“What do you mean?” he asks.
“I mean, I have spent the last several years of my life planning other people’s love stories. Helping them make their dreams a reality. And now, I feel like…” I trail off because I don’t really want to finish that sentence.
“You feel like what?” Gavin asks.
“Oh, nothing, it’s silly,” I say.
“Not if you’re feeling it,” he says softly.
I bite my lip. “It feels like it’s never going to be me,” I finally admit. “The invites, the cake, the catering, the music, the dress…” I say, swallowing hard. “That dress.”
I feel ridiculous right now, getting emotional on a ski lift. But Gavin just smiles; he’s totally calm. “Nah,” he says after a moment. “It’ll be you someday. All of it. And if this is home, everything you need is here. Maybe you’ve just been looking in the wrong places.”
The ski lift starts up again, and as we head back towards the ground, I feel lighter. Better. I’m tired of thinking about that stupid dress, anyway.
Gavin is insistent on walking me back to my cabin, which is sweet of him considering there doesn’t seem to be anyone else around.
“Where did everyone go?” I ask. “It’s like a ghost town around here.”
“If I had to guess, they’re all passed out with their shoes on and their glasses empty,” he says. “They were partying pretty hard when we left.”
I giggle as we round the corner past the heated pool, and then I stop. It’s lit up and steaming and glorious. I don’t know what’s come over me. Maybe it’s all the fears I am conquering in the last twenty-four hours. Or maybe I really am exhausted to the point of delirium. Whatever it is, it has me undoing my jacket.
“What’s up?” Gavin asks, but I just unzip my coat, take it off, and set it on one of the chairs.
“I don’t feel like going to bed. Not just yet,” I say.
“Really?” he says, watching me un-tuck my shirt from my pants. “What is it you feel like doing then?”
I answer with a smirk. “A little night swim…” I say before stripping down.
Chapter 30
Gavin
Charlotte is naked.
Well, not entirely. She still has on her bra and panties, but the pale pink lace against her fair complexion makes her look naked.
“What are you doing?” I ask, trying to keep my eyes on hers and not her nearly naked body.
“I told you, I want to go swimming,” she says.
“Now? In the middle of the night? In your underwear?” I ask.
“Well now, you’re starting to sound like me,” she says.
“I guess that’s because you’re acting like me,” I say. The next thing I know, she’s hopping into the pool. A moment later, she comes up out of the water, her eyes bright and a smile on her face.
“Oh my god, it feels amazing. You have to come in,” she says, bobbing in the water.
“You want me to come in with you.” I ask, but it comes out like a statement.
“You won’t regret it,” she says teasingly, and every nerve in my body ignites.
No, no, I will not.
A moment later I am stripped down to my briefs, hopping into the pool. She is not wrong. It is warm. It feels amazing after being on a ski lift in the thirty-two degree air.
