Read Online Believing Lies by Rachel Everleigh - Free Book Online

men to, get this, ‘sow their oats’ before marriage.” She used finger quotes to empathize how ridiculous she found the phrase. “I don’t know where your mom gets that shit from. Long story short, I told her to get lost and said you would call her by Saturday, so you have two more days. Sorry.”
    “Nothing for you to be sorry about . . . Did you really have this whole conversation through the intercom?”
    “As I said, I wasn’t going to let her come up and fuck with you.”
    I laughed. “You rock. You know that, right?”
    “Hell yes, I do.”
    My mother’s opinion of the situation stung, but I wouldn’t let myself dwell on it. Today wasn’t about negative thoughts. I’d had enough of those lately and probably would have plenty more in the days to come.
    “Thanks for taking care of my mother. I’ll call her by Saturday. But first I’ll call Trenton to make arrangements to move my things out.” A ton of weight dropped from my shoulders. I could totally do this. I had to. “Enough of this craziness for now, we’re here to enjoy ourselves,” I said, then mustered a halfhearted smile. I was ready for a change of subject before the depression snuck up on me again and ruined our afternoon. “So you seem to really like Conner, huh?”
    Her face glowed with happiness. “I really do.” She suddenly frowned, seemingly ashamed. “But I feel bad discussing my new relationship when you’re dealing with a breakup.”
    My shoulders slumped at her admission. “Please don’t feel bad. I want you to be nothing but happy. I’m glad you met Conner.” I smiled, this time sincerely.
    “Hey, sexy!” I heard a man’s voice yell from the shore.
    In an instant, I was splashed with water as Sophie almost flipped over in her tube, but she righted herself just in time to stay afloat. She gasped. “No way. Speak of the devil, and he shall appear. Look.” I looked where she was pointing and saw two guys standing at the edge of the water—Conner and Adam.
    My stomach did an involuntary, tiny backflip at the sight of Adam. As hard as I tried, I couldn’t deny that I was entranced by the sight of him standing there in nothing but army-green swim trunks and a pair of aviator sunglasses.
    My head whipped back to Sophie. Now that my eyes were no longer on the beautiful man on the beach, I was pissed. “I thought today was about you and me, not setting me up on a double date. I’m not ready for that, and you know it.” I kept my voice low enough to not make a scene.
    She put her hands in the air as if I was pointing a gun at her. “I swear I didn’t know.” I peered at her skeptically. “I promise you. As I said, I told Conner we were coming here, but I never invited him to come along. I have no idea why he would even think it was a good idea to show up with Adam.” She looked truly remorseful. “I’m sorry, honey. I’ll go explain to Conner that you’re not ready for additional company yet.”
    “Wait,” I huffed out. “I’ll just look weak and pathetic if you send them away now. Plus, I know you’d like to spend time with Conner. I can put on my big girl panties for the rest of today.”
    “Thank you so much!” she squealed in delight. “Just let me know if it gets to be too much, and I’ll make up an excuse for us to leave. We can use a code word.” She appeared to be deep in thought for a couple of seconds. “Got it.” Her voice lowered when she said, “The code word is: Banana Hammock.”
    I giggled. “I’m not even going to ask why or how you came up with Banana Hammock as the code word.” I shook my head at her. “Come on, lover girl. Let’s go get your man.” We both began to use our hands to slowly paddle our way in.
    The closer I got to shore, the more the butterflies in my stomach fluttered. The sun was shining brightly behind the boys, making it hard to see clearly, but I noticed Adam’s tattoos looked incredible against the golden backdrop. I could finally see the full design on