Fifteen
A knock came on MJ’s door as he set his phone down, still laughing, imagining how pissed Maddie was.
Slipping off the bed, he stretched, yawned and rubbed his eyes on his way to answer it. Rachael stood on the other side. “Ready to find Heidi and Roger?” she asked, looking refreshed and relaxed in shorts and black bikini top.
He wasn’t ready to face his aunt and uncle and meet his cousins, but being stuck in a little island resort with them didn’t leave him much of a choice. “Sure.”
MJ pulled his GSU baseball cap on backward and met Rachael in the hall. “They’re out by the pool,” she said, jogging down the stairs in front of him. “Holly and Sam are like fish. You should’ve seen them with Merrick the other day. He was throwing them up in the air and…” Her face fell. “Sorry.”
“For what? My father playing around with little kids when he wasn’t around for me when I was their age? He thought I was dead, Rachael. I can’t blame him for not being there for me.”
She tucked her hair behind her ear and nodded.
They were quiet until they stepped outside the lounge doors onto the patio. “Why isn’t there anyone here?” he asked.
Rachael twisted her fingers. “It was a private opening weekend. My mom and aunt and best friend, Shannon, were here, but they left while I was gone. Heidi, Roger and the kids are here for the week though.”
They headed down a path to the right of the patio, this one made of large flagstones with big trees clustered on their left. Maddie could never resist climbing the biggest trees in the woods by the lake when they were younger.
It was a miracle she didn’t kill him back then; she was always such a tomboy. He followed her around and did everything she did. Jumping out of trees, swimming all the way across the lake, racing their fathers’ golf carts. She’d been his entire world.
On some level, she still was. That damn ring up in his room buried in his jeans pocket was killing him, serving as a constant reminder that she didn’t belong to him. If she came to get it from him… MJ couldn’t even think about hearing those words fall from her lips, the expression on her face as she looked him in the eye and told him why she left him over a year ago.
No. She wouldn’t. She’d never tell him.
“Right through here,” Rachael said, stepping into a walkway covered by a palm frond tiki roof. The walkway surrounded an open courtyard with a huge pool in the center. A swim-up bar sat on the far side. Two little kids ran side-by-side and jumped over the water, grabbing their knees and splashing down in dual cannonballs.
MJ’s aunt was stretched out on a lounge chair in the sun with a book open in front of her face. Roger sat on a stool in the shade of the swim-up bar talking to a dark-haired guy behind it.
Hell with this, MJ thought. He ripped off his shirt and tossed it on the ground with his hat and cell phone, kicked off his flip-flops and took off running for the pool. Just because he wasn’t ten years old anymore didn’t mean he couldn’t do cannonballs with the best of them. Plus, what better way to make an entrance?
He could hear Rachael laughing as he soared through the air, shouted, “Incoming!” and splashed down beside both kids.
MJ surfaced to find the girl and boy sputtering and coughing, trying to stay afloat in the waves he’d caused. “You guys okay?” he asked. “Need help?”
They both shook their heads, eyeing him warily.
“I’m your cousin,” he said. Might as well jump right into that too. “MJ.”
“We don’t have a cousin, MJ,” the little girl said. Jesus, she had his dimples.
“You do now,” he said. “What’s your name?”
“We don’t talk to strangers,” the little boy said, paddling away toward the wall.
MJ followed. “I just told you, I’m your cousin. MJ. So I’m not a stranger. What’s your name?”
“He won’t tell you,” the girl said right behind MJ, scaring the hell out of him.
“Do you always sneak up on people?” MJ laughed. “What’s your name then?”
“Holly. This is Sam.”
“You weren’t supposed to tell!” Sam screamed.
These two were going to give him a headache in about two more seconds.
“MJ! You’re here!” Heidi ran to the pool, knelt and hugged him. Her long, black hair was tied up on top of her head. Everyone in his family looked so much alike—just like the Old Man. “Rachael said you guys got in a couple hours ago. It’s so good to see you. We need to catch up.”
“Did you introduce yourselves to your cousin, MJ?” she asked her kids who were busy trying to dunk each other underwater.
“We met,” he said, hoisting himself up onto the side to sit. Roger was making his way over, holding a drink above his head.
Rachael had taken the lounge chair next to Heidi’s and was pretending she wasn’t watching the touching reunion. He almost laughed. She might as well come over with them, it wasn’t like she’d interrupt a big private family moment. Hell, he was blood to these people, but didn’t feel like a family member at all.
MJ raised his hand and motioned for her to come over. She pretended not to see him, but he knew she had.
“MJ,” Roger said, propping his elbows on the side next to MJ, “good to see you. How’s your grandfather doing?”
“Same evil bastard as always.” He kicked his feet, splashing Holly and Sam. They squealed and swam away, shoving each other.
Roger gave him a sideways glance. “He does what’s best for you.”
MJ turned and looked back over both shoulders with exaggerated movements. “I don’t see him anywhere, so you don’t have to worry about kissing his ass.”
Roger chuckled and took a sip of his drink. “You are just like him.”
MJ knew who he meant. His dad.
“That’s enough from both of you,” Heidi said, sitting and slipping her legs between them to dangle over the side into the pool. “We have enough family drama to deal with without you two creating more.”
“Nothing here to deal with.” Roger took another sip and waded away from the wall, back toward the bar.
“Sorry,” Heidi muttered, “he can be…”
“Merrick will be here soon,” MJ said. He scooted his feet out of the water and stood. “I know that’s what you were implying.”
Roger quickly recovered his shocked expression.
“Yeah,” MJ said, “he came to the Rocha Estate. We met. Everything’s fine, so you can stop gloating that you have something you’re holding over me. You don’t. Not anymore.”
Roger gave him a calculating smile. “No? I wouldn’t be so sure of that. One meeting with Merrick Rocha doesn’t reveal all of his secrets.”
“Whatever. I’m not playing games with you.” MJ ran his fingers through his wet hair and strode over to where Rachael was laying, tanning, with her eyes closed. She’d gathered his shirt, hat and phone and set them on the chair beside her. “Thanks for grabbing my stuff.” He stuck his hat on backward and threw himself down on the lounge chair.
“You’re welcome. Looks like you’re a hit with Sam and Holly.”
He snorted a laugh. “Yeah. They love me.”
“They’re kids. They’ll warm up to you fast.”
He wasn’t too sure about that, but wasn’t worried about it either. He’d probably never see them again after this week.
MJ dried his hands with his T-shirt and tapped his phone’s screen to see if he’d missed any calls.
His chest constricted. Nothing. Not one call, and Christ, Maddie had to be pissed. Why hadn’t she called to argue with him more and call him an a*shole?
Then the internal battle began. He wanted to call her. Maybe he shouldn’t have pushed so much. Maybe he should’ve just left the ring and let her go.
Wasn’t that what he wanted after all? To be free of Maddie? He was beginning to doubt himself. It rarely happened, but when it did, it was never good.