I lay under the sun, soaking the warmth and heat. You'd think it was just another normal day out at the beach in fact it wasn't. I was just forced to comply with Dwight's wishes which told me I had no other choice than to cut class and pretend like my life didn't have any Rowan related glitches. Minnie sat on the far end of the beach mat, digging a hole into the sand with her spade, occasionally dragging me to the waves for a bucket of water. She looked downright adorable with her pink swimming costume, a matching strawberry band holding back her mousy curls.

"Minnie, grandma packed you some grilled cheese sandwiches. Would you like to have one?" I reached for the basket holding the packed lunch Mrs Masters prepared for us.

She shook her head a very earnest 'NO' without so much a glance towards me.

"Oh wow! Look what we have here. Peanut butter jelly sandwiches."I took a bite and moaned. "hmmmm....this is yumm."

Minnie continued to ignore me as she poured some water into the sand, kneading it like a professional chef would knead dough.

"Minnie." I tried again to no avail.

"laycher." She responded, which I was assuming meant 'later.'

"Minnie, how about a nice, double chocolate ice-cream?" Dwight asked her, taking over the vacant space beside me.

"Awrich." She came running towards Dwight, the beach bucket and spade forgotten.

"Now, if you manage to take two large bites of this sandwich. You will get not one but two ice-creams. Do we have a deal?"

Minnie puckered her lips, trying to decide if her uncle was making a good bargain and nodded. "Okay."

Dwight gave me a devilish grin at his successful scheming when it came down to forcing the child to eat lunch.

"Raising a child is not as easy as it seems." Dwight declared.

"I know that." I said, trying hard to not show him how envious I felt. "Why are you even here? I thought you were supposed to be busy on Saturday."

"I cancelled the board meetings, in fact I was supposed to accompany dad to Singapore but decided against it. I have been working all day, yesterday; I think I deserve a break too." Dwight's iPhone vibrated beside him as if to disagree with his theory. He frowned when the name flashed on the screen, "What is it, Mac? The meeting is rescheduled for tomorrow. Don't call me again. If anything, call Katelyn." With that the phone was switched off.

"Oh my god. Isn't she cute?" A young blond girl halted in front of us, cooing over Minnie. Her friend nodded, giggling beside her, as if it wasn't a child they were talking about but a freaking dolphin that did some tricks. "What's your name, baby?"

"Minnie." The child answered as she went on layering sand in a failed attempt at making a sand castle.

The blond girl pulled her dark shades upward and gave Dwight a flirtatious smile. "Your daughter's really adorable."

"Why, thank you ladies." Dwight responded, climbing to his feet and brushing the sand off his beach shorts, picking up Minnie in his arms. I could feel the girl's eyes travelling all over his body, undressing him, from head to toe.

She giggled for no particular reason, "I can see where the girl gets her great looks from."

Dwight chuckled. "You guys are tourists? Where are you from?"

They glanced at each other, exchanging some private unsaid words and said. "We are from Italy. Just here for a few days now. Do you know any place with great sea food around here?"

"Oh, I know loads." Dwight answered enthusiastically. "I can show you some good places."

"Great!" The girls exclaimed in unison like twins joined to the hip. Blondie's buoyant face fell when her eyes levelled with mine. "but, what about your wife?"

Dwight waved his hand in my direction, the way you shoo a fly. And his next words blew the air out of my lungs. "She is my sister."

I gaped at him. He did not just call me his sister?

"Minnie's mother she.." Dwight stifled a fake sob.

"Oh my god, I'm sorry." Blondie put her hand on his broad biceps.

He continued to appear affected by a troubled old memory, a solemn expression creeping over his face. "It was a long time ago. It's alright now."

This guy was better off in Hollywood. What the fuck was he doing here?

"C'mon girls, you have to see this best club in town, they also have the best crabs. I'll show you a good time. Minnie, baby, come. Say bye to Aunt Alana."  He winked at me.

That crafty asshole.

Minnie declined Dwight's offer, clinging to me the way a baby monkey would cling to his mother, he gave up a while later and closed the distance between us, whispering in my ear. "It's partly a lie. You plan on becoming my sister-in-law, don't you?"

"Asshole." I whispered.

He pecked the side of my head, "I love you, you know that, right?"

That said, he strode over to the duo and walked off the beach with the blond on his right and the brunette on his left. If nothing else, those sharks were going to tear him alive.

