Page 21 of Petals & Promises

The man settled onto an oversized padded lounge chair that would fit three or two people side by side. He then tugged Bailey-Rose onto his lap so they could look over the menu together. Taking out my phone, I took a picture of them and sent it to her family. Yesterday, we’d called to tell her parents our plan to bond our pack together over this trip, and we’d be a little hard to get in touch with. They were so excited for us and had zero issues as long as we kept them up to date on our location. This was the agreement they had with their children, and now we had to follow as well.

It would be Jolene’s birthday while we were gone, so Bailey-Rose came up with the idea of sending her mother a picture frame so we could send photos to her as a gift. It made our lives easier because then any of us could take a picture and send it to the frame, keeping them included in our travels. Family was incredibly important to our girl, and I saw why. They were pretty amazing people who welcomed us with open arms, and I never wanted Bailey-Rose to feel she needed to pick between us or them. So, if we needed to send pictures and keep her parents updated on our travels, it was the least any of us could do.

“I’m not eating snails,” Bailey-Rose blurted. “I don’t care what you say, Vili, it’s not happening.”

“Why? Is so good,” Vili insisted. “Fine! I get some for me then… maybe you might try.”

“I doubt it,” she muttered. “Now pineapple chicken sounds amazing. Oh, look, they have little steamed dumplings that look like bunnies. We’re definitely getting some of those.”

Ulysses stood next to me, his arms crossed, wearing a dopey grin as he watched our Omega. “Hey,” I whispered.

It took him a second to come back down to earth and turn his attention to me. “What’s up?”

“We’re doing the right thing getting her out of town, right? I mean, I know we are, but shouldn’t we be more honest as to why?” I asked, feeling a moment of doubt.

Ulysses turned to fully face me with a curious look on his face. “Do you think Rosie doesn’t know that there’s more to us leaving so soon after what happened at the studio?”

“I…” Pausing the moment I started to speak, I realized he was right. Bailey-Rose Thatcher, while carefree, pure-hearted, and adorably clumsy, was no idiot. “You’re right, man. I guess I just hesitate at the thought that we were not being honest.”

“Look, we’ve all seen what it looks like when a pack doesn’t trust or respect each other. They must have at some point, but situations happened to break that trust, and now they live the rest of their lives resenting their pack. None of us want to be them, and the way we keep that from happening is by having conversations like this. You had a concern, and instead of ignoring it and letting that fester, you spoke up.” Ulysses grabbed my shoulder and gave it a friendly squeeze. “If you want to talk to her about it, then none of us will stop you because we don’t want to keep secrets from her either.”

Feeling better about the situation now that I’d had a chance to get the building fear off my chest, I decided to let the matter drop. None of us wanted Randall to ruin this time for us, and at the heart of it, that’s why none of us wanted to bring it up in the first place. It’s better to leave the darkness trapped in the shadows than darken the room to let it free.

“Done,” Bailey-Rose exclaimed. “It says food should be here in twenty minutes.”

“Which is impressive because you ordered half the damn menu,” Gareth added.

“Anywaaay,” she cut in, drawing out the word. “I think we should get in a quick dip in the water since you shouldn’t swim right after eating.”

Yun-Sun frowned at that. “Sweetheart, you know that’s a myth, right? There is no truth to that other than parents not wanting their kids rushing through lunch just to get back in the pool.”

“What?” Bailey-Rose demanded, utterly flabbergasted at this news. “I’ve been lied to my whole life?”

Yun shrugged. “I’m sorry, but it’s the truth.”

It took her a good minute to come to terms with that knowledge before popping to her feet. “Either way, I’m going to change and test out the water.”

I wish I could say I was a bigger man who could resist watching his girl change, but I’m not. It was clear she wasn’t planning on stepping into the bathroom like she once would have. Nope, our Omega was embracing the reality that we were all going to be naked together a lot in the upcoming days.

While I could one hundred percent appreciate a woman who had abundant assets, the woman who stole my breath away had curves in all the right places with a solid handful on top and in the back to grip onto. When she bent over buck-ass naked to grab her swimsuit, I nearly tackled her to the bed seeing her pussy glisten with slick in the sunlight.

“Holy fucking shit,” Ulysses bit out. “Is she trying to turn us into senseless rutting Alphas?”

“I’m gonna go with yes,” I answered, my hands balling into fists. “Otherwise, she has no goddamn idea what she does to us.”

Soon, our visual feast was covered with a lavender-colored string bikini with little silver beads on the ends of the strings that glinted in the sunlight. It had been pure torture to watch her shop for them since anything Bailey-Rose wore was perfect. We walked out of that store with twenty different options, and I doubt she’ll put another one on after this. Oh well, there will be other occasions she’ll need to wear clothes.

“Any of you joining me?” she asked, batting her lashes at us, proving the woman knew exactly what she was doing.

“Sure,” I offered, then stripped off my clothes, tossing them closer to the bed. “Ready?”

Now, it was her turn to get a taste of her own medicine as the scent of her perfume hit my nose. Instantly, I started to purr, pleased to gain such a reaction from sight alone. I gave her a wink and headed out to the deck, where we had a plunge pool as well as steps leading into the ocean. The sound of small feet running up behind me had me grinning, that is, until she blew past me and leaped into the water.

The need to protect my Omega reared up as all the worst possible outcomes ran through my head. We didn’t know how deep the water was or how far the stairs extended. What if she hurt herself? Sprinting to the edge, I jumped just as she popped out of the water, grinning from ear to ear. Thankfully, I’d aimed to the right of where she was so I didn’t land on top of her. It was far deeper than I expected, and there was zero risk of Bailey-Rose getting hurt. Now satisfied that everything was fine, my heart rate began to slow as I resurfaced.

“Isn’t this amazing?” Bailey-Rose yelled as if she were trying to tell the world her opinion.

Treading water, I waited for the others to join us, diving into the water. Only Yun-Sun wore swim trunks while the others followed my example.