“Does Brian know what’s in store for him tonight?”
Belle’s smile was wicked. “Not yet. I’m going to help him see the light.”
The bronze sequins of Belle’s bodycon dress sparkled, set off her pale skin, and clung to her every voluptuous curve. If Tess hadn’t been lamentably straight, she was pretty sure she’d have seen the light too, and it would have blinded her.
“He doesn’t stand a chance.” Her last pair of clean leggings lay folded neatly in the dresser drawer. She hadn’t anticipated needing quite so much workout gear during this trip. “Just be sure to text me to let me know where you are and when you plan to be back in the room.”
Belle executed a sharp salute. “Yes, ma’am.”
After hiking the leggings up to her waist, Tess dropped another big tee over her head, this one plum-colored. “You’re more than capable of keeping yourself safe, and I understand that. But if I don’t hear from you, you know I’ll worry.”
“I know. I’ll text. I promise.” Setting aside the book, Belle shifted to the edge of her bed. “That color is gorgeous on you.”
Tess realized. She’d chosen that particular tee for a reason. Hopefully looking decent would salve the bruises her ego had received earlier that day.
“Are you going to be okay?” Her friend looked worried. “I don’t want you getting hurt again.”
Tess lifted a shoulder. “I shouldn’t have been hurt in the first place. I knew he was a player. Some other woman”—some other younger woman—“showing up shouldn’t have surprised me, and I shouldn’t have let myself get hurt. Of course I’m nothing special to him. He barely knows me. As far as he’s concerned, I’m just another tourist to charm for tips. Or maybe take to dinner and fuck, as long as he doesn’t have something better lined up.”
Hearing her own words, the resentment in them, she paused and bit her lip.
She’d just met the man two days before. What the hell was wrong with her?
Belle’s brows had drawn together again, and she positioned herself in front of Tess. “Look at me, babe. Why don’t you just cancel the rest of the lessons?”
Much as Tess adored Belle, she didn’t want to have this conversation. Not again. Not when Lucas hadn’t owed her anything but an hour of tennis instruction and the picnic he’d promised, both of which she’d duly received. At their first lesson, he’d even offered to stop flirting, and she’d told him he could continue. That she could handle it.
Any pain she’d experienced—emotional or physical—was her own fault, and she knew it. She didn’t plan to take it out on Belle or Lucas or anyone, except maybe herself.
“I’ll be fine. I just got confused during that first lesson.” She gave Belle a moment of eye contact and a smile before moving away to grab her sneakers. “We were talking as we played, and he was intelligent. Thoughtful and well-spoken. And he’s good at his job, and you know how I feel about competent men.”
“They’re your kryptonite.” Belle heaved a wistful sigh. “Mine too, of course.”
“So, yeah, I flirted with him a bit. And yeah, I had lunch with him today, because I kept thinking…”
He’d seemed different in those last few minutes of their lesson. During most of their picnic, too, until she’d asked about his future at the resort. He’d seemed more sincere. Less shielded. And she’d found herself wondering whether what she’d taken as immaturity, as the aimlessness and shallowness of youth, was something else entirely.
“I kept thinking maybe he wasn’t unformed at all, but opaque. Deliberately so.” She adjusted the backs of her shoes until they were comfortable, bending from the waist instead of her knees. “Not shallow, but guarded. And if that’s who he was, rather than a shiftless player who didn’t care much about anything, maybe I could believe his interest in me was sincere.”
She forced her lips to stretch into a smile as she slid her keycard into her pocket. “But now I know better, so don’t worry. I won’t let myself get hurt again. Especially since I don’t have time for any complications right now, including those of the male persuasion. And that would be true even if I’d been right about Lucas.”
“Babe…” Brown eyes troubled, Belle touched Tess’s arm. “I’m sorry. Again.”
Number eight. This conversation needed to end, stat.
Tess opened the heavy door to the hall. “I’m not. It’s good to know where my weaknesses lie. Self-knowledge is important, as I always tell the kids.”
“Maybe so.” Belle didn’t