Endless (Clarity Coast Omegaverse Book 1)

I pulled my cover-up back on and made my way up the beach to Trinity. She slung an arm around my shoulders and shoved a drink in my hand. “You have shitty timing,” I told her.

“Why?”

“Did you not see where I was?”

She sighed. “Yeah. Pinned under the smoking hot guy you refuse to sleep with.”

I took a sip of the cold, fruity drink she gave me and stared at her. Her face shifted from resigned to shocked, then from shocked to excited. “No.”

“No, what?”

“You slept with them?”

Shrugging, I glanced back to where the guys were in a huddle, apparently figuring out what they were going to play and the rules. Cade saw me looking and winked.

My knees wobbled.

“I think that depends on your definition of ‘sleeping with,’ but I’m not resisting anymore.”

“Thank goodness.” She raised her glass and clinked it against mine. “What did it?”

“You, Ocean, and me getting my head out of my ass.”

“Amen to that.”

Ellie and the rest of her bridesmaids were up on the ballroom terrace, watching the guys and laughing. “I didn’t know you’d be here.”

“Well, I came to kidnap you to do something fun, and Ellie found me and said I should stay. I called Ocean. If she can get away, she’ll come. Want to go up there?”

Angela was in the group. On the edge of it, for sure, but still here and too close.

“Am I a coward if I don’t really want to be around her?”

Trinity snorted into her drink. “No. I don’t want to be around her either. I just wasn’t sure if Ellie would want you there since you’re in the bridal party.”

A fair question. “I’ll ask, but I think she’ll be okay. We can sit under one of the umbrellas so I don’t get torched. Vaughn helped me with sunscreen but I’ve already been in the water.”

Behind us, the guys abandoned the net and started kicking a soccer ball around in the sand. Vaughn, still damp and shirtless, was the first one to steal the ball. Right away from Beau.

I smothered a grin as we walked back up to the house, feeling far lighter than I had when I’d gone down to the beach. I felt good. Settled.

“I’m going to run to the bathroom.”

“Okay. I’ll figure out where we’re going to be.”

Meeting Ellie’s eyes, she came to me right away, smiling. “You looked like you were having fun.”

“I was. I am. Just wanted to make sure you wouldn’t be upset if I sat… not here.” My eyes flicked toward Angela, and my sister laughed.

“No, I don’t mind. I’d rather her not be here either, but Beau insisted, and since he’s the best man, we felt like we had to.”

“Seems like a theme,” I muttered. “Everyone around Beau feels like they had to do something.”

Ellie smirked. “Keep the claws out. I think you’re going to need them. For the record, I will be stealing you away at some point before the wedding to do something, but other than that? I’m just glad you’re here.”

“Me too.”

She peeked around me down toward the beach. “They keep looking over here. At you.”

“Probably a coincidence.”

“I highly doubt that.” She left me there, and I went farther down the veranda to an umbrella and chaise chairs where we could relax.

On the beach, there were makeshift goals for the guys to score through, and it was clear the lines had been drawn. Warren and my pack against the rest of the guys. Shirts and skins. My team was skins, and I wasn’t complaining about it.

Hawk kicked the ball through the goal and stretched his hands out wide like he was flying before turning and pointing right at me like he was dedicating the score to me.

Laughing quietly, I sipped the drink. This was good. Sweet. Probably too easy to get drunk on.

“It’s good to see you like this.”

I startled, turning to find Dad standing just behind the table. He came around and stood nearby, watching the game.

“Like what?”

One flicker of a smile. “With light in your eyes.”

I froze, waiting.

Dad shook his head. “I don’t know how to explain it, Iz. It was like something was just… extinguished in you. I’d never seen you like that when you finally called us back.”

When I ran, I avoided their calls. When I could finally stop panicking and crying I’d given in and called them back. I’d made sure the wall behind me looked better than the apartment as a whole. It became the set dressing for all of their calls.

“And it hurt, because there wasn’t anything we could do. I’m glad to see you better. That’s all.”

Was I?

