This is definitely the easiest story for me to write so far, that's why the updates are so close together. I'm hoping to finish it before I head to college in August, but we'll see. Those of you who read and review are amazing and those of you who are just reading, well, you're cool, too. One wouldn't hurt though, would it? Anyways, this chapter has more Jommy in it for everyone, but a little cliff-hanger at the end cause God knows I love those. Especially this one.
Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue.
When Nic woke up the following morning, she found her first thought to be about the kiss with Spiederman at Adventure Cove the previous day. He tasted a little bit like Red Bull and Stride, which she didn't mind cause it was her favorite brand of gum.
"Nicole!" Tommy yelled, storming into her room, breaking her thoughts. "Would you care to explain this?" He threw a tabloid onto her silk pink sheets.
She sat up and looked down.
Has Spiederman found love again? Rock star seen kissing socialite Nic Quincy in Hilton Head, South Carolina. See page eight for more details. It was capped off by a photo of their big kiss on hole 13.
"At least I looked good," she reasoned, throwing back her comforter. "And it's not a big deal, Tommy. We made a bet that if he made a hole-in-one, I'd kiss him. Obviously, he made the shot."
"Don't get involved with him," Tommy warned her. "The two divorcees? The press will be all over that."
"The press doesn't know I was married," Nic reminded him, looking out the window to the beach. "And the press can also kiss my toned ass."
He shook his head. "Don't be like, Nic. You've always been the good girl, so don't let your image be ruined by some punk in a rock band."
"A rock band you developed," she smirked. "Regardless of whether or not you like it that I kissed him, you do like Spiederman. You like Wally and Kyle, too. You told me you missed them and their idiocy once upon a time."
"I missed a lot of things," he admitted quietly. "But mostly I just missed the girl in the next house over, probably calculating ways to get out of today."
As predicted, Jude sat in the computer room, looking up probable illnesses on the internet. Everything she found was overused, completely impossible, or just stupid. Spiederman might not have been the brightest boy she knew, but even he wouldn't fall for infected eyelashes. Plus, Sadie had recently graduated from Toronto U. with a degree in business and minor in psychology so she could read people like Kyle read his X-Men comics.
"Don't even try it," Spiederman said, stepping into the room. "You're going and you'll like it, dude."
She turned off the desktop. "I was just uhh, checking the weather."
"Sure." He looked out the large window to an almost cloudless day. "You need a computer to tell you its 93 degrees, sunny and perfect bikini weather?"
"Oh, I'm definitely not wearing a bikini," she assured him. "Trust me."
"Maybe not," he interrupted her, "but she definitely is."
Jude walked around the desk and joined him at the window, following his gaze to Nic, who was standing on the Quincy's deck, stretching in a black string bikini, plastered with the Chanel logo. "Why don't you just ask her out?"
"Can't," he replied. "Her brother hates me, I've only been officially divorced for like, 48 hours, and there's the fact that I'm pretty sure I'm just the guy who helped get her brother out of her hair."
"Then let's just go get dressed," Jude muttered, leading him out of the room.
An hour later, everyone had convened at The Ski Shack, a rental place on the harbor at The Salty Dog, where Nic informed them they'd be eating dinner at once a week.
"All right, I talked to the guy, and I can only get six jet-skis," she announced, turning to face everyone. "Sadie said she doesn't want to drive one, so she can ride with Kwest, and I don't mind not driving one, so I'll ride with my brother."
"You can ride with me," Spiederman offered. "I'm smaller than Tommy so you'll have more room."
Nic shrugged. "Okay, I'll ride with you." She passed out keys with tags on them. "Just be back here within an hour and you can go as far out as the green buoys."
As everyone prepared to get ready, Nic pulled the band into a small circle.
"Okay, the guy who runs the place is the same guy who's been running it since I was a kid, so we're close," she whispered. "I had him get one of his guys to let most of the gas in Jude's ski out, so she's gonna break down. Tommy, of course, being the knight in shining armor he so wants to be, will have to rescue her and bring her back in."
"But how does that strand them?" Kyle wanted to know.
"She'll break down within ten minutes and none of us will be found," she went on. "And Jim, the owner, goes to lunch soon, so he won't be here and they can't leave the area without returning their keys, so it'll just be them for like, half an hour."
Wally grinned. "I apologize for saying girls couldn't plan things cause you are a genius."
