9. Lucky
Lucky
Nick took care of me for the next few days. He ran baths for me, brushed out my hair when I was impatient and kept snagging it, making my head throb, walked with me around the resort when I could go outside again, and was just a general sweetheart.
I also hadn’t had any chaos magic disasters for a few days, and I was grateful for that. I had seriously needed a break from them. Hopefully, with my grandfather and Finn both looking for a way to get rid of it, I would get a permanent break soon.
We played cards and board games, and I think Nick let me win sometimes, because I was notoriously terrible at card games and boardgames. Like, wince-worthy terrible. And I knew the stereotype about blondes, but I was very smart, thank you very much. I just wasn’t much for games.
But with Nick, they had been fun.
On day five, I was well enough for us to do a spa day.
I tried to get ready quickly, taking a quick shower, and then brushing my hair and my teeth.
By the time Nick knocked on our adjoining door, I had already put together a little tote bag full of things I might need, including a swimsuit.
I was pretty sure the spa would have everything else.
We were doing a hydrotherapy circuit, moving between hot tubs, cold plunges, steam rooms, and saunas.
It was supposed to be good for soreness, sleep, and your lymphatic system.
We checked in at the front desk—Nick had made appointments for us—then we separated to go to our locker rooms and get changed. The spa provided a robe and towels, so I put the robe on, grabbed a towel, and went to find Nick.
He was standing by the large sauna. We were in the water sanctuary area.
It was filled with plants, a few small bridges, a gentle river, and a few softly gushing waterfalls.
Low, peaceful music played in the background.
Nothing was loud or overstimulating, and the ceiling in the water area was all glass.
Scattered around the area were lounge chairs.
We set our robes and towels on a few next to each other, then entered the sauna.
The sauna’s dry heat hit me immediately when I walked in. Nick and I chose a seat and tried to relax for ten minutes, chatting quietly so we didn’t disturb the others.
Nick turned to me with a grin when our time was up. “Ready for the cold plunge?”
I groaned. “Not even close, but let’s do it anyway.”
“That’s my girl.” He took my hand and we made our way to the cold plunge pool. Still holding my hand, he turned to look at me. “Go together?”
“I don’t know if I can do this,” I whimpered. The other people in the plunge pool looked like they were ice cubes.
I didn’t want to be an ice cube.
“Mind over matter, Lucks.”
I bit my lip, closed my eyes for courage, then opened them again and nodded at him. “Together.”
Together we entered the pool quickly, still holding hands. I wanted to scream like a banshee, but instead put my head against Nick’s chest, closed my eyes, and tried to take slow, deep breaths as Nick held me.
I was going to die.
Literally, I was going to die.
“Keep breathing, sunshine,” Nick whispered in my ear, making me shiver for an entirely different reason.
It was all I could do to listen to him.
Breathe in. Breathe out. Try not to get dizzy or pass out. Come to think of it, was this really the best choice after mostly recovering from a minor concussion? This had probably been a really bad decision.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
“Thirty more seconds. You’re doing great, Lucks. You’ve got this.”
I so didn’t have this.
I was too cold to even shiver. I just stood there miserably stuck to Nick like glue as he continued whispering encouraging things in my ear and I tried not to whimper.
“Done.”
Oh, thank the stars! I got out of there so fast Nick was full-on laughing at me as he got out behind me.
We both made a beeline for our towels, but I was too cold and shivery to move after I picked mine up, so Nick gently took my towel from me and dried me off, then helped me slip my robe on.
And when my shaking and fumbling fingers couldn’t tie the bow on my robe, he took care of that too.
I lay down on my lounge chair and shivered until our rest time was up.
The soft music and the sound of the different water features were soothing. People chatted in low tones, with the occasional squeal coming from the cold plunge pool area, which made me giggle.
Nick and I just rested and held hands.
And honestly? It felt nearly perfect.
He squeezed my hand. “Ready for the steam room?”
The hot steam room? I jumped up like someone had stabbed me in the behind with a needle. “Yes!”
He chuckled as we put our robes on our chairs again and made our way to the steam room.
This room was made of light grey marble on the inside, and the moment we walked in I felt like I was in the middle of a really hot, steamy cloud. Water basically dripped down everything. Me, the walls, the people. Nowhere was safe.
We found a spot to sit away from the others, but I noticed almost immediately that I was having trouble breathing. I didn’t have asthma or anything, so I was kind of confused.
Nick noticed my distress.
“Having trouble breathing?” His brow was scrunched in concern.
I nodded, but didn’t reply. Speaking felt like too much work at the moment. It now felt like I was chewing on air, and my body was not handling it well.
Nick tugged me up immediately, and we left.
When we hit the outside, he pulled me away from the door, and stood there with me as I struggled to even my breathing out.
The whole time his hands were on my shoulders, and his brows were furrowed in concern as he watched to make sure it was getting better.
When it finally eased, Nick’s expression cleared, and he kissed my cheek.
“So now we know. Dry heat, yes. Wet heat, absolutely not.”
I felt bad that we’d had to leave, though. “Why don’t you go back in? I can wait on the lounge chair for you.”
