Chapter 13
Emma was still on cloud nine whenever they arrived back at the hotel. Lauren suggested they grab lunch on the island and then explore some of the top tourist spots and museums for a bit. By the time they parked their rental cars, everyone was ready to go their separate ways.
Henry joked that he’d let them all have the night off instead of making them eat dinner with him. However, Emma was pretty certain he was ready to sleep the afternoon away and hit the casino again. If there was one thing he enjoyed, it was a Blackjack table and she knew they’d all end up gambling together at some point. She owed her skills to Henry teaching her, at Blackjack and other poker games like Texas Hold ‘em. When they were kids, he used to pull out potato chips for poker chips whenever she was having a sleepover at their house.
She laughed at the memory. As he dealt the cards, he would say, “Girls, if a man ever wants to underestimate you, now you just let him. Then you wipe him clean.” The lessons served her well a time or two in Vegas.
“Are you worn out or do you want to go down to the beach?” Cam asked, following Emma toward the lobby.
“Are you kidding? I’m wired.”
“I thought so.” He was smiling at her with a knowing look.
“Let’s change and hit the beach.” Before the others caught up with them in the elevator, she whispered, “But you know you don’t have to if you don’t want. We don’t have to spend every waking second together.”
Lulu and Lauren were upon them before he could respond. Instead, he slipped his fingers through hers as everyone filed into the elevator, noticing the small smile trying to break free on her face. He was sure she’d deny it, but he knew better.
When the doors opened on their floor, everyone headed out, Lulu pausing to ask Lauren if she still wanted to borrow something. As those two headed toward her room, Emma, Cam, and Asher made their way down the opposite hallway.
“That was a lot of fun,” Asher commented on their day. “But I’m ready to melt into the couch for a bit. What about you guys?”
“I wouldn’t mind a nap on the beach,” Cam said.
“I feel like I could go for hours,” Emma replied. “I might see if they have any floats in the gift shop.”
Asher chuckled. “You never were good at staying still.”
Emma’s face scrunched. She knew he wasn’t being a jerk on purpose, but the comment still rubbed her wrong. “Nothing wrong with making the most of my vacation.”
“Agreed. And that’s why I plan to shower, change, and relax.”
“Enjoy it,” Cam said, placing a hand on Emma’s back to let her go in front of him. “I’m sure we’ll run into you later.”
“You too.” Asher nodded in their direction before slipping inside his own room.
As Cam shut the door behind him, he could tell Emma was letting the interaction eat at her. Instead of bringing it up now, he figured it’d be best to get her out of here and back into her element.
◆◆◆
Emma spread out their towels on the sand while Cam dug the umbrella holder into the sand. “You know, this thing is pretty sweet actually.”
“What is?” she asked.
He pointed to the stake in the sand as he grabbed the umbrella to put the pole into it.
“A beach umbrella?” she asked with a laugh.
“Yeah, I didn’t know they came like this.”
She looked at him funny. “What did you normally do for shade then?”
He shrugged. “Sunscreen.”
Emma cracked up at that. “Stick with me, Cameron, and I’ll show you the ropes.”
Mmm, he sure hoped so. “I’ll hold you to that.”
“Water?” she asked, holding a bottle out for him. They’d stopped downstairs to get some supplies for the afternoon. Then Cam had the bright idea to request sandwiches and fruit be prepped for them to put in a small cooler since the evening would be on them before they knew it.
He took the water from her, opened the lid, and took a swig. Then they both grabbed an inner tube to blow up for the ocean. By the time their setup was situated and their floats were ready, Emma was sweating and ready for the water.
Cam looked up in time to see a grin slide across her lips. Before he could question it, she took off sprinting with her float.
“Last one in gets the couch,” she yelled over her shoulder. Unfortunately, her exhilaration faded out as she neared the water’s edge and Cam came flying past her, sticking his tube out in front of him and jumping on it like a kid would.
“Dammit. I was hoping to catch you off guard,” she laughed, following suit.
He slid off his tube and dipped his head under the water, brushing back the top as he came back up. His smile was infectious, she thought, not realizing she was staring.
“You can’t trick me,” Cam said. “I can read you like a book.”
“Please.” She rolled her eyes and then slipped into the water, too. She slicked her hair back when she broke the surface and then began walking her tube out farther into the ocean. Cam followed her until the water was past their chests.
“You don’t think I can read that brilliant mind of yours?” he asked, slipping the tube over his head and using his arms to lift himself over the edge so his lower half was still under the water.
Emma maneuvered until she was sitting in the tube, feet and arms dangling in the water while she looked at him. “Not a chance.”
“So you’re telling me you didn’t want to shove Asher into the rainforest this morning or slam the door in his face when we got back?” He smiled when her lips flattened out.
“Sometimes he just rubs me wrong,” she said.
Cam inched his tube closer to hers as he laid his chin on the edge. “I can tell.”
“I know it makes me petty, but–”
“No it doesn’t.”
That caught her by surprise. “You don’t even know what I was going to say.” He gave her that boyish grin that made her want to run her fingers through his wet hair and brush the floppy front bits back.
“You don’t have to agree with someone else’s outlook on life and way of living. It doesn’t make them wrong in thinking differently and it doesn’t make you petty for disagreeing.”
She chewed on that for a second. “I just don’t like feeling belittled. I’ve gone ziplining a dozen times and that’s nothing compared to jumping out of an airplane or standing at the edge of a cliff where one wrong step would mean an unbearable death.” He winced at the thought of her standing there. “Whenever he came along, he wouldn’t shut up with the cautionary warnings like I was a child, and whenever I went without him, he wouldn’t stop with the lectures long enough to hear my stories.”
