The Supermodel's Best Friend (A Romantic Comedy) (30 page)

Eyes lighting up, he stood directly in front
of her. “There you are. I’ve been looking for you. Have you had
breakfast?”

Lucy glanced past him through the trees. Mist
sank through the branches, coating the air with dew. The sun hid
behind a thick layer of morning fog.

She looked back at Alex. He had an
uncertainness about him that hadn’t been there before. Dark circles
under his eyes. Unshaven jaw. Wrinkled button-down shirt, half
undone, with a faded T-shirt hanging out underneath.

“I’m sorry, but I have.”

He glanced behind her, his gaze drawing a
line between her and Miles’s cabin. “Right.”

“But I was just about to go for a walk out to
the beach. Would you like to join me?”

“A walk?”

“We won’t get a chance tomorrow. The
wedding’s early.”

He nodded. “I’d like that.” He stood up
taller, gestured down the path. “Shall we?”

They hiked in silence for ten minutes until
the buildings of the resort were out of sight behind them. The fog
grew heavier with each step. Lucy walked ahead, wishing she’d
chosen a shorter hike. She’d imagined Miles at her side. All night
she’d wanted him, and now she ached to reach out and take his hand,
feel his big palm in hers.

When they got to the stream that had soaked
her before, she stopped abruptly, and Alex bumped into her. Poor
man, she’d almost forgotten he was there.

“I’m sorry about how things turned out,” she
said.

“Sorry, as in you regret it?”

“If I hurt you, yes.”

He studied her. “That’s nice of you. I’m
sorry if I hurt you, too.”

How would he have…

His laugh sounded forced. “Can I help you get
over to the other side?”

Disconcerted, she turned her attention back
to the shallow, ten-foot wide ribbon of water at their feet. Flat
stones formed a bridge that a toddler could cross.

“I’ll be fine.” She stepped across easily. “I
think I was just nervous before.”

“Funny, I wasn’t nervous until right now.”
Alex came across behind her and jumped onto the bank. “I need to
tell you something.”

Oh, lord. He’s going to tell me about
Krista.
“Please don’t. You really don’t have to.”

But he was reaching into his pocket. “I
didn’t realize how little time we’d have to get to know each other,
or I would’ve told you sooner.” He pulled out his wallet. “I
thought it might make you uncomfortable, so I didn’t. Now I wonder
if it might’ve helped me… stand out, so to speak. Though it’s
foolish to speculate.”

Lucy frowned at the square of paper in his
hands. Slowly and carefully, he unfolded it to reveal a page from a
glossy magazine. He handed it to her.

A photograph. Fawn getting into her Volvo in
Berkeley, paparazzi swarming around her—and Lucy at her side. She
wore her usual black and was jabbing one of the photographers with
an umbrella.

“I thought you were beautiful,” Alex
said.

Oh
. “You noticed
me
?” She
looked back at the photo, wondering how that could be possible. The
red hair did stand out, of course, and she was looking straight at
the camera. She looked pissed off. Fawn was a blazing beauty who
lit up the picture like an angel in a Renaissance painting.

“Huntley gave me that to show me how
beautiful his new girlfriend was, but all I could see was you.”

“Alex.” Lucy put a hand on her chest. Her
mind went blank. “I’m—”

“Sorry. Yeah, I got that.” He took the paper
back from her and folded it just as carefully as before. “You don’t
owe me anything, Lucy. I just wanted you to know.”

“I’m still not sure what happened, but it
wasn’t something I planned.”

He nodded, not meeting her eyes. “Being away
from home can make us forget who we are. Especially in a place
so”—he waved his hand at the lichen-draped trees—“primordial.”

“Thank you for understanding.”

“You probably heard I spent the other night
with your friend Krista.”

Damn, he sounded so casual about it. Like
they’d shared a pizza. “Yes. She’s… ” She tried to think of
something flattering to say but was still too annoyed with her. “An
old friend,” she finished lamely.

“And you spent the night with Miles.”

She nodded. She wasn’t going to talk about
that.

