(Kristie's POV)
I go into the kitchen to see what Avi has found and am surprised at the amount of food and drinks. I yell back to Mitch, "You weren't kidding."
I lean around Avi who is looking at the food in the fridge and I ask, "What are you going to have?"
Avi puts an arm around me. He turns towards me and says, "I think that I am going to make us all dinner tonight. I have a great family recipe that I can use. I'm going to have Ester email me, but I think that I have all of the ingredients that I need."
"Avi, wow, that's really nice of you!" I say.
"It's really for you, but, you know, we all have to eat." Avi says with a small smile.
I feel all giddy inside and can't believe that Avi likes me. He's actually flirting with me. I think this is exactly what I need right now, a nice guy who genuinely cares for me. I smile and say, "Well, I am going to go take a shower and get all this sand out of my hair. I'm looking forward to dinner."
I head back into the living room as Scott and Mitch both quickly turn towards the TV as if they weren't listening. I lean between them and say, "It's not nice to eavesdrop on your friend."
Mitch says, "We weren't trying too. Sorry Kirst." Mitch frowns and gives me his puppy dog eyes. I shake my head and head down the hall towards my room. I walk in and turn around and shut the door and lock it. I then run and jump on my bed and scream into my pillow. I sit up and can't stop smiling. I'm so happy in this moment. I head into the bathroom and start the shower. I wait a little bit for the shower to get warm, so I head back out and look out towards the beach. The sun is getting lower now and I can see a couple of ships in the distance. I head back into my bathroom to get ready for the dinner.
(Scott's POV)
Okay, we (meaning Mitch and I) need to get ourselves together. This is our sweet friend, Kristie, and her possibly new boyfriend. We are acting like kids listening in on their conversation. I look at Mitch and quietly say, "We need to back off and let this happen between them. We shouldn't have done that."
Mitch looks at me and says, "I know. I feel bad."
"Well, at least she's not mad; I think she's too head over heels for that." I say with a laugh.
We go back to watching SpongeBob and hear Avi in the kitchen. After about thirty minutes or so, I feel my phone vibrate and check it out and see that it's my sister calling me. I swipe my finger across the bottom to accept the call and say, "Hey Zoey."
"Scott, I'm so sorry, I was trying to call Kirstie and she wouldn't answer her phone. I have to talk to her." Zoey says almost out of breath.
"Calm down, what's wrong?" I say as Mitch turns to me and presses Mute on the remote.
"I did something awful. Kirstie is going to be so mad at me." Zoey says now in a calmer voice.
I stand up to go sit outside on the deck so that I can talk with my sister. Zoey is about two years younger than me, but we are really close. She and Kirstie are like sisters. I step outside and nod to Mitch that everything is fine. He was concerned when he could hear my sister's voice sound panicked.
"Okay, what happened?" I ask.
"It's about Jeremy." Zoey says.
"Kirstie's ex, that Jeremy, what happened?" I say wondering what in the world my sister was doing talking to that jerk. He's way too old for her.
"Jeremy took me out for coffee and I thought he was just being sweet. I thought that he just needed a friend since him and Kirstie officially broke up." Zoey started.
"Why on earth would you go out with him?" I say trying my best to not turn into an over-protective big brother.
"I didn't go out with him, Scotty, I just went for coffee. Anyways, listen, I haven't gotten to the bad part yet," she added.
"Okay, I'm listening." I say shaking my head quietly.
"Well, we were just talking and one thing lead to another and he somehow got of me where you are all staying this summer. And he's on his way there," says Zoey.
I am completely in shock and start to raise my voice and say, "Zoey, how could you, this was a private beach house, do you know how hard it is for us to be somewhere where no one knows where we are. He's going to tell everyone."
"No, no, he won't. He promised."
"And you believed him?" I ask rolling my eyes as if she could see me.
"He just wants to talk to Kirstie, she won't return his calls or texts," says Zoey.
"Maybe she needed some space. When did this all happen? Do we even have time to avoid him somehow?" I say, mentally doing the math in my head of how far he lives from the house. About five hours, I think to myself.
"Well," Zoey starts and then pauses.
"Well, what, Z. What time did you go out with him for coffee?" I ask getting frustrated with this whole conversation.
"Late last night," she says.
"Great, he's probably pulling up the house now?" I say.
"Scotty, I'm so sorry. I didn't know that all he wanted was to get information out of me. He seems like he's changed now. He really loves Kirstie and I want her to be happy too." Zoey pleads.
"Zoey, have you ever thought that maybe, she is happy now? She's starting something new with someone here. Let it happen." I say, making sure not to say who, who knows who she would tell that news too. I add, "I gotta go, Zoey, thanks for the delayed heads up."
