Conklin's Foundation (Conklin's Trilogy) (37 page)

He was all smiles now, dressed in khakis and a light blue polo.  He smiled down at me as he kissed my cheek.  I couldn’t help but notice his eyes were more blue than green.

“Feeling better?” I asked as he sat down next to me at the table.

He nodded his head.  “Tylenol, five mile run, then a shower.  Always does the trick.”

I made a funny face and he laughed.  He looked through the arrangement of food and grabbed a few
items just as I did.  His expression grew more somber as we sat in silence eating.

“I’m sorry about last night.  From what I remember
, it’s a little hazy, but I said some things that were pretty awful,” he said quietly, afraid to look my way.

I set my fork down and reached for his forearm.  “Tyler,
it’s fine.  We were both drinking, and it was all bound to come out sooner or later.  I need to stop being so insecure and forget about our pasts.”

He gave me a wry smile then continued eating.

“I’m surprised Nathan hasn’t come back from his suite yet,” Tyler said, looking at his watch then grabbed the paper once he was done eating.  “He is always up and moving early.”

I let out a soft laugh.  “Jamie probably wore him out last night.”

Tyler gave me a funny look.  “What?”

“Jamie was making her moves last night.”

Tyler grinned, looking down at the table.  “Nothing happened.”

I scrunched my eyebrows together.  “How would you know?”

“Because.  Jamie’s not… she’s not Nathan’s… type,” Tyler said, trying to hold in his amusement.

What the hell was that supposed to mean?  “Is
there something wrong with Jamie?” I asked a bit too harshly, feeling protective of my best friend.

Tyler quickly shook his head no.  “Of course not
it’s just Nathan isn’t in to--”

“Who let me drink that much!” Nathan
whined, popping out of Jamie’s bedroom.  Tyler stared at him with confusion.

“I need a
drink, bad,” Nathan said, searching for a bottle of vodka then pouring it into a glass of orange juice.

Tyler was still looking at Nathan as though he had grown two heads.

Nathan chugged his drink then came to sit down and join us at the dining table. 

Tyler kept looking at him questioningly.

“What?” he barked at Tyler, causing a smirk to come from Tyler’s mouth. 

“Nothing big brother, I’m just a little thrown off.”

I looked between the two of them.  Was I missing something?  Besides coming to the conclusion that Nathan was indeed an alcoholic, something was being passed between the two of them.

Nathan threw
his hand in the air and towards Tyler.  “I don’t have the patience for your bullshit remarks today, Tyler.”

Tyler shook his head, his expression on
e of shock.  “We should leave in a half hour,” Tyler said.

Nathan stood up and headed for the door.  “Alright I will be back in 20 minutes.”  He closed the door and Tyler’s jaw was still hanging open.

“He has some explaining to do,” he said under his breath.

“Why?”

“As far as I know, Nathan has never been with a woman,” Tyler said, shrugging his shoulders.

My jaw nearly hit the floor.  Nathan was at least 32 and had awesome charisma.  There was no way he hadn’t been with someone.  And he said he had while we played I
Have Never.  I looked at Tyler confused, and he started laughing.

“Becca, he doesn’t like
women that way.”

I closed my mouth, finally putting the pieces together about Nathan Conklin.  He was gay, a
nd it all made sense now.

“I guess I can see that now.”

Tyler continued chuckling and shook his head.  “I can’t believe you didn’t figure it out sooner.”

“I don’t know.  I guess I never really thought about it.”

Tyler stood up with his empty breakfast plate and leaned over to kiss my forehead.  “You’re cute.  I need to finish getting ready.”  He walked past me as I sat and stared.

How did I not see that Nathan was gay?  I guess when it doesn’t bother you it doesn’t stand out.  I wonder if the rest of Tyler and Nathan’s family
knew?  I could see RJ being an asshole and judging Nathan, mainly because RJ was a complete asshole to begin with and seemed like he would be the type to discriminate.

About 20 minutes after Tyler and Nathan left to go play golf with Kob
iashe, I made my way out to the porch to text with Heather.  If she didn’t answer, then she was sleeping and I wouldn’t wake her up like I would if I’d call.

It seemed Heather was busy because she didn’t answer.  I found myself staying on the porch, enjoying the warm breeze and looking out into the crystal clear water of the Atlantic
Ocean.  It was very peaceful.  The occasional runner or tourist would walk by along the beach.  There was a path just below our suite outside for bikers and others to use.  For the most part I couldn’t even hear them, but I knew they were there.

“I don’t know how those men drink so much,” Jamie huffed, flopping down in the lounge chair next to mine.

“Yeah, Tyler was up at 7:00am and left to go running,” I said baffled. 

“Who does that?” Jamie said with the same tone.

Silence passed over us, and I was dying to ask her about what had happened last night, but she beat me to the punch.

“Did you and Tyler have as much fun as you both were insinuating last night?” she
asked with a knowing smile.

I sighed.  “No, unfortunately not.  We kind of fought, but it was okay.  We needed to let it out.  Besides, he was way t
oo drunk.  I doubt he would have been able to finish.”

“What did you need to let out?” Jamie asked.

I bit my lip, not really wanting to relive the conversation.  “We both keep thinking about the past and let it bother us too much, but neither of us would talk about how we felt.  Even though everything is a little blurry, I think we each said what we needed to say.”

Jamie just stared.  “Nothing like an intense conversation while drunk.  Extra emotional I’m sure.”

“Yes, I cried like a little girl who got her sucker stolen.  It was embarrassing.”

Jamie snorted and leaned back in the lounger, closing her eyes.

“And how was your night?” I finally asked, since she was obviously not going to bring it up.

