“Yup.” He sipped his coffee, his gaze drifting away over the other diners. He was acting like this wasn’t big information, but it was. Apparently, he could have stayed at his own vacation house, but he’d still come to the resort with her. Whatever he was running from must be something big if it was keeping him away from his house. After all, he hadn’t come to the resort simply to be nice to her.
As they finished their breakfast, Kendra kept wondering what it was that Lucas was avoiding. Her mind went straight to the idea that he’d fled hisownwedding — maybe that was why he’d been so standoffish — but she knew that was silly. There must be something else going on. But what was it? Some kind of scandal in his personal life? A work problem? Or was he escaping from the pressures of everyday life and thought that a resort would prove a better distraction than sitting alone at his house?
“Are you ready to go?” Lucas asked, startling Kendra out of her reverie. She nodded, ate the last piece of her cantaloupe, and got to her feet.
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” she said. Lucas flashed her a quick, unexpected smile that made Kendra’s heart flip before leading the way out of the breakfast area.
After winding their way through the spacious resort grounds, they met Susie outside. She had a car waiting, so they climbed inside and drove a half an hour or so to another part of the coast. When they arrived, they descended onto the beach and boarded a small but well-equipped boat with a covered roof. Susie got on board too and exchanged a few words in Spanish with the boat driver, who tipped his cap to them.
El Arco was as beautiful as Susie had advertised. An enormous archway of rocks jutted up out of the turquoise water, toweringabove them and casting shadows over the waves below. They went right up to it on the boat, and Kendra’s breath caught. She’d traveled a fair amount before, both with her family and for her work — photography for destination weddings — but she never ceased to be amazed by the natural beauty the world around her had to offer. She felt small beside the towering rock formation, but small in a good way, as though her problems were easily fixable. It was amazing to think about how these rocks had been here long before she was born, and that they’d be here long after she was gone.
Kendra glanced over at Lucas, hoping to share a moment, but he was staring at his phone with a fixed expression. She stifled a frustrated sigh. He was in a beautiful, natural place, bobbing in a turquoise ocean beside a towering rock arch, and he was more interested in his phone than in his surroundings.
Susie must have noticed that he was looking at his phone too, because she met Kendra’s eyes and cleared her throat. “Can I take a picture for you guys?”
“Oh, no, that’s fine,” Kendra protested, but Susie was already gesturing for them to stand together. Lucas got to his feet, running a hand through his hair to fix it and looking uncomfortable. Awkwardly, the two of them posed in front of the rock, arms by their sides, smiles fixed.
“Come on, put your arms around each other,” Susie requested, urging them closer. Grudgingly, Kendra sidled closer to Lucas and put her arm around him. He draped his arm around her shoulders, and she caught the scent of something masculine and deep, like shaving cream. His arm was warm, and his fingers splayed across her shoulder. His closeness made Kendra’s heart beat a quick rhythm, but she tried to ignore that.
“Great!” Susie beamed. “That’s a good one. I’ll take another later.”
Kendra and Lucas exchanged an awkward look before going to sit down again.
They sailed around the natural rock arch, looking at it from different angles and smiling at other tourists on small boats. There were a few people on kayaks, and Kendra winced at the memory of toppling into the water yesterday — and of Lucas pulling her out. On the far side of the arch, they stopped to take a few more pictures with a peninsula Susie called Land’s End. Then Susie opened a small cooler in the bottom of the boat.
“Would you like a drink?” she offered. “I have a few different sodas and some beer and water!”
“Do you have Coke?” Lucas looked up from his phone. Apparently, Coke was enough to draw him out of whatever was so fascinating, even though the rock arch hadn’t been.
“I do.” Susie handed over a glass bottle. Lucas grinned. He twisted the lid off, took a long sip, then glanced at Kendra.
“Have you had Mexican Coke before?”
“No.” Kendra’s brow furrowed. “Is it different from American Coke?”
“Oh, yes.” Susie bobbed her head in agreement. “Try one!” She handed Kendra a second glass bottle. Kendra met Lucas’s eyes over their guide’s head for a brief moment as she twisted off the metal cap and took a sip. Sure enough, the drink was different from American Coca-Cola. It was fresh and almost spicy in a way she couldn’t quite put her finger on.
“What’s in this?” she asked, taking another long sip.
“It has cane sugar instead of white sugar or high-fructose corn syrup,” Lucas explained. He toasted her with his bottle, which was already half empty. “I always buy cases of this when I come down here.”
“I can see why.” The bottle was cold and refreshing in her hand, and, for some reason, drinking soda out of a glass bottle instead of a can made her think of simpler times. Kendra sat back on one of the bench seats, feeling happier than she had in a while. This wasn’t the honeymoon she’d planned, but at least she had a cold drink and a beautiful view.
She winced internally. Her bar for a good day had really sunk since she’d been left at the altar.
After a while, they returned to shore, where Susie led them along the beach. There seemed to be a lot of couples here, ranging from local teenagers to other tourists, many of them kissing. One man even got down on his knee as they passed, and Kendra’s heart soared with excitement for the young couple before she crashed back to the reality that love and marriage weren’t the same in real life as they were in fairy tales. Maybe he’d end up leaving the woman who was currently jumping into his arms at the altar, too.
“So,” Susie said, turning back with a big smile and breaking Kendra’s chain of thought. “This is Lover’s Beach.”
“Oh, that explains it,” Lucas muttered under his breath, glancing at the other couples. Kendra hid a smile.
“Of course, you need to take another picture here,” Susie continued as though she hadn’t heard him. She took Kendra’s phone and motioned for them to pose. This time, Lucas wrapped his arm around Kendra’s shoulders without being prompted.
“Okay.” Susie snapped a picture. “Now kiss her.”
Kendra felt Lucas stiffen beside her, as she did the same. “What?” Lucas asked.
“Kiss her!” Susie repeated. “This is Lover’s Beach. You have to take a romantic picture.” She beamed.
