chapter Thirteen
I GLANCED OFF the balcony of our swanky apartment we’d rented from Airbnb in Nice and smiled because it was an expression that came much too easily to me in the short time since Colin and I had consummated our relationship.
The following day after we’d made love for the first time, I went out with Clarissa who was even more fun than I had any idea. I bought several pairs of designer clothes before we had lunch together and she filled me in on what had happened at university between her and Colin.
Afterwards, I took public transportation back to Colin’s grandparents’ house. We all had dinner that evening and the following morning, Colin and I boarded a flight from Oslo to Nice.
We had been in the beautiful southern French city for a little over a day and I’d loved every second of it. If Oslo had been lovely then Nice was mind-blowing. There was so much to see and yet so little time to do it.
Colin grabbed me from behind and kissed my neck. “Good morning, sweetie. It looks like it is going to be another beautiful day.”
I leaned into him and inhaled his manly scent. He’d just recently taken a shower while I’d had one before him and was dressed in a scarlet, short-sleeved babydoll dress while underneath was a matching scarlet bikini. My hair was flat-ironed and styled in a high pony-tail because it was much warmer than the city we’d just visited and damp hair against my neck was not an ideal way to spend the day.
“Morning, honey. You better put some clothes on so we can head over to the Promenade des Anglais. If the weather gets any warmer, I’m wearing my bikini so we are free to hang out on the beach for a while,” I replied.
“That sounds lovely.” Colin paused. “By the way, Caitlyn is on the phone for you.”
I turned around and hit his bare chest playfully. “You are such a jerk. I don’t exactly relish sharing my love life with my younger sister.”
He kissed my lips quickly before he handed my Android phone to me. “Well, you just did.”
“Go back inside before I rip your towel away and reveal the family jewels to every passing French person and tourist walking by!” I admonished playfully.
Colin merely smiled as he lustfully looked at me, turned around and strode back inside our apartment.
I watched him walk away and could barely disguise the look of lust on my face before I heard Caitlyn clear her throat rather loudly through the phone. “Okay, what the hell is going on and why is Colin all the sudden calling you ‘sweetie’?”
“Oh, hello, Cait. How are you and what the hell are you doing calling us at eleven in the morning? It’s two in Seattle. Why are you still up? Don’t you have to work today or something?” I greeted in a rather snippy voice.
“I took today off so I can stay up as late as I want. Actually, I just spent the most amazing time with Liam at the Last Supper Club. He and the other two co-owners of uConnect are celebrating. There is a major tech corporation interested in buying their company. They would all continue to run it but it would be under the tech corporation’s umbrella. They’d rather sell outright than take the company public. They are determined not to be another Facebook and make a major mistake if you know what I mean.” Caitlyn explained.
My sister was a very good at hiding her drunkenness and although she was careful not to slur her words, I knew she was well past the legal limit. “Where are you now?”
“I’m at Liam’s. His condo is absolutely amazing! I am so jealous and I completely understand why you didn’t mind sharing Colin’s for that week Aubrey was staying at your townhouse. The view, the indoor patio…I’m in love!” she exclaimed with a great deal of enthusiasm.
“That’s great.”
I had to bite my tongue not to say anything else. I knew what the inside of Liam’s condo looked like because I’d been there. I’d slept in his bed and we’d had sex previous to me hooking up with his brother. I had so much to be ashamed about and my sister brought all this back to the forefront merely by mentioning what a great condo Liam possessed.
“So, you know I have to ask…have you slept with Colin? He sounded way too familiar when he picked up your phone. It’s extremely intimate when you think about it—I mean he had no idea it was me. I could have been another man for all he knew.”
I chuckled at that statement. “Um, honey, just because we are out of the country doesn’t mean there is anything wrong with my caller ID. Your ring tone and shiny happy face tipped him off it wasn’t my secret lover in the States named Bob.”
“I’m just saying…what’s going on between you two because if this is a strictly vacation-type deal then I would seriously reconsider it. I’m dating Liam and that means you are going to be seeing Colin quite often too. If nothing serious is going on then you shouldn’t make him believe something you have no intention of following through with—”
“It’s not just a holiday thing so you can save yourself a coronary,” I interrupted before I switched ears and walked further out onto the balcony. “We’ve really bonded and discovered we have more in common than we thought. I seriously like the guy and I am just in love with his body. And the sex…well, I don’t kiss and tell but I will give you a one word answer: amazing!”
“Whoa. Can I just say I am a bit jealous? It’s been forever for me and Liam wants to take it slow because he has a serious feeling I might be the one. Can you imagine? Not that I don’t find that cool and all but women need sex too and I think men sometimes forget that.” She paused before she inquired, “Did your affair start before you left Seattle?”
