Love is the Sunshine novel Chapter 51

"Okay, hold it right there. I can easily manage to apply the sunscreen on my own now," Carla stopped Terence just as he was about to smear sunscreen onto her chest. Taking the sunscreen away from his hands, she began applying it on her own while also shooting Terence quick glares.

Terence was amused by her reaction, for it was so obvious that she was just being shy once again. But he was actually already feeling quite contented after being able to apply the sunscreen onto her back. Her skin felt so soft and supple as he massaged the lotion onto her.

Without them noticing, Sean had already grabbed a lifesaver and gotten into the sea, while Terence was still so busy helping Carla put on the sunscreen. Rainer had been the one taking care of him all the while.

After a few minutes, Terence and Carla were finally done applying the lotion, so they walked slowly and headed toward the sea. "Terence!" shouted Megan, standing from a just couple of meters away. She then walked over to Terence and suddenly informed him, "Terence, I've called a couple of my friends and invited them to come here to join us. The more the merrier. Right? Let's all have a good time here at the beach! You wouldn't mind, would you?"

"What's the point in telling me after the fact?" Terence sarcastically replied, visibly getting a bit annoyed upon her actions.

"Please don't get upset. Next time, I'll be sure to get your permission first. And besides, I've already made the phone calls. I'd hate to be the one to bear the bad news that you don't want them to come over. Please, Terence, can't you just let this one slide?" Appealing to his pity, Megan leaned close to him and swung his arm as they were talking.

It wasn't the first that she had invited people to come over. In fact, she had already held two beach parties there before. Back then, Terence never really did mind at all, so she was under the assumption that he wouldn't get mad at her this time either.

With his brows deeply furrowed, Terence just stayed still, keeping his mouth shut. He would have preferred for him and Carla not to get disturbed by anyone during this vacation, but due to his disposition of not ever wanting to be rude to anyone, he just chose to keep quiet. Holding Carla's hand, he guided her toward the sea. They walked hand in hand by the shoreline, trying to savor the moment before everybody else arrived.

After about half an hour, the friends Megan had invited to come over had all arrived.

It literally became a beach party. The spacious lounge area they had all to themselves earlier had now become a little too crowded. Some of them wanted to immediately plunge headfirst into the water. A small group was getting ready to have a beach volleyball match, and as for the others, they were just eager to grab something to drink.

Lounging the beach chair, Carla watched as a crowd consisting of women surrounded Terence. They were following him wherever he went. All of them had such colorful swimsuits on, and some of them, obviously and shamelessly were trying to throw themselves onto him.

In fact, Carla didn't really expect Megan to call her friends to come over. She knew full well how much Megan deeply loved Terence. Thinking rationally, Megan would've never offered other women any chance to get close to him on a normal day.

"Mr. Terence, do you still remember me? I've attended your party before. I came here two years ago along with my other friends," asked a woman who was standing right next to him. To be fair, she was wearing such a cute sheer dress. As she prattled on, she wore the sweetest smile on her face while clinging tightly onto his arm.

"Yes, of course, I still remember who you are. Sorry if I've been too busy lately that I haven't been able to ask any of you to come over. Go have fun, ladies," he responded, smiling politely back at them. After he was done welcoming them, he quickly turned around and headed toward the sea to go swim.

"That's actually what I've been thinking. Mr. Terence, we haven't been to your house for quite a while. Would you mind showing us around later?" the woman with the sheer dress followed Terence to the seaside and shouted at him with a cunning smile on her face.

Who didn't want to marry a rich man? Well, almost every woman did. This girl wanted to make the most of this opportunity to get Terence to know more about her. She was eager to know more about him as well, on a higher level of intimacy.

She was one of Megan's close friends, so she knew damn well how much Megan loved Terence.

But she didn't really care about those trivial things. Terence was such an eligible bachelor, and quite possibly, the most eligible one in the whole city, and there were very few opportunities for ladies to even go near him. So, by all means possible, she had to do what she could just to stay close to him.

Before Terence could give her a proper response, Megan took the liberty of replying on his behalf, "Sure! No problem. Terence's villa is quite big anyway. I can take you all to pay a visit later today. Make sure not to get lost,"

Megan playfully said, trying to hide a flash of coldness in her eyes.

