Chapter 12
Emmy could hardly relax through her massage. She could hardly greet her parents when they arrived. She could hardly hold a
conversation with Ben’s parents when they all gathered in the villa’s backyard for the pre-prewedding casual dinner. All she
could think of was Gabe Olson on a plane coming closer by the minute.
which would mean they would be awake when he got there and have to figure out what the hell to do for several hours before they could then figure out how the hell
to share a hotel room with one bed.
There wasn’t enough cool Caribbean breeze, beautiful scenery, or pina coladas to calm Emmy down now. She’d thought she’d have
another day to prepare before he descended on her. But no. In true Gabe Olson fashion, he’d pulled one over on her and left
her spinning.
Admittedly, the spinning was half lusting and concentrated in her lower abdominal region, which was highly confusing and not helped by the pina coladas she kept downing in an effort to stop all the spinning but that only made her spin more. She had
half a mind to text Beth ABORT MISSION and have her come get her.
But.
Amid all the spinning and mingling with family and a few friends who’d arrived early, the worried creases on Piper’s face
had started to lift. Emmy even caught her full-on smiling a few times, laughing with her future in-laws, and she wasn’t about
to do anything to ruin it.
So Emmy kept her spinning to herself as she too mingled and laughed. A veritable tornado ripped around inside her, but on the outside, she performed her MOH duties with grace.
That was, until her phone pinged with an I’m here message from Axe Murderer.
Emmy had lost track of time in the festivities. Night had completely fallen. The moon shone on the inky sea like a spotlight.
Someone had lit the torches lining the yard and sent the air dancing with flickering flames.
She checked the time on her phone to see it was after nine, which meant Gabe’s I’m here text indicated he was already at the hotel and not still at the airport, having just landed in Mexico.
Her heart leapt into her throat. Her hands began to sweat. Her time for preparation shrank down to minutes if she was lucky.
She was half drunk and all the way panicking. Through her dizzy haze, she tried to figure out what to text him back. Should
she invite him to the villa? Meet him at the room? Go for a nightcap at one of the bars?
But it turned out she didn’t have to do any of that, because Piper materialized at her side and pinched her elbow.
“Em,” she said, and nodded toward the back of the house.
Emmy looked up to see Gabe standing there at the door, loose shirt partway unbuttoned, shorts, boat shoes. The flickering
flames cut his face into dramatic shadows, arching his cheekbones even higher and leaving his dark eyes glittering.
Oh. He meant here , here.
“ Easy , girl,” Piper said when Emmy sagged against her. She hadn’t even realized her knees had given out. Her body was responding
to him in the same way it had when she’d seen him in the office kitchen the morning after the big reveal, which, somehow,
was only yesterday. It knew before her brain did, and on a deeper level, that she wanted to see him. Badly. Piper pushed her
back up to standing with a laugh.
“Sorry,” Emmy said as a heat wave engulfed her. “I’ve had a few drinks.”
“Mm-hmm,” Piper said, like she didn’t buy that as the reason Emmy had suddenly turned to jelly. “Go make him feel welcome.”
She gave her a little shove.
Emmy almost tripped on the edge of the lawn where they’d been standing. The space between her and Gabe expanded into infinity
and somehow disappeared all at once. Without the context of their normal life around them—the office, the ballpark, their
home city—a million cues to signify how things were supposed to be —the world shrank to only them in a completely free new territory. He watched her the whole way while she walked toward him,
as if his eyes were reeling her in on an invisible string. The rest of the party faded away: sounds of laughter, the soft
music pumping from the house’s exterior speakers, the gentle splashing of someone kicking their feet in the pool. All she
could hear were the waves and the sound of her own thundering heart.
And then, his voice.
“Hi.”
“Hi.”
“You look nice.” His eyes took a polite tour of the flowing floral dress she’d put on for dinner. It hugged her chest and
draped openly around her legs. She wore a pair of wedge sandals with it.
“You look... here,” she said, still stunned and a bit overwhelmed by his presence. He’d obviously freshened up after his
flight, and the smell of him reached out to grab her with a heady hand.
Gabe laughed, and the warm sound sent her chest fluttering. “Yes, here I am. I hope it’s okay I came earlier than planned.
I got an alert for an open seat and took it.”
“Of course it’s okay. I’m glad you made it. How’d you know where we were?”
“The front desk told me. I went to the room first, and when it was empty, I figured I’d find you all at the villa.”
