A Tragic Wreck (Beautiful Mess 2)

“Chelsea, please. Stop. I just never knew how you felt about our relationship.”

“Relationship?” she fumed, spinning around to face him. “This isn’t a relationship, Alex! You’re so fucking obtuse sometimes, you know that?”

Alexander shrugged his shoulders. “I’m a guy. It’s how we roll.” He turned his lips up in a small smile, hoping she wouldn’t leave angry. “If you don’t come right out and say something, we’re left in the dark.”

Chelsea stood there, looking at Alexander’s face. After several long moments, she broke out in a smile.

“Does this mean you forgive me?” he asked.

She nodded slowly, taking a step toward him, brushing his wayward hair out of his eyes. “Yes. But I know you have to go. I get it. I just hope that you get the closure you’re so desperate for. When you do, I’ll be here waiting for you.” She placed a gentle kiss on his mouth, lingering for several long seconds, hoping that it wasn’t the last time she’d taste those lips. Then she turned and left.

CHAPTER FOUR

ALL I KNOW

AFTER FINALLY GETTING BACK to the beach, Olivia grabbed her obscene amount of shopping bags out of the back seat of the car, as well as the liquor she stopped to pick up, and got to work organizing all her new purchases while she drank a glass of bourbon. This is good, she thought. She hopelessly needed to feel like she had a new home. She hadn’t felt that yet. She loved living at the beach, but it wasn’t home. Maybe meeting some people would make it so, and then she could finally stop seeing Alexander in her dreams every night.

She settled on a form-fitting black dress that hit right above her knees. It was a little big around her waist so she put on an orange belt and accented the rest of the outfit with a long orange beaded necklace and matching earrings. After taming her wavy hair with a hint of gel, she was ready.

At exactly seven, Olivia heard a gentle knock on the door. She slipped on her heeled sandals, taking a deep breath before pulling back the door. Her heart began to race. Cam cleaned up good.

“Good evening, beautiful,” he said, smiling and handing her a dozen yellow roses. “I hope you don’t mind that I brought you flowers.”

Olivia smiled, taking in his appearance. The dark gray shirt brought out the silver in his eyes. His jeans hung from his hips in a way so that Olivia could tell he worked out. “No. Thank you for the flowers. That was very thoughtful of you.” She turned to go put the bouquet in some water as Cam waited in the doorway, not wanting to go into her house before she invited him in.

“Ready to go?” she asked, turning around and walking toward the door. She smiled, knowing she just caught him checking out her ass.

“Uh, yes. Let’s get out of here.” He held out his arm for her and she took it, secretly enjoying the feel of his warm body so close to her own.

He opened the car door for Olivia and she quickly realized the evening was becoming more than just dinner, and she was relatively okay with that. It was a nice change of pace to not have a chauffeur cart her around. It was refreshing and freeing, even.

Cam pulled out of the driveway and onto Ocean Avenue, heading toward the downtown area. Olivia smiled as the crisp November air blew through her hair.

“I hope you don’t mind that I kept the top down,” Cam said, shifting into third gear.

“Not at all. I thought you had a Wrangler. How many cars to you have?”

“I do have a Wrangler. But that’s my surfing car and it's covered with sand so I figured I’d take the Lexus tonight.”

“Nice. Reminds me of that movie Three Kings,” Olivia said as she watched the rugged beach transition into a tree-lined boulevard.

“Oh, yeah? How so?”

“One of the lines in the movie is ‘Lexus doesn’t make a convertible’. Of course, that movie was made in 1999 or something so I think, at that time, Lexus didn’t make a convertible.”

He shifted into fourth. “Well, they do now.”

Olivia laughed politely. “Obviously.”

A few minutes later, Cam drove his car through the downtown Fernandina Beach area, easily finding a parking spot on the street. It was the off-season, but there were still a few tourists milling about, checking out the quaint beach shops and grabbing dinner.

“Wait right there,” he said as he turned off the ignition. He swiftly got out of the car and ran around to Olivia’s side, opening the door and bowing in an exaggerated fashion. “M’lady.”

Olivia couldn’t help but laugh. There was something so refreshing about Cam's personality. He was fun. There was no drama. With Alexander, it was intense from the beginning and never let up. But there wasn’t that spark with Cam. There was something, but it was nothing compared to what she felt when she was in Alexander’s presence.

“You’re a goofball,” she smiled.

“That I am.” He grabbed her hand, pulling her down the sidewalk toward the water. “Is this okay?” he asked, referring to his hand clasped around hers.

She glanced over at him, a hopeful look in his eyes. “Yes. It’s fine.”

He beamed, his smile reaching his eyes. He had dimples. God, he’s hot, she thought to herself.

“Good. I like touching you,” he said quietly, gently rubbing her knuckles.

Olivia didn’t know whether she should respond to that. She wasn’t sure she wanted to. What would she even say? Tell him that she relished his touch more than anything she could remember in recent history, but that she was ninety-nine shades of crazy at that moment, her thoughts consumed by one man she never should have let in? Her craziness was too much for Alexander, and it would surely be too much for Cam.

“You don’t talk much, do you?” he asked as they crossed a set of railroad tracks, walking across Front Street toward a restaurant on the water.

She shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess I do, as long as I have something to say.”

“So you have nothing to say?” Cam asked, grinning.

“I don’t know.”

“Well, surely there must be something going through that brain of yours right now. You have this look on your face and I want to die, it’s so fucking cute.” He stopped walking at the edge of the water.

Olivia’s heart began beating rapidly as he turned to face her with a hopeful look on his face, clutching both her hands in his.

“I don’t know what it is about you, Libby, but I’m drawn to you. I noticed you way back in October. I even remember the date… October seventeenth. It was a Wednesday. You looked so fucking sad, and it killed me. I wanted to find out what made you so incredibly sad, and I swore I would do whatever I could to fix it.”