Back to September, page 11
“Hey, you two!” Parker raced down the steps. “Here, let me help with some of that.” She gathered a couple of extra bags and lugged them alongside our haul. We were a trio of pack mules. I wasn’t one to pack light, too fearful I’d forget something important. I had food, games, bug repellent, extra clothes, hiking attire, a first aid kit. You name it, I’d thought of it and shoved it into Sheila’s car like a Tetris whiz. Parker surveyed all the bags. “You two don’t mess around when it comes to travel.”
“All Hannah,” Sheila said, with a laugh, carrying four bags herself. “I’m simply a foot soldier.” Parker glanced back at me with a smile. When her gaze found mine, I warmed all over and couldn’t help but smile back. A private, friendly moment. As we climbed the steps, Carissa came onto the porch, and with that, the temperature changed.
“Hey, guys,” she said. Oh, wow. She was even more beautiful in person.
“Hi, I’m Hannah,” I said back. “I’d shake your hand if I could.” I tried to juggle something to my left side to free up my right, but it just wasn’t happening.
“Don’t sweat it,” Carissa said, and took a seat on the porch swing. She didn’t offer to help at all, even Parker, who’d taken a large share of the load.
“Hi,” she said to Sheila with a wave and went about gently swinging. “I like your flip-flops.” Carissa had very blond hair, the type that didn’t exist in real life and was colored to look almost white. She ran her fingers through it slowly. I had to admit she was striking. She wore short-shorts and a pink halter top with a myriad of zippers heading in several different directions. If you asked me to spot the pop star in the wild, I’d have zeroed in pretty quick.
We did that thing for the next hour where we were all extra polite to each other, and Sheila and I explored the cabin, remarking on all the cool features, along with Parker.
“I love the garden tub in our room.”
“Do these blinds go up? Oh, they do.”
“There’s a hot tub on the deck!”
“I could get used to this.”
And so on and so forth. All of this minus Carissa, who took to curling her hair in the main bathroom off the living area. It wasn’t until late afternoon when we popped a bottle of Rosé that we all seemed to take a moment to breathe and relax around the outdoor table.
“You’re an accountant?” Parker asked, handing Sheila a full glass.
She nodded. “Numbers have always made more sense to me than anything else. There’s something reliable about them.”
Parker nodded. “I can see that. I’m just happy we have you, because my brain couldn’t hack it.” They touched glasses in what was a nice but surreal moment for me. My friend and my girlfriend were hobnobbing for the first time. Okay, my friend that I had had amazing sex with and my girlfriend. That was the surreal part.
“I could say the same back to you,” Sheila said after sipping from her glass. “I could never write a book, yet you’ve written hit after hit.”
“Do you read romance?” Parker asked.
“No, but this one,” she placed her hand just above my knee, “says I should give yours a try. They made a believer out of her.”
“Isn’t that amazing?” Parker asked, absently. Her gaze flitted to Sheila’s hand and back to her own glass. “You know what? I’m going to check on Carissa.”
Once we were alone, Sheila turned to me with a grin. “She’s really wonderful, just like you said.” She gestured in the air as if searching for the right word. “She has a presence about her.”
“That’s Parker.” I leaned forward. “Think about it. She’s known for more than just her books these days, and that’s for a reason. People gravitate to her, want to hear what she has to say, even if it’s just a sarcastic quip online.”
“I saw her on that morning talk show just a few months ago, the one with the crazy cooking segment midway through?”
I nodded. “Exactly. How many authors are invited onto talk shows? She’s invented her own category.” Since our newfound friendship, I’d been paying attention to Parker’s career and the track she’d established for herself. Television, social media, and the book world all clamored for her.
“Well, she apparently thinks the world of you. You’ve only been friends since August and we’re vacationing with them already. Not that I’m surprised.”
I scoffed and drank my wine. “Oh, I don’t know about that.”
“I do. Plus, she beams every time you speak. Have you noticed that? Her head swivels in your direction.”