I hang up and take a deep breath and turn and see Mitch standing at the door. He slides the door open and steps outside.
"Scott, is everything okay?" Mitch asks.
"No." I say.
I proceed to tell Mitch the whole conversation. Mitch is shocked and says, "How could she tell our private, secret location. Kirstie is going to be so pissed."
"We have to go tell Kirstie now." I say as we step back inside.
Kirstie was in the kitchen helping Avi with the food. She was just beaming around Avi and I could tell that I was about to crumble that. I look at her and ask, "Kirstie, can we talk for a second?"
She looks over at me and sees the seriousness of my face and quickly says, "Sure."
She walks with me to my room and I shut the door. She looks at me concerned. Mitch stayed behind with Avi helping him cook so Avi could go get showered and ready for dinner as well.
I turn to Kirstie and say, "You might want to sit down."
Kirstie didn't sit down, she wanted to stand. She proceeded to cross her arms knowing this was not going to be good. "Just tell me, don't drag this out, Scott. What's wrong?"
"Zoey tried to call you, she called me, she and Jeremy went out for coffee last night, basically, she told Jeremy where we are, and he's coming here to talk to you." I say quickly.
Kirstie now wants to sit and hops on my bed and grabs her phone out of her pocket and looks to see that she has had it on Do Not Disturb mode. She switches it over and sees that she has about five missed calls from Zoey and several text messages. She scans them and looks at me in horror. "Scott, he can't come here. Not now."
"I know; we won't let him in. We will ask him to leave. He won't stay, Kirstie." I say as I sit beside her on the bed. I put my arm around her to comfort her.
"Of course, this would happen, just when things are about to start happening for me. I can't believe your sister, Scott. Seriously, I thought that she had my back." Kirstie says standing up pacing the room.
"She has your back; she just doesn't think sometimes when a guy is giving her attention." I say.
Kirstie shakes her head and looks at me, "What are we going to do?"
"I don't know, maybe he won't show. Maybe he'll just try and call you?" I say.
"Well, he's been trying to call me, that's why I had my phone on Do Not Disturb." Kirstie says.
(Kirstie's POV)
This is not happening right now. The last person that I want in this house is Jeremy. My ex in the same room with my current boy-well, almost boyfriend. I know it's not Scott's fault, but I can't believe his sister. I am so mad right now. I look at Scott and say, "Okay, well, let's head back out to the living room. Maybe he won't show." Scott nods and we both walk out to the living room.
By this time, Kevin has emerged from the basement and is surprised at the time. Avi is getting ready in his room and Mitch has taken over cooking for a bit. Mitch looks over at me and half smiles hoping I'm okay. I nod and tilt my head and shrug. Kevin looks from Mitch to me to Scott and says, "Okay, what did I miss? There is some serious tension in the room right now."
I walk over to Kevin and say, "It's nothing. Did you like the recording studio? You were down there for hours!"
"Kirstie, it is amazing! Guys, we can start recording our third album here. It has everything we need." Kevin says still pumped from his work he was doing.
I walk over to the kitchen and look in the pots and walk over to Mitch who looked so concerned. I actually felt bad that he was feeling so bad about this. I put my arm around him and say, "No worries, Mitchie, everything will be okay."
He smiles and kisses me on my head and hugs me.
Avi comes back out and heads back into the kitchen to check on everything.
(Avi's POV)
I sense some tension in the air, but I try and not say anything. Kirstie looks amazing. I come into the kitchen and tell Mitch, "Great job, thank you."
Mitch smiles and goes to set the table. Everyone helps and I bring the food over to the table, I made crab and shrimp gumbo, steamed rice, and crab and cheese dip with some bread for dipping.
"Okay, everyone, let's sit down and eat. Ladies first," I say as I pull a chair out for Kirstie. I look up as Mitch grins. I smile and scoot the chair in as Kirstie sits down. We all sit around the table and everyone digs in.
"Oh my goodness, this is so good, Avi." Kirstie says.
"I'm glad that you like it." I say.
"I don't like it, I love it!" she says back.
"Okay, new rule, Avi is cooking every night." Scott says from across the table.
"I'll try, but we should take turns." I say laughing. I was happy that everyone was really enjoying the food.
We spend the next hour sitting around the table, eating, laughing and sharing stories of the tour. I get up to get some more wine and I hear the doorbell. I tell everyone, "I'll get it." As soon as I head to the door, I see Mitch, Kirstie, and Scott all stand up. I wasn't sure, but I thought that I saw Kirstie stand behind Scott a little bit. I opened the door and was surprised to see Jeremy, Kirsite's ex standing there.
(A/N: Hope you enjoyed. I'll update again soon. Thanks for reading! )