The truth was that she would rather see Terence show interest in several other women than accept the fact that he only loved one woman, which was Carla. Doing this, she would be able to feel much better about herself, knowing he was being nice to everyone. It would also come to show that Carla wasn't really someone special to him.

She thought that even if she herself were lucky enough to get married to Terence one day, she wouldn't really care even if he ended up having an affair with other women. It was just that she couldn't bear the thought of knowing he had fallen in love with only one woman, and it wasn't her.

Even if he were captivated by a handful of girls other than Carla, she would still prefer it over the current situation she was in. At very least, that would mean that there was still a chance for her to get a hold of his heart if she gave it her best shot.

At the beach.

Relaxing beneath a beach umbrella close by, Carla was able to overhear Megan's response, so she couldn't restrain herself from giggling. It was laughable how obvious what Megan was planning to do.

Sluggishly springing up from the beach chair she had been lying on, she called out to her brother, "Sean, why don't we head back to the Villa and watch some cartoons? What do you think?"

It was clear as day what Megan was exactly plotting when she invited other attractive girls over to the beach.

Megan wanted to shove it to her face that there was nothing special about her, and that there was still a possibility for Terence to fall in love with someone else. It was plain to see how much Megan hated seeing him taking care of her.

Knowing Terence, who was always such a gentleman, Carla was aware that he couldn't ever be rude to Megan's friends. Even if he hated the fact that Megan had decided a lot of these things on her own without consulting him first, he would still be acting decently toward the guests.

That was the main reason why Carla wasn't affected in any way even as she watched other pitiful girls throw themselves onto Terence. She realized it was such a trifling matter to be upset about. If Megan wanted to play dirty tricks on her, then Megan could go ahead and do what she wanted. She definitely wouldn't mind whatsoever.

Taking the towel from Rainer's hand, Sean walked over to where Carla was as soon as he heard her calling his name.

"Carla, did you see that? Lots of girls were flocking Terence from all sides. Were you able to see the looks on their faces? They were drooling over him! I don't think it would be a good idea to leave him on his own around those girls," Sean told Carla in a distressed voice, shooting a quick glance at Terence who had just gone out of the water.

Sean was feeling so anxious that Terence could be taken away by those other women from his sister. So, he wanted to do something about it.

"Sean, let me ask you this. If a girl from your class or any girl from your school were to tell you she likes you, would that make you happy?" asked Carla, patting Sean's back to try and reassure him.

Sean sheepishly replied as he scratched the back of his head, "Yes, that would make me so happy."

"So, instead of worrying about losing Terence, you should be feeling happy for him. All of those girls chasing after him love him," Carla remarked, with a mischievous smile on her face. She shot a quick glance at Terence and then proceeded to immediately head back to the villa with Sean. A lot of girls were all over him, and they just couldn't seem to get enough of him. He looked like a flower with such an alluring scent surrounded by bees which were so desperate to take the honey home. This scene was more than enough to make Carla chuckle.

Terence noticed that Carla and Sean were walking straight to the Villa, and his face became sullen. He swayed his arm to shake off the hands of a woman clinging onto him. "Would you please excuse me for a second? I just need to go to the bathroom. You all go have fun right here."

"Mr. Terence..." Pursing her lips, the lady who had been eagerly talking to him felt annoyed that she couldn't do anything to stop him from walking away.

As if it wasn't already hard enough to find an opportunity to talk to him, now that she finally had the chance, it seemed that Terence's mind was aimlessly wandering someplace else. It seemed a little apparent that he wasn't interested in her whatsoever.

'Why is he ignoring me? Could I have possibly lost my charm?' she asked herself.

Walking over to where Megan was, she asked her, "Hey, Megan, do tell me. What could Terence possibly be interested in? What type of woman does he prefer? Does he hate it when a woman comes onto him?"

Taking her eyes off of Terence's back, with a smirk, Megan responded, "Yes, I can tell you. He prefers girls like me. You've always been bugging me to invite you here more often, Viola. I'm fully aware that you're interested in Terence. Now that I finally got to invite you to come over, it would be a great opportunity for you to try and get closer to him."