“Nah. I’d rather spend time with you.” He took my hand again, and we made our way to one of the large hot tubs. “Let’s do the hot tub for the heat part this time, and then back into the cold plunge.”
I groaned.
After doing the hot tub and then cold plunge circuit one more time, we each went back to our locker rooms to shower and rinse the chlorine out of our hair.
I’d brought enough things to get ready for dinner in my tote bag, then met Nick at the exit to the spa.
He looked amazing in white dress shorts and a pink and white collared shirt. On his feet he was wearing sandals though, which for some reason made me grin.
I liked polished sometimes, but casual was really nice too. Especially on him.
Nick took one look at my dress and laughed. “We’re twins.”
We were. I was wearing a pink and white Hawaiian dress that matched his outfit.
Nick’s smile was adorable when he said, “I like being twins with you.”
My heart melted.
It was doing a lot of that lately.
We hit up the resort’s famous seafood restaurant that Nick had been really excited about and wanted to try.
Once we were seated, we both looked at our menus.
The only thing that I kind of wanted to try was the lobster bisque soup.
I wasn’t a fan of lobster, but the rest of the ingredients sounded good.
And because I knew that wouldn’t fill me up, I decided to see if I could ask the server if I could get them to leave off the shrimp on the shrimp fettuccini.
The restaurant was classy with low lighting, romantic now that the sun had mostly set, and wide windows that looked out on the beach.
The dress code here was more upscale than where we’d eaten before, so the people seated at the tables around us were in nicer clothes.
I people watched as Nick decided what he wanted.
Finally deciding, he set his menu down and looked across the table at me. A votive candle was flickering in a small glass jar surrounded by fresh greenery in the center of the table.
“You look beautiful.”
“Thank you.”
It was difficult for me to really feel the compliments people gave me sometimes.
Because inside of me there were these nasty voices telling me I was worthless.
That I was ugly. That I was fat. That I was dumb.
I knew those nasty voices had come from my parents, but over the years they had morphed into my own voice.
And it wasn’t even something I heard anymore.
It was just something I went around always feeling.
Like there was this black hole inside of me that was always empty.
And when someone said something kind to me, I always tried so hard to really feel it.
To let it light me up and fill me, making me feel all glowy inside.
But it didn’t.
Sometimes it felt like it couldn’t.
I felt broken.
Swallowing back the tears and the pain, I reached for Nick’s hand. His face lit up at my touch, but I think he was onto me, because he was more attentive than normal while we waited for our food, and that was saying a lot for him.
When our food finally came and I didn’t end up wearing the lobster bisque or my soda, we dug in.
“Mmm, this is actually good,” I said in surprise.
Nick paused eating. “You’ve never had it before?”
I shook my head. “Nope. I’m not much for seafood, actually, but this is really good.”
He gently set his fork down. “Then why are we here, Lucks? We could have gone somewhere else.”
I shook a roll at him, and then buttered it. “No way. You have been so excited about this place, and that makes me happy. Besides, I found something I like!”
Happy as a clam, I nibbled on my roll, then dipped a piece into my soup. Mmm, that was good.
Hesitantly, Nick went back to his food. But it was too delicious for him to be tentative for long, and he soon cleaned his plate.
After we’d paid the check, we walked along the beach for a while to walk off our meal.
It was low tide, so the wet sand on my toes was really silty and squishy. The soft coastal wind blew through my hair and made my dress billow around me.
After a few minutes, Nick stopped walking and gently turned me to face him, then wrapped his arms loosely around my waist as he gazed down at me.
“Am I moving too fast for you, Lucks?” His voice was low and rough with emotion.
I shook my head, surprisingly not even needing to think about it. “No. I like this pace. Everything feels easy with you.”
“It feels easy with you too.”
He caught my hair in one hand, and held it back from blowing in my face. “Can I kiss you?” he whispered.
I swallowed. “You’d better.”
He moved in closer, his warm, low chuckle and his nearness making my stomach flip.
“Are you threatening me, Lady Luck?”
“Yes,” I whispered.
“Good to know.” Then he leaned down, and softly, tenderly, kissed me.
I reached up and gripped his shirt like a lifeline as his mouth moved intently over mine. It was soft presses and little nibbles at first, and then the kiss deepened, and it was all I could do to hold on.
His kiss didn’t make my heart race, and it didn’t make my skin tingle.
Because it went much deeper than that.
As his lips adored mine, I could feel all of the things he wasn’t saying yet—all of the things he couldn’t say yet.
It was in the way he wrapped his arms around me and brought me closer to his body, as if he could protect me from the world.
It was in the way he continued to gently hold my hair so it didn’t blow in my face.
And suddenly, a thousand other moments with him ran through my mind like a kaleidoscope.
How his face always lights up when he sees me. How protective he is of me, even when it drives me crazy. How he always makes me laugh, even at the chaos that surrounds me sometimes. How our conversations make me feel treasured. How sometimes he looks at me as though he’s terrified to lose me.
Like I’m a dream he never dared to dream.
Too soon, he gently pulled away and rested his forehead against mine as we tried to catch our breath.
For some reason, I was fighting back tears when he whispered, “Was that okay?”
I buried my forehead against his chest so he wouldn’t see a tear streak down my face.
“It was perfect.”