Chapter 2
TWO
TESSA - SIX YEARS LATER
“This is easily the best thing we’ve ever done.”
My best friend stared at herself in the mirror for a few extra beats, with me doing the same, before our eyes met, and we grinned. Lark said, “I agree. It’s just a shame we don’t have anywhere to go looking like this that would be acceptable.”
I looked at myself again, twisting my neck from one side to the other. We really did look stunning. “It does seem a waste. So, what do you think we should do?”
Lark finished inspecting herself in the mirror, turned fully to face me, and crossed her arms over her chest as a mischievous smile washed over her expression. “Why stop here?”
Arching a brow, I repeated her question. “Why stop here?”
She nodded. “Yes. Why stop here? We’ve already gone this far. I think we should just keep going.”
I had no idea what she was suggesting. “Right. And just to be certain we’re on the same page… Are you suggesting we look for the dresses?”
Shaking her head, Lark replied, “No. No, I’m starving now anyway. I think we drive back to my parents’ house, make some pizza, and spend the rest of our night planning our future weddings.”
As soon as the words were out of her mouth, I decided there wasn’t anything I didn’t love about her idea. Doing my best to contain my excitement and not release an actual squeal of delight, I jerked my chin to the side and said, “Let’s grab our bags and get out of here.”
Lark and I didn’t waste another minute. We snatched up our bags—having been at the mall all day long, we had plenty between us—and we made our way out to my car.
This was one of my favorite things about the springtime weather.
My best friend and I were out of school, the weather was nice, and we could spend day after day with each other.
Our original plan for the day had been to do some shopping this afternoon, figure something out for the evening, and have a sleepover at Lark’s house tonight.
Our parents had grown accustomed to our antics, so they knew that we’d spend just about every day of our break from school with each other.
Either I became a temporary fixture at the Townsend residence, or Lark became a temporary fixture at the Stone residence.
Occasionally, if all the girls got together, we’d stay at the Blackman or Cunningham homes.
Lark and I made it back to her house, pulled right up to the open garage door, and got out.
After gathering up our bags—I took mine because I knew my Aunt Nikki would want to see what we got—we walked into the garage and to the door that led into the house.
“Ah, I have to pee so bad. And I want to turn the oven on, so we can make pizza,” Lark announced.
Just then, I heard some metal clang before a head popped out from behind the open hood of Ace’s car. Lark’s brother took one look at us, and something strange leaked onto his features. It wasn’t a look I’d ever seen before. “What the hell did you two do?” he asked.
“Sorry, Ace. I can’t talk. I’m going to explode if I don’t pee. Tessa, you can tell him.”
I nodded. “Okay. Be right in.”
Walking toward the front of the car, I asked, “What are you doing here?”
“Putting some performance parts on my car,” he said. “An intake, header, and exhaust. Phoenix is on his way over now to help. Why do you look like you should be living in a castle?”
“A castle?”
Nodding, Ace smiled as his eyes roamed over my face, taking me in again. “You look like a princess.”
I returned the smile. “Well, I’ll take that as a compliment. Thanks.”
“Sure. But I’m still curious what happened this afternoon.”
Laughter spilled out of me. “You know Lark and me. We’re always coming up with silly ideas.
This started off innocent enough today when we went to get our nails done.
” Shifting my purchases into one hand, I held up the other and wiggled my fingers to show off my manicure.
“Anyway, while we were deciding on polish colors, Lark and I thought we’d take things one step further. We got wedding hair and makeup done.”
Confusion washed over his expression. “Who’s getting married?”
“We are!”
That did nothing to help Ace understand what we’d done. If anything, he grew alarmed. “What? I didn’t know the two of you had started dating anyone.”
I burst out laughing. “Oh, God. No. No, nothing like that. We just got the idea to get wedding hair, nails, and makeup today.” I reached over my shoulder and tugged the fabric forward.
“We even got the veils to complete the look. We wanted to get an idea of how we might look on our wedding days when they happen in the future.”
Ace studied me again. While he didn’t say what was on his mind, I got the feeling he thought his sister and I were certifiably crazy.
