“Her and her family have a bungalow at the resort, yes. She spends a lot of time there, as I’m sure you could judge by her tan. Her family is stationed here like mine is, but she pretty much flies around and parties on her family’s dime. She’s everything I can’t stand about that kind of community, and sometimes she’ll try to track me dow—”
“It’s okay. You don’t need to explain anymore.”
And he didn’t. Kallie understood what was going on. Sasha had said enough at their lunch gathering. Her and Ash started as a hookup. As nothing more than a fling. Of course a man like him had a “game” he ran on girls. It was clear he’d had other vacation hookups on the island. Again, not shocking to Kallie. What they were both feeling for each other had taken them by surprise and Ash had flown all the way back to a place he obviously despised to find her.
But it didn’t stop Kallie from being horribly jealous.
And she hated the feeling.
“Kallie, Sasha was just a—”
“It’s fine. Really. You don’t owe me an explanation.”
“The look on your face tells me otherwise,” Ash said.
“It’s fine,” Kallie said as she shook her head. “Really, it is. We started—and then things—and you...”
Kallie closed her eyes, trying to gather her thoughts. She didn’t want to be in his place anymore. The jealousy was overwhelming, and she suddenly didn’t want to be there any longer. She didn’t want to be in the clothes she was wearing, and she didn't want to be touched by him. She felt herself careening out of control again and she didn’t like it.
Not when she was slowly beginning to plant her feet.
“Come on. We’ll cuddle on the couch and watch a movie,” Ash said. “When we get hungry, I can have that pizza place and the cinnamon bun place deliver right to us. We’ll spend an evening in.”
“I actually need to be getting home,” Kallie said.
She watched Ash plead with his eyes, so she diverted her gaze.
“Don’t do this, Kallie.”
“I’m not doing anything. We spent some time together, but I do have work to prepare for in the next couple of days. I should take some time to prepare for it. Not all of us can live happily ever after every single day.”
Kallie spit that last sentence more than she would’ve wished, and it caused Ash to sigh.
“I have a mountain of laundry that has to get done in the meantime. And flowers that need to be taken care of,” she said.
She knew the excuse was weak, but she felt vulnerable. Exposed. And not in a good way. There was a good type of vulnerable that came with Ash. The type of vulnerable that made her feel beautiful and loved and cherished. But being reminded of her island boy meant also being reminded of the games he used to run on that island. The game he ran on her, until things changed between them. She felt herself slipping into a vulnerability that made her feel stifled. Used. Somehow less than what she thought they were. Hearing another woman rattle off things she had done with Ash on the island somehow cheapened their experience. The surfing and the dancing.
Had he taken her on the yacht as well? Maybe they got caught in a storm too.
Kelly felt her mind spiraling, and she needed to get away from him for a moment. To get some perspective on what was happening between them. When she was close to him, it was too easy to give in to the pleasure of his company. To the warmth of his body. She sank into him because of the connection they had on the St. Barts, but how genuine was that connection? How much of that had been fabricated by a game he had run on so many others? And did the fact that he came here when she ran somehow erase all of that? He had money to spare for days on end. Ashly Worthington could single-handedly fuel multiple Third World countries for years on the amount of wealth he seemed to rake in without even having to work.
Somehow, him hopping on some private jet and flying into the city to find her didn't seem as romantic as it once did. Like somehow, the effort was cheapened by the fact that it was easy for him to do in the first place.
Like running his game on multiple women.
Kallie hated the look of disappointment that rushed over Ash's face. It made her stomach turn and it made her weaken toward him. She needed to stay strong. She needed some space. She had less than two days to prepare to go back to work, and she would have to brace herself for the questions. Why she wasn't wearing her wedding rings. What really happened. She would have to relive that moment over and over again for the people she met and helped. Because they would want to know what happened. Because they cared.
At least, that was what Kallie told herself.
That they cared about the woman reorganizing their lives.
“Could I come help you with your laundry then?” Ash asked.
Kallie looked at him sideways.
Why in the world would a man like him want to do laundry? He probably paid someone to wash his own clothes. To pick them up from the dry cleaners. Why would he offer to come back to her place and wash your dirty clothes? But the idea of him coming back to her place didn't sit well with her. No, she needed this distance from him.
Even if he didn't understand it.