He held out another piece of paper. She
looked at it. His business card. “This whole week is already
starting to feel like a dream,” he said, pressing it into her hand
and putting his other hand over it. “I’d still like to be friends.
We’ll be seeing each other occasionally, I’m sure, given our close
friendships with the bride and groom.”

She looked up into his face. A nice face,
with kind, patient eyes. Even now, even though he possessed
emotions she hadn’t expected, he was determined to approach the
situation calmly.

He really was the type of man she’d been
looking for.

So why didn’t she want him?

“Lucy!”

She swung away from Alex. Miles stood on the
other side of the creek.

After what Alex had just said, Lucy felt like
an impulsive child. Although her body twitched to jump across the
creek and climb up into Miles’s arms, her mind, for the first time
that week, had a grip on the situation.

She reclaimed her hand and the business card
from Alex’s grip but didn’t move away from him. “Thank you,” she
told him softly.

Alex nodded.

“Lucy!” Miles yelled again.

“What?” Lucy asked him.

“What do you mean, ‘what’? You just came by
and asked me to go for a walk!”

“What about your breakfast with your
stepmother?”

But Miles wasn’t looking at her. Face flushed
with color, he glared at Alex as he strode over the stream to join
them, completely ignoring the rocks or the water, the way he got
soaked up to the shins. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“
We
were walking,” Lucy said. “What’s
your problem?”

“You weren’t walking just now.”

“For God’s sake!” Lucy looked Miles over,
disgusted to see his chest puffed up and his hands balled into
fists. As if preparing to beat Alex into the muddy bank. Poor
Alex—his body mass was probably fifty percent smaller.

Maybe she didn’t want the guy who’d just told
her she was beautiful to be pounded into the ground.

“I came as fast as I could,” Miles continued.
“Guess I should have run faster.” He loomed over Alex with a snarl
on his face.

“What is the matter with you?” Lucy poked him
in the ribs. Hard.

But Alex looked eager to take him on.
Shoulders back, hands fisting, he mirrored Miles’s aggressive
posture. Lucy could smell the testosterone flying through the air
like aerosol sunscreen at a swimming pool in July.

“If you think this is attractive, acting like
violent, macho idiots, you’re wrong,” she said.

They ignored her.

“I think it’s time you gave up,” Miles
growled at Alex, no hint of his usual gentleness in his eyes. “She
doesn’t want you. Stay the fuck away from her.”

“She
invited
me, big guy. Wrap your
little brain around that.”

“She felt sorry for you,” Miles said.

Alex paused, then shoved him in the chest
with both hands.

Miles, unmoved, lifted one of his fists and
pulled his elbow back to swing.

“No! For God’s sake, no!” Lucy flung herself
on Miles. “Hit him and I’ll never touch you again!”

Frozen, not looking at her, Miles said to
Alex, “Hear that? All I have to do is not beat the shit out of you
and she’s mine.
Mine
.”

Lucy shoved Miles as hard as she could. “You
arrogant
bastard
!”

He didn’t budge, but her choice of insult
made an impact. He looked down at her, pain at the edges of his
eyes.

“You heard me.” To hell with his sore spots.
“Get out of here. Alex and I are going to finish our walk.” She
took Alex’s arm. It was rigid with tension but she forced him to
hook it through hers. “Without you,” she told Miles.

“One night was enough, is that it? Think you
had your fun and now you’re ready to settle for this pompous little
shit?” Miles flung up his hands. “Am I the last person in the world
who believes in monogamy?” He spun on his heel and splashed through
the creek to the other side.

Lucy watched him storm away. What was she
supposed to do, just let him beat Alex up?

Macho idiot. He stood her up, didn’t make
time for her, and now he wanted to control her? To hell with
him.

She wished she hadn’t called him a bastard,
but she didn’t mean it in the offensive, archaic way. She had to
find better insults that weren’t politically loaded. If only she’d
brought her smartphone so she could look up good words on her
thesaurus app.

“You care about him,” Alex said. He made no
effort to walk alongside her, so she had to stop and stare at
him.

“I’m
pissed
, that’s what I am. Can you
believe the way he
freaked
about us taking a walk?”

He untangled his arm from hers and held onto
her hand for a moment.

