The Moment We Began (A Fairhope New Adult Romance) (3 page)

“A couple,” I say. “But I’m
here.”

I sit across from Preston. He looks almost as
hungover as I am. Our eyes meet over the table, like we’re
partners in crime. A smile pulls at the corners of his mouth as he
takes a large bite of his eggs.

“I think it’s more than a couple,”
Dad says. “I’m really disappointed in you, Penelope. You
were always the responsible one, and now I feel like more and more,
you’re being careless. What were you two doing up so late?
Preston said you stayed on the boat again.”

I nod and say thanks to Flora as she brings a
plate for me. The omelet is cooked exactly the way I like it –
with goat cheese, strawberries and spinach. “Can I get some
coffee, too, please?”

“Yes, Miss Penny,” she says.

“I did,” I say. “I didn’t
want to bother driving home when I was so tired.”

This is a lie, of course. And not a very creative
one.

“I hope you left it in good shape,” he
says. “I invited some of our friends to take a cruise this
afternoon down to Sea Island so they could take a look at the
development of the new hotel.”

I nearly drop my fork. I look up at Preston and he
makes a face.

What am I supposed to tell him? That the place is
completely trashed? He’ll kill me.

“What time is that?” I ask, trying to
keep the panic out of my voice.

“Probably around three,” he says. “It
depends on when the Benson’s can get down here.”

Flora brings my coffee and I load it up with cream
and sugar, then drink it down like it were water.

“I need to run to the restroom,” I
say. “Please excuse me.”

I take my purse with me and slip into the
downstairs bathroom. I search my phone for someone who might come in
on a Sunday for a little extra cash. If Dad’s friends are
coming in three hours, I might need two or three people cleaning to
make it look decent.

I make a few calls and finally, after offering a
stupid amount of money, someone takes the job.

I head back out to the pool and Preston’s
eyes meet mine. I nod and his shoulders relax. Our parents don’t
seem to notice any of this.

“How was your week, Penny?” Mom asks.
It’s the same question she asks me every Sunday morning. “Are
you excited about school starting back in a few weeks?”

Words cannot express how very not excited I am
about school starting back. I’ll be a junior this year at
Fairhope Coastal University, and the only thing that excites me about
that is only having two years left instead three.

“Of course,” I say, because you’re
supposed to tell your parents you’re excited about school. “And
my week was great, but next week is going to be better. Leigh Anne’s
coming back tomorrow.”

“How are things going for her with the
lawsuit?” Dad asks.

A few weeks ago, my best friend Leigh Anne came
forward with the fact that she was raped while at college up in
Boston. What’s worse, the guy who raped her is a famous movie
star named Burke Redfield. The media had a field day with the case
when it was first brought up, but after several more victims stepped
forward, the evidence against him was undeniable.

“Really positive, I think,” I say.
I’ve been doing my best to keep up with what’s been going
on while she’s been in Boston the past few weeks. “The
big news now is that the university finally voted to suspend Burke
pending the trial.”

“That’s definitely a step in the right
direction,” my father says. He tried to help Leigh Anne cover
it all up for the sake of protecting her family’s image, but I
think he was really proud of her when she stepped forward anyway, and
told the truth. I don’t think he’s ever been that proud
of me before.

Flora refills my coffee, then offers pancakes.

“I’ll take a couple,” Preston
says.

“Me too,” Dad says. “Penny? You
want some. They’re your favorite.”

I wrinkle my nose. “I can’t eat that
stuff anymore, Dad.”

My mouth waters at the thought. Pancakes sound a
hell of a lot more appetizing right now than eggs, but I can’t
afford it. It took me forever to get this weight off, and there’s
no way I want to go back to being fat.

Dad laughs and shakes his head. “You look
beautiful no matter what, sweetheart. You shouldn’t worry so
much about having one or two pancakes here and there.”

“You have to say that because I’m your
daughter.”

“I still mean it,” he says, then winks
at me.

