Page 64 of Stuck in Paradise with You

‘Luke, honey, there are sandwiches and hot tea,’ Ella says. Her words reach me while I’m still lost to the view. Then she’sright beside me, her hands on my forearm as she leans toward my ear. ‘That is, if you can work out how to use your jaw again.’ She places her fingertips under my chin and tickles me. ‘You’re gawping, honey. It’s not attractive. Jessie has less sloppy chops than you do.’

I scowl at her from the corner of my eyes but I’m also fighting the twitch at the sides of my mouth. ‘Well, like your dog, I’m salivating because of hunger, Ella.’

‘Mmmhmm,’ she sings. ‘Hungry for what, darling?’

All right, now a short sound of humor escapes me. She isn’t wrong; I am hungry, I’m starving, and I think the only thing that’s going to sate my appetite is a woman who can’t stand me, who is my tax advisor, and who broke my heart once and I would be well-advised to stay away from.

But what is it about knowing what’s bad for us and wanting it all the more because of it?

I head over to the table where Dave and Jenny have now joined Carrie and Alisha and they’re all joking around. There’s only one long buffet table still out – the other tables and chairs must have been stowed away inside already. Carrie is actually holding court. She’s confident and vivacious, slick with it. She’s finally relaxing, maybe. Whatever the reason, it looks good on her. I can see how this woman is on the cusp of partnership at her firm. She’s impressive.

As I think that, my mind jumps back to her patting my back when I helped her down from the boat. While I was lost in the feel of her body against mine, she was friend-zoning me. Except, I don’t even think she likes me as a friend. She was just zoning me out?

I raise my chin as I near the group, trying to seem aloof and, I think, coming off like a dorky kid trying to hang out with the in-crowd. What isactuallyhappening to me?

I’m usually the self-assured one, maybe even a bit cool? Not here. Not on this island. Not since Carrie arrived. She’s going to be my undoing.

‘What’s up?’ I try to ask casually, but it ties around my tongue and comes out likewhassuuup, as if I’m some goof on a naughties commercial for Budweiser.

‘You changed,’ Carrie says.

What do you know, she does acknowledge that I exist.

I plate up some sandwiches and a handful of fries. ‘You should, too; you’ll get cold.’

‘I’m fine,’ she says. Her words are followed by a shiver. ‘I’ll be fine. I don’t have any spare clothes. I didn’t actually pack for a hurricane.’

‘Carrie, you should have said,’ Jenny says. ‘Let me get you something of mine. I’ll be back in a flash.’

While Jenny literally runs off, I get the distinct impression I’m not welcome near Carrie so I go back to find someone who is my friend.

As I get closer to Joe and Ella, I can hear them griping at each other in hushed tones.

‘Honey, I know your heart is in the right place but I think you have to tell him. It’s getting serious now, I can see it,’ Ella says. ‘I think the stakes are higher than we realized and it isn’t right to keep meddling like this. What with tomorrow and the storm, too, I just think?—’

‘Isn’t serious what we wanted?’ Joe asks. ‘Isn’t that where we were trying to get to?’

‘Is everything okay?’ I ask, heading over to them. ‘I didn’t mean to eavesdrop but?—‍’

‘But you did?’ Joe says, grinning. Happy to be rescued from his ticking off, most likely.

‘Joe,’ Ella says, giving him a warning look.

Joe holds up two hands. ‘All right. I’ll deal with it.’

Ella clamps his cheeks between his palms. ‘You better had. Today.’ Then she kisses him and they’re both smiling again, the way I like them.

30

CARRIE

Jenny has got to be joking.

I’m standing in the washroom adjacent to the terrace with my hands over my face, fingertips shielding my eyes, not daring to look and see myself in what could be Jenny’s spring-break clothes.

Why didn’t I take the clothes she loaned me and get changed in my pod? At least then I could have aborted the idea and dressed in something inappropriate but dry of my own.

I sigh. Because it’s already four thirty in the afternoon and we need to get going. The wind is increasing constantly and the sun will go down in a couple of hours, that’s why.

---