Tessa puts her palm to her forehead. “Oh, Jesus.”
“Baby, Henn hacked into the employee databases ofninefucking airlines to find Samantha for me. Of course, Henn ultimately came up empty, despite his best efforts, but it wasn’t for lack of trying.”
“Oh, shit. Oh my God.No.”
I squeeze her hands. “Do you know how long it takes a world-class hacker to hack the databases ofnineairlines to find a twenty-seven-year-old, Virgo flight attendant named Samantha? Well, I do: it takes him approximately three months.”
Tessa puts her palms on her cheeks. “This is insane.”
“Baby, I’ve loved you from the minute I laid eyes on you.” I swallow hard. “You’re my fate. My destiny. And I knew it the minute I saw you.” A lump rises in my throat. “Tessa, my love for you is involuntary. You’re my ‘kick’ when the doctor bangs on my knee with a hammer.I’ve got no choice but to love you.”
She furrows her brow and drops my hands. “But Josh and Jonas said you’d called this other woman the day you arrived here. If that woman wasme, then... Who did you call?”
Oh my God. No. I feel sick. I promised Charlotte I wouldn’t say her name.I swore. But, fuck my life, if Idon’ttell Tessa about my calls to Charlotte, I’m toast.
Tessa’s entire body visibly tenses. “Who’d you call, Ryan?”
My mind is reeling. I can’t string coherent thoughts together. Shit. It seems like the best plan is for me to call Charlotte and get her permission to tell Tessa about our conversations. Otherwise, I’m simply gonna trade one problem for another here. It’s not that big a deal, right? I’ll call Charlotte tonight, get her permission, and head straight to Tessa’s room to tell her everything.
“Ryan?” Tessa says, her eyes hardening. “It’s a simple question: who’s the woman you called the day you arrived?”
I take a deep breath. “Baby, I can’t answer that right now—you just need to trust me that it wasn’t anyone I was romantically interested in. Look, I know you’re a ‘just gimme the facts’ kind of girl—I know that about you—but I really need you to take a leap of faith here and trust me. I promise I’ll answer your question—”
She throws up her hands, grunts in frustration, and begins marching back toward the entrance to the beach. “Goodbye, Ryan. ‘What happens in Maui stays in Maui.’ Let’s just leave it at that.”
I chase her and lurch in front of her, impeding her forward progress.
“Did you not hear me? I told you I love you, Tessa.”
“I heard you. Let me pass.”
“What the fuck happened to you to make you this jaded about love? I know the soccer-douche cheated on you, okay? I know he broke your heart.But I’m not him. Haven’t I shown you who I am this week? Hasn’t my entirefamilyshown you?”
Tears flood her eyes. “I don’t know what to believe anymore, Ryan. Every time I let down my guard with you, nothing is ever what it seems. You’ve obviously omitted telling me certain things in order to manipulate my feelings and make me fall for you. And guess what? It worked. I fell for you. Hard. But now I don’t know if my feelings are real or the result of some sort of manipulation.”
I grab her shoulders. “Your feelings are real. We’re perfect together, and you know it.”
“I don’t know it. I can’t trust my own feelings. Clearly, I have horrible judgment.”
“Okay, then, if you can’t trust yourself or me, then trust my family. Do you know how many members of my family came up to me this week and told me we’re perfect for each other? And not just my mom and Kat, baby—everyonewants us together because they can see we’re made for each other.”
She looks like she’s about to pass out from the stress of this situation. Clearly, her brain and heart are waging a fierce battle inside her. “Everything’s happened so fast,” she stammers. “I haven’t had time to process. How could anyone fall in love in a week, especially like this—when it turns out they’re being lied to? We’re in a bubble—it’s just a fantasy.”
“Baby, no. We fell in love for real. You like facts? Okay, then look at my parents. In college, my dad saw my mom in a lecture hall on the first day of school, sat down next to her, and they fell in love right then and there. That very night, my dad told his roommate he’d met the woman he was gonna marry. Or, fine, fuck my parents, you want more facts? Then look at your ownparents.” My voice is edged with barely contained panic. “Remember what you told me? Your dad knew your mom was rightfully his the minute she walked into his studio and, to this day, he still thinks she ‘hung the moon.’ Well, that’s you and me. I saw you in that bar and, instantly, I knew you were rightfully mine. And, I promise, thirty years from now, a hundred years from now, a thousand years, I’ll still think you hung the moon. Baby, we could have it all, just like your parents.”
She throws her hands over her tear-streaked face and shrieks, “Stop! Please, Ryan, just stop!”
“Tessa, I’m not gonna stop. Your parents have it all and we could, too.”
“Stop!” she shrieks, clearly distressed. Tears flood her eyes. “My parents don’t have it all, Ryan! Not even close!”
I press my lips together, rendered completely speechless.
For a long beat, the sound of crashing waves fills the awkward silence.
“Tessa?” I prompt, my heartbeat pounding in my ears. “What happened?”
She takes a deep breath. “He cheated on her,” she whispers, her entire body trembling. “My dad says my mom ‘hung the moon’ but he cheated on her and broke her heart.”
