Page 1 of Big Catch
Chapter One
Braydon
The warm summer sun beats down on me, and while there isn’t a single muscle in my relaxed body that wants to move, I know I have less than a half an hour to get my shit together for the cockle fishing tour. I twist sideways as Tyler goes up on his elbows to watch a cute girl in a bikini run by.
“Trade?” I ask, preferring Tyler’s task of tutoring a few of the local kids tonight over clam digging with my feet, all part of the Antigua vacation experience we offer the guests who stay at our villa. I love the clambake afterward, sure—hey, I love food—but coming home covered in mud, not so much.
Tyler grins. “No fucking way. I went last week. It’s your turn.” He lowers himself onto the warm white sand, as laid back as I’ve ever seen him. Moving here has been good—for both of us—even though I’m not, and never will be, as mellow as my best friend. “While you’re knee-deep in mud, I’ll be here relaxing and soaking up the rays, bro.”
“Fine, while you’re tutoring tonight, maybe I’ll go see what Jennie is up to,” I say as I push to my feet. Jennie is a local, and a real sweetheart. Tyler and I have tag-teamed with her—as well as a few other women—but I backed off when I thought Jennie was becoming serious about Tyler. Not that I thought he wanted to settle with her. He’s having too much fun chillin’ and going with the flow. But still.
Ty shades the sun from his eyes and looks up at me. His mouth twists into a frown. “Yeah, Jennie and I, we kind of called it quits.”
“You’re fucking kidding me?” When he goes quiet, I kick his foot. “What the fuck, dude?”
“I don’t know. Jennie is nice. I like her, but she’s just looking for a good time, and I think I’m getting a little played out.”
WTF?
“You, played out?” I ask, shocked by that insane idea—which can’t be true—as I grab my towel and toss it over my shoulder. “I actually thought she wanted more with you.”
“Oh yeah? Is that why you backed off?” I nod, and he goes dead serious. I brace myself because when my carefree friend’s smile disappears, I know where his thoughts have gone. “You know what’s mine is yours, right?”
“Yeah, I know. Same.” Shit, we’ve shared everything since kindergarten, and his parents practically raised me. I pretty much moved in with them during high school, when Dad’s drinking became too much. He drove my mother away, and my whole life he told me I was a bastard, good for nothing. I wouldn’t have gotten an education if it weren’t for Ty’s parents. They were teachers, strict but fair, and I feel indebted to them. Ty is my best friend in the whole world, and I didn’t want to be a third wheel if Jennie only wanted him. I’d always sacrifice for Ty. Always.
He shrugs and wipes his wet hair from his face. “I guess I just want more, you know. Someone I can have a life with.” He pretends to bat a ball. “Become dad of the little league team.”
I stare at him for a moment, waiting for the punch line. This is Tyler, a natural born player, a guy who had his dick in a different woman every week when we were growing up. “Wait, you’re serious?”
Ty settle down? If he told me he had monkeys flying out of his ass, I might find that easier to believe. The idea of him settling down is blowing my fucking mind.
“Don’t you ever feel like something is missing?”
I glance around at the beach then at the villa and business I inherited a year ago, after my uncle passed away. As soon as I found out I owned a bed and breakfast in Antigua, Tyler and I quit our stressful jobs on Wall Street—which were going to drive us each to an early grave—and headed to paradise.
I spread my arms. “What more could you want?” I say, but as soon as I do, my mind trips back to the doctor I met last year in the emergency room when I thought I was having a fucking heart attack. I have no idea why I still think about her, yet every now and then she pops into my thoughts. Maybe it’s because most girls say yes when I ask them out, but the hot doc, well, she stone cold turned me down. Or maybe it’s because there was something different about her, and I just can’t shake it.
“I know this place is paradise, Bray,” he says, “but don’t you want someone to share it with?”
“I do have someone to share it with. You.”
He laughs. “Yeah, I love you, too, bro, but—”
“You’re not what I want to wake up to each morning, either.”
“I grew up in a big family. I guess I want the same.”
“Not me,” I say quickly. I like kids, but I’m too damn afraid I don’t have what it takes to be a good dad, considering I didn’t have much of a role model at home. And what if I really do turn out like my father, dysfunctional and abusive, and end up driving away the woman willing to give her heart to me. Better off to never go down that road. “Sworn bachelor to the end for me,” I add when Ty gives me that look again. The one that says he’s knows exactly what’s going through my mind. I don’t know why I bother to hide my feelings. My best friend knows me better than I know myself.
“Yeah, so you don’t ever want to get serious?”
“No. I’m all about the uncomplicated sex.” Man, I would have given my ball sack to have a little no-strings fun with the doc. My cock twitches as I envision her sliding that white coat from her shoulders and baring her naked body to me. The image is fucking hot, and so was her sweet cotton-candy scent.
“Uh, maybe you should make that happen sooner rather than later, bro.”
“What?” Shit, I’d been so lost in thought, I forgot where I was. I glance at Tyler who has one hand up, blocking my hard-on from his view. “Make what happen?”
“You need to get laid, Bray. How fucking long has it been, anyway?”
I laugh and adjust my swollen cock inside my bathing suit. “Shit. Too long.”
