Page 19 of My Wife

Tommy insisted, and I gratefully accepted.

He’s learned that taking long, hot showers is self-care for me. I can stand beneath the spray for an hour, letting the water run down on me, and lose myself in all of the emotions I struggle with. Throw in exfoliation, shaving, washing and conditioning my long hair, and putting on lotion when I’m done and it’s not unusual for me to be in the bathroom for closer to an hour and a half.

I do that tonight. Knowing he’s out there, keeping me safe and protected, allows me to wash away the remnants of Halo Lake.

As soon as I’m finally done, my wet hair twisted up in another towel, another towel wrapped around my body, I moved out into the bedroom and notice two very distinct things: Tommy laid out one of my favorite, comfortable sleep shirts on the bed for me—and he’s not alone.

“Summer?” I tighten my grip on my towel. “What are you doing here?”

EIGHT

STAY WITH ME

Her gaze goes from the amount of cleavage I have on display courtesy of the short towel, all the way to the toenails I painted black to match my fingernails.

Shockingly, she keeps her judgmental comments to herself.

“I couldn’t sleep,” Summer tells me. “Tyler said he would just go with Vee for, like, twenty minutes and be right back. That was an hour ago.”

I blink, utterly confused. “Sorry. I missed something. Where did Tyler and Vee go?”

“It’s okay, love. Summer was just telling me what happened. Did you know Vee swears she saw someone in the woods?”

My heart jolts. “Um. No. I didn’t.”

“It’s why she was so pissed at me for messing around in the water. She thought there was someone watching us when we were in the lake. Me being a boneheaded idiot, I didn’t realize she was staring at the trees for a reason. I just pulled her under for fun, and when she popped up again, they were supposedly gone.”

No.No. “No one’s supposed to be on the island. Aaron backed out. It’s just the seven of us, and we were all in the water.”

“That’s what I told her,” Summer says. “She’s convinced there was someone there. When we got back to the cabins, she got all worked up again. Said she couldn’t go to bed until she checked to make sure her idiot ex was trying to pull a prank on us.”

Oh. I get it. “She thinks Aaron changed his mind and somehow convinced Mulligan to bring him here super late. We didn’t know because we were at the lake, and he must’ve figured out we’d be there.”

Summer shrugs. “Something like that, I guess. Doesn’t matter. Madi and Chase wanted to go to sleep.” The way she says ‘sleep’ tells me that one of the cabins we booked will definitely be going empty tonight. There’s six of them, perfect when we thought that me and Tommy would have one, Summer and Tyler, Vee, Chase, Madison, and Aaron all taking their own. But if Madison and Chase went to sleep together… “I wanted a shower. Tyler offered to go because of course he did. Always gotta be the knight in shining armor to someone.” She blows out a breath of air. “Twenty minutes. That’s what he said. But they’re not back yet.”

Okay. Knowing Vee and her Type-A personality, if she thinks Aaron is fucking with us by hiding on the island, she won’t go to bed until she’s searched every inch herself. Tyler will try to talk her down if possible.

I get all that. But why is Summer inourcabin?

“I was just seeing if Tommy wanted to help me find my husband. Vee can look all she wants, but I’m ready to go to bed and I’m not sleeping alone.”

How nice. She doesn’t want to sleep alone, so what is she trying to do? Takemybedmate with her.

“I’m sure they’ll be back any minute now,” I tell Summer. “It’s almost, what? Two in the morning? Vee might be determined, but she needs sleep, too.”

Summer huffs. “I’m not worried about Vee. I just want Tyler.” She bats her lashes at Tommy. “Please? You know how bad my sense of direction is. If I go looking for my husband, I might end up on the other end of the island with no way to get back to the cabins.”

I give her a thin-lipped smile. “The island’s a circle. Eventually you’ll find your way back.”

“But what if there is someone out there?” she says softly. She looks imploringly up at Tommy. “What if it’s not Aaron?”

It’s not possible, but I know Tommy. The second she dropped her voice like that, sounding as vulnerable as she did? He’ll help her.

Giving me an apologetic smile, he says, “Come with us?”

I’ve got a towel on and my hair soaked. I’m not going anywhere—and he knows it.

“I’m exhausted. I need to go to bed.”

---