Hot Mess

“That’s home alone in my book,” Agnes chimed in.

“Thirded,” Maude said.

I said nothing. I wasn’t that dumb.

Theo looked at me. “Are you not agreeing with them?”

I shrugged a shoulder and sipped my wine, meeting his eyes. “What you do with your daughter is nothing to do with me. Remember?”

His jaw ticked. “Agnes, I told you this morning you weren’t allowed on the beach. You were supposed to have Aunt Elsie call me.”

“There are no tourists,” Elsie said. “We didn’t see an issue.”

Theo threw his arm in my direction. “Elle was on the beach. And apparently joined you.”

“Uh, not exactly,” I interjected. “I went for a walk down to the water and—”

Agnes shook her head, eyes wide.

“They were naked,” Theo said in a clipped tone. “No need to shake your head, Agnes. I told you all to do your little alien dances in your backyard.”

“We can’t,” Maude argued. “Edwin keeps looking over my fence to watch us.”

“So you come to a beach?” The words left me before I could stop them. When four pairs of unamused eyes shot my way, I slowly handed my wine to Agnes. “I’ll just… leave you to it.”

With that, I got up off the sand and ran as quickly as I could back to the house, not even pausing to take a look over my shoulder. I didn’t need to look, though. I could hear all three of them arguing with Theo even when I reached the back deck. It ended with a lot of loud protesting and him finally shouting over them to get the hell off his beach.

I guess he owned this stretch of beach.

Must be nice.

I stepped inside and shut the glass door behind me, then blew out a long breath.

Yowza.

Those guys were intense.

If I wasn’t tired before, I was now.

I rubbed my hand down my face and checked my phone. The flashlight was still on, so I turned it off and opened the text from my sister.

EMILY: I emailed Noelle, she wants to talk to you this week. Can you email her tomorrow?

ME: Sure. I’ll email her tomorrow morning.

EMILY: Lmk how it goes. Did you read Bethany’s emails?

I was so not in the mood for this right now, but there was no way she’d leave me alone.

ME: Yes. She stopped the video being circulated and wants me to report it to the police because it’s obviously revenge porn. I’m going to call her tmrw morning and tell her our plan.

EMILY: She’s right.

ME: I know that, but I still want proof before I accuse him.

EMILY: You know it was him.

ME: I’m not in the mood for this, Em.

EMILY: Sorry. We’ll talk tomorrow?

ME: Sure. I’ll call you after Bethany.

EMILY: Video chat. Amelia misses you. So do I.

I sighed and put my phone down after assuring her I would video call her. Guilt wracked my body at the thought I’d hurt my little niece so much, but I hadn’t really thought much of anything before I’d left.

Three raps at the sliding doors made me jerk. Momentarily freezing at the outline of a large, tall man at the window, I sagged when I realized it was Theo.

“It’s open,” I called.

He slid the door open and stepped inside. “Do you know they’re crazy?”

“I don’t know. I’m not sure if them walking up to me while naked or them talking about the aliens was the thing to tip me off.” I poured wine into a glass and downed it. “Can you help me figure that out?”

Sighing, Theo stepped inside. “Do you have more of that wine?”

“Yes.”

“May I have some?”

“No.”

“I deserve that, huh?”

“I don’t care if you deserve it or not. I don’t share wine.” I poured the last of the bottle into my glass to make my point. “Especially not with grumpy, judgmental landlords.”

Theo stilled for a second, but he had enough manners not to respond to my slightly tipsy—albeit truthful—assessment of him.

“Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to finish my wine and go to bed because I have to call my lawyer in the morning.” I gave him a pointed look.

“About the sex tape you didn’t know about?”

“Don’t let the glass door hit you on the ass on the way out,” I snapped, finally losing my cool with him. It was probably the wine, but it felt like he’d come up here just to make me feel more unwelcome than I already did.

I hindsight, I never should have stayed in Creek Keys. Not for longer than a night, anyway.

Hindsight was not my friend tonight.

Theo opened his mouth as if he was going to respond, but quickly pressed his lips together in a restrained smile. No sooner had he done that than he left, closing the door behind him again.

Finally alone, I sagged onto the island and dropped my forehead onto the cold surface. I was so going to regret talking to him like that tomorrow. It honestly wasn’t the kind of person I was, but everyone had a breaking point.