“No, actually I haven’t.” I shrugged. “We haven’t seen each other since September.” My cheeks felt hot, and I wasn’t sure why. I touched my glass to one, just as Parker reappeared with Carissa.
“Hi, gang,” Carissa said, sliding into a chair and accepting a glass from Parker. “I was on the phone all morning and didn’t get to do my hair, which was atrocious.” She flashed her million-dollar smile that likely solved any and all problems for her.
“Oh,” I said, waving off the apology, “we’ve been just fine. I’ve never been out this way, so I’m just enjoying the ambience.” From the back deck, we had a gorgeous view of the lake stretched out beautifully in front of us, which was surrounded by an army of tall oak trees. The light jacket I wore was plenty for the sixty-degree temperatures, especially with the sun shining down on us. “It’s really awesome meeting you. Of course, I know of your music.”
“Which is your favorite?” Carissa asked, without hesitation.
I looked to Sheila for assistance, scrambling to remember the name of the song I always just referred to as “Back of the Club.” It was the only Carissa Swain song I knew, though I was well aware she’d had more than one chart topper.
“Hannah likes ‘Club Nights,’” Parker supplied. She met my gaze knowingly. Yep, she’d saved me.
“I do. That one is really catchy.”
She nodded. “I consider it my most artful.”
I nearly choked on my wine. “Well, people love it.” That was general enough to pass as a compliment, right?
“I need to get back to writing soon,” Carissa said, finding a beat on the table. “Maybe this weekend. Work out some lyrics. I’m really feeling my vibe among these trees. I could create great things here.”
I could hear the lyrics now in my head: “Give me that ass. Give me that ass. Where’s that ass? Give me that ass.” I bopped my head along to the beat she created. She’d be a billionaire.
“What are you doing?” Parker asked, with an amused expression on her face. “Are you chair dancing?”
Caught! I played it off like I was taking in the view. “Just absorbing nature in all of its finery.”
She stared at me another beat. “Mmm-hmm. Sure, you are.” I smiled back, and distantly realized I’d missed something Sheila had said.
“What’s that?” I asked.
Sheila held out the bottle of wine. “I just asked if you wanted a top-off.”
“I definitely do,” I said, and thrust my glass forward. This trip was going to be so much easier with a little fortification to see me through. “Hit me.”
The night consisted of dinner at the restaurant, during which I got to listen to Carissa ask the waitstaff for fifteen different things not on the menu and sulk each time they apologized for not being able to accommodate her request.
“I just feel that a five-star restaurant like this one should have sea urchin available. Am I wrong?” She peered angrily at our three faces. Sheila and I exchanged a private glance and allowed Parker to handle this one.
She addressed Carissa gently. “I’m not sure this is a five-star resort. We’re staying in a cabin in the woods. They’re doing the best they can.”
“Fine. Whatever.” She tossed back her bourbon on the rocks, probably still defeated that they didn’t have the unique brand she’d asked for from a small farm in Kentucky she’d once visited. “You work in a bookstore,” she said to me, minutes later. It wasn’t a question.
“I do.”
“I’m guessing my girl’s books are tearing it up.”
I smiled at Parker, her girl. “They sell really well. It was great she was able to come to town for a signing.”
She nodded and sipped. “I’m sure you loved that.”
I turned to Parker, who sat on my left, unsure if that was a pointed comment or not. “We grabbed a really messy burger and got to know each other.”
Parker laughed. “Best burger ever. It’s where we first became friends.”
“Harry’s, right? You need to take me to that place,” Sheila said, and squeezed my hand on top of the table.
“I can do that.” We shared a smile. Parker shoved lettuce around on her salad plate.
Later that night, after drinks and conversation around the table behind the cabin, Sheila and I crawled into the ridiculously comfortable four poster bed in our room. She held up her arm and I slid beneath it, sighing in exhaustion and relaxing against her. The drive had been long, and my tolerance level for Carissa, famous or not, had become nonexistent. After falling asleep at the table out back, she’d tugged on Parker and whispered something in her ear. Who whispers so noticeably in a group of four people?
