He loops a hand behind my neck and pulls me in for a long, deep kiss.
Not the answer I expect to my guess.
But I love it. I wantmoreof it.
And I hope I’m not fooling myself in thinking we can continue exploring all of what this is once Emma’s happily married and we’re all back home.
27
Theo
There’sa special kind of living that comes with watching someone else step out of their shell and embrace everything they’ve been missing.
Watching Laney blossom? Watching her put on a bikini and launch herself into the world’s worst—but also best—cannonball? Watching her laugh as she parasails above the ocean? The confidence it took to go down on meoutside, where anyone could’ve walked by the little garden? The joy and arousal on her face over the bacon at breakfast?
This is a whole new side of Laney and it makes me like her more than I thought I ever could.
I shouldn’t have let her think I was a model.
But I’m not ready for this to end. I still have today. I still have tomorrow.
I can find a way to tell her what I do on the side without scaring her off.
I have to. Every minute I spend with her, I want two more. I’m falling hard. And I don’t want to stop.
It’s hell to watch her dash off toward Emma’s room to deal with a dress emergency that I’m unequipped to help with.
If she wanted it knitted back together, I’d be her guy.
But I know it’s lacy and frilly and satiny, and I amnotthe guy for that. Lot more experience ripping those fabrics than putting them back together.
Doesn’t mean I’m useless, though.
I promise Laney I’ll stay away from the golf course—for your sake, Theo, because nothing’s gone wrong today and you don’t deserve to get shit for doing nothing wrong and it’s likely Chandler will give you shit just for breathing, which isn’t fair—but I don’t promise her I won’t provoke trouble in other ways.
Andother waysis me checking on the kittens, and then leaving the bungalow to stride behind the unmanned front desk of the resort and into the office.
A woman with brown skin and thick black hair pulled up into a bun with a red hibiscus in it looks up at me from digging in one of the drawers. She’s in the resort’s Hawaiian print pattern, and her nametag saysKalani.
“Sir, this area is off-limits for guests. I’ll be with you at the desk shortly.”
I smile at her and pull up a floral folding chair across from her. “My sister’s getting married here tomorrow, and I was hoping you could tell me everything’s squared away for it.”
“No one’s getting married here tomorrow, sir.”
“Theo, please. My sister booked a resort wedding. For tomorrow. Here. Got the receipt and everything.”
She squeezes her eyes shut. “It’s not on the calendar, sir.”
Of course it’s not.Dammit. “So how do we get it on the calendar?”
She stares at me with undisguised suspicion.
I give her a friendly, nonthreatening smile in return.
“Are you a federal agent?” she whispers.
Don’t know why I didn’t see that coming, but it catches me so off guard I almost fall off the seat laughing. “Sorry,” I sputter. “Sorry. That’s—that’s never happened before.”
