Rock the Boat (21 page)

“Well, if you weren’t with him, then I think you cheated, too.”

Leave it to my best friend to toss the harsh reality right in my face. “I’ve never. How did this happen?”

Noelle laughs at me. She actually has the audacity to laugh. I don’t understand why she’s being so nonchalant about this. It’s a big deal to me. I don’t run around having careless sex with strangers.

“You’re impossible.” I move around her to the bed, praying Khaki Pants isn’t lying in my spot. If he is, I’ll toss him on the floor myself. Thankfully, when my knees hit the sheets, they’re both cool and empty.
Thank god.

Noelle turns the small light above the vanity on and stands at the end of the bed with her arms crossed over her chest. “Look at what you’re wearing.”

“It’s not mine.”

“I know that—it’s Easton’s.”

“How do you know that? I’m not even wearing any underwear, Noelle. Someone undressed me and could have -.” I stop before I say the words, mostly because they get lodged in my throat.

“Look at the shirt, Lark. Read it.”

It’s hard to read upside down, but I’m able to make out the words
Midnight Fate
. “Oh,” I whisper.

“Yeah, oh. Easton set out to find you, and clearly he did. He’d never let you end up in someone else’s bed. Even I know that.”

“I don’t see why not. He has other women in his bed.”

“About that, I really think it was all a misunderstanding. He didn’t come here last night like a crazed man trying to cover his tracks. He came here like a concerned guy who lost someone he cared about and needed to find her—desperately.”

“Well, you’re right about one thing. He definitely lost me.”

Noelle slides into bed next to me. “You don’t mean that.”

“Cheating is a deal breaker for me. I can’t deal with another Grant.”

Just as Noelle is about to go to battle for Easton, there’s a knock on the door. “I wonder who that could be?” she says, with a knowing smirk. It makes me want to smack her.

“Please, don’t let him in here. I need some time to think.”

“Yeah, yeah,” she says over her shoulder. But when she opens the door, it’s not Easton standing on the other side. It’s someone from management about to slide papers under the door.

She thanks the woman before closing the door and handing me one of the envelopes in her hand. The Perfect Match logo is on the front, an obvious sign it’s about the game we’re all playing. Some of us more willing than others.

Noelle tears into her envelope with so much excitement she practically shreds the thing into two pieces. I expect one of her shrill screams when she reads the good news, but all she does is gasp, her letter falling to the floor next to the bed. “What is it?”

All the color disappears from her face, her eyes now locked on mine. “This can’t be happening.”

Her reaction has me hurrying to open my own letter, but I’m not prepared for the words typed on the piece of paper any more than she was. “Ms. Williams, we regret to inform you the results of your pre-cruise testing have been compromised. Our cruise line strives for excellence, and we sincerely apologize for complicating your Perfect Match experience.”

I read the rest of the letter with my pulse thumping in my ears. There was a mistake.

“Ohmigod, Noelle. This can’t be happening.”

Easton’s not my perfect match. Lincoln Hayes is.

Noelle has tears running down her face, but I can’t tell if they’re tears of relief or sadness. It’s no secret she never hit it off with Lincoln the way she’d hoped. And if either of the two of us were made to be paired up with a rocker, it would be Noelle. “Is Easton your match?” I ask her, unsure if I want to hear her response.

She nods her head. “Yes.”

“They actually mixed up our envelopes. I got yours, and you got mine.” It sounds like such a simple error made by the organizers, yet it’s a devastating blow. The man I gave my body to, the one I spent the last few nights with, was never mine to begin with. “Where the fuck do we go from here?”

“Lark, please calm down. Everyone makes mistakes.”

“Why aren’t you angry about this? We’ve spent days with the wrong people. I’ve been screwing a guy who was meant for you. You should be so mad at me right now. You’re the one who wanted this more than anyone.”

“I’m not going to take Easton from you, Lark. I don’t want him. Don’t get me wrong, he’s my dream guy, and I’d do him no questions asked, but he wants you—perfect match or not.”

“Will you stop saying that! We argue and we don’t see eye to eye about anything anymore. We’re complicated.
It’s
complicated because he’s not even my match! If this were real life, there wouldn’t have been a mix-up. There wouldn’t be a mix-up because I never would have gone out with Easton in the first place. ”

“This
is
real life, Lark. Yes, Lincoln is about the farthest thing from my dream guy, but it’s not because they screwed up. It’s because I honestly can’t stand the guy. He’s impossible to have a conversation with. He’s self-centered and about as exciting as watching grass grow. He’s so safe it’s scary.”

“I need safe, Noelle. After what I’ve been through with Grant, I want safe. I want a sure thing.”

She reaches for my hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze. “You don’t want Lincoln.”

“Maybe I do.”

Noelle lets go of my hand, grabs her bottle of water off the bedside table and proceeds to pour what’s left over my head, completely soaking my hair and shirt. “What are you doing?”

“Bringing you back to reality. I will personally request they leave you on one of these islands if you don’t get your head out of your ass. Stop this. Stop pretending what you have with Easton is a bunch of bullshit. He wouldn’t piss you off so much if you didn’t care about him. Simple as that.”

