Chapter 26
Nate
In the air…
There wasn’t a chance of a private conversation on the so-called private plane. We were in a crowd. Sharing the jet with Michelle’s brother, Davis, and his wife, as well as Clay and a pregnant Julia, and also Michelle’s best friend, Sutton, and her husband left us with no privacy.
Maybe that was for the best, since I hadn’t figured out yet what to say, how to say it, or even how to deal with the way my heart raced just from looking at Casey.
The noise in my head from being near her and all of these people at the same time didn’t make the situation any easier.
Never had I been so eager for a flight to end.
But this was a humdinger of a plane ride—we flew across the Atlantic Ocean, rode over Europe, and then soared above the Middle East en route to the island paradise.
The eight of us passed the long hours sleeping on and off under soft blankets, playing Scrabble, watching The Italian Job, and fighting over whose turn it was for a chair massage.
Somewhere above the Indian Ocean Julia challenged us all to a game of poker.
That might’ve been the toughest part of the plane ride to get through as we gathered around the table, laughing, telling jokes, and raising the stakes as Julia dealt.
During the game, I met Casey’s eyes several times—countless times, actually—and she often smiled in those moments.
She even joined in as I explained the eco-conversion of our fleet to Davis.
But I couldn’t read her. All I knew was that she seemed like the Casey she’d always been—outgoing, upbeat, quick with a joke.
She fit in seamlessly. Not that I expected anything else.
But I longed for an hour—heck, even thirty minutes would do—to steal her away to the back row of the plane, and talk.
But the rhythms of all the passengers didn’t align, so I never found myself with a quiet moment to do anything more than make amiable chitchat.
At least there was that.
When we landed in the city of Malé in the late afternoon, we were shuttled onto a speedboat. Casey slid in next to me. Her leg was wedged against mine, and the slightest touch tripped my heart rate into overdrive, not to mention sent other parts of my body into an upright position.
Damn, I hoped the ride to the hotel was a fast one.
The boat ferried us twenty-five minutes across the sun-kissed, crystal-blue waters of the Indian Ocean as the sun cast its perfect cloudless rays.
The motor slowed as we neared The Luxe’s secluded, tranquil outpost among the islands, the dust-white sand of the serene beach property coming into view.
Once inside the hotel, we found Michelle and Jack waiting in the open-air lobby, looking windswept and relaxed as overhead fans turned lazily, stirring up the faint scent of coconut through the tropical air.
Michelle’s hair was pinned up on her head and she wore a sundress, while Jack was in shorts.
“Never seen you in shorts before except on a basketball court,” I said with a laugh as I shook hands with my friend.
“We’re thinking of moving here next. The island lifestyle suits me as a man of leisure,” Jack joked.
Jack’s gaze snapped away from me and went to Casey, who launched herself into his arms. Jack roped his arms around his sister, and hugged her tight. “So good to see you,” he said, and I turned away, leaving them to their private sibling moment.
I gave Michelle a kiss on the cheek, then was extraordinarily grateful when my property manager pulled me aside and said she wanted to share some good news about the increase in bookings during the last few weeks.
I was grateful to sit down with Nicole, and chat business. It helped me clear my head of Casey.
Casey
I let out the longest breath when I reached my villa.
God, that had been hard. That had been the most difficult plane ride of my life. I laughed out loud, alone in my spacious villa, the sound echoing across the walls, because a flight on a luxury eco-jet should never feel difficult—especially one with a chair massage.
But I’d white-knuckled it through, sucking in all my heartache, and keeping my desire for Nate locked up where he couldn’t see.
The speedboat might have been the toughest part.
With him so near like that, and the wind whipping past us over the aqua water, I could smell him. Delicious, alluring, and all man.
At least we were succeeding on the surface, though, in returning to what we were before—friends. Funny how we’d gone from friends-to-lovers together, and now I was reverse engineering that path all on my own, from lovers back to friends.
The tropical breeze beckoned to me, so I strolled onto the gorgeous hardwood deck that led to a private infinity pool, perched at the edge of the ocean.
The sun began to dip overhead, the pink fingertips of the pending sunset tugging it to the horizon.
This resort was as far away as possible from the sights, sounds and smells of New York—that city cacophony of sensory overload that fed my drive everyday to do, do, do.
But here, the lure of relaxation wafted over me in mere minutes.
This resort was the opposite of Manhattan in every way—quiet, tranquil, and incredibly calm.
Tilting my face to the sun, I let the rays warm me.
Maybe this break from the hustle and bustle of work, maybe the bliss of the island breeze, maybe the palm trees gently swaying would cure me of this heartbreak.
As I drank in the intoxicating beauty—the wide, open sea, the endless sky, the succulent air that kissed my bare skin—I made a wish that someday I would have this with someone.
I turned around, the ebb and flow of the ocean flitting past my ears, and flopped face-down on the crisp white sheets of the king-sized bed.
A bed for lovers.
I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to eradicate him from my tired brain. The last thing I needed was to dream of him, a task that was infinitely harder here in a hotel outfitted not only for romance, but for the private bliss of those in love.
Complete with cruelty-free shampoo.
Soon, I succumbed to sleep, jet-lag doing its trick in erasing Nate momentarily from my mind.