I looked down at the beach, where the guys were still dominating the game. Joel kicked the ball around Beau over to Rowan. More than scoring, it seemed like their real goal was to keep the ball away from my ex. Even his own team didn’t pass to him often, despite waving his arms and saying he was open. It made me smile.

They made me smile.

And that hurt too, because it wasn’t real.

But Dad wasn’t wrong. I was better.

“I think I am.”

“Good.” He looked over and smiled. “Dare I ask if we can expect to still see you after the wedding?”

I winced and looked away. It was deserved. Hurting my family had never been my intention, but it didn’t change that I did. “Yeah,” I said. “I think so. I—” I took a breath and stood, putting my drink to the side. “I’m really sorry, Dad. For leaving that way. I know I apologized, but it’s different in person.”

His brow furrowed. “Isolde, I’m not angry with you. Your mother and I want to make sure you’re okay. If being away from here was what you needed, that’s fine. We missed you, but we mostly wanted to make sure you were safe.”

“I know.”

Dad held out his arms and I stepped in, enjoying the hug. “If you want to find a shitty apartment to live in, I’m sure we can find one here in Clarity Coast. You don’t have to go all the way across the country.”

“You know about that?” I gasped. “I made sure to keep it hidden.”

“Not very well,” he chuckled. “And if you need money you can ask. Just because you have to wait for your trust doesn’t mean we won’t take care of you.”

“Does Mom know?”

He shook his head. “She doesn’t. If she had, she would have marched out there and dragged you back. You didn’t want or need that. But I kept tabs on you.”

All I could do was smile. If he’d told me this even a few days ago, I would have been furious. Now, I was glad. “Thank you. And I don’t know if I’ll want to live here, but I think I’m past the shitty apartment stage. I’ll need to get a better job,” I said with a laugh. “If anyone still wants to hire me after the way I left.”

“Why wouldn’t they?”

“I cut everything and almost everyone off pretty harshly. There’s a year gap in my resume now where I worked at a bar, which wasn’t that bad, actually. But I can see people giving me the side eye if I try to come back. Besides… you know.”

Dad looked out at the ocean mildly. “If a single employer chooses not to hire you because of that rotten mayonnaise stain Warren somehow still calls a friend, I’ll crush them like the insects they are.”

I burst out laughing, drawing eyes from everywhere. “You can’t do that.”

“I can and I will. It’s discrimination.”

Unable to keep the smile off my face, I swatted him on the arm. “Well, let me figure out what I even want to do first before you start lobbing lawsuits up and down the coast, okay?”

“That, I can do.” He gave me a mock salute and headed down to the beach. Given he was dressed in slacks and a button-down shirt, I didn’t think he would join in on the game, but I would pay money to see my stepfather call Beau a rotten mayonnaise stain to his face.

A question bubbled behind my lips. “Dad?”

He turned at the bottom of the steps.

“You never liked him. Why didn’t you say anything?” Part of me wanted to cry and demand why no one told me I was being tossed around like a rag doll. Another part of me wanted to think I wasn’t alone in my delusion.

“I did.”

“No, you didn’t.”

He took a step toward me and smiled sadly. “When you first met Beau, I said something. But you were happy, and I don’t think it fully registered. After a while, I stopped because I didn’t want the only thing for us to talk about was how I hated your boyfriend. So I tried to make it clear how I felt in other ways, hoping one day you would see what I saw. But I wish it hadn’t been so painful for you.”

I didn’t stop him when he walked away this time.

All these emotions felt like the tides. They came in waves. Up and down. I felt good. Then the horror of my own blindness rose up and threatened to crush me.

Straightening my spine, I went back and laid on the chaise. It happened. No amount of beating myself up would change the past.

As much as I wished, I wasn’t a time traveler or a wizard. I couldn’t snap my fingers and make myself less angry or devastated with myself, but I could choose not to wallow. At least for today.

Where the hell was Rin?

The house was big, but not big enough for her to take this long to get there and back. My phone was in our suite where I left it. I downed the last of my drink, enjoying the mild brain freeze in the heat before I went to grab it.

I put on the same shorts and shirt I’d had on last night before they tore them off me and checked my phone.