"It's just from spending years torturing Tommy as a kid," she explained. "Okay, so are we ready?"
"Let's do this!" Kyle exclaimed, running to his jet-ski.
Jude started hers and pulled out of the harbor, following Kwest and Sadie straight out. Having rode one in Italy the previous summer, she knew how they should and shouldn't sound, so when it started shaking, she started worrying. Before she knew it, she'd completely stopped and Kwest and Sadie were too far ahead for her to get their attention. She looked around for Nic and the band, but they weren't even in her eyesight.
"Stopping isn't smart," Tommy told her, pulling up behind her. "Causes wrecks and whatnot."
She rolled her eyes. "I'm not stopped on purpose here, Tommy. My jet-ski must've run out of gas or something."
"Nic," he groaned, catching on quickly. "Well, get on with me and I'll take you back in to tell Jim, who's at lunch for 30 minutes, that we left yours out here."
"They planned this, didn't they?" she assumed, climbing over to sit behind him. "They're good; sneaky and manipulative, but good."
"The best," he sighed as she wrapped her arms around his waist. "Ready?"
"Yeah," she told him as he started again and went speeding back to the harbor.
"Well done, Nic," Spiederman congratulated her as they watched the feuding pair drive back to the rental place. "Your plan is working."
She smirked. "Duh. Now, come on, let's see what this baby can do!"
Once back at the harbor, Tommy helped Jude to sit up on the dock while he remained on the jet-ski, putting him at a distance.
"Why do you think they're working so hard to put us in awkward situations?" Jude whined. "What did we do to deserve this?"
He looked up at her. "You didn't do anything; you just suffered from what I did."
"That's true," she agreed. "I just don't understand why you affect me so much."
"Me either," he shook his head. "I don't deserve to have you care about me the way you do."
"Probably not," she said. "And yet, I still do, regardless of how much you don't seem to care."
"I care," he assured her. "I care enough to stay and try to make things right instead of running away, back to Montreal."
Jude looked away from him. "I can't just forget what you did, you know. I mean, I'm not ready to let you back in just yet."
"I can appreciate that," he told her. "But couldn't we try? I mean, you not talking to me is the worst."
"Worse than being divorced twice before the age of 30?" she teased. "You're giving Ross from Friends a run for his money."
"Since when is divorce so cool anyways?" he asked. "I've done it twice, Nic's done it, so has Spied. Weird, huh?"
She laughed. "I hadn't really thought about it, but it is odd. Maybe I should find a guy down here, marry him, and then get divorced?"
"I don't recommend it," he replied. "The younger and more inexperienced you are, the more tedious the divorce process is."
"What was so bad about Nic's divorce that you had to leave?" she wondered. "I mean, I know it's her business and you don't have to tell me if you don't want to, but I'd like to know why you just left."
He hoisted himself up to the deck and settled down next to her. "Chris Gibbons is scum at the highest level. He played Nic for years, going on and on about how much he loved her, but he was just using her. Of course, he was good at it for a while, but he eventually lost it when he bought himself a new motorcycle cause he thought he just deserved it. So, Nic, who was fed up by that time, asked for a divorce. Naturally, being married to a girl worth $124 million dollars had gotten to his head and he decided he wasn't giving up that easily, so he put up a good fight. By the end of May, and the night of our date, he still wasn't backing down, so her lawyer, Harold, came for me to push along the process. Unfortunately, even with me there, it still took another seven months, but it happened."
"And you never came back becauseā¦."
"Didn't think I could," he admitted. "I figured you'd have moved on and hated me, so I was scared. Plus, I'd met Megan and we got along pretty well, so I stayed and pursued an ill-fated relationship with her."
Jude nodded. "I see. And could you explain your divorce again? Cause what you told me the other night just can't be right."
"It is," he confirmed. "We were in bed and I called her by your name and needless to say, we were legally separated and divorced within two weeks. As much as I wanted her to be enough, she still wasn't what I wanted her to be."
"What's that?" she asked nervously.
"You," he answered honestly. "She just wasn't you."
"I missed you," she whispered. "Even when I hated you most, I missed you more."
Tommy looked at her, giving her the look she knew was hers and only hers. "I really am sorry, girl."
"I know," she breathed, laying her head on his shoulder. "I know."
By the time Jim returned from his long lunch, the rest of the group had come back in and were waiting.
