Page 48 of Two Tickets to Paradise

Giggling softly, she sighed. "I think we might have bought some Pam cooking spray instead of sunscreen."

"Ha!" Vince clapped a hand over his mouth and mumbled behind it. "Sorry."

"Go ahead, and laugh," she answered back, "I think we need a little laughter because it's either laugh or cry."

Someone rang the doorbell and Cora looked at her phone.

"Oh, that's my Instacart order."

He lifted a brow at that. "Instacart?"

"Aftersun lotion," she told him. "I messaged Kawehi, and she suggested it."

The doorbell rang again, and she started to head for the door.

"Wait!" Vince reached out to take her by the arm to stop her but stopped just short of touching her. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt her. "I'll get it."

"Oh I can-" "Let me."

He gestured at her. "I love the towel look, but maybe you should let me get it."

She looked down to see what he was gesturing at and when she lifted her head to look at him, her cheeks were blazing red. "Yeah, I don't want the delivery guy to think that this is some kind of bare-bones plot porno."

He burst out laughing as he headed for the door. "I love the way you make me laugh, Cora."

Vince heard her laughter following behind him as he reached the door.

The guy at the door looked like he'd rather be anywhere else than there. "Hey," he looked down at the package, "you, Cora?" The driver looked up at him with both brows raised in question.

"I'll take the package." Vince reached out to take the package from his hand, but the driver pulled it back, so it was just out of reach.

"I'll give this to the lady."

The man's tone of voice and the set of his features said that he didn't want to give the package over.

Vince tried to reach for the package again, but the man again pulled it out of reach and lowered his chin to give Vince a pointed look.

"The lady," Vince let him know, "is just out of the shower and in a towel."

The man's instant grin gave away his thoughts. He looked more like a wolf than a man at the moment.

"Sweet. I'll give this to her." The man lifted the package in the air, held between his two fingers and craned his neck to look over Vince's shoulder.

Vince's instinct was to make the man swallow the package, but he knew that Cora wanted the aftersun lotion and he wasn't going to keep that from her. When the delivery man leaned in the opposite direction to look over Vince's other shoulder, Vince snaked out his hand and snatched the package away and then closed the door with more than enough force in the man's face.

"What an asshole."

"What's that?"

Cora peeked out around the corner, much of her body hidden from view, but he could still see the towel around her thighs.

"Is everything okay?"

He smiled and felt something shift inside of him.

What if, he asked himself,this was what he had to come home to every day?

His smile deepened.

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