I push my food around my plate as they talk about
work and the plans for an upcoming charity ball to raise money for
one of Mom’s pet charities. I try to pay attention, but my
thoughts keep coming back to Mason. How could we have shared such a
passionate moment and then five minutes later, called things off
entirely?

I feel sick just thinking about it. It would be a
lot easier if I just didn’t have to see him again for a while,
but he’s my brother’s best friend. He’s in my life,
no matter what, so I know I won’t be able to avoid him. Not
without avoiding my brother and all our friends, and there’s no
way that’s going to happen.

We’re supposed to have a get-together at
Leigh Anne’s boyfriend’s bar on Friday night. Knox wants
to throw her a welcome-home party. He said she’s been lonely in
Boston and that it’s been a really emotional time for her. He
plans to close the bar early so that we can have a private party to
welcome her home. She’s a real town hero these days, and even
though I want nothing more than to celebrate with her and tell her
how happy I am to have her home, there’s also a part of me
that’s jealous of her and what she’s found with Knox.

He’s perfect and sweet and you can see by
the way he looks at her that he’s head-over-heels in love. He’d
do anything for her.

I wish more than anything that I could find a guy
who looks at me that way.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted
that guy to be Mason. How many times does he have to hurt me for me
to realize it’s never going to be him?

“Penny?”

I look up. I have no idea what they’ve been
talking about. “Yes?”

“What are your thoughts, sweetheart?”

“On what?”

Mom breathes in, then lets it out in a long sigh.
It’s her best disappointed sigh, and it isn’t lost on me.
“For the charity ball? Should we go with a black and white
theme again this year? Or is that overdone?”

“I think it’s classy,” I say,
because I know that’s what she wants me to say. The truth is,
this town could use a little color. Everything stays the same around
here, year after year. “What’s overdone is the charities
you keep patronizing. Why don’t we start a fund for the
children’s hospital? Or the homeless shelter here in Fairhope?”

“Penny, we’ve been over this a
thousand times,” she says. “If we start giving money to
every person in this town with their hand out, we’ll have
everyone knocking on our door .”

I press my lips together and close my eyes. How
can she be so blind to the problems right here in our own town?
“These people don’t have their hand out because they’re
greedy, Mom. There are a lot of children in Fairhope who don’t
eat three meals a day. Or even two. Wouldn’t you rather give
directly to the local organizations where we can really make a
difference than these big foundations who spend money on office space
in New York and trips to the Caribbean.”

“Drop it, Penny,” Dad warns.

“I was simply asking for your opinion on the
theme of the party,” Mom says. “Not the charity. I’m
just wondering if we should spice it up a little this year. Maybe
it’s time for a change.”

I bite my lip, then take another sip of my coffee.
Maybe it really is time for a change.

The only thing I’m more tired of than trying
to convince Mom to change her mind about supporting local charities
is the constant pain I feel when I think about Mason Trent. If I
can’t change one, maybe I can change the other.

“Mom?”

“Yes, dear?”

“You know that guy you were trying to set me
up with,” I say. “What was his name? Brandon?”

“Braxton,” she says. Her eyes light up
and she sits up a little straighter. “Did you want to meet
him?”

“Can you see if he’s free Friday
night?” I ask, thinking of the get-together for Leigh Anne at
the bar.

This time Mason won’t be the only one
bringing a date. I want to show him exactly what he’s missing
by letting me go.

Preston stops me on my way up to my room.

“How are you feeling?” he asks. “Do
you even remember what happened last night?”

A sick feeling rolls around in my stomach with the
eggs. “Not all of it,” I say. I turn and keep going up
the stairs toward my room. “Why?”

Preston follows me, taking the stairs two at a
time. “Penny, you were out of control. The whole party got out
of control.”

I keep walking, not really knowing what he’s
expecting me to say. I’m sorry? I can’t remember a damn
thing?

“Hey, you need to be careful,” he
says, grabbing my arm. “I’m assuming you found someone to
come clean up the boat, but what happens next time when Dad actually
shows up to take his friends out in the morning and you’re
laying there passed out and the place is a complete mess?”