I sprawled over the beach matt, occasionally opening a novel and closing it back without even reading a single word. Minnie had been playing in the sand for so long that when I noticed she'd dozed off, I blew out a sigh of relief and lied down next to her. My mind floated towards Rowan, who had never taken me to the beach during our relationship. I had always imagined how he might look in a swim trunks and how much fun it would have been with him around. This time, I fantasized about him.

I felt Rowan's hands massage my back. His deft fingers worked on the bikini strings, setting my skin on fire. I squirmed under his touch. This was a freakin dream, yet it felt so real. He caressed and stroke the delicate skin with the back of his hands, trailing feather light kisses down my back and up with precision, his gruff, prickly facial hairs putting me into an excessive overdrive of emotions. "Alana, I love you so much." I heard his sensuous voice whisper in my ear. 

"I love you, too." I murmured.

"Alana."

"Rowan."

"Alana, wake up."

I fluttered my eyes open and stared into a chubby face. "It's me, Nina." She said.

I could feel the colour rise up my cheeks. I hated this feeling that overwhelmed me; Rowan kept invading my dream world too and on a fucking beach. He felt real, all flesh and bone. My mind seemed to accommodate with the reality that Rowan was not here, but my body? That was an entirely different story.

Nina had tied her dark hair in a French plait. Her baby blue bikini suit fit her perfectly, highlighting her curves which normally went unnoticed. Chez settled beside me, making sure to not wake up the baby sleeping peacefully.

"Who told you I was here?" I asked Nina.

"Duh! Your professor's sexy doppelganger. He called us and asked if we could join you guys at the beach. We couldn't turn down such a kind offer. Speaking of which, where is he?" she scanned the beach from under the heart shaped sun-glasses.

"I don't know, probably conning some tourists into getting laid by playing the widowed single father. He is an egoistic, cocky and an arrogant bastard." I responded taking a sip from the soda can.

"Did I hear someone talk about me?" Dwight interrupted, startling Nina. He carried a blue surf board under his arm, it had large red flames, reminded me so much of a bag of cheetos. "Those were some killer adjectives, Alana."

I'm sure Nina's eyes were bulging out from under those sun-glasses, they were black but transparent. The Master boys were an eye-candy, always have been. Dwight handed us a tray of chilled margaritas, the dazzling smile was working wonders on my friend. She hadn't blinked. Not once.

Dwight's gaze travelled to Nina and Chez, "Thanks for coming."

Chez was too busy reading the back cover of the novel. That moron needed to cut the doucheness.

Dwight caught the whiff of the awkward air since he said, "Uh..I'm gonna go do some surfing."

He turned to go when I saw another man, probably similar to Dwight's age with identical yummy surfboard abs, stood a few steps away, also with a surf board. He caught my eye and waved.

"Can I come too?" Nina climbed to her feet without waiting for Dwight to respond. "I'd love to learn how to surf..I've always wanted to, you know. Will you please teach me, Mr Masters?"

Dwight's brows twitched upward, he looked from Chez to Nina and back at me, then turned to Nina and said. "Of course, sweetness and please call me Dwight. Don't be a stranger."

A loud crunching noise forced us all to turn our head towards Chez, he had squeezed the life out of the soda can.

The little inner circle game of three was on. Nina was looking for attention in hopes of making Chez jealous which was working in her favour. Dwight was just playing the game and going with the flow and Chez, well, he was taking the bait.

Dwight inched a little more close to Nina, I thought he was going to kiss her or something but he didn't, instead he said in his best huskiest voice, "I don't know which is prettier today, the water, the sky or your eyes."

Nina giggled lightly, and I swear I noticed a few butterflies flutter around her.

Chez snorted behind me. "That's the nuttiest, most cliché pick-up like I've ever heard."

Poor Chez.

We watched as the two made their way towards the waves, Dwight had lightly put a hand on her back. Chez was just sulking for the most part when Dwight began teaching Nina how to surf, before we knew it, the two had drifted away a little further with the waves. I still heard her giggles from down there.

"What does she want from me?" Chez asked.

"Commitment." I answered without sugar coating.

"What?"

"Give her that and she is all yours."

Chez was on mute after that, sulking and talking about nothing in particular. An hour later the two arrived, Nina had her arm interlocked with Dwight's arm and the two were just walking on soft sand, they hardly noticed us. I was guessing it to be a Dwight constructed strategy.