"I've already done my part as your friend. If you don't make the most of this opportunity you've been presented, you can't blame me in the end for not giving you a chance," Megan added. Thinking it would be better if Viola made a scene and stirred up some trouble for Carla, she wanted her to get even more aggressive toward Terence.

After she was done lecturing her, Megan headed for the villa as well. It was as if she had planted the seeds of her revenge to get back at Carla for having the nerve to try and steal Terence from her.

Since she wanted Terence to hold her in high regard, she had to be a nice upstanding woman in front of him at all times, so she needed someone to do the inconceivable dirty deeds for her. She knew Viola quite well. Viola had always been a girl who didn't mind stirring up troubles for other people as long as she got to have what she wanted.

At Sean's room, the siblings were sitting on the couch and quietly watching a TV series. There were chips, melon seeds, and cold drinks on the table right in front of them.

"Carla, are you still not done watching the series you like yet? I want to watch cartoons now," Sean complained, because it was his room, but his sister had been hogging the TV. Trying to change the channel, Sean stretched out his hand and reached for the remote in Carla's hand.

"No, let me watch just one more episode," Carla objected, cracking open the melon seeds. She was binge-watching a romantic TV series. The protagonist was such a good-looking guy and the leading lady was so lovely as well. The way the two of them interacted looked so sweet on camera.

"Carla... Why can't you just go and watch it in your own room? There's also a TV there. You're not supposed to hog my TV to your own!" Sean grumbled. Since he, a 10-year-old school boy, sometimes found it a bit hard to comprehend the plot, he never really got that much interested in those kinds of TV shows.

"Why do you have to be so mean? Did you forget how I always let you watch cartoons whenever you wanted when you were little?" retorted Carla. Glaring at Sean who looked a bit irritated himself, she threw the husks of the melon seeds into the trash can.

With his brows a bit furrowed, Sean continued complaining, "But... Terence has a lot of TVs in this villa. This is my room. Why can't you just watch it someplace else?"

Before Carla could say a word, a man walked in as the two of them were having an argument.

"Sean was right. I have so many TVs here in the Villa. Is there really a need for you to watch your TV show here?" Terence said.

It seemed he had already finished cleaning himself up and had gotten dressed.

Carla didn't bother humoring him with an answer and simply went on watching the TV. "I want to watch it here. You're my brother. So, I want to spend more time with you during our precious vacation. Is there anything wrong with that?"

Sean pursed his lips after hearing what Carla had said. Turning toward Terence, he said in protest, "Terence, aren't you going to help out your brother-in-law?"

Letting out a brief chuckle, Terence walked up to Sean and said, "Sean, let's be gentlemen. If your sister says she wants to watch the TV in your room, just leave her be. Why don't you go to the next room and watch the TV over there instead?"

"Oh, that's a good idea! Why didn't I think of that?" Sean blurted out. Then, he made a face at Carla and ran out of the room, leaving the two of them to themselves.

Settling down beside Carla on the couch, Terence placed his hand on her waist and hesitantly asked, "Carla, is there something wrong? Is something bothering you?"

Wondering why she had insisted on watching the TV in Sean's room instead of just lounging on hers, he sensed that there was something amiss.

"No, I'm actually quite happy. Why shouldn't I be?" she retorted. Cracking a melon seed, she gazed upon him with a such a puzzled expression.

"Liar," he said with a disparaging smile. Resting his hand on her shoulder, he continued, "I know you're a bit jealous. Do you really think you can hide your feelings from me? I know you're trying really hard not to care, but the truth is... you do care about me."

"Don't think too highly of yourself. I prefer to do things at my own pace, especially in relationships. There's no need for me to settle down right away. We haven't known each other for very long yet. What makes you think that I can't live without you already? Truth is, I'm not in such a rush to get hooked up with anyone right now," Carla carelessly said.

She was aware that what she had said to him was a bit harsh, but she wasn't really in a good mood, so she couldn't hold herself back.

After hearing all of the things she spouted, Terence just kept quiet. His face turned gloomy, and he suddenly stretched out his arm. Holding onto her chin, he forced her to turn her head and face him.

"Look me in the eyes and say that to my face one more time. Didn't you feel anything while you were watching me get flocked by all those other women?"