Chapter Fourteen

Alec

“You lied to me!” Nat huffed. The sting of her punch was radiating all the way down my neck. Who the hell taught her how to throw a right hook like that?

“I didn't lie.”

“You're lying now!” She pushed against me, causing both of us to fall to the ground.

“I omitted!” I defended myself and rolled so that I was on top of her, straddling her body. “And before you hit me again, at least let me explain.”

“Fine.” Her teeth clenched together. “Do it fast.”

A camera was thrust into my face as a producer cleared his throat. “Get closer to Nat, maybe angle the camera from the sand looking into Alec's face.”

I rolled my eyes and counted to three. If the cameraman didn't back up, I wouldn't be the only one with a black eye.

“I'm waiting.” Nostrils flaring, Nat glared up at me.

Licking my lips, I nervously itched the back of my head. “It's not like it's anything new, Nat. Your mom prescribed them to me. It's just been… really stressful. You know that.

“People get depressed. It isn't a big deal, and I didn't want to burden you.”

“By not telling me, you burden me, because then all I do is worry about what you're hiding.” A tear rolled down her cheek. I wanted to point out that Nat was one of the least emotional people I knew.

The fact was, no matter how I answered, I was hurting her.

“I'm sorry, Nat.”

She exhaled and glared at the camera before looking up at me with giant brown eyes. “Was that what was bothering you the other day? You were afraid I'd find out and judge you or something?”

“Yes,” I lied. Shit, the lies were getting too easy. “I didn't want you to know. I was afraid you'd be concerned, and, well, you know how I'm used to dealing with all the baggage on my own.”

My hands moved to her face. I wiped a few stray tears and kissed her softly across the lips. “I love you.”

One of the make-up artists sighed to my left.

“I love you too.” Nat sniffled. “But no more hiding things from me.”

“Okay.” And there went lie number two. “Now can I get off of you or are you just going to punch me again?”

“I may still punch you.” Nat shrugged. “Guess you'll have to trust me.”

“Right.” Slowly I moved away from her and offered my hand.

“Hey!” Demetri yelled from behind us. “Nice black eye!”

I flipped him off.

“Nice finger!”

I turned around and made a move to chase him down, but Nat tugged on my hand. “Castle. We have to build the castle! We aren't losing to Demetri. The guy can't even walk without getting a side ache.”

“Sorry. I was distracted by my girlfriend clocking me in the jaw, won't happen again.”

Nat smirked and threw the little plastic bucket at me. “Dig.”

“Yes, ma'am.”

We frantically filled the buckets around us with the wet sand and began constructing our castle just as Jaymeson and Angelica made it to the beach. I didn't have to turn to know they were present.

“Muzzle her, would you?” I yelled back to Jaymeson.

“Tried. Apparently they only let you muzzle dogs, not humans.”

“I don't see what the problem is.” I chuckled.

Jaymeson laughed right along with me and tugged Angelica to the space next to us.

“Gross!” Angelica swatted her hands at the wet sand, some of it landed on our castle. Nat grumbled under her breath and glared over at Angelica.

“Just build the damn castle,” I heard Jaymeson say.

“And if I don't?” Angelica taunted.

“Then I'll bury your entire body, leaving your face exposed to the sunlight and put peanut butter on your nose for the seagulls to feed on.”

“Graphic,” I muttered under my breath to Nat who was trying ridiculously hard not to laugh.

“Fine.” Angelica huffed and began working with Jaymeson.

According to our instructions, Nat and I only had one more section of the castle to build. It wasn't that big but the directions said we had to have at least eight bucket towers.

An hour later and we were just on the last tower when I heard someone screaming my name.

Actually, scratch that. I heard several people screaming my name.

“Alec is it true? Are you on anti-depressants? Did Nat threaten to break up with you? Did she punch you in the face? Are you dying?”

I glared at Ruben. Wouldn't be the first time he'd purposefully leaked something to the media. The only people who knew our location were the film crew.

Ruben called into his walkie-talkie and soon our security detail pulled up and began slowly leading the media off the beach.

“Guess the cat's out of the bag then,” Angelica sang to herself. “Soon everyone will know all your dirty little secrets, Alec.”

“Pretty sure they know them all now,” Nat answered just as I opened my mouth.

“Oh, honey…” Angelica stopped putting sand in her bucket and turned a wicked smile toward Nat. “You sweet, innocent little lamb. You know absolutely nothing. Isn't that right, Alec?”

Forgetting about the cameras for a brief second, I wondered if I would actually get arrested for striking a woman.

“Five more minutes!” Ruben announced. “And the castles have to be finished before you row back to the next shore and move on toward your last game of the day!”

“Ignore her,” I whispered to Nat as I released all the sand from my hand and wiped it across my board shorts.

“Can we be done?” she asked in a small voice.

I inspected our castle. It was damn near perfect. “Yup!”

Hand in hand we ran back to our boat and began rowing back to the original shore.

Nat was silent until about halfway across. “What did Angelica mean? Does she know something I don't?”

Hell, yes. “Don't worry about it. She's just jealous because I'm the only Daniels brother she hasn't slept with.”

Nat's eyes closed. “I didn't realize how badly I needed to hear you say that until now.”

“Say what? That she's jealous?”

“No.” Nat shook her head. “That you haven't slept with her. I was worried that… well, I mean, it would explain a lot.”

I almost laughed. She was relieved I didn't sleep with Angelica, yet she had no idea what I did do that night.

“I didn't sleep with her. If I remember correctly I rejected her.” I cleared my throat and looked down at my feet as I continued to row. “I may have kissed her.”

“WHAT?” Nat roared.

I ducked. Self-preservation and all that. Besides, who really wants to sport two black eyes, both from your girlfriend?

“When?”

“Before you and I were dating,” I answered honestly. Finally. I could at least tell the truth about that. “I, uh, well, we had to do some promo together.

“We both had a lot to drink and I kissed her. Actually, she kissed me and then I pushed her away, but still.”

“Gross.” Nat shivered. “No offense, but you're an idiot.”

I gulped and tried to laugh with her but it sounded too hollow. Oh, I was an idiot all right. I was a damn fool.

But instead of pushing me to confession, all it did was make me want to control the situation more. I pushed the truth so far back into my head that I wasn't even sure what reality was anymore.

But one thing was certain.

I couldn't keep hurting her every damn day and not want to die a thousand deaths because of it.

I was going to choose me.

Which meant, in the end, I was choosing us. But that also meant I was screwing my brother. Just like before. Only this time I knew forgiveness wouldn't be so freely offered.