t handle my social choices, I can’t help you with that.”

“Maria says you’ve let that tall blond boy spend the night more than once.”

“So what?” Matt scowled, knowing it was a mistake to let his mother’s housekeeper come over to clean and do the laundry. “And tell Maria if she keeps playing spy, she’s going to be finding herself a new job.”

“You cannot fire my help!”

Matt set his drink down and leaned against the kitchen counter as he growled, “Watch me.”

“Where’d I go wrong with you?”

“I’m hanging up.”

“When are you taking me to the club?” she finally asked in defeat, obviously hearing the grim certainty in Matt’s voice. “You’ve been here a month and haven’t spent any time with any of your
real friends
.”

“Maybe on Friday.” Matt knew there was no getting out of it.

“Excellent. It’s lobster on Friday,” she said, obviously pleased now that she’d gotten a date out of him. “And Devon Hastings is coming down for the weekend. You know he flies to the island every other weekend just to spend time with his mother?”

“Isn’t that wonderful of him.”

“He has his pilot’s license now. He flies himself everywhere. Very convenient.”

Matt laughed. “And you’re giving me shit about a motorcycle?”

“He was asking about you. I didn’t have the heart to tell him you’ve been ignoring your oldest and dearest friends for that riffraff on the beach. It’d break his heart.”

“I think his heart would be just fine.” Matt laughed again. “Trust me, Devon couldn’t care less what I’m doing with my spare time. He went backpacking for a full year after he graduated. He didn’t call anyone. We thought he’d died over there.”