Page 60 of Perfectly Wedded

We’re just swimming now, letting the waves push us around, our life vests doing the heavy lifting so we can just float.

“Is my sister looking this way?” she asks.

I glance over, and Jaz’s face turns away on cue. “She was.”

“If we’re being watched, now would be a good time,” she suggests.

“For what?”

“I don’t know, a hug maybe? Something to prove we’re not strangers today.” There’s an openness in her eyes, an invitation that wasn’t there before. We’ve been swimming next to each other all morning, lost in our underwater world, but now that we’re bobbing on the surface, wrapped up in the glorious view and each other, something’s changed.She’schanged.

Maybe she’s sun-drunk, that lazy feeling after being at the beach too long, fully relaxed, fingers wrinkled as prunes, her cheeks and shoulders grapefruit pink from the sun. I swim over to her, then unsnap the first buckle on her life vest.

“What are you doing?” she gives a little half-laugh, her eyes flaring with surprise.

“We can’t hug with these life vests on. That’s like hugging someone while wearing an inflatable sumo suit.”

“Vale MacPherson, are you saying I look like a sumo wrestler in my life vest?”

“Not at all. I’m just saying I want nothing between us.”

“So you’re, what—just taking it off?”

Click.The last buckle pops open. “Yes.” I slide off her vest, letting it float in the water beside us. She wraps one arm on it like a flotation device, her legs treading water. “What if I can’t swim without this?”

“You think I’d remove your life vest if I couldn’t keep you afloat? How little faith in me you have.” I unbuckle my life vest, wrestling out of it. “Lifeguard in high school.”

She lifts an eyebrow, unconvinced. “That was a hot minute ago.”

“It’s like riding a bike.” I pull her into my arms, slide my hands across her back. Her breath hitches when our bodies lightly collide under the water. A brush of her leg against mine. Her warm breath against my shoulder.

Skin-on-skin close.

“Believe me now?” I whisper against her ear. Her skin erupts into goose bumps across her back.

“The question is whether my sister does.”

I spin us enough to see Jaz over Sloan’s shoulder. Then I move my lips close to her earlobe again. “She’s looking at us again.”

“And?” Sloan asks in a ragged whisper.

“She approves,” I say, then after a beat, “The question is, do you?”

“You take me to Cancun to go snorkeling and ask me if I approve?” She laughs. “Of course I approve. This entire trip has been amazing.”

“No, I meant,this.”I stroke my hands along her back, reminding her that she’s in my arms.She’s mine.

She lets out a contented sigh. “Thisis something I could get used to. Maybe even addicted to. Like Nutella.”

I laugh. “You’re comparing me to Nutella?”

“I’ve very attached to it, Vale,” she says seriously. “Some might say obsessed.”

“In that case, I’ll be your addiction.”

“You could be, if I let myself get carried away.” She tugs away from me, then floats on her back, her eyes squinting into the sun.

“Where are you going?” I ask, grabbing her hand, like she’s a loose starfish I’m rescuing before it floats off to sea.

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