Finding Us

“What?” I say and start busting out laughing. Damn, it feels good to laugh like this. I’ve decided to temporarily put operation ‘keep away from Knox’ on hold and just enjoy myself. It’s so nice to be out of the city and feel like I can act myself around Knox even if it is only for a little bit.

Knox walks in the house first and calls out, “Cade!”

We all hear Cade say, “Fuck.” Followed by a girl asking, “Who’s that?” and then Cade telling her to put her damn clothes back on and get out.

“Cade!” Knox yells again as we close in on what I believe is the living room. I hope to God this girl is a quick dresser, I’m not really into that sort of thing.

My eyes roam the foyer. All the walls are white but they are bare, no pictures, no nick nacks, nothing. We walk down a hallway and into a huge open-floor plan which consists of the living room, dining room and kitchen. The walls are all a lightly colored orange. In the living room there is a dark gray sectional couch with orange throw pillows piled on one side as Cade and his disheveled looking girlfriend, or whatever she is, sits on the other end. Glass end tables sit on both ends of the sectional and a glass coffee table sits in the middle of the room. A huge flat screen TV is mounted on the wall above a fireplace. The right side of the room is lined with twenty foot glass windows looking out over the ocean. The view of the ocean is incredible from where I’m standing. I walk over to the windows to get a better look of the beach.

It’s a magnificent view.

Someone clears their throat behind me and it startles me. I turn and Knox is giving me a knowing smile. He’s proud of their house and he has every right to be. I return his smile and peer back out towards the ocean. I could stand here and admire this view all weekend long.

I hear shuffling and mumbling behind me but still don’t turn around. Honestly I hope it’s Cade and his girl leaving. I’ve probably lost Summer somewhere because I don’t hear her and she isn’t next to me.

“Some view huh?” He asks.

“Yeah, it’s beautiful.”

“Just like you.” Knox whispers.

I close my eyes and bite down hard on my bottom lip. I slowly open my eyes, hoping to ignore that comment. He can try and woo me all he wants, I’m not caving. I refuse.

Before Knox can say anything further I can see someone approaching, I look back out at the ocean, feeling a little shy. Knox is oblivious until the person comes over and rests his elbows on both of our shoulders.

I snap my head in the direction of the laughter that is now filling the silence.

“Sorry about that. I didn’t realize you guys were coming so early.”

I shrug this guy’s elbow off my shoulder.

Knox chuckles, “Cade this is Jasmine Jennings, Jasmine this is Cade Stevens.”

I manage to muster up a small smile.

He smiles happily, oblivious to my distaste of what we walked in on and says, “What’s up JJ?”

I glare, hard. “Jasmine,” I correct him. I hate when people call me that when they don’t even know me.

He throws his head back and laughs. I peek over at Knox who shakes his head and walks away. I figure now it’s safe and turn around to find out where the hell Summer went, but I don’t see her anywhere so I follow Knox into the kitchen. Same color walls with stainless steel appliances and dark gray cabinets. That’s something you don’t see a lot of and it gives the kitchen a more modern look.

“You hungry?” Knox asks me. He walks over to the fridge and starts shuffling things around.

“No but I’ll take a bottle of water if you have one please.”

He hands me the bottle but doesn’t let go. I look up, waiting for him to say something, but he doesn’t. He’s just staring intently at me like he wants to devour me. I pull the bottle a little harder but he still doesn’t let go. Instead he jerks the bottle towards him and I collide right into him. Chest to chest, stomach to stomach, legs to legs, the only thing separating us is the water bottle that’s between our bodies.

I hear Cade bark a laugh, “Alright, alright, I got it man. No need to piss on your territory.”

I immediately let go of the bottle and take a step back from Knox who’s still staring at me. I feel my cheeks start to burn and I turn to walk away but he grabs my wrist.

I turn towards him, “Go up the steps we passed when we walked in, second bedroom on the right.”

I have no idea where he is sending me but I don’t give it another thought. I start to walk back down the hallway when I hear Cade say something about a nice ass.

Pig.

I follow Knox’s directions and I run into a couple walking down the steps. I slide to the side so they can pass. I wonder who that was and if they know Cade was down here just a few minutes ago screwing some girl on the couch. They seem nice enough as they both said hi when passing me. The girl was cute, a tiny little thing. She’s burnt to a crisp, skin glowing red. Her blue eyes popping out against the reddened skin, her long poker straight hair has brown and blonde highlights throughout. The guy is similar to Knox’s height. Jet black hair, green eyes and a scruffy looking face that just made him hotter. His skin is bronzed and he is very muscular, maybe even more so than Knox.

I walk up to the second door and peek my head into the open door, not really knowing what to expect. I sigh in relief when I notice Summer and Rex sitting on the bed talking. I walk in and take a seat next to Summer. Rex nods at me.

“Okay look, you’re going to get pissed but I don’t know what else to do.” Summer starts whining.

“What’s going on?” I truly don’t know what it could be. The vacation so far is going well.

“You have to sleep in Knox’s room.” Summer rushes out.

Knox walks in before I can even decipher what she just spit out.

I glance up and he holds the water bottle out to me that I never got downstairs, I take it and smile at him.

I squint at Summer and ask, “What did you say?”

“You have to sleep in Knox’s room. With everyone else here there isn’t any room for you and me to share. Rex refuses to sleep with his brother so I’m going to stay in here with him. The only other option is for you to sleep on the couch which…” she doesn’t need to finish because we are all aware of what we walked into.

Well this just sucks, so much for trying to stay clear of Knox. No way can that happen now that I have to share his room with him. I’m going to have to play this cool for now and figure something out later when we go to bed. “It’s fine. I think Knox can behave himself, right?” I look over at Knox who is, of course, smiling cockily at me.