Lucy’s mind still raced through her mental
thesaurus.
Oaf. Bully. Dorkbutt.
That’s it. She’d make a
spreadsheet with her ideas and title it “Miles Dorkbutt.”

Alex squeezed her hand before releasing it.
“You’re not quite what I expected.”

Reluctantly she set aside her mental
spreadsheet to give Alex her attention. “How so?”

“I mean no criticism. More of an apology.” He
stepped back. “I’ve never been attracted to dramatics. It’s
completely my fault for assuming that a woman in your profession
would be of a particular personality type.”

“What the hell kind of
type
were you
expecting?”

He sighed, smiling. “See? There you go again.
You’ve got a temper. I hate to say it, because it implies such a
stereotype and I certainly don’t mean it that way, but you’re kind
of… hotblooded, aren’t you?”

“Like a typical
redhead
, you
mean?”

“Please don’t be offended. I’m just sharing
an observation. And it’s totally my fault for being so eager to
settle down that I ignored the obvious.” He stuck his hands in his
pockets. “You’re not ready to settle down.”

“Just because I didn’t jump at the chance of
being with
you
—”

“It has nothing to do with me.” He pointed
down the path to the resort. “You picked the most immature,
commitment-phobic male you could find and jumped into bed with
him.”

“You are way out of line.”

“Fine. Maybe so. But if I’m wrong, you’re
about to get hurt. And that would be a shame.” He held out his
hand. “I only wish you the best.”

He was just trying to soothe his ego,
imagining how badly she was going to get hurt by liking a guy he
didn’t approve of. Accusing
her
of being a hothead. Lucy
Hathcoat, the number-crunching databot. If only her friends had
heard him.

She didn’t really want to touch him again,
but he was right about having to see each other again over the
years. Reluctantly, she squeezed his hand quickly then folded her
arms over her chest.

“See you around.” He turned to go back over
the stream.

How could a man so perfect in so many ways be
so completely annoying?

“Hey, Alex!” she called, just as he stepped
onto the first rock.

He glanced back.

“Don’t hurt Krista,” she said. When he
frowned, she added, “After all, you don’t like it when I lose my
temper.”

* * *

“This is pointless,” Heather said, getting up
from the table. She wore a white sleeveless blouse, skin-tight
white jeans, white sandals with white bows around her ankles. She
should have blended into the pale decor of the Snowy Egret, but
somehow, with her toned and tanned skin, her blond hair, all the
gold jewelry, she made heads turn. “I told him you wouldn’t be
capable of this.”

Miles let her walk away, past the newly
arrived wedding guests having breakfast. Every table was filled
with the young and the old, the bright and the beautiful. A few
looked familiar, perhaps from movies or TV. Perhaps from a random
game of basketball with Huntley. Perhaps both.

He didn’t get up to follow her until she’d
reached the door. Then, deciding he
had
been rude, arriving
late and then barely speaking two words during the meal, he got up
and strode after her.

“Sorry. I’ve got something on my mind.” He
flinched at the bright sky as he stepped outside. “And I’m a little
hung over.”

And depressed. He wasn’t quite sure, but he
thought he’d screwed up out there at the stream.

But she’d been standing there holding hands
with him. Looking deeply into his eyes.

You screwed up.

He knew she didn’t want Alex, would never
want Alex. He knew, just like he’d said, that Lucy just felt sorry
for the striving twit. She was trying to let him down easy.

“Lady trouble?” Heather asked.

They stood outside the restaurant facing the
trail west. Alex and Lucy would come back that way if they hadn’t
already.

His head ached. “I don’t want to talk about
it.”

“How’s that working out for you so far?”

He gave her a warning look.

“Because from where I’m sitting, not talking
about what’s bothering you has caused a lot of problems. For
everybody.”

“You’re the last person who should be giving
relationship advice.”

“Is that what you’ve got with her? A
relationship?” Heather patted him on the chest. “Because from where
I’m sitting, it looks a little early to be calling it anything at
all.”

Heather didn’t know anything; she was just
fishing. Looking for weak spots. He made a show of looking at his
watch. “Actually, Lucy is expecting me now. Sorry to eat and
run.”