By the crack of sunset, we'd all packed our stuff, Dwight and Nina piled into the BMW while I, Chez and Minnie rode in Chez's mustang. I had to tolerate with the smoke and the flames from the driver's side. My luggage was already packed in the morning so upon reaching the house, I only loaded it in Chez's car and told them I needed to change while Nina and Chez got a quick tour of the house along with a quick shower. The two were tempted to stay when words like 'Hot tub' and 'private movie theatre' were thrown at them courtesy of Dwight Masters but they refused to get lured into the trap.

When it was time for good-bye, Minnie broke into tears which made the good-bye all the more difficult. I promised her to come next week. We rode in silence all the way to Carmel; the radio was doing a good job where distraction was concerned. Nina was in the back seat, an outcome of her flirtatious evening with Mr Surfboard abs.

Chez dropped us near the Girls dorms and told Nina that we needed to talk in private. I wasn't sure what this was about, but clearly Nina did. She smiled and walked through the gates with a smile plastered on her face.

"What is it?" I asked.

Chez reached for the glove compartment, summoned a thin glittery envelope out and handed it to me.

I stared at the envelope in confusion.

"Consider it as an early birthday gift from Nina and me."

I laughed. "My birthday is like six months away. What's going on, Chez?"

"Just open it, Alana. Your questions drive me crazy sometimes."

I pouted and tore open the envelope. The contents of the glittery envelope rendered me speechless. This was too much. I couldn't take this. Not something so expensive when I knew Chez was saving up to go to Art college later. This was insane, my friend had gone nuts.

"You can't do this. It's too much. I can't accept it."

He nodded. "Give it to someone else or throw it away. I don't care. It's your birthday gift, although I can't have you begging me later for another gift."

"Where did you get the money?"

"I sold two paintings. You know, the titanic one you were so fond of." He laughed, "and Nina helped with the other half of it. This gift was her idea, actually."

"I don't know what to say Chez..."

I had no words. Tears trickled down my face. "What did I do to deserve friends like you? How do I repay you for this kindness?"

"With your body."

I punched his biceps lightly.

"I'm just tired of seeing you mope around, thought you would like a change."

I wrapped my arms around Chez. "Thank you so much."

"Now I want to see that old smile again."

    We talked some more and then drove away, said he was working on a new art project. Just when I was stepping inside the large gates, a silhouette of a person moved under the shadows when I turned, my gave travelled to the tall large figure standing across just a few feet away, studying us with hawk eyes.

  "Gabriel, hey." The blond cat's jaded green pierced through the darkness. It looked like two sparkling gems.

   "Alana, I wanted to talk to you about something."

   I folded my arms across my chest. "What do you want to talk about?"

"Inside my truck, come."

Gabriel helped me inside the truck and took over the driver's side. "This thing has been eating me since quite some time now and I really want you to know about it, I can't keep it buried inside. Not anymore."

I think I knew just what he was planning so I raised a palm up to stop him. "I have a boyfriend and if you're gonna suggest double dating, then I'm afraid, I'm gonna have to say no."

        "That's not it, I mean; I like your suggestion about double dating." Gabe smiled coyly, "but this is something else."

        "Tell me." The heart wouldn't stop pounding; I wanted to get it over with now and fast.

        "You have to promise me, you're not going to tell Rowan." He took my hand in his; the gesture seemed instinctive rather than done on purpose. I hesitated for a moment but let him entwine our fingers.  I needed moral support if this was some serious shit.

         "Rowan is involved?"

         "Of course he is, in fact, it has nothing to do with you Alana." Gabriel cleared his throat, like a principle doing it for a very important speech during the morning assembly. "What do you know of Rowan's past?"

        "Everything that needs to be known." I said in a weak voice. "At least, that's what I've believed."

          Gabriel analyzed me for a second. "Did he talk about his early childhood? About the people close to him?"

          I shrugged, "well, yeah. He told me once about this best friend he used to stand up for. That's when he started to..."

         "Cooper, right?" Gabriel asked me. "Rowan had a best friend named Cooper, who lost touch with him after Rowan was expelled from school."

"Why are we talking about that right now? Do you know that guy?" I asked him.

Gabriel smiled warmly at me, his jaded eyes twinkled. "That's me. I'm Gabriel Cooper."

****

A.N: Heya! Hope you guys enjoyed reading this chapter. So what do you think about the gift that Chez gave to Alana? I would really like to see your guesses xD Please vote and comment :) It means a lot to me.