Thundering Luv (4 page)

Jewel searched around for Colin. “I may as well get the apology out of the way since I’m crashing their party,” she mumbled as her eyes landed on Colin, who was propped back against a rock. Unfortunately, bile bubbled up in her throat watching the blond haired girl leaning in and planting kisses on his smiling face.

She stepped back. Colin’s eyes landed on hers. Jewel blinked, shocked that she was actually tearing up. Over him? Colin? Stupid, she was stupid. “What’s wrong with me?” She turned away and walked as fast as she could towards the rushing water, away from the cozy fire and torches that lit up the sands.

Finally she got to the edge of the water and sat just shy of the waves. “Colin probably thinks I’m crazy and a stalker.”

“Why would I think that?” Colin’s light voice floated above the crashing waves.

Jewel’s eyes widened. Just great, now she did look like a fool. “Oh.” she cleared her throat and brushed nervous hands down her sandy legs, “because of what I did to you the other day. Uh, and the day before that.” He was gorgeous. The kind that didn’t wear it like he knew it. His wavy hair blew against his face and she just wanted to reach out and touch it. Instead, she ran sand through her fingers and turned towards the sea.

He sat next to her. Close enough for Jewel to smell the soft cologne he wore. Part of her felt self-conscious, like she should scoot away. Another part of her wanted to move closer. But she crossed her arms and berated herself for acting so needy.

Colin laughed. “The best one was when I got slapped. Yeah, that was a good one.”

She smiled back at him. “I guess it was.” She giggled. “I’m really sorry though. That’s so not me. I’m not usually so vindictive. At least back home when I’m in school I’m not that way.” Her skin tingled at his acceptance and light response to her rather mean joke.

“Really, I can see that.” He cut his eyes at her, studying her for a moment. “Do I look familiar to you? A little bit?”

Jewel tilted her chin towards him. “Hmm, I don’t know. My school’s real big, there’s halls I haven’t even gone down. But I might not be there much longer anyway.” She picked up and tossed a shell into the waves.

“Why do you think you won’t be there?” Colin moved closer and handed her another shell to throw.

Jewel shrugged. She really shouldn’t be telling him all this, but it was a first time a guy actually listened. Besides, she wouldn’t see him after this summer anyway, so why not? “My mother. “ Jewel bit her bottom lip. “She’s getting married…again. And I can’t take it, the moving, the shouting. I j-just want to leave.”

“But at least you have a mom. You can work it out with her, can’t you?” Colin bent his legs and leaned forward, looking out to the sea.

“I don’t know. It’s hard. I have to do everything nowadays. Mow the lawn, clean the house, then try to do good in school so I can get some kind of scholarship. It’s no way my mom will be able to pay for it. I love her, but the guy she is marrying is a real creep. I don’t feel comfortable in the house with him. And my mother, she doesn’t even act like she wants me there anymore. It’s like,” she wiped hair out of her face, “it’s,” hesitating she realized that dumping too about her sad situation at home would probably confirmed to Colin that she was a basket case.

“Go on, tell me, I’m a good listener.” Colin reached over and tucked her wayward lock of hair behind her ear.

Jewel shivered at his touch, almost tilted her chin towards him before she caught herself. “It’s like she’s afraid her fiancé will be interested in me instead of her. Or somehow that she’s jealous of me or something. Why, I don’t know.” Her eyes watered again. “Hopefully when I grow up and go to college to become a sports journalist or a music producer, my parents won’t be able to hurt me anymore. I just wish her new fiancé would go away and it would be just me and mom. But she’d never do that.”

“Why don’t you just tell her how you feel? I’d wish I’d done that with my parents before they died.” Colin tossed another shell.

“You lost your parents?” Jewel bit her lower lip. “Gosh, I’m so sorry I’m sitting here sounding ungrateful and you don’t have your parents, you can never get them back. I guess if I worked harder at it, I could get mine to notice me.” She laid her hand on his. A zing of electricity went up her arm and she pulled her hand away.

“It’s okay, I’ve adjusted.” He frowned at her. “So, you still don’t remember me?”

Jewel pursed her lips, then squinted her eyes. “Why, are you on the football team? Lacrosse? Tennis?”

“Whoa! Stop,” he shook his head, “never mind.”

Jewel caught the disgusted snort he made. “So, what happened to your hook-up over there?” She tilted her head back at the party that was growing louder behind them.

“She ditched me for a better opportunity.” A lazy grin slid onto Colin’s face. “That ever happen to you?”

“No, I’m usually the ditcher. It’s a curse.” Jewel stood up and wiped the sand from her legs. Hopefully from now on, that won’t happen. She can work on trying to salvage her dream of being able to take care of herself one day. Something her parents hadn’t quite figured out.

“That so? I bet the guys you dumped don’t feel that way. I bet they’d be angry or hurt.” He hopped up beside her.

“Nope, they get over it. Usually takes them less than a month to find someone new. Besides, none of them were hurting for their next conquest. They recover. Trust me, they deserved it.” Jewel laughed and gave Colin a small nudge with her elbow. But he didn’t appear to find what she said funny. Her chest hurt at the taunting thought that she would come off as a callous heart breaker. But she shrugged it off figuring that he was a guy and was like all the other ones she’d met who didn’t really care about her as a person.

“Not always.” He jogged away and left her standing there at the beach.

Frowning, she wondered at the slight irritation she picked up in his voice. Maybe he’d been dumped by someone he loved. And she just messed up one of the best times she’d had with a boy in forever. “Just great.” She slapped her hand to her face, and headed back to the beach house, where she wouldn’t have to witness Colin being kissed by another girl.

