Page 89 of No One But Us

He laughs. “I haven’t gone to bed yet, actually.”

“How’d things wind up with Tommy?”

This is the point at which James realizes who I’m talking to. I can tell by the sneer on his face.

“He’s going to listen to our demo,” Ryan says. “And by the way, I can give you a copy. You know, in case you want to ask the reporter to play it in the background.”

I crack up. “Please promise me that no matter how famous you get, you’ll never turn out like that.”

Feet away from me, James’ unhappiness is shifting from a grumble to a low roar.

“Not a problem,” he replies. “What is your mother thinking? She could do so much better than that guy.”

“No clue. Maybe the shock of the divorce has killed brain cells.”

“Not all of them,” he counters. “She still thinks you’ll end up with me.”

“I think that only further supports my theory about the brain cells.”

“So I’ll see you in a week, right?”

“Yeah, I’ll probably be up next Saturday.”

James stiffens at that.

“Cool. Can you put your bodyguard on the phone?”

“Why do you want to talk to him?” I ask warily.

“He’s old enough to fight his own battles, don’t you think?”

“You’re just trying to cause trouble,” I counter, “and he doesn’t want to talk to you anyway.”

James holds his hand out for the phone, and I reluctantly give it to him. There’s absolutely no way this talk will go well.

I don’t need to hear Ryan’s end of the conversation. The look on James’ face tells me everything.

“Yeah, I do,” James says. “And it’s none of your fucking business either way.”

Ryan says something else then, something worse. Something that makes James look ill.

“Then I hope you enjoy it,” James says, his voice dangerously quiet. “Because it’ll be the last thing you ever do.”

He hangs up and hands me my phone silently.

“What did he say?”

“Nothing,” he says, jaw set so hard I’m surprised his teeth aren’t cracking.

We make the ride home in absolute silence. I think of a hundred ways I could make the peace, and my anger stops me every time. This isn’t my problem to solve, it’s his. He’s the one refusing to let this become anything, refusing to tell his family, to meet mine. We only have a week left together, and I’m not sure we’ll even make it that long.

I’m not sure, at this point, why we’d even try.

Chapter 52

ELLE

We get back to the beach with barely enough time to change into our uniforms and head to work. James is still not over the conversation with Ryan. He hasn’t smiled once all day. And I’m sure as hell not over the fact that he came in as late as he did. I don’t think he was with another girl, but he’s hiding something. I’d stake my life on it.