I didn’t allow that to deter me from sharing even more craziness with him.
“A wedding day is a big day in a girl’s life, Ace.
Lark and I want to be prepared, to have it all planned out.
So, since we’ve got nowhere special to go looking the way we do, and I’m not aware of any castles in the area, we came back here to make pizza and plan all the remaining details of our weddings.
You know, like the flowers, centerpieces, dresses for the bridesmaids, our dresses… ”
I trailed off as his eyes glazed over. “I’m not sure I’ll ever understand the things you two come up with to occupy yourselves. How can you not think that it’s strange to be planning something that’s more than ten years down the road?”
My eyes rounded. “I’ll be twenty-six in ten years, Ace!”
“Is… Is that a bad thing?”
“I sure hope my husband finds me before then. I want to fall in love and be married while I’m young. The sooner it happens, the more years I’ll have with him. At least by doing this now, I’ll have all the details figured out when the time comes.”
Ace went back to looking at me like I’d lost my mind. “Okay. Sure. Sounds like a great plan. I’ll leave you to it, then.”
Still smiling, I said, “And I’ll leave you to your car. Hopefully, Phoenix gets here soon, so you don’t have to do all the work on your own.”
He laughed. “If that happens, I’ll be sure to give him a hard time.”
I backed up, heading to the door that would lead me to the house, when a thought popped into my head. “Ace?”
“Yeah?”
“Do you think it’s a waste?”
A crease formed between his brows. “Is what a waste?”
I waved my hand in the direction of the house. “What Lark and I are planning to do today?”
“Why would it be a waste?”
Shrugging, I asked, “What if the guy I meet and want to marry doesn’t like anything that I’ve planned?”
Ace walked toward me, his expression serious. When he came to a stop just a few feet away, he said, “If he cares more about what you’ve planned than the fact that he’s going to have a lifetime with you, Princess, he isn’t the man for you. He isn’t a man worth marrying.”
I allowed those words to penetrate. “You really think so?”
“I know it.”
I hesitated for a moment. Then I gave him a nod and said, “I think you might be right, Ace. Thanks for saying that.”
He grinned. “Anytime, Tessa. Now go inside and plan your wedding.”
So, that’s what I did.
And when Lark and I finished, I had to admit that it was nice having so many of the details worked out. The only question that remained was: Who would be my groom?
ONE YEAR LATER
“Look who decided to show up.”
Lark and I looked over at where Kingston was standing with Archer, Phoenix, Ace, and Taj around the volleyball net. How they could be playing volleyball when there was only five of them, I didn’t know.
“Did you expect anything different?” Lark fired back.
Kingston smirked and shrugged. “It’s vacation. We’re on the beach. Why would it take you so long to get here?”
Lark sneered at him. I laughed before I shouted, “Accept us for who we are, boys. It’ll make life so much easier.”
“Ouch, that’s harsh. Who says we don’t accept you?” Archer countered.
“Yeah, we couldn’t love you both more if we tried,” Taj added.
“Then quit complaining,” Lark ordered, taking me by the hand and dragging me away from the volleyball net and the men and toward the chairs where our girls were already sitting and baking under the sun.
Our families had decided to take our annual summer trip together.
Many years ago—back when I was just three years old—the dads had banded together to come up with a Christmas gift for the moms. They’d decided on a summer vacation for all four families, and it had become a tradition for us every year since.
Lark and I walked up to where our friends were, stripped out of our coverups, and joined them sunbathing.
“Do you ladies ever think about how much different vacation is now?” I asked.
“What do you mean?” Savanna countered.
Not that I suspected anyone was looking at me—we all had our sunglasses on, our faces pointed toward the sun—but I flourished my hand.
“Those first few years we came on these vacations, we were constantly moving. At the water, digging in the sand, tossing a Frisbee. Now, it’s pretty much a chair all day with only a brief dip in the water. ”
“And some of us won’t even do that part of it,” Lark mumbled.
“Don’t feel bad about that, Lark,” Mia said. “I refuse to go any deeper than mid-shin.”