She looked up to see Cam smiling at her. “What?”
“I didn’t say anything,” he said.
“But you’re thinking something.”
He laughed. “You’re a bird meant for flight, not be encaged to look pretty and sing for an audience.”
“That’s one way of putting it.” But the metaphor made her smile. “But I still look good,” she added.
Cam’s laugh reverberated through her. “That you do.”
They grew quiet for a minute, both letting the water slowly move them further down the shore. Emma laid her head back, soaking in the warmth of the sun. This vacation was proving to be more enjoyable than she thought it would, even before she dragged Cam into the folds.
“Can I ask you something?” It was something that had been eating at him since that first night he met her.
She hesitated, then did her best to sit up a little better in her float. “Sure.”
“Why haven’t you dated since the breakup?”
She was quiet for a moment.
“You don’t have to answer if it’s too nosy,” he said.
“It’s not that,” she said. “I was just thinking.” Emma sat up in her tube and slid off the end, noting that Cam stuck a hand out to steady it for her so that it didn’t go shooting out from behind. She gave him an appreciative smile, then sunk under the water and popped up in the middle, copying the way he was floating.
“Better?” He grinned.
“It was getting hot out of the water,” she admitted, now aware of how much more intimate this felt, both of them at eye level only a few feet away.
That distance shrunk as Cam inched closer. Emma laid her chin on her crossed arms at the front of her tube, letting her feet dangle in the water behind her as he placed a hand on her float so that they wouldn’t drift apart in the water.
“It wasn’t an intentional decision,” Emma said, answering his earlier question. “I did go on a few dates, but nothing exciting. No sparks, I guess.”
He nodded, his eyes on hers. “Are you looking for sparks?”
Emma could feel her heart picking up pace under his intense gaze, the closeness, how private it felt way out here by themselves.
“It’d be nice,” she said. “Is that silly?”
“I don’t think so.” His voice was both soft and rough to her ears. “Did you have sparks with Asher?”
Her brows furrowed as the question hit her. She’d never thought about it. “I don’t think so, not like you read about in books or see in movies.” Or that she felt with Cam. The thought came out of nowhere. She tried to ignore it. “He was my first serious relationship, and I think I was tired of dating and he was stable in a world where I was chaos.” She frowned, having never realized how true that was until she processed it out loud.
Cam watched her as she spoke. The moisture still ran in droplets off the bottoms of her ears, the small dribbles of water over her forehead, and the way her skin glistened in the sunshine. He found himself wanting to feel the line of her nose with his own, tuck her wet hair behind her ears. Instead, he let her continue and he listened.
“But there were always red flags I chose to ignore. Clashes in our personalities, you could say. But by then we were comfortable and I don’t think I’m good at opening up to new people. I think it was just easier to maintain what I had than to consider something else. At the end of the day, Asher is a good guy.”
“Maybe that’s why the breakup didn’t bother you as much as you thought it would, and why you didn’t say yes when he proposed.” He met her eyes. “There were no sparks.”
Her lips twitched up. “And do sparks even exist?” Though her heart was telling her she’d already discovered that answer.
Cam pulled her float even closer to his, their faces mere inches apart. “I think so.”
She swallowed, sure the fish under the water could hear her rapid heartbeat. “Have you ever experienced them?”
He ignored her question. “Do you find it easier to open up to new experiences instead of people? Is that why you say yes to clients who will require you to travel?”
She gave him a look. “That’s not fair. I’ve been answering your questions, it’s your turn to answer mine.”
“What would you prefer my answer be?” Cam asked softly, noticing her face freeze for a fraction of a second.
“Besides capturing parts of the world and sharing it with people who would otherwise never see the beauty that surrounds us, I think photography is a way of communication. I prefer to let the people who hire me be the vulnerable ones. When they’re willing to do that, then I can offer them a part of me through my lenses and with adjustments of the shutter and aperture that will speak to them on a whole new level,” Emma said.
“They see themselves the way I and so many others see them. Daring, happy, striving, unbreakable, living. And sometimes sad or lonely or defeated. I am open to sharing those experiences with people, helping them on their mission to get others outdoors or to forge a path of entrepreneurship or creativity. But to sit down and spill myself to someone…”
Emma rolled her head to the side to look at the sun cascading its beauty across the water in its descent. “That’s harder. I’ve been able to do that with very few people. Most of which are all here on this vacation.”
Cam’s hand found the back of her elbow, his light touch bringing her gaze back to him. “Was it hard to tell me about your childhood that first night on the beach?” His voice was gentle, warming her like a hug.
She looked into those deep blue eyes, the sun catching the sparkles of emerald through the middle. This was the easiest question he’d asked her so far. “No,” she said simply.
They continued to float like that for a while. Emma wasn’t sure how much time had passed, only that the sun continued to set and the warmth she was feeling felt natural and she knew it came from within like a part deep inside her had been nurtured and hummed to life.
She allowed the sounds of the ocean and the beach full of people to fill her, the sight of their towels and umbrella far down the shore by now. She saw the birds fly overhead, dipping toward the water occasionally, and the sky turn into beautiful hues of pink and gold.
When she didn’t think there was anything as soothing and wonderful as this moment, she heard Cam’s faint words drift into the air, answering her earlier question.
“Only once.”
And she hoped her heart wasn’t getting her into more trouble than she knew what to do with.