Page 68 of Grand Escape

“I work here, and you live in Michigan. I’ve only been in snow once. And I didn’t like it much.”

Glancing away, I stifled a grin at Rylan’s silly arguments. She didn’t take into account I was a lawyer with a long record of wins. Debating was what I did for a living. “I like it here. I have clients who like to invest money here. Sunshine and blue skies work for me.”

I moved a little closer, keeping my hands at my sides, no matter how much they itched to pull her close so I could kiss the hell out of her.

“Adam, I’m a bartender. You’re a lawyer.” She paused and took a deep breath. “You have clients who invest money here. Do you know how absurd this sounds, you and me together?”

I moved in to pull her into my arms, relieved when she didn’t object. My lips grazed the top of her head. “It doesn’t sound absurd to me. If you like bartending, I would never take that away from you.”

“That’s not what I mean. I can’t take away your career either. What I mean is ... what are you going to do here for work? Manage money? Order drinks from me? Work for Sam?” She spoke into my chest, refusing to look at me. “Eventually, you’ll get embarrassed by me. Like my parents.”

I felt the warmth of a tear fall onto my shirt. All my senses were heightened when it came to Rylan. She set my soul on fire, and my mind was alive around her.

How could she think I’d ever be embarrassed?

Touching her chin, I tipped her face to look at me. “No, I’m not going to work for Sam, but I am going to buy his coffee.”

“Be serious,” she said, frowning at me.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do. But first, I’m going to get you back. Then Cal and I are chatting about some options.” I touched my lips to hers, hoping some of the feelings flowed from me into her. “It was a week. A wild one. Really ... the best one, full of surprises and realizations and you. I want all the weeks going forward.”

“Ad, this is crazy,” she murmured. “Seriously. I don’t mean crazy, to be rude. I mean, it was a week. Just one week. People don’t pick up after a week and move, or go and get people back like this.”

“Well, I do. Call me crazy, which I know isn’t PC, but I’m crazy for you, and I want you to be in my life. I want to breathe you in every single day.”

I brought my mouth down on hers, and she smelled and tasted so damn good. The scent of rum lingered all around her, along with the tang of salty air, both of which I’d been dreaming about.

Rylan pulled back. “I have to go to work. At the pool. Serving all the people who are now your friends.” She tossed her words at me like a bucket of cold water, but it wasn’t going to work.

“Great. I’m not going to stop you from work. Not ever.”

“Will you ever be embarrassed by me?”

“I’m not your parents,” I said, cutting to the chase. “I don’t know what the fuck their problem is, but that’s not me. I. Am. Not. Embarrassed. By. You. Not now, not ever. Don’t push me away with that.”

Taking a long breath, she hung her head, still not turning to face me. “I’m sorry,” she said so softly, I could barely hear her.

“I’m the one who’s sorry, Ry. I left and didn’t try hard enough to stay in touch. I should have pushed harder, but I needed to deal with my own demons.”

She whirled around, her ponytail flying in front of her face. “Well, good for you. And now what? You’re here to push me on my demons? To make me forget my parents and the decisions I made for my own self-preservation?”

At that, I swallowed hard. I’d known this was going to be difficult, but I didn’t see this fight coming. “I wouldn’t make you do anything, especially give up your self-preservation. Go to work. Do what you need, but I’m going to be at the end of your bar and then waiting for you later.”

Huffing out a breath, Rylan walked toward her bedroom.

“I’m going to give you some space to get ready,” I called out.

Reluctantly, I left her villa, mentally game planning for the rest of the day. If my intuition was as good as I thought it was, she would try to avoid me, busying herself with a multitude of bar orders and other tasks.

Good thing I was feeling very thirsty.

Rylan

The wedding was beautiful.

I didn’t want to watch, but I couldn’t help soaking in the scene from a distance. As I stood behind the bar set up at the pool, it was hard not to take in Chewy and Sarah saying their vows. In a matter of minutes, I would be serving a special wedding cocktail when the ceremony ended and the guests filtered to the pool area.

At the moment, Sarah’s hair was down in soft waves, blowing gently in the breeze. She looked stunning in an open-backed pale pink sheath dress, her kids lined up near her, looking at her lovingly. Chewy had actually combed his unruly hair off his face and wore an ivory button-down shirt over pale blue linen pants. Both of them barefoot in the sand, he picked Sarah up and gently spun her around when it was time to kiss the bride.

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