Sink or Swim (Beach Kingdom 3)
Just thinking about it made the backs of Jiya’s eyelids burn.
Jerk.
She only wanted to help. He’d been arguing with that cop. The same one from the night of Jamie’s bachelor party and she’d intended to have his back. To take his side in whatever disagreement they were having. Obviously Andrew didn’t want her to have his back, though.
I said, go back in the fucking house!
Jiya remembered how hollow he’d looked standing in the driveway after the cop left. She’d wanted to fly back out of the house and throw her arms around him. But she didn’t. She’d still been frozen. Andrew had never raised his voice to her, never uttered a mean-spirited word to her or about her. His shout had reverberated through her system until she was afraid of going outside to hug him and being rejected.
Jerk.
What was going on with him?
Fine, the tension between them was partially, if not completely, her fault. When she started dating, she’d stopped going to the Prince house for breakfast, severing that ritual that bound them together. And then…what happened on the beach. How she’d encouraged him.
How she’d run off afterward.
She couldn’t really blame Andrew for being a little standoffish with her, but she’d never expected him to be so angry. If she asked him for a ride to her flying lessons, would he even say yes? Could she handle him saying no? Andrew had always been a constant in her life. The one she could count on, no matter what. In the gravest of circumstances, they were there for each other.
Was he lost to her now?
“I guess I could Uber…”
Her mother’s gasp could be heard in South America. “That would be hundreds of dollars, Jiya. Can you not postpone?”
She squeezed her eyes shut. “I guess I have to. I was just really looking forward to it.” Her eyes narrowed. “You didn’t sabotage my car on purpose to keep me from flying, right?”
“Honestly, Jiya.”
“It was worth asking!”
She turned in a circle. What was she going to do?
You know I’d cut my heart out before saying no to you, right?
Andrew’s voice drifted back to her from the night of the bachelor party. Their relationship had definitely shifted, but the foundation of their friendship couldn’t have weakened so drastically, could it have? She’d always known Andrew loved helping her out, but now…she couldn’t pretend like that need to please her didn’t run much deeper.
He liked doing for her on a physical level, too.
Jiya’s nipples tingled and she pushed at them with the heels of her hands. Was it unfair of her to ask Andrew for favors, now that she knew about his…tastes?
They’re your tastes, too.
“That’s beside the point,” she muttered.
“What was that, daughter?”
“Oh! Sorry, mother. I’ll, um…I’ll figure it out. Talk to you later.”
She hung up the phone and tapped it against her lips.
Someday soon it might be considered inappropriate for her to ask anything of Andrew. She could be seeing someone. She couldn’t keep calling on him for help when she needed to allow for a healthy distance to settle between them. She’d already decided living with heartache was her only option, right? Continue to pine after Andrew? Pain. Pine after him while building a future with a family? Productive pain. At least life would be moving forward, instead of remaining stagnant. Despite distance between her and Andrew being the healthy option, she scrolled to his name in her contacts, her finger hovering over the green dial button.
“Jiya.”
What the heck? She put the phone to her ear. “Andrew?”
His amused laugh was like a cool kiss on the back of her neck. “Across the street, sweetheart.” She spun around to find him waving from the shadow of one of the apartment buildings that lined the block. “Hey.”
“Hey.”
Even from a distance, she could see his lips twitch. “You can put the phone down.”
Face heating, she dropped the device to her thigh and watched Andrew cross the street in her direction. Ohhh man. She’d found Andrew attractive before, but now that she knew his easy confidence was not unfounded, his appeal had multiplied by approximately eighty-two. Her lips remembered his ability to kiss aggressively and lightly, in turn, with such skill. Such reverence. Her breasts remembered his suction, her bottom remembered the texture of his hands…and perhaps most unfortunately, her lady parts remembered him best of all for rubbing her to orgasm with his huge, thick—
This isn’t helping.
But honestly, universe? Today had to be a baseball hat day? Andrew reminded her of a Hollywood leading man trying to fly under the radar. Beneath the low brim of his Yankees hat, his mouth greeted her with a lopsided smile and his eyes were unsure, apologetic, as they seemed to memorize everything about her. Hair, outfit, flushed cheeks.
In an attempt to seem casual, Jiya leaned an elbow on the trunk of her car, yelping when it turned out to be hotter than the sun’s surface. “Ouch.”