“Good thing you aren’t an actual axe murderer swindling information out of innocent hotel clerks to find me,” Emmy said, and sucked her pina colada’s straw. It was easily her fourth of the night.
“Good thing.” He gave her a cheeky grin. “So, this place is incredible,” he said in a change of subject and looked around
appreciatively.
“Ah, yes. Did I forget to mention my brother-in-law’s family is filthy rich?” Emmy said with a facetious grimace.
“You may have overlooked that detail.”
“Apologies. But don’t worry; they are all super nice.”
“I would hope so.”
Emmy sucked her straw again until it made a sputtering sound. “So,” she said, trying to embrace the awkward situation they
were in by poking fun at it. “Wanna meet my whole family?”
Gabe snorted a laugh and sweetly blushed. “Yes, but could I maybe get one of those first?” He pointed at her empty glass.
“Oh, indeed. I need a refill anyway.”
She led him into the house where the magically bottomless blender held a fresh batch of creamy frozen booze. Emmy honestly
didn’t know who kept making the drinks, but they were damn good at it, and she wasn’t about to stop them.
Back outside, drinks in hand, she introduced Gabe to her parents, Ben’s parents, Ben’s brother and his wife, and two of Piper’s
friends who’d been on the bachelorette cruise but thankfully had either been too drunk then or were too drunk now to recognize
First Mate Gabe. The introductions were pleasant but brief, with most everyone tired from travel and promising to catch up
more over the coming days.
Soon, the party was over and the bride- and groom-to-be kicked everyone out so they could go to bed. Emmy and Gabe made their
way back toward their building along the paved path. The tropical night hummed with chirps and buzzing. Waves crashed in the
distance, and palms rustled. The jungle came alive with a new set of sounds after dark.
“How was your flight?” Emmy asked when the silence between them became too obvious to ignore. She was a hair past tipsy and now into drunk territory, which had been intentional because she didn’t know how else she was going to be able to fall asleep in the same room as Gabe Olson.
“It was fine,” he said. “I had an aisle seat.” He’d been nothing but charming and friendly at the party, but now that it was
only the two of them, Emmy sensed a wall had risen. He was guarded with an almost painful effort.
“Love an aisle seat,” Emmy said, trying to lighten the mood. “Good for the legs.” She kicked her foot out in front of her,
pointing her toe, and tottered off-balance.
“Careful,” Gabe said, and reached out to steady her. His warm hands gripped her bare arms and sent a wave tingling through
her.
She tittered and put her foot back on the ground. “Thanks. Those pinas were strong. I don’t even know who was making them.
The Ghost of Pina Colada Present.”
“You are drunk.”
“Indeed. Are you not?”
“Not as much as you, Bird Girl.”
Emmy playfully gasped and held up a hand to her ear. “Do you think we can hear birds?”
“If we’re quiet, probably.”
“Then stop talking.”
“I’m not talking.”
“Yes, you are.”
“Well, now we both are.”
“But you’re talking more—” Emmy cut off with a loud shriek and all but jumped into his arms.
“What! What is it?!” he shouted and squeezed her close.
But Emmy was already laughing. She pointed to the leafy grass beside the path where a thick, spiky iguana grumpily looked at them like they were interrupting his night.
“It’s just an iguana. I saw its tail move out of the corner of my eye and thought it was a snake.
” Her cackle echoed off the building and out to sea. Drunken tears dotted her eyes.
Gabe looked down at her with a narrowed gaze, and she realized they were perfectly modeling the famed clinch pose from romance
novel covers. Her hands pressed into his chest, and one of his arms wrapped around her shoulders and the other, her waist.
She’d even jerked her knee up on reflex lest the not-snake try to slither over her exposed toes.
“Sorry,” she said, and removed herself from his grip. A tiny smile twitched her lips at his momentary reluctance to let her
go.
Gabe cleared his throat and shoved his hands into his pockets. They started walking again. “So, what’s on the docket for tomorrow?”
“Negotiations, apparently.”
“Oh?”
“Yes. Since the hotel screwed up so royally, their suggestion is both wedding parties sit together to come to some kind of
agreement about how to share. My job is to keep my sister from combusting. Speaking of my sister ...” Emmy said, and spun on her toes to face him, continuing to walk backward. She’d wanted to clear the air since that
night on the bachelorette cruise, and she was drunk enough to have the courage to do it right now. “I still feel really bad
about what she said that night on the boat. I don’t hate you, Gabe. It wasn’t true.”