Colin was avoiding her. Jewel, was now tormenting his dreams, the kinds of dreams that woke guys up at night. Jewel, the girl who still didn’t even recognize him from her own school. He couldn’t deny it ticked him off. For the last few days, his friend, Jake had tried to drag him to the boardwalk with them, but Colin bailed out early. He told them he was going to see Taylor.

And seeing Taylor had been a disaster. He’d flirted with her, then apologized, and told her Jewel wasn’t his girlfriend. Now Taylor was on her way over and he didn’t think he could stomach seeing her, much less making out with her. “Dumb move, real dumb.” He didn’t know what else to do. He had to find some type of distraction from the intense reaction he was developing around Jewel.

Colin straightened up the front room that was wrecked with clothes, shoes and pizza boxes. At least he didn’t have to see Jewel in some sexy top, or with her curls teasing that cute heart-shaped mark on her neck. “Stop. Just stop,” he chided himself. Thinking of her that way would get him nothing but trouble. Everyone at school knew messing with Jewel would end painfully and with humiliation most guys couldn’t stomach.

Jake ran in the front door. “You must’ve been reading my mind.”

Colin frowned. “Why? Because I cleaned up this wreck before you or Chad had a chance to do it?” Jake was a slob. But Colin didn’t mind cleaning up after him. It was the least he could do to thank Jake for giving him a slice of heaven every summer. If he was honest, Colin would admit that it even helped him to get over the grief of losing both his parents within a year of each other.

Jake laughed. “Oh yeah! We got company coming in a few.”

Colin froze. “Who? Who’s coming, ’cause I have someone coming over, too. A girl I was hoping to be alone with.”

“Amy and Megs from next door. They are bringing food. Their aunt left for two days so Megs just became my main squeeze for the rest of the week.” Jake threw a pillow at Colin. “You know they’re bringing Jewel with them.” He glared at Colin. “You’re messing things up with me and Chad. You know how girls are if one of their friends are left out the action. Tell your girl to come another time.”

“I can’t. She’s already on the way,” Colin groaned. Not Jewel, not now with Taylor coming over. “Things are about to get screwed up.”

“What’s the deal with you? Jewel’s hot, why don’t you hook up with her? She seems to like you. It’ll make things easier with me and Megs.” Jake picked up the trash bag and tied it.

“Because she’s stuck-up and a man-eater. She was my cousin’s Tank’s ex-girlfriend. You know the one who broke up with him by text with that picture?” Colin flopped back in the chair and covered his face with his hands.

Jake laughed. “Oh yeah, that was funny as dogsh—”

“Shut up!” Colin threw a shoe at Jake who ducked and bellowed harder. “Tank was messed up over that. He moped around for two months. By then she had another boyfriend – somebody on his team.” He’d never forget how red-faced his cousin was when he came home from school that day. The guy actually cried in his pillow. It was sad.

“Really. Well, Tank told me that all the guys on his team had a bet going. He must’ve bet big and lost. Whoever was the first to sleep with her would win some jackpot they’d been betting on since she started the school. I’d say Jewel’s been unknowingly beating them at their own game for years.” Jake started cracking up with laughter again, so hard he rolled off the couch.

“You can’t be telling the truth. Tank would’ve told me.” Colin stood and yanked Jake by the shirt. “Right? That’s not true.” If Jake was telling the truth, then his cousin wasn’t really a victim. Jewel was.

Jake stopped laughing long enough to catch his breath and brush a stray tear from the crease of his eye. “It is true. You know Tank and you don’t talk like that. You’ve never been close so why do you think he’d tell you anything like about losing money because he didn’t hook up with some girl? We were talking about it the last time all the teams had that end of season party at my house. Besides my teammates know all the backstory on the cheerleaders on your school team since they are our rivals. ”

“Dag, I—” Colin wiped a hand through his dark waves. His heart nearly stopped. Mistaken. He was so wrong about Jewel. Well, sort of. She couldn’t know. Even so, her methods of breaking up were still cruel.

Chad came through the door with an arm wrapped around Amy’s shoulder and Megs after him. “Hey, ya’ll cleaned up?” His eyebrow quirked up.

Taylor came in behind them. Colin exhaled. He was so not ready to deal with Taylor after he just stomached what Jake told him about his cousin, about Jewel—about everything.

“Hi you.” Taylor smiled at him with her glossy pink lips and coy smile.

Colin only wanted her to leave, but he’d invited her here. “Hi. Uhum. Want to sit on the couch?  We were about to set up a movie or something.”

“Oh, thanks.” Taylor slid past him to sit on the couch. “I’m not hungry. Something to drink would be good.”

Relieved he wouldn’t have to deal with her, Colin rushed to the kitchen just in time to see Jewel making her way up the porch. “Freak!” He raced through the side entrance of the kitchen to meet Jewel at the door.

“Oh, hi! You scared me.” Jewel put her hand over her heart. Her bangle bracelets made a jiggling sound and she placed a hand on his torso to steady herself. The gold halter top was slit in the front, leaving her tight stomach visible. Colin had to swallow his tongue before his eyes met hers.

Colin’s chest muscles twitched and it felt like her hand burned through his t-shirt to his skin. He stepped back. “Uh, can I talk to you a minute?”

Jewel frowned up at him. “I. Um?”

He had to fight the urge to pull her close and kiss her full lips, the birthmark on the curve of her neck she tried to fade. So, he placed his hand on hers, taking a deep breath to refocus his jumbled thoughts.

Megs called from behind him, “Hurry up, Jewel! You’re missing the previews.” Megs peeked around Colin’s arm and grabbed Jewel’s wrist. “It’s your favorite part,” she chortled in a sing-song voice and tugged Jewel away from him and into the front room.