“You seemed to be having a hard time tonight,” Sheila said, and kissed the top of my head.
“No, I’m good.” I looked up at her. “Let’s just sleep, okay?”
“Okay.”
I kissed her lips softly and she killed the bedside lamp. The ambient sounds from outside drifted into our room, underscoring my gradual relaxation. Crickets, wind rustling, an occasional owl hoot. I loved it. Wait. That was weird. Was the owl crying? My eyes opened and I listened. It did sound like crying…only in rhythm, and it wasn’t an owl at all.
“Are you hearing what I’m hearing?” Sheila asked.
I raised up onto my elbows because oh, I definitely was. I looked at Sheila with wide eyes. The cries grew louder, longer, more obnoxious as the seconds ticked by. It wasn’t sexy. They were constant and grating.
“That can’t be Parker,” Sheila whispered.
“It’s not,” I said. I remembered exactly what Parker sounded like in the throes. Quieter, measured, and a lot more sensual. I fell back onto the bed and hoped to God it would end soon. It didn’t.
“Cutes, you’re doing me. You’re doing me.”
I looked over at Sheila. “Cutes?” she asked.
I shrugged. “And isn’t that second part kind of already understood?”
She nodded. “You’d think.”
“You’re doing me good,” Carissa chanted in her obnoxiously loud sex voice. The seconds felt like hours. “Oh, Cutes. More of that. Fuck me more. You’re doing me.”
“She takes a long time to…get there,” Sheila finally said. I nodded. That’s when another chant started.
“Take me there. Take me there. Take me there.” It was a repetition, which, I was going to hell for thinking this, reminded me a lot of “back of the club, back of the club, back of the club.” I covered my ears but I could still hear her. Moaning, shrieking. The howling only grew louder as it went on. Either Parker was the best lover on the face of the planet, and I could admit that yes, she was pretty great, or Carissa was prone to wild theatrics. I covered my eyes next, trying desperately to erase the images that began to surface.
“Take me there, take me there, take me there,” Carissa chanted loudly, followed by a long scream which might or might not have signaled that Carissa was being attacked and viciously murdered from the sound of it.
“Wow,” Sheila said, after a beat of silence. “Think she was taken there?”
“I’m going to go with yes.”
“Back to bed?” Sheila asked.
“Definitely.” Another quick kiss. Sheila trailed her hand down my back briefly, and we were on our way to dreamland, enveloped in quiet.
Only, I didn’t sleep at all that night. Imagining Parker with that woman, who was none of the things I wanted for Parker, made me cringe. I turned over and ordered myself to get those sounds out of my head. To not allow my friendship with Parker to be tarnished by her awful decision to partner with someone like Carissa. My heart ached regardless. I was a mess and didn’t know why. Lost. Confused. Angry. All of it.
Chapter Nine
I tapped my foot as I perused the caddy of Keurig flavors stocked for us by the resort. French vanilla, salted caramel, cookie dough. I wasn’t sure if this cabin was offering me coffee or a liquid pastry. I skipped over the lightweight stuff, located an extra-bold offering, and snatched up the K-Cup in victory.
“Morning, Hannah. How did you sleep?” I turned at the sound of Parker’s voice. She touched my back lightly as she passed, grabbing a mug for herself. I bristled at the contact after what I’d heard the night before. I’d put a mental distance between us whether she deserved it or not. Without any sleep, my ability to cope was at an all-time low.
“I slept better than you did.” I tried to say it with a sly smile, remembering that she was simply living her life, and I didn’t have a say.
“Hmm. What does that mean?” She kicked a hip out against the counter and stared, waiting for me to explain.
I went for it. “Give it to me. Give it to me. Give it to me good,” I said in a hushed but breathy impersonation of the performance I’d overheard.
She nodded but didn’t seem terribly fazed. “Okay. Gotcha. I’m embarrassed that you heard that.”