I pull my arm away from him. He has no idea what
I’ve been going through lately. And I’m not in the mood
for a lecture. “I wasn’t the only one out there partying
yesterday,” I say. “You invited just as many people as I
did, and you were the one pouring alcohol down everyone’s
throat, so don’t lecture me about being careful.”

I turn and push the door to my room open.

My room is more like a suite of rooms, really.
It’s like having my own apartment inside the main house. My
parents built this for my sixteenth birthday. It involved tearing
down a few walls and re-imagining the whole space, but I love having
a large suite all to myself. And right now, I don’t really want
Preston in it if he’s going to make me feel bad about last
night.

We walk through the foyer and into the living
room. I set my bag down on the table and slide my sunglasses up on
top of my head.

“Our parties on the boat never used to get
that wild,” he says. “It got way out of control. I
finally had to ask for Knox and Jeremy and a couple other guys to
help out with getting everyone off the yacht and home safely. You
can’t blame me for that. I wasn’t the one who brought out
six extra bottles of tequila and started inviting people to do body
shots.”

I bite my lip and turn away. Did I do that?

I honestly have zero memory of getting more
alcohol out of the store room. If Dad finds out, he’s going to
be pissed. He usually keeps that stuff under strict lock and key and
we know not to mess with it if we’re having people over.

Preston walks around so he can see my face.
“Penny, you know I love you more than anything in the world,
but this shit has to stop,” he says. “I don’t know
what’s gotten into you, but it’s like every weekend
you’re so drunk you barely remember your own name.”

I cross my arms and shake my head. “You’re
exaggerating,” I say. “It hasn’t been that bad.
This is the first time I’ve had anything to drink since Leigh
Anne left. That was weeks ago.”

“Yes, but before that you had several nights
when you were out of control,” he says. “It’s like
all of a sudden this summer, you’re the ultimate party girl.”

Is he really giving me crap about partying too
much? “This coming from the guy whose apartment was crowded
with party after party for your entire sophomore year in college?”

“Look, I’m not saying we can’t
have parties and have a good time. I’m just saying to tone it
down a little bit. Be more careful,” he says. “I’m
worried about you.”

I look up toward the ceiling and put one hand on
my hip. “Well, I appreciate the concern, but I’m doing
fine. I just want to have some fun, that’s all.”

I’m lying to him, though. And maybe a little
to myself. If he knew how messed up I felt over Mason, he’d
understand. Sometimes I just need to get him out of my head and have
fun for a little while.

If I stayed sober at all these parties, I’d
have ended up stabbing one of his fake girlfriends by now.

“Fine,” I say when he makes no move to
walk away. “I’ll cool it down for a while. I’m
going out with this guy, Braxton, probably next weekend. We’ll
go to dinner then go to Knox’s bar for a while. It’ll be
very calm and tame and I promise I’ll be on my best behavior.
Besides, it’s only a few weeks until school starts back and I
have to start getting up early for class again.”

Preston comes over and wraps me into a bear hug.
“Okay,” he says. “I just want you to know I’m
looking out for you.”

“Thanks,” I say, hugging him back.
“But I can really take care of myself. I promise.”

He leaves and I take my bag into the bedroom and
turn out all the lights. I close the blinds and slip off my shoes,
then lay flat on my bed in the cool darkness.

I know it was a close call with Dad today. He’s
already upset with me for showing up late to family breakfasts, and
I’m sure it wasn’t hard to tell I was hungover this
morning. But it all worked out in the end and the boat will be clean
for him and his friends. No big deal.

Preston’s just overreacting about nothing.
I’m doing fine. I just wanted to have some fun, that’s
all.

And body shots sound fun.

I only wish I could remember it.

My head is still pounding, so I take a couple
aspirin and lay back down, grabbing my cell phone out of my purse on
my way back to the bed. I crawl under the cool, silky covers and dial
Mason’s number.

His voice mail picks up after a couple of rings
and my heart sinks. A couple of rings means he saw my name and
declined the call. I hang up without leaving a message, then toss my
phone aside and close my eyes.