16. Veronica
Chapter sixteen
Veronica
Perfect angels.
We made it. We finally made it to the island.
I stretch my arms out into the air as I take in the fresh, peaceful breeze around me, while Gabe and Noah carry our suitcases off the speedboat.
It took us several trips to all get here from Nadi Airport since we couldn’t all fit in the little plane and speedboat.
Which means Noah, Gabe, and I are the last ones to arrive at the resort.
An arm comes behind my knees as I’m swept off my feet and into someone’s arms. I yelp as Gabe presses me to his chest and spins us around in a circle. “Look at this place, baby! We’re gonna have so much fun!” he says with a huge grin while laughing.
His laugh is so contagious that I can’t help joining in as I throw my arms up and shout, “Woo-hoo!”
He carries me down the dock, where we are greeted by the manager of the island, who proceeds to bring us over to our own little villas.
Aubrey and I had already decided to share one together.
And from what I’ve gathered, Noah and Gabe are in the one next to us, only a two-minute walking distance away.
I enter our split-level villa and am immediately gasping for air. When I picture a dream luxury vacation, this is what I see. It’s paradise. That’s the only way to describe it.
Dark wooden beams, light-beige walls, sliding glass doors that open up the whole wall, giving you direct access to the large deck that wraps around the front of the villa. A perfect view of the lagoon in front of us with water for as far as the eye can see.
Taking a few steps in, I drop my luggage by the door and walk past the living room and kitchen area, all the way to the back deck, needing a closer look at the scenic view before me. Oh my God! There’s a pool. We have our own plunge pool! I am definitely going skinny-dipping in that tonight!
“Finally! You’re here!” Aubrey appears to my right on a higher-level section of the deck. She walks down a few steps and reaches me.
I take her into my arms. “I didn’t know you were still here. I thought you might have met up with the rest of the gang already.”
She pulls back and smiles. “No, we’re all meeting up for lunch. But I wanted to wait for you to get here so we could go together.”
“Okay, let me just put my luggage away, get changed, and we’ll head out.” I turn back toward the villa, looking inside.
From out here we can clearly see the layout of the place. In the center is the main living space with a seating area and kitchen, then on each side there’s a raised floor with two identical bedrooms.
Each bedroom has its own bathroom and king-size bed. And like the main floor, a full wall of sliding glass doors opens the bedrooms to the deck. Holy shit, this place must have cost a fortune.
“You know we’ll be paying Emma back for the rest of our lives.” Thanks to our amazing and beyond loaded friend, Aubrey and I were able to join the gang on this luxury vacation. Because without her, there was no way we could afford coming here.
“Oh, I know.” Aubrey giggles and pulls me in toward my luggage.
Thirty minutes later, I’ve taken a quick shower and changed into a simple white, spaghetti strap, mini summer dress. Beneath it, I’m wearing my sexy black and white bikini with white wedge sandals on my feet, showing off my newly done dark purple toenails.
“You ready to go?” I call out to Aubrey as I stand by the door.
She comes down the few steps to her room and strolls over. “Ready.” She’s wearing a similar dress to mine, except hers is a little longer, ending right above her knees, and it’s turquoise blue rather than white.
A smile forms on my lips. “Nice dress. You know what it reminds me of?” I smirk.
She looks down at it, her hands gliding down the flowy material. “What?”
“Shane’s eyes.” I press my lips together not to laugh.
She’s so obvious, it’s blinding. Over the years of being friends, her favorite color has suddenly changed from soft purple to blue.
And not any kind of blue, turquoise blue.
The exact color of Shane’s eyes. She even decorated our place with a shitload of things in that specific color.
But she still believes no one has noticed.
I mean, maybe she hasn’t even realized it herself.
Her eyes grow wide, cheeks, nose, and ears burning up with how hard she’s blushing. “Really?” Her voice comes out a whole octave higher. She clears it and tries again. “Really? I hadn’t noticed.”
“Mhm, sure you hadn’t.” I raise a brow. “What color’s your bathing suit?”
She folds her arms over her chest. “That has nothing to do with it. You know it’s my favorite color.” From the small straps I can see, I’d say it’s the exact same color, as well as her sandals. She’s obsessed.
“I wonder why,” I murmur under my breath with a snicker.
“Come on, let’s go. Everyone’s waiting for us.” She loops her arm through mine and pulls me out of the villa.
On our way down the trail to the main reception hall where we all agreed to meet, we bump into Gabe and Noah.
They stop walking ahead of us the minute they spot us.