"We uhh, ran out of gas," Nic told Jim. "It's out in the water, right out there."
Tommy smirked. "Uh-huh. Jude's jet-ski just ran out of gas. It's funny though, Jim, cause you've always been so good about filling them."
"Must've slipped my mind," Jim lied. "I'm getting older, Tom."
"Right," Tommy mused. "Well, it was nice to see you again."
Nic led the group back to their cars. "So, I was thinking we have a picnic on the beach tonight?"
"Sounds good," Sadie agreed. "Kwest can man the grill."
"We'll go shopping for supplies," Spiederman offered, referring to the band. "Paper plates and napkins and all that jazz."
"Cool," Nic said. "We actually have a beach grill in our basement, so that's all set. While you all shop, Jude and I can set up the beach."
As soon as they arrived back in Shipyard, the boys jumped into the Range Rover and headed to the grocery. Tommy went to help Kwest with the grill, Sadie took a shower, and Jude and Nic walked down to the beach with a plastic picnic table and table cloth.
"So, I should hate you for that little set-up today," Jude reported. "Lucky for you, it was almost worthwhile, so I'll let it slide."
"Thanks," Nic laughed. "So, did the two of you come to terms about anything?"
"We did," Jude told her. "He told me about leaving to come help you."
"Oh." Nic looked away. "I like to think of myself as strong and independent, so I pretend to think I did it all on my own."
"I understand," Jude assured her. "I kinda figured you to be the whole Kelly Clarkson-Miss Independent-kind of girl when we met. Trust me; I know what it's like to hate yourself for leaning on people."
Nic understood. "Yeah, Spiederman's told me that you kinda hate how you realized how much you relied on my brother after he left."
"He did, did he?" Jude chuckled. "Well, yeah, I did. Through pretty much everything when I was still settling into being the first Instant Star, Tommy was there for me. Yeah, we had some bad, no, scratch that, horrible times, but he was still always there. And then, he just wasn't and I cracked."
"She looked exactly like you," Nic said quietly. "Megan, I mean. If you were in an action movie and needed a stunt double, she could've been it easily."
Jude cleared her throat. "Yeah, I've seen pictures."
"You have?" Nic replied. "How?"
"I used to sneak onto Kwest's computer and look at his emails from Tommy," Jude admitted. "I know it's bad, but I wanted to see him and try to figure out what she had that I obviously didn't."
Before Nic could say anything, Kwest and Tommy approached them, carrying the grill.
"This hasn't been used in years," Tommy observed, lifting the lid, "but it should be okay."
"Nic, let's go talk Sadie into baking some brownies," Kwest suggested. "She'll do it if a socialite persuades her."
"I don't want to," Nic denied.
"I'm not giving you a choice," Kwest explained, grabbing her arm and pulling her back towards the houses.
Jude rolled her eyes as the two of them walked away. "They sure like setting us up, don't they?"
"They do," Tommy agreed. "And they're so subtle about it."
Jude laughed. "Uh-huh. So, this is Hilton Head, huh?"
"This is it." Tommy shut the grill and stood next to her, staring out at the water. "Nic's favorite place in the world."
"What's yours?" Jude asked.
"Studio A, back at G," he answered instinctively. "Working with my favorite artist."
"Shay?" she teased. "No, I like studio A, too." She shivered. "I forget it gets cold on the water at night."
Tommy reached over and wrapped an arm around her, pulling her into him. "Is that okay?"
"Yeah," she mumbled. "It's not so bad."
"Aww," Nic squealed, watching them from the deck with Spiederman, Wally, and Kyle, who'd just returned. "Aren't they cute?"
"Oh, definitely," Wally said. "They should be on a Hallmark card."
Kyle nodded. "One of those ones that play music when you open it. Their song could be like, 'I Honestly Love You' or something equally cheesy."
"Puke," Nic gagged. "That's a horrible song."
"Well, sorry it's not Britney Spears or Justin Timberlake," Kyle apologized sarcastically. "Would uhh, 'Slave 4 U' be better?"
"It is a better song," she smirked. "Come on, let's go do this picnic."
"Nic Quincy, it is nice to see you," a male voice said from the side yard.
Nic looked over her shoulder and felt her blood freeze. "Chris?"
And now, you're compelled to click on that little button to your bottom left. I know you are. Everyone's doing it.