“No, it didn’t. Just because I was borrowing a bedroom in his condo doesn’t mean I was paying for it every night with p-ssy. He asked me to stay and I happily obliged but nothing was going on between us physically at the time.”
“Jeez, Deirdre, do you have to be so crass? You know how much I hate the ‘p’ word—it’s vulgar and unladylike,” Caitlyn responded in a haughty manner.
“Listen, Mom, sorry if I resent your attitude that what you and Liam have is so deep when he has the reputation of being a player to end all players yet what Colin and I have is just some sort of vacation fling that could possibly mean nothing. It’s outrageous, presumptuous and downright rude!” I explained in a no-nonsense voice while managing to keep my anger in check.
Caitlyn sighed out loud. “I really do think you are taking this way too seriously. I didn’t mean the statement the way it came out and no, I am not trying to act like our mother, or did you suddenly forget I’m younger than you?”
“Didn’t say you were but you have no right to question what kind of relationship I have with Colin either. It’s serious, we care about one another and this isn’t a vacation fling—you get me?”
“Course I get you. I just don’t want you to get hurt, that’s all. Not to mention you still have Drew, remember him? You’ve kept that guy hangin’ on a string for years, Deirdre. Why don’t you just be honest with him and tell him you have absolutely no desire to get back together with him. As far as he’s concerned, he still talks about you like he’s in love with you and that’s not right.”
“Believe me he knows because I told him before I left. Listen to me carefully because I am getting tired of repeating myself: my relationship with Drew is very f*cking complicated. I’m not even going to bother getting into a discussion about it right now while I am on vacation with someone else. He hasn’t exactly kept it wrapped in cotton wool, you know. He gets around and he sleeps with whom ever he wants and not once have I complained because I know there is no him and me. Yes, we occasionally used to have our bootie calls but we’ve moved beyond it and I think it’s good someone like Aubrey is staying with him. It makes him realize there are plenty of other fish in the sea and I am far from the only woman out there,” I explained in a calm tone.
Caitlyn breathed into the phone. “Listen, I have to go but keep in touch and have fun, okay? Love you, sis.”
“Love you too, honey,” I responded before I ended the call.
I turned around to see a fully dressed Colin in a pair of cargo shorts and a vintage Deftones tee shirt. “You ready to go see the sights?”
“Yep.” I walked inside, grabbed my Louis Vuitton slouchy bag which not only had my wallet and passport but also my iPod and Kindle Fire. I knew we could rent or buy beach towels and sunblock if we decided to lay out on the beach.
Shortly afterwards, we left the small studio apartment we were renting holding hands.
A FEW HOURS on the Promenade des Anglais was a revelation indeed. The place was packed with both locals and tourists. We walked along the busy sidewalks and passed famous landmark hotels, cafés and the beach. The weather was nice enough that both Colin and I decided to rent a spot under the huge blue and white umbrellas where we could lay out and generally have a lazy day.
After we stopped into Monoprix and loaded up on wine, plastic cups, lager, pre-made sandwiches, water, chips and cookies for dessert, we paid for a spot and settled underneath an open umbrella with two sun loungers underneath it.
Colin opened up a bottle of crisp Chardonnay and we toasted before sipping from our plastic cups.
“Talk about the life. This is what I call a vacation,” he enthused as he took off his shirt. He revealed not only his finely muscled chest and toned torso but also a black tribal scorpion tattoo that went from his shoulder blades almost down to his waist as he lay back against the sun lounger.
I didn’t particularly care for tattoos though I had a small butterfly on the inside of my left ankle; a rebellious mistake I’d done on a whim when I was nineteen though I’d never considered having it removed. Colin’s tattoo, on the other hand, was sexy as hell to me and a major turn on because it wasn’t expected on someone who resembled the perfect model for Abercrombie & Fitch.
I removed my babydoll dress and lay back in my modest bikini. Many women chose to wear bottoms but had their breasts out to get an even tan but I’d been blessed with a healthy olive complexion so I didn’t need a tan. Besides, I had never been that comfortable with my body though I admired women who were.
Not that there was anything wrong with me. I was a perfectly slender young woman with a small waist, a flat stomach, nice legs and thighs and arms that were faintly muscled but I certainly wasn’t ready to show off the twins to every man who walked by and wanted a free show. That was never me and it never would be.
Colin turned toward me as he swigged from his wine again. “When’s the last time you’ve been here other than the funeral in early December last year?”
“In France or Nice particularly?” I inquired before I sipped from my wine.
“France.”
I thought about it and tried not to let all the feelings rushing through me affect my voice when I answered, “A couple years ago. We all came over to see my grandparents but before we visited them, we stopped here in Nice. There is a great ‘beach town’ quality without the rowdy teenagers feel to the place but it is an enjoyable city never-the-less.”