She let out a huge sigh.  “
Drunken, not very dramatic, but unfortunately… very uneventful.”

“But you slept in the same room?”

She groaned.  “Not my choice, I told him to get the hell out of my bed, and then he told me to shut up because he wasn’t moving and that my skinny ass didn’t need the king size bed all to myself.”

“So…
no touching?”

She glanced my way.  “Not exactly.  But he is an asshole, and I will never make a move on him again,” she
added coldly, her words laced with irritation.  Her expression turned from anger to hurt, and I wanted to comfort my friend.

“Tell me what happened,” I said, leaving my big comfy lounger to go sit with her.  The loungers were large and long, shockingly comfortable.  Maybe later
in the afternoon the sun would show through and I could lay down out here instead of by the pool.

She leaned her head on my shoulder.  “So we started to make out, you know, played grab ass for a while.  It was pretty sloppy because we both polished off each of the bottles we were drinking once you and Tyler went to bed.  Anyway, I started to go for his clothes and he kept pushing my hands away, so I said screw it and started to take my
own clothes off.  He didn’t react how I thought he would, so I took control and rolled so I was on top of him.  He started to get a little more into it, enough for me to undo his pants and him to want to take control again, enough to pin me on the bed.  Then he sat up on his knees and looked down at me for what felt like forever.  I think he was trying to focus.”

Jamie’s voice started to crack a little the more she talked.

She swallowed hard and finished what she was saying.  “I finally sat up on my elbows, about to bitch at him to get shit going, and then he said,”  She gulped again, wiping her eye.  “He told me ‘he wasn’t drunk enough to do this’ then practically collapsed next to me.  He was so drunk he couldn’t move after he fell to get the hell out of my bed.”

She let out a sniffle, but bei
ng Jamie, she quickly recovered, sitting up straight and blowing it off like it were nothing.  I know it hurt her to be rejected.  She hardly ever got rejected, and now she still had to work with him most days.

“He probably wouldn’t have gotten the job done anyway,” she scoffed, emotion still in her voice.

I raised an eyebrow at her, waiting for her to continue.  When she didn’t, I decided to fill her in on what Tyler had told me at breakfast.  “You do know he is gay, right?”

Jamie blinked then looked to the roof of the porch as though she
was in deep thought.  “Huh…,” she thought, attempting to comprehend what I just said.  “That actually makes a lot of sense now that I think about it.”

“I know right?”  I said half surprised.  “I can’t believe I didn’t see it before.  I mean all the spa days and shopping.  He is super tidy and meticulous about how he looks.”

“Yeah… how the hell did I not see that?  Explains something else he said.”

I looked at her quizzically.

She let out a slight laugh.  “He said he wasn’t even drunk enough to fuck me up the ass.  It’s actually really funny now that I think about it.”

~

Jamie went back to bed after our chat while I wandered down to the
beach.  The sand was plush and warm on my feet, reminding me of many summers spent on Lake Michigan.  Lounge chairs were all around the beach, and I found one that was covered with white fabric.  I pulled off my cover up and tossed it to the side, proud of myself for wearing a bikini to the very public beach.  I didn’t know anyone, and I wasn’t going to flaunt around.  I would put my cover up back on if I needed to get up.  Tanning my stomach helped to hide the stretch marks.

The sun felt divine on my skin, and I let out a content sigh.  This was the life.  The only thing missing was having Tyler sitting in the lounger next to mine.

It felt so nice to hear Tyler explain the thud noises I heard from Christmas night.  The only bad thing was I could picture what happened as he told me, seeing Margo push his chest against the wall, her face mere inches from his.  Ugh.  I hope that bitch got the message loud and clear that Tyler didn’t want her in his life anymore.

And as weird as it was, I didn’t mind that Tyler had meaningless sex with a number of random women.  It would hurt me more if he were in a relationship and shared
passionate feelings and told someone else that he loved them.  Thinking of it that way, I understood what Tyler meant about hating how close Connor and I were.  But Tyler was so much more than Connor ever was, his place in my heart was way bigger, and I wanted him in it always.

I dozed on and off, enjoying hearing the occasional seagull and the soft sound of waves crashing against each other and
on the shore.  The water was crystal clear, and if I weren’t terrified of sharks, I could be tempted to take a dip, but I was enjoying how my body was heating up.

I checked my phone
around 12:00pm, and I was surprised Tyler hadn’t come to find me.  I figured he would have been done soon.  They were only going to play nine holes.  I decided to send him a text.

Did you get stuck in a sand trap? -Becca

A few minutes later, Tyler texted back.

On the ninth hole, call you soon. -Tyler

My phone rang about five minutes later, and to my surprise, it was Connor.  Why on earth would he be calling?  I had nothing left to say to him after the Christmas party.  He was one of the ones I didn’t feel any type of guilt for being a complete bitch to.  I stared at my phone, letting Connor’s call go to voice mail.  He would leave a message or call back if it were important. 

Another five minutes
went by and my phone rang again. This time I was much happier with the name on the screen.

“Hi.  On your way?” I asked cheerily.

“Actually, Kobiashe wants to play 18 and really wants me to come to lunch with Nathan and Jamie.  Do you mind?  I promise I will be back by 4:00pm,” he said.  I couldn’t tell if he was excited or annoyed, but either way I was content sitting in the sun.  Maybe I would catch up on a book, or better yet, sleep.

“I don’t mind.  Go play golf.  I will be here when you get done.”

I could sense Tyler’s shy smile through the phone.  His lips twitching as he looked down towards his feet.  It was absolutely adorable, and I was sad I couldn’t see the real thing.

“Okay.  We can go grab dinner somewhere special tonight.  Then we can bring in the
new year the right way.  I have to go though.  I love you; see you soon.”