My smile clicks into place. “I’m fine. A little queasy, that’s all. It’ll pass.”
His gaze searches my face. “Maybe you should eat something. I’ll grab you a ginger ale.”
“Maybe,” I agree. But then I turn away from him, to a view that’s so spectacular it can’t be real. “I just… hate keeping our—situation—from everyone. It’s hard.”
I hear him exhale beside me. “I know. But we don’t need to rush anything. We don’t need to make any premature announcements right now. You want all the focus on your sister’s wedding, right?”
“Yes.” My throat tightens. “I mean, at some point we won’t have much choice. Not like we can hide it forever.”
“Yeah.” His voice is low, resigned. “We’ll tell them later.”
There’s a pause. His hand covers mine on the railing, and then squeezes.
Then I hear it—some of the ladies from Luna’s bus tour.
Beckett meets my eyes and presses a finger to his lips, wincing.
And damn it, he’s right. We need to be more careful.
“Did you get a chance to try on your tuxedo?” I ask, pitching my voice a little louder, as if we’d been discussing something perfectly ordinary.
“I did. Thanks for picking it up from the cleaners.” Beckett says smoothly, falling into step beside me.
We sound like a team. Like the old us.
And it’s completely messing with my head.
Because we’re supposed to be unraveling, not syncing up.
A little farther along the rail, Josie is taking pictures of her sister. Babs is holding a pink drink with a slice of pineapple. “The boys are by the dessert table,” she calls out, waving her hand inside.
“I better round them up.”
And of course, Beckett’s hand is on my back as we stroll inside. When we reach the boys, I shrug him off.
“Who are these handsome boys?” I ask, feeling a little more like myself as I hug each of my two little hellions. Insteadof smelling like sunscreen and kid sweat, they smell like strawberries and soap.
“We took showers,” Blakey announces proudly. “Cause there’s no bath in our room.”
Max scrunches up his nose. “You forgot my Hulk shampoo, Mom.”
“I didn’t forget. It’s in the side zipper of your suitcase.” And then to my mom, “Are you regretting taking these two on yet?” I bite my lip. “The suite Bex and I have is pretty bougie… Bex could always stay with the boys, you know?—”
“Don’t be silly.” My mom is smiling. “When else will I have the excuse to take a nap every day?”
A light touch to my arm startles me a bit, and I turn to see Babs has come up behind me. She and Josie must have followed us inside. “Do you need to rest, Ashley darling?” Babs asks.
“Who, me? I’m fine. Perfectly fine.” But my mom’s friend is giving me one of her looks, the one that makes me wonder if maybe she knows something she shouldn’t.
If she overheard Beckett and me talking out there… I think back on what we’d said. Nothing, really. Just that I was a little seasick?
“Yeah, I’m good. I just need to, uh, get my sea legs.”
Babs nods sympathetically, but then shewinksat me.
What exactly does she think is going on here?
“Mom! Mom!” Max shouts, crashing into my side. “Dad’s taking us on the race cars tomorrow!”
