He let loose another heavy sigh, and then nodded. “Come on. Everyone’s getting ready to head out for dinner.”

Lexi really wished they hadn’t had that conversation. All she wanted was for Jack to leave. The week was going to be very long with him here. Lexi bit her lip as she followed her boyfriend into the living room to meet the rest of the group for dinner already lost in thought about the upcoming week.

After assembling into their vehicles, the group drove to a local Mexican restaurant that Seth insisted had the best margaritas. Just as importantly, they didn’t check for identification. Since apparently all the girls Seth brought along were under twenty-one, that was a pretty important factor for him.

The dilapidated construction was recognizable solely by the faded green and red paint coating the walls and a rickety sign hanging half-off its hinges that read ‘Desperados.’ It didn’t look promising.

Under different circumstances, Lexi never would have entered the place. The hole-in-the-wall establishment’s only perquisite thus far rested in the gorgeous waitress who greeted them at the entrance. She was tall and buxom with wavy brown hair to her waist and cherry red lipstick coating her full lips. A long skirt hung off her voluptuous hips and a white off the shoulder top revealed her other very full assets. Every guy in the place stopped to gawk at her as she greeted them with her thick foreign accent.

Seth smirked and made a crude gesture to Hunter before charging forward and introducing himself. The waitress giggled at his obviously rude sexual remark and directed them into a large corner booth. Lexi watched the woman roll her eyes as she turned seated them and left. Lexi suppressed a giggle as she was shoved into the inside corner of the booth next to Jack’s girlfriend. She cursed herself for not paying more attention to the seating arrangements.

“So you’re Lexi?” the girl asked giving Lexi her full attention.

“Uh...yeah,” Lexi said leaning her elbow on the table and resting her head on her hand.

“That’s a pretty name. I’m Kate. I don’t think we had a chance to meet,” she said cheerfully.

Lexi heard a distinct chuckle emanating from the other side of Kate. She couldn’t help but openly glare at Jack sitting on the opposite side of Kate. Obviously, Kate wasn’t quite as perceptive as Clark otherwise she probably wouldn’t be acting as nice as she was right now.

The waitress came back with menus and took drink orders, which mainly consisted of several pitchers of margaritas. Lexi didn’t intend to drink much though. Her tolerance was beyond low, and she needed to be fully aware now that Jack was sticking around. Great…what a fun trip…

“Jack, thanks for giving me a heads up about your arrival,” Seth said acting perturbed.

Jack shrugged effortlessly. Lexi tried not to stare at the light stubble on his chin and up his jaw line that made him look older and more handsome. “I couldn’t stay away. You know that,” he said cocking his head to the side and smiling suggestively at his friend.

“Oh baby, baby, take me now,” Seth cried passionately. He cracked up laughing and smacked the table with his hand hard enough for the water glasses to shake. “Man, I’ve been meaning to tell you about this chick…” He wasn’t afforded the luxury of finishing his sentence as Luke forcefully smacked the back of his head. “Ugh…” he croaked. “What the fuck was that for?”

“There are five women at the table, are you sure you want to finish that line of conversation?” Clark asked raising his eyebrows in warning.

“Yeah man, I don’t care who hears.” He shifted his attention back to Jack. “So I was fucking this…” Another vicious slap came, but from his other side this time. “What. The. Fuck. Sandy!” he cried glaring at the leggy brunette seated next to him.

“I can’t believe you were going to…” she trailed off as she realized everyone was staring at her.

“I wasn’t going to tell them whether or not it was you.” A blush crept onto her cheeks, but she remained resolute. The other two girls at the table seemed to find this highly amusing. They were facing into each other and giggling, then began whispering something that they obviously didn’t care to share with the rest of the table. “Anyway,” he began again massaging the back of his head, “like I was saying, I was banging this girl from behind, and she did this amazing…”

Lexi blanched at his next comment. She knew Seth was crude, but this was over the top even for him. She heard Kate whimper. When Lexi flashed her eyes towards the girl, she realized she was tugging on Jack’s sleeve, begging him to make Seth stop.

“Alright man,” he said grabbing Kate by the upper thigh and pulling her into him. She giggled a little. Lexi felt like gagging. “How about you tell me what she did when we’re not about to eat?”

“Your loss man,” Seth said running his hand down Sandy’s back.

The night proceeded smoothly after that point. Lexi managed to carry on an entire conversation with Jack’s girlfriend who, as much as Lexi hated to admit it, seemed like a genuinely nice person. Jack remained civil, but they both purposefully avoided all means of communication. Sometimes when Lexi would say something referencing something from their past, he would catch her eye and grin devilishly. At those moments, she tried to keep the desirous glint out of her own eyes, and reminded herself repeatedly that she was sitting at the table with her boyfriend. Her very lovable, amazingly intuitive boyfriend…who would notice if she kept up the flirting signals Jack was conspicuously sending her way.

At the end of the night, Seth boasted about getting the waitress’s number, all the while having each arm slung around another girl. Lexi wasn’t all too sure how he did it. But she was pretty sure that the waitress, at least, had given him a wrong number.

Since they had arrived so late in the afternoon, and the majority of them wanted to be awake as soon as possible to hit the beach, they all separated into their rooms to sleep. Lexi simply couldn’t get comfortable in her room. The queen-size bed she was sharing with Sandy, felt lumpy despite how expensive she knew it was. She turned onto her back and felt a sharp elbow dig into her side. Lexi shot up in bed wondering if this girl was feigning sleep with how cruel her jabs were. After experimentally pushing her body, she decided Sandy was actually asleep. Apparently, she was just a brutal sleeper. Not that Lexi could really sleep anyway. All she could think about was Jack.

Besides his occasional chuckle and rather suggestive eye contact, he hadn’t really done much else to entice her...whether good or bad. The sane part of her told her that that was a good thing. She should definitely consider that to be a good thing. But being this close to him and having him nearly completely ignore her...well, it damn well irritated her.

So what if he had an adorably, perky girlfriend? He had flirted with her when he had been with Danielle, and they had been together much longer than that. Hating herself for her thoughts, she kicked her feet over the bed and silently edged out of the room.

The beach house was designed in such a way that when you entered from the front door a large set of stairs off to the right led to the enormous, lofted, master bedroom suite. It took up the entire top floor, and Seth had happily claimed his parents’ king-size bed as his own for the week. The front doorway opened to the living room with standard beach decorating, hardwood floors, and a host of stylish wood furniture. Down a hallway to the left, the guys were staying in two standard offices, one with a pullout couch and the other with a black futon. A set of stairs off of the living room led to the bottom floor where Seth’s sister’s bedroom, where Lexi was staying, and a separate guest bedroom were connected by an adjoining bathroom. A homey-looking den opened to the massive deck Lexi had looked up at earlier that day.