Page 64 of About That Pact

“I feel like I’m on vacation all by myself,” she admitted while eating her lobster risotto.

It was an odd thing to say, but he understood it. He was curious to see her reason behind it. “We are a party of twenty and you feel alone?”

“They are all having fun. Look at them,” Charlotte said. “But you and I are sitting here trying to make cordial conversation without fighting.”

“We could have fun too.” He was determined to have this vacation as a goodbye to whatever could have been with her.

She raised her eyebrow. “This coming from the man who said he wanted to ignore me for the whole vacation?”

“Things change.”

She was quiet, as if contemplating the meaning of things change. Their entrees came, but food didn’t make an impact on how rambunctious their table was. Rafe heard Samantha ordering shots for the other end of the table, and his mom asked for more wine. He dug into his beef wellington while she still sat there silently.

“We had an end, but no beginning.” He struggled to find the right words, especially ones that were suitable to say around family. Charlotte put her fork down, giving him her full attention, reminding him why they needed one last hoorah. “Why don’t we make this vacation all the good stuff we missed, then, when we get back home, it’s back to normal.”

It sounded so simple, but it was far from it. There were plot holes in his story. Mainly, he wasn’t sure he would ever go back to normal. Hell, he couldn’t even stick to his plan to ignore her for a full twenty-four hours.

“That’s what you want?” she questioned.

“Sure.” He shrugged, not committing fully. What he wanted was to not have his heart ripped in half. There wasn’t an antidote for that.

“What would we do?”

“Whatever we want.” For him, this was hopefully closure.

“So, we have all this fun in Vegas, and then, poof, we get home and it’s like we never happened.”

He swallowed another bite of his dinner. “Isn’t that what you wanted?”

“Sure.” Her voice didn’t sound convincing.

The tables had somehow turned.

Charlotte continued. “When do we start?”

“We start now. After dinner, let’s go out for drinks.”

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but tomorrow is a pool day for me. I do not want to be hungover in the sun.”

Of course, she had an itinerary. It made him smile.

“Then what should we do?” he asked, putting the ball in her court.

She had a gleam in her eyes. “How about we check off as many attractions as we can?”

He raised his glass to hers and clinked. “It’s a plan.”

Dinner continued, their family and friends discussing who was doing what for the remainder of the night. All the parents were going to a bar in the hotel, and all the friends were going to meet up at a club in the Paris hotel.

Rafe, on the other hand, had no idea what was on the attractions list he’d just committed to. But it didn’t matter. Charlotte was going to be with him. Suddenly, his misery went away.

AFTER DINNER, CHARLOTTE and Rafe went separate ways from everyone else. Vacation went from being unbearable around Rafe to now being the best thing since Betty White. That woman was obviously better than sliced bread. Charlotte was psyched Rafe had had a change of heart. Up next was convincing him spending time together on vacation wasn’t only to make up for the in-between relationship stuff they’d missed. This was the beginning of their next step together. He just wasn’t aware yet. Those were details she’d focus on later.

“Where to first?” Rafe was up for anything as they stood out front of the Bellagio, peering around all the entertainment on the strip.

She didn’t answer right away, so he kept talking. “I know you made a list or something. Come on, spill it.”

This made her giggle. She did have a list. “I narrowed it down to the top five attractions I need to see. I want to go on a gondola ride at the Venetian. The Bellagio fountain show. Head over to New York, New York for the Big Apple roller coaster. I want to go to the Paris Hotel for the viewing deck. And Jada told me The Chandelier Bar is amazing, so I need to go there too.”