Trinity:

Hey, I’m so sorry. Work called me in. They had an emergency. A real one, not a gossip one. Like drop everything and get your ass to the office. Not sure what it is, but I’ll let you know! Sorry to bail like that.

That didn’t sound good. But at least she wasn’t wandering around the halls lost. Not that she would, considering she’d been here so much while we grew up she practically lived here.

My bare feet padded on the marble floors, the whole house quiet around me. There was something soothing about knowing you were alone like this, but close to people. Very different from actually being alone.

The choice was what mattered.

A shadow filled the door to the now empty terrace. I saw the bridesmaids all heading down to the beach, but Beau was blocking the way out.

“Beau.”

“Hey, Izzy-bear.”

“You have a lot of fucking nerve calling me that, after everything.”

He winced, gripping the back of his neck. “Yeah. I was hoping we could talk?”

“I don’t want to talk to you.”

“I know I didn’t⁠—”

“There you are,” Joel said, sweeping past my ex, pulling me into his arms, and kissing me so indecently I was glad I’d put my shorts on. My bikini wasn’t enough to cover my arousal, and perfume filled the surrounding air. “We won, and crushed it, so we convinced everyone to play volleyball.”

I grinned. Something I was actually good at. “There’s too many people to play volleyball.”

“Shh,” he kissed my forehead quickly. “We know, but we’re going to do it anyway. Come on.”

He grabbed my hand and tugged me past Beau before he could say another word. “You okay?”

“Yeah. Thanks for the rescue. He wants to talk, and I’m not interested.”

Joel stopped long enough to sweep me off my feet. “Well, he’s going to have to try harder than that. And when he does, you’ll have a wall of bodies between you and him.”

Heat touched my cheeks, but I didn’t say anything. I loved someone having my back. “Does the rescue come with door-to-door service?”

“It does. That, and it’s been long enough that I think you need a refresher on that sunscreen, right?”

“Right. Probably a good idea. Where did Vaughn put it?”

“Right here,” Vaughn appeared right as Joel put me down, and suddenly I was surrounded by skin, muscle, and scent. “I think we can help with that, but you might have to lose the shirt.”

My mouth dropped open. “You guys don’t have to put it on me right now.”

Cade turned me to him, fingers brushing the hem of my shirt. I nodded, and he tugged it off. “You said you don’t want him back, right?”

“I’d want a cactus up the ass before I want him back.”

Hawk coughed, covering his mouth, and Cade’s eyes sparkled with amusement. “Does not wanting him back include not wanting to torture him?”

“Not necessarily.”

Vaughn passed him the sunscreen, which Cade sprayed across my stomach and in a line up to my chest. “I’m glad. Because the five of us rubbing sunscreen into your perfect body is enough to make a dead man jealous.”

I didn’t know who pulled the shorts off me to leave me in just the bathing suit, and I didn’t care. Cade’s fingers slipping across my skin had my eyes closing. “Just don’t make me indecent.”

“Never,” he vowed. Then his voice was closer. “Your indecency is only for us to see, princess.”

It didn’t matter how hot the sun was, I was hotter. “Fuck.”

“I tried earlier, remember?” Vaughn asked. “We were interrupted.”

“All right, all right.” Ellie pushed through the pack to get to me. “Hands off my sister. We need her. And we’re going to kick your ass.”

None of them looked like they believed her, and I kept my face even. What they didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them until it was too late. She smirked, and I paused before following her. “Want to wager something?”

“If we win,” Hawk said, “you sleep naked for the rest of the time we’re here.”

“Done,” I said.

He stopped short, surprised I’d agreed so quickly. “And if we win, the next time we go somewhere, I get to open my own doors.”

A laugh slipped out. “Fine, baby girl. If that’s what you want.”

It was a small bet, because I liked them doing things for me, but I still wanted to prove a point.

I joined the girls on the other side of the net. There were way, way too many of us, but no one really cared. Ellie and I stayed at the front. My guys and Warren stayed there too, looking at us like we were their favorite meal.

All I did was smile.

Vaughn served it, and I jumped on pure muscle memory and instinct, spiking the ball straight into the sand.