“It’s not simple. Nothing about Easton ever is.” I don’t have a chance to argue my case any further because there’s another knock on the door. I can only assume it’s one of two people—maybe both. They’ve most likely been given letters, too. “I’ll get it.”

“You’re soaking wet.”

“Don’t care.”

I take a deep breath before I pull the door open. Mostly because everything is about to change. Easton won’t be mine anymore, and Lincoln will. My eyes connect with Lincoln’s first, but there’s nothing to go along with it. It’s an empty, hallow feeling that I instantly hate. As soon as Easton steps out from behind him, my entire body comes to life. My heart races and my palms begin to sweat. He makes me so nervous, I want to close the door and hide. I don’t want to see him, but I don’t want to walk away from him either. “Come in,” I whisper before turning around and searching for some pants.

Easton growls from behind me. “I swear if you look at her ass one more time, I will personally remove your teeth from your mouth.”

Lincoln smiles at Easton’s threat, holding his hands up as he says, “I mean no disrespect Noelle, but I think we both knew we weren’t a match. I’m pretty sure these two worked because he has money.”

“Strike two, asshole,” Easton grits out between clenched teeth. “One more and you’re going to regret ever opening your mouth.”

Noelle moves between Easton and Lincoln, her eyes unsure of where to look or what to say. For the first time my overly opinioned friend is actually speechless. I can’t say the same for myself. I have no problem filling Lincoln in. “I wouldn’t say we worked. Actually, I’m pretty sure we crashed and burned.”

“Lark,” Noelle warns.

I turn toward Easton, looking him in the eye for the first time in what feels like forever. “Am I wrong?”

“I stand by every word I said to you. Gina is not mine. You are.”

“It doesn’t matter if she’s yours or not.”

“Lark, whose bed were you in last night and the night before that?”

“It doesn’t matter, Easton. It really doesn’t matter. It’s not supposed to be this hard, that’s how I know it’s all wrong.” I glance at my best friend, my eyes tearing because I took away her chance at happiness the second I slept with Easton. She’ll never make a move on him now. “Noelle really would have been perfect for you, Easton. If I hadn’t been in the way, she would have made you so happy. I still think she can, but she’s stubborn like you are. As much as she wants to, she won’t. But for once in my life, I’m going to be selfish. I’m giving Lincoln a fair chance and I want you to do the same—with each other.”

“The hell you are,” Easton roars. “It’s a piece of paper, Lark. You’re really going to let a letter from some asshole in corporate dictate your next move?”

Noelle smiles, seemingly agreeing with him. “I feel the same way. I’m honored we’re a match, Easton, but you’re not really
my
match. Your hers.”

Lincoln clears this throat, moving in front of Easton. “Lark, would you do me the honor of spending the day with me. I’m thinking a nice walk on the beach and some dinner. What do you say?”

“Strike three, dickhead.” Before I can stop him, Easton wraps his arm around Lincoln’s neck and takes him to the ground in one fell swoop. Noelle jumps on his back like a little ninja and practically chokes Lincoln while I’m left peeking through the cracks between my fingers as my hands cover my eyes. Two grown men are wrestling on the floor and my best friend is riding them both trying to break it up. I’ve sunk to a new low.

The first chance Lincoln gets, he scurries to his feet. He smooths out his shirt and fixes his hair in the mirror before addressing me again. “I’ll pick you up in an hour.”

“I’ll be ready.” As much as it pains me to say the words, I owe it to myself to see if Lincoln really is the guy for me. I may care about Easton, but he has the potential to destroy me even more than Grant did. And maybe a small part of me wants to inflict a little pain after the night I had without him.

Whether Gina’s his or not, it still hurt. Had he taken the time to open up to me, I would have known who she was. I wouldn’t have ended up drunk and alone. Until Easton decides he can be open and honest with someone, he’s going to keep crashing and burning.

Without so much as a good bye, Easton moves toward the door. He stops with his hand on the door, but doesn’t turn around to look at me. I’m glad because I can’t promise I wouldn’t run to him. All he says is, “I brought back your bag. You forgot it in my room.”

“Thank you.”

“Enjoy your day,” he says, barely loud enough for me to hear, before walking out the room and my life.

The second the door closes, I regret accepting Lincoln’s date. What have I done?

“This is how we get to the bay?” I take one look at the open air truck with rows of seating under a small tin roof, and another wave of regret washes over me. I want to turn around and tell Lincoln to forget it.

“They wouldn’t use it if it wasn’t safe.” Safe or not, a chill runs the length of my spine. My gut tells me I’ll get there in one piece, that the chances of something going wrong are most likely slim, but I’m still hesitant.

He reaches for my hand, linking his fingers with mine. “You have to trust me, Lark.” Instead of being comforted by his words and lost in his touch, I think about how much different his skin feels than Easton’s. Where Easton has callouses from his guitar, Lincoln has skin as soft as a baby’s bottom. More proof of how different they are.