Chloe laughed. “You two are crazy. I mean, I love the summer and the warmer weather, but I absolutely can’t roast all day long. In fact, Harper and I were just down in the water cooling off before you and Lark joined us, Tessa.”
“You’re right about one thing, though,” Harper said. “Vacations are completely different for us now.”
“Not all of us,” Savanna pointed out. “Sometimes, it seems like the men are the same. That rowdy, rambunctious, competitive mindset is still there for them.”
I had to agree with her. “You’re right. They never mellowed out. To be completely fair, I’d say it’s possible they’ve gotten worse.”
Mia shared, “Kingston said they were hoping to convince us to play a game of volleyball with them.”
Lark didn’t hesitate to respond. “That is never going to happen. Not for me, anyway.”
“Agreed,” my sister said.
“I don’t even understand how they’re playing now with an odd number of players,” I said.
Chloe stated, “I’m not sure there’s a valid explanation for anything they do.”
She had a fair point. As kids, it had made sense that we’d be up and running around all day, but we were grown now. For the women, it was all about rest and relaxation. And nothing felt better than feeling the sun on my face and the sand beneath my feet.
For a long while, we sat in silence, listening to the waves crash along the shore, dozing off, or—in Mia’s case—reading a book.
Eventually, the sun became just a bit too much for me, and I needed to cool myself off. So, I got up and made my way to the water. I’d gotten to about waist deep when a familiar masculine voice said, “Any chance I can convince you to join us for a game of beach volleyball?”
I looked to my right to see Ace there. His cheeks were red, with bits of sand stuck to his sweat-slicked skin. “I realize there’re only five of you and adding another person would even up the teams. But let’s be honest, Ace. Adding me would still leave one team with two actual players.”
He laughed. “You’re probably right. Maybe one of the other guys will have better luck with Harper, Savanna, or Chloe.”
I smiled. “No faith in Lark or Mia?”
Glancing back toward the beach, Ace said, “Let’s face it. Lark isn’t getting out of that chair unless it’s because she’s had enough of the beach and is heading back to the hotel. And Mia’s just too quiet and sweet. It’s unlikely she’ll give up the book for physical activity.”
He wasn’t wrong.
I continued forward, moving a little deeper into the water. “Do you ever think about this vacation and wonder?”
“Wonder what?”
“When it’s going to end. I mean, we’re all still coming here with our parents. Don’t you think the time is going to come when we’re grown, have our own schedules, and just can’t make it work?”
Something washed over his expression, and he looked away. “I almost didn’t come this year.”
“Really?”
He nodded, returning his attention back to me. “I’m trying to build a business, Tessa. I should be focusing on that. But I guess I wanted one more family vacation, because the memories we make here are some of my favorites.”
Tipping my head to the side, I studied him. “Are you saying that you think this is going to be your last one?”
Shrugging, Ace said, “I don’t know. If I had to guess, I’d say so. But who knows what the next year is going to bring.”
When I’d been sitting with the girls, my thoughts were on the differences between us and the boys. And now that I was here, talking to Ace, it didn’t bother me at all that the guys played volleyball or got rowdy with one another. I was going to miss it when it was gone.
“It’s going to suck not having you here,” I told him.
He arched a brow. “You’d be upset about that?”
“Why wouldn’t I?” A smile played at my lips, and I teased, “I mean, who else are the girls and I going to get to carry all the chairs down to the beach for us?”
Ace attempted to appear insulted as he reached for my wrist, tugged me toward him, and poked me in the side. “That wasn’t cool, Princess.”
I grinned. “You know I’m just joking with you. But I do think now that I know this information, you might be able to convince me to play a round of volleyball.”
“Really?”
Nodding, I said, “If it’s possible this is going to be your last time coming on this trip, we need to make sure you have some memories that’ll last a lifetime.”
Ace smiled at me, his features softening. “Then I’m glad I decided that making this trip one last time was worth it.”
With that, the two of us turned around and made our way back to the shore. And even though I was terrible at it, I joined Ace’s team—it was him and Taj—and played volleyball. I didn’t feel as though I’d done anything to help, but Ace was happy to have me there, so I guessed it was worth it.