“The whole resort heard it. You guys had quite the time.” My tone sounded clipped, and I cringed. That wasn’t who I wanted to be, and that wasn’t the message I wanted to send Parker. She owed me nothing. All I wanted was her friendship. I’d come to value it and depend on our phone calls to help center me in the world. Parker’s entrance into my life had already changed it for the positive, so why was I giving her such a hard time?
“Then I’m doubly embarrassed.”
“Don’t be,” I said, with a lift of my shoulder. “You do you. No reason to apologize.” I was doing it again and couldn’t seem to stop. I picked up my warm mug and headed to the couch. I could feel Parker’s eyes on me.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
“Is this about us? Because we have a history?” She was referencing our one night together.
I smiled serenely. “Absolutely not. All in the past.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. Ancient history.” I conjured another smile. “Just tired. Late night all around, you know?” I punctuated my words with a bounce of my eyebrows, making the sexual insinuation clear, making me a complete ass for going there. Especially since the insinuation was a lie. In reality, Sheila and I hadn’t had sex the night before. We’d cuddled for a bit before breaking off to our own sides of the bed. In fact, over the past few weeks, we’d become very chaste in general. Why was I projecting differently to Parker in some kind of one-upmanship? My relationship and sex life were not in competition with hers.
“Gotcha.” Parker raised her mug as if in toast but didn’t smile back. She picked up the newspaper that had been dropped on our doorstep that morning and went about reading it on the couch. I settled in across from her with a new suspense novel I’d bonded with at the store, even though I’d actually rather be catching up on Parker’s backlist. I stole glances at her occasionally and noticed how she chewed on the inside of her lip as she read. She glanced up at one point and I casually looked away like a third grader. She smiled back into her paper and chewed on her lip some more.
“Well, don’t party too hard, you guys,” Carissa said loudly, behind us. I turned to see her standing there in a bright red bikini. “I’m hitting the fucking hot tub,” she said proudly. “If there’s breakfast I’ll take some.”
Parker and I glanced at each other.
“I can make breakfast,” I said. “Fresh biscuits, and maybe this scramble I got the recipe for the other—”
“Sounds perf,” Carissa said, and scampered to the back deck, popping on oversized headphones as she went. I ignored the boobs.
“Perf,” I said, and nodded at Parker.
“Hannah, you don’t have to make her breakfast. We can order something from the main kitchen, or she can have cereal.”
I stood and headed to the open kitchen. “I don’t mind. I promise. I like to cook.”
She sighed. “Okay, then. I’ll keep you company.” I felt her following me as I made my way. “Plus, I have something for you.” I could tell she was trying to put us back on track, and I was willing to go there with her. I didn’t want a contentious weekend. Parker and I had always gotten along. It was time to reset the board.
I went about unloading the ingredients I’d brought with me. “A brand-new pony? Did you bring me a pony, Parker?” I fluttered my eyelashes.
She chuckled. “Close.” She reached into her messenger bag that was hooked on the back of one of the chairs around the table and returned with a bound stack of pages. “My new one. I had a few hard copies bound before the official galleys hit. I made one for you, just as you asked.”
I snatched it off the counter and practically hugged it to my chest, wondering just what kind of story she’d woven together this time. Who were the characters? Just how would they fall in love? How would I feel about them once our journey together was complete? And okay, the odd sexy scene or two also had me eager to turn a few pages. “I get my own advance copy? I feel like I’ve arrived,” I said, with what felt like a twinkle in my eye.
“Oh, you definitely have. I don’t do this. Do you understand? Ever.” She pointed at the manuscript. “And don’t share that with anyone. State secrets and all.”
I passed her a look that said, “really?”
“I’m dead serious. Can you imagine the fallout if spoilers leaked out? The romance world as we know it could implode.”
She was being playful and I liked it. There was an electricity bouncing between us that I’d experienced before. I both loved and hated that it was back. “I simply can’t imagine it.”
“If that thing shows up on the internet, you and I are going to have words.”
“Words?” I gestured with the spatula. “Wow. Not words.”
