We reach the hut with the snorkeling gear and Josh exchanges “alohas” with the guy behind the counter. “My almost-brother here needs some gear, please.”
“Sure thing, Mr. Faraday. And you, sir?”
“I’ve already got mine from earlier,” Josh replies.
The guy turns to gather whatever equipment is needed for me and Josh leans his elbow on the counter, his eyes locked with mine. “T-Rod’s like a sister to me, Ryan. Been with me six years. I can’t help but look out for her, especially ever since this dude I was sort of friendly with broke her heart this past year.”
I open my mouth and close it again.Shit.
“Here you go, sir,” the guy behind the counter says, handing me a mask and snorkel and fins. “You know how to use all that?”
I peel my eyes off Josh’s intense face and smile at the guy. “Yep. I’m good. Thanks.”
Josh grabs his gear from a nearby chair and we begin walking toward the water where every member of my family (other than Colby) is standing in the shallow waves, putting on masks.
Josh continues, “T-Rod met that douche ’cause of me, so her broken heart was indirectly my fault. I’d asked T-Rod to gather some signed sports memorabilia for this children’s charity I support—you know, signed jerseys, balls, that kind of thing. So, she goes to pick up everything from various teams around L.A. and the next thing I know this one soccer guy I sort of knew is texting me, ‘You’ve been holding out on me, Faraday!’ So I asked T-Rod what that was about because she never says a damned word to me about her personal life, and it turns out she’s got a dinner date with the guy that very night. Fast-forward however many months and they’ve moved in together and they’re talking about marriage and how many kids they want. Fast-forward a year after that and it turns out he’d been fucking around on her the entire time, pretty much from day one, in every city he’d played in, the whole time he was telling her he wanted her to have his babies.”
My heart squeezes painfully. No wonder T-Rod doesn’t trust me as far as she can throw me.
We reach the waterline and Josh stops to put on his fins, so I do the same, my heart pounding ferociously in my chest, my mind reeling.
His fins on, Josh stands upright and crosses he muscled arms over his chest, his forearms covering the “grace” tattoo inked across his pecs. “Needless to say, I’m not friends with that piece of shit anymore.”
My stomach turns over. “Understandably.”
For a long beat, Josh looks at me like I’ve got a condom in my pocket with “Suck this, T-Rod!” written in Sharpie on it, and then he smiles and says, “You ready?”
I nod.
We begin trudging into the ocean toward the small group already snorkeling beyond the shore break. “You ever been snorkeling before?” Josh asks breezily, like the last five minutes never happened.
“Uh, yeah, a couple times in Mexico.”
“Kat keeps joking her belly’s gonna pull her down to the bottom like an anchor. I keep saying it’s gonna make her float like a buoy. God, I hope I’m right.” He chuckles.
I smile, but I’m too mind-fucked right now to return his breeziness.
“Spit on the glass to keep it from fogging up,” he says, motioning to my mask. “It’s an old trick.” By way of demonstration, he spits on the glass and proceeds to smear his saliva around and then dunks his mask in the ocean—and I do the same. “Oh, hey,” Josh says casually, still working on his mask. “I’ve been meaning to ask you: what were you planning to tell me the night we were supposed to meet for drinks at The Pine Box? Anything in particular?”
I suppress a smirk.Bravo. This is a master class right here in a dude gently laying down the law. Pretty impressive, I gotta say. “Nothing too intense,” I reply. “I just wanted to welcome you into the Morgan family and tell you if you ever need anything, big or small, you’re acquiring four brothers who’ll always have your back.” One side of my mouth hitches up. “And, of course, I’d planned to make it abundantly clear to you, and still do, frankly, that if you do a damned thing to hurt my sister, the Morgan Brothers will turn into the Morgan Mafia so fucking fast, you won’t know what hit you.”
A huge, beaming smile spreads across Josh’s face to match mine. “Well, I can certainly understand you feeling that way, Ryan. In fact, I’d expect nothing less from a dude who cares deeply about his little sister.”
I nod. “I’d expect nothing less, too.”
“Good. Glad we’re on the same page.” He swats me on the shoulder and motions to my mask. “Now put your mask on, bro. Your momma’s been asking about her beloved Rum Cake for the past hour and, God knows, we don’t wanna disappoint our sweet Momma Lou.”
33
Tessa
Okay, let’s start with the good news: Uncle William has had some sort of brain transplant, in a good way. I greeted him and his longtime companion, Katya, in the lobby, along with Jonas and Sarah and Sarah’s mom, and offered to personally show the Faraday family’s patriarch to his bungalow (so I could nip any and all inevitable issues in the bud); but, much to my shock and utter delight, Uncle William put one arm around Katya’s shoulders and the other around his new niece Sarah’s, beamed a genuine smile at me, and said, “I’ll be thrilled with whatever accommodations you’ve arranged for us, Theresa.”
I swear it took all my restraint not to do a happy dance, right then and there—I’d just gained a full hour in my day! “Great,” I said, and I just was about to add, “So I’ll see you all at the opening party, then?” when Uncle William said he was hoping to say a quick hello to Josh and Kat and Kat’s “wonderful parents” (whom he’d met at Jonas and Sarah’s wedding), wherever they might be on the resort grounds, even before getting situated in his bungalow. “Of course!” I chirped. “Follow me!”
And now, fuck my life, I’m leading Uncle William, Katya, Jonas, Sarah, and Sarah’s mother to the private beach where, I’m quite certain, we’ll find not only Josh and Kat and Kat’s “wonderful parents,” but Ryan Fucking Douchebag Morgan, too.
Which brings me to the bad news. The very, very bad news. I’m about to come face to faceagainwith Ryan, the one asshole on the planet I currently wish to avoid as much as humanly possible.