Gabe comes skipping back toward me and lifts me in his arms, twirling us around.
“God, you’re so fucking sexy, Vixen.” He kisses my neck then sets me back down.
“Thank you, Pretty Boy.”
He turns his back to me and squats down. “Piggyback ride?”
“Is that just an excuse to have me riding up against you?” I raise a brow.
He looks over his shoulder with a smirk. “Hell yeah, it is.” This guy.
I shake my head but still hop onto his back. He stands and begins to carry me down the pathway with Aubrey beside us. Noah falls into step beside her, chuckling as he watches Gabe trotting ahead with me on his back.
“There you are! We were about to sit down without you guys,” Silas calls when he sees us approaching.
“Sorry!” I shout. “We’re here now.” Gabe lowers and sets me on the floor.
“Let’s eat! I’m starving,” Gabe declares, patting his belly.
We follow an employee to a long table set up outside by the water. Stacks of food are already set up in the center in a buffet style, just waiting for us to dig in. We all take our seats, and of course, I end up sitting between Noah and Gabe.
A waiter comes around, offering us different wines, to which we all agree. When he reaches Morgan and goes to fill her glass, she places her hand above and says, “No, thank you.”
I snort in surprise. “Since when does Mrs. Burkley say no to wine?” I say jokingly, but then my eyes widen.
The table goes silent. All you can hear is the soft breeze blowing through the nearby leaves and the two toddlers babbling away as we all stare at Morgan. Waiting.
She looks at every one of us, then turns to her husband, who smiles proudly down at his wife. A breathtaking grin splits her lips before she says the words we’ve all been dying to hear leaves her mouth. “We’re pregnant.”
“Oh my God! Really!? Are you really?!” Emma brings her hands up to her mouth, waiting for confirmation that we all heard right.
She turns back to us, tears filling her eyes as she nods. “We are,” she cries happily. “It’s still early, so we aren’t telling people yet. But we knew we couldn’t keep it from you guys for much longer.”
“Oh, dear God!” Cecilia exclaims as we all jump out of our chairs and rush over to congratulate the soon-to-be parents.
Everyone is emotional as we each take Morgan and Clay in our arms, joy radiating for as far as the eye can see.
All the girls are in tears, even Clay has glassy eyes as his friends all slap him on the back.
Hell, even I’m getting emotional for them.
They’ve been trying to have a baby for over two years without success.
But their time is finally here, and we couldn’t be happier for them. They deserve it.
After several more minutes, we finally sit back down to eat. “How far along are you?” Aubrey asks in her usual soft voice.
“Eight weeks.”
“Eight weeks!? So when we went wedding dress shopping, you were already pregnant?” Emma asks while wiping away her tears.
Morgan nods with a soft smile. “I was, but my doctor says we must have miscalculated when I ovulated, and it was still too early to tell, which is why the blood tests came back negative.”
“Wow, and did you just find out?” Cecilia questions next.
Morg shakes her head. “No, we found out the morning of the Stanley Cup win.”
I gasp, slapping my hand on the table. “That’s why you were in such good shape the next morning! You didn’t even drink!”
She giggles. “I was passing all my shots and drinks to Clay.”
“That makes so much sense now. I had never seen you that drunk before, man. I was starting to wonder if it was the old age hitting you hard.” Gabe laughs beside me.
“F-off!” Clay chuckles.
“But wait.” Em lifts her butter knife in the air that she was using to butter a little bun. “You had a glass of wine during the day with us at my place.”
“Actually, I didn’t.” Morgan smiles sheepishly. “You poured me one, and then I waited until no one was looking to occasionally pour some into the sink and act like I was drinking it.”
“Oh, you sneaky girl.” Em laughs.
“You threw my wine down the drain?” Greyson glares at Morgan, but there’s not much anger in the look.
Emma pats his chest. “It’s okay, Wolf. I’ll buy you a new one.” He nods in response.
I still don’t understand what Greyson’s deal with wine is.
He mostly only drinks beer when we’re all together, yet he has a huge selection in his wine cellar with bottles worth thousands of dollars.
The whole collection together must be worth more than three million dollars.
When we asked Emma about it, she told us he really likes wine but only drinks it on his downtime, that they often have a bottle at night together before heading to bed.
“Is it weird for you to know that your girlfriend has more money than you do?” Gabe asks Greyson as his hand comes to rest on my thigh.
“Ellis, why do you always have to ask questions that make people uncomfortable?” Silas sighs with his head thrown back.