Page 60 of Nothing to Do

“Don’t worry so much.” Alessia disappeared into the bathroom. “Everything is taken care of!” She reappeared embracing toiletries and cosmetics against her chest until she dumped them haphazardly in the case and flipped over the lid to zip it. “Was Zane Dyce an asshole?”

“No,” she said, a little at sea. “He’s kind and generous.”

“I’ll say.” Her shoulders rose, squeezing in tight, as glee grew on her face. “This has been the most amazing vacation ever.” The good did outweigh the bad. Alessia had a way of reminding her to cling to optimism. “Do you think he’d let us ever come back?”

“Zane? I’m sure if—”

“Are you going to marry him?” Alarm bolted through her. Danger approaching. Her sister carried on regardless. “If youmarry him and have babies, we’ll be here all the time, right? We could just live here, like I said before.”

With a spa and twenty-four-hour room service, her sister might be happy for a while. Though without the bustle of the city, she might go stir-crazy.

“You’re supposed to be grounding me,” she admitted. “Reminding me not to get carried away.”

Alessia came rushing over to hug her. “What’s so wrong with getting carried away? He’s a good guy, Thea, I know it.”

And that might be reassuring if Alessia didn’t think the same thing about Roman Lowe. What did that say for her sister’s ability to judge true character?

Not that she thought Zane wasn’t a good person. He was. The best of people, like Roxie’s Jane. She had no doubts on that score.

“He is a good person, and if you want to move into the suite—”

“Thank you,” Alessia declared, dragging her case off the bed onto the floor. “This has been the most incredible vacation ever.” She came over for another hug. “It’s like a dream come true!”

A dream come true. Alessia rolled her luggage to the door. The moment she opened it, a guy leaned in to take the case for her. And then they were gone.

She exhaled.

Okay, bedtime. Alessia would be okay. Friends. Security. And it didn’t hurt that Roman Lowe was at the other end of the island, far, far away from her sister.

Before bed, she wanted a shower. A long shower, full of steam and refreshing heat. That would reset her. Then she could crawl into bed and close her eyes. The next day maybe she’d get back to work, find herself an even keel in routine.

More than an hour later, staring through the shadows to the ceiling, listening to the waves lap at the shore, she wasn’t asleep.

Refreshed and reset she may be. Her head rolled to study the vacant pillow. They’d never slept together, not in the literal sense. And it wasn’t like Alessia snored or anything, and she lived alone, so why did it feel like something was missing?

Maybe the steam had been too much. Lying there wasn’t getting her anywhere. Sitting up, she slipped her legs from the cover and stood up. It wouldn’t hurt to walk, would it? There was no one around. It was dark out. Only the moonlight would join her on the sand.

Grabbing a crochet cover-up from the closet, she didn’t bother with footwear and went out the sliding door. Inhaling the cleansing air of the sea, it enveloped her with such warmth and clarity that the temperature didn’t matter.

As she walked toward the water, she scrunched her feet, sinking them into the cool grains bathed by the ocean.

Alessia might be her reason for being there. The contest. The vacation and all that entailed. But it didn’t feel like that, obligation didn’t weigh on her there as it did at home. In her usual life, she’d never imagine taking time off each day to spend afternoons with debonaire billionaires. Something was different there, something in her, that had nothing to do with the environment.

It did help though, the vastness of forever skewed her perspective. Except the view was still obscured, it hadn’t quite come into focus yet. She was supposed to be seeing something, a future maybe, a change, her life path was coming toward a fork, maybe an intersection that would present more than one route. The only one who could decide which to take was her. Did she want to live a life with a singular purpose? To get up each dayjust to show at the office? What was she building? What was she creating? What was… she?

Distance didn’t register, not until the light caught the corner of her eye. The light she’d seen on her first night there. Did he leave it on all night? Glancing around, she couldn’t see any sign of him on the beach or in the water. Not that she’d seen a glimpse of him that first night either. Maybe he was swimming, but it was kind of late for that, wasn’t it?

Did he go out swimming alone every night? A barb of anger tightened her frown. How could he do something so stupid? What if he got into trouble and needed help?

Exhaling, her head dropped. It wasn’t her place to tell him how to live his life or to make his choices. And she was jumping to conclusions anyway. That could’ve been a one-off. Her direction switched without much thought. Leaving the water, she traversed the width of the beach. Trees hung on either side with a little greenery providing some privacy. Some, but not much. A stone path took her to the wooden deck and the glass was open, pushed back to present a bedroom, his bedroom she could only guess. Light hung between it and the next section of the house. She didn’t look. From there, she could see his bed, the open closet door. This was his privacy. This was her invading his personal space.

“Zane?” she called, not loud, but enough he should hear her over the waves and the swaying leaves.

It was only an invasion if she didn’t declare herself. Though she knocked on the glass, it wasn’t much of a sound, so she stepped inside.

What was she even doing there?

Whatever it was, the welcome relief of his scent lured her deeper. Definitely his room. Her fingertips touched the top of his headboard over the canopy net. That was where he slept. Andsuddenly things felt different, she felt different and closed her eyes.

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