“It must be hard for you then, I mean knowing that was the last time you will ever come back to this place with your father.”
“Not really. There was a small fuss but my grandparents insisted he be buried here in the family plot so my father will always be here in France. Mom took it hard but she got over it in the end and Cait just said to look at it as a way to get some vacation time in when we want to visit Dad. She’s always been like that—vivacious, alive, looking on the bright side of everything. And I’ve always been on the depressive side and angst-ridden. I really don’t want to blame the death of my real mom at such a young age but perhaps that has something to do with it. I really don’t know and shouldn’t speculate to be honest.”
Colin stared at me intently with bright crystal blue eyes. “What do you feel about your sister dating Liam then? I mean, don’t get me wrong. I just don’t know how common it is—I mean, for sisters to date brothers and what not.”
“Well, it’s common enough. Christy Turlington’s sister married Ed Burns’ brother after they tied the knot. I certainly don’t think they are the only ones but they are the most famous pair I know about so I’m sure it’s not as uncommon as you think.”
I paused on reflection. “Think about it. If a group of people hang out and you see each other enough, some of the people in that group are going to begin to pair off. Caitlyn’s a grown woman and she knows what she’s doing. She’s been over twenty-one for a while now and she has a good head on her shoulders. I truly think you and her brother will work out fine if that is what she really wants.”
Colin sat up and crossed his legs, Indian-style, as he handed my pre-made ham and cheese baguette sandwich to me while he grabbed his tuna baguette sandwich. “So, it doesn’t bother you in the slightest my brother is a hard core player who might be playing your sister? I’ve never known him to have one meaningful relationship in his life. He’s just not wired that way.”
“As I said before, it’s not my concern.” I bit into my crisp baguette sandwich and chewed, savoring the delicious flavor of the ham, the bitter-sweet accents from the cheese and creamy butter which had been added to the sandwich in lieu of mayonnaise.
“You seem pretty blasé about the whole situation. I mean she is your younger sister,” he finally responded after an interminable silence between the two of us.
“Jesus, what the hell is this, the Spanish Inquisition?” I finally snapped. “Liam is into Cait and Cait is definitely into Liam—case closed. She doesn’t date often and she’s definitely not the one-night-stand type.” Unlike me, I almost added but then again, neither was I. Liam was definitely an anomaly and the one night we spent together would certainly never happen again.
“Listen, I didn’t bring all this shit up for you to get angry. When you speak to her again just warn her, all right? My brother is nothing like he appears to be and that’s the problem. He seems cool and happy-go-lucky but that couldn’t be further from the truth. He’s got some demons he’s been wrestling with and I don’t want your sister to get hurt, okay? Furthermore, I don’t want him dicking around your sister to cost us what we have so I am speaking from a purely selfish motive,” he said in a tender voice.
It immediately soothed my anger and I set my sandwich down, leaned over and wrapped my arms around his neck. “Listen, what ever happens between Cait and Liam doesn’t have anything to do with us. I wouldn’t dump you just because they didn’t work out. That’s not the way I operate. Unfortunately, I fell for you the first night Drew brought you by and I have been fighting these feelings all this time. I won’t go as far to say I love you…yet…but if you keep workin’ that magic, I will and there’s nothing anyone can say about it. Remember, I’ve been over twenty-one for a while too.”
Colin looked more relieved than anything before he brought me closer and kissed me. When our lips met, the feeling was gentle and tentative at first but the moment his tongue touched mine, all rational thought left my mind and I was there, in that moment.
We finally came up for air but not before kissing each other again with quick pecks on the lips meant to satisfy and sate a pleasure not yet experienced. We had a while to be on the Promenade and no way were we giving up our prized seats that quickly.
“You drive me crazy, woman,” he whispered.
“Same to you,” I said in a quiet voice. “I don’t know what the hell kind of mojo you’re working but it’s definitely done something to me and I don’t want it to stop, ever.”
“If I had my way, it wouldn’t ever stop. You’re the one and you know how hard that is for me to say? I am so scared you will think about us and this and realize it is just some vacation thing and when we get back to Seattle, everything will be different. I don’t want to be apart from you and I definitely know something…and someone real when I meet them. This is no phony, pit of my stomach thing, Deirdre, you’re the real deal.”
I laughed out loud as we separated. “I better be because I’m not the type who takes relationships lightly and I don’t do the ‘vacation romance’. It’s not how I’m wired. It’s great we get to spend so much time together because the more I get to know you, the more I want to be with you and there’s nothing wrong with what we have. It’s perfect.”
Colin refilled both our glasses with Chardonnay and we finished off our sandwiches before we lay out again and held hands like an old married couple. The warm touch from his palm radiated through me and caused a slight tingle to settle all over my flesh but I was exactly where I wanted to be and that made all the difference in the world.