Secrets Left Neglected

Chapter 18

Nick

Jenny and Siofra are swimming in the pond. Realizing that the sun will be setting soon, I start to work on lighting a small fire to keep them warm afterwards. The warmer they are, the longer they'll hang out. It's always good to be surrounded by girls in bikinis.

I sneak a look over at Caoilainn. She's in the middle of a conversation with Archer and Pearl. I can't make out what they're saying, but I notice that Caoilainn is nodding her head in agreement. She's not speaking much, but I can tell she's listening.

A light breeze strolls by and blows Caoilainn's hair from behind her ear. Caoilainn laughs at something Pearl says and my heart stops. God, I love the sound of her voice.

I look around to see if anyone has noticed me watching her.

Shit.

Tadhg is off to the side of me, talking with Ruari and Pete. When I looked away from Caoilainn he was starring right at me.

I like Tadhg a lot. We're cool with one another, but one thing I'm absolutely certain about is that Caoilainn is off the market. She is 100% his. Which is a damn shame. After Tadhg brought Corrine to the party at Archer's I thought maybe I'd have a chance.

No such luck, however. When I asked her out at lunch a few weeks ago she turned me down flat. If I'm not mistaken, her and Tadhg have started something. Curious, however, is the fact that they haven't made any announcements about it.

Sighing, I glance around. Ruari and Cian are swapping smack about some gun they were practicing with recently. From what I can tell, Ruari hasn't figured out that Caoilainn and Tadhg have gotten together. How he hasn't is beyond me. I mean, come on. Even now, I can see them staring at one another.

Am I the only one picking up on this?

Lost in my thoughts, I'm brought back to the present by Siofra and Courtney's laughter at the edge of the pond.

"Oh, come on guys, it'll be fun," I hear Siofra plead. Apparently, a game of spin the bottle is on the menu.

I know I shouldn't, but hell if I don't hope it works out. Landing a spin on Caoilainn would be freakin' awesome. Well, so long as Tadhg doesn't rip my head off my shoulders.

My hopes are dashed quickly when Cian talks them out of the game. I continue to work on the fire and it's just about there. Once it's going, everyone gathers around and we've all decided upon truth or dare instead.

"Who wants to start?" Courtney asks, looking around at us all.

"I will," Siofra replies. "Nick, truth or dare?"

I raise my eyebrows. I guess I'm going first.

"Ah, truth," I reply. I'm not big on secrets and the only one I have I'm not sharing, so it's not like it'll be too difficult to spill a truth about anything else in my life. I'm pretty much an open book.

"I know," Courtney jumps in, "who was your first crush when you were in high school?"

I just stare at her and Siofra.

Seriously?

That was fast.

There's no way I'm telling them. I just rationalized that there's only one secret I have and within a millisecond they've tapped on it.

But, what to say? I can't give them the real answer.

When I see the eager faces of my friends I fight down my nerves. Crap. Ah...

"Emilia Passon," I burst out.

When the girls start to laugh, Brody nudges me in my stomach with his elbow.

"Really, Emilia?" Brody laughs. "Why didn't you ever ask her out then?"

I play with the hair on the back of my neck to stall for time. Gee, dude, let's see. How about, I barely knew the girl, had no interest whatsoever in her and hardly remember her? Except the alternative to using her name would be mentioning my real crush...nope, not going there. Not tonight. I sneak another look towards Caoilainn and flinch when I catch Tadhg's eye instead. Damn it!

It's like the man has me on radar tonight. Am I emitting some kind of honesty beacon?

"I don't know. I guess I just didn't. Whatever, she moved to Daily anyway, so what's the difference? No big deal. We were just kids back then."

Whew.

The girl doesn't even live in our state anymore. It's not like she'll ever hear about this.

"Nick and Emilia sitting in the tree..." Archer teases.

"Shut up, Archer," I groan, throwing some fire tinder his way. "Idiot."

"What about you, big man? Truth or dare?" I ask him, annoyed.

Later, after a few rounds, Jenny and Walker disappear to the other side of the pond and behind a boulder for 7 minutes in heaven together. Walker, you lucky bastard.*

I smile. Then I notice the look on Ruari's face. Man, is he pissed off. Come to think of it, he's been acting like a dick all night. I suspect it has something to do with Jenny and Walker. Ruari's usually a good guy, but tonight he's in a very foul mood.

Speaking of foul moods, Fionn's been off as well; shooting daggers at Cian the whole time we've been here. The two of them need to have a little chat about Siofra sooner rather than later or Fionn's gonna explode. The guys around our bonfire are all wrapped a little too tight tonight.

When I feel my phone vibrate urgently in my pocket, I pull it out and check my text messages. I've gotten eight of them within 10 seconds of one another. Coda got into some trouble at home with a raccoon. Great. While I'm texting about him, I look up and to see Jenny walking back to the group with a smile on her face.

Good for her.

When I see Tadhg whisper something in Caoilainn's ear, my mood plummets, however. Looks like I'm eating some of my own crow this evening. Misery loves company, I think and then sigh to myself.

While everyone's distracted I decide to head to the vet's. I stand up and dust myself off, then quietly let Archer know I'm leaving. On my way back to my truck, I make out Caoilainn and Tadhg running together up an embankment behind the pond. I guess they've ditched truth or dare.

I'm going to meet my cousin Rachel at the animal hospital so they can check Coda out. Sounds like some rabies shots could be in order. Not much of a fun night ahead of me, but anything is better than watching Caoilainn disappear with another guy.

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*For the full story of Jenny and Walker's relationship, read, "There are No Words", the other half of this series.

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