Page 108 of Love on Ice

35

HARPER

We are heading out to The Hamptons for one of the last couple of weekends before the summer ends. Camryn and Nate are finally back in New York after getting back together in France. They have been holed up in a little bubble for a couple of weeks together, which I don’t blame them for after spending all that time apart. They have flown up earlier to get the house ready with Sam and Kimberly, and Felix and I are flying up with Meadow, Issy, and Pierre with Frankston the most adorable Golden Retriever.

“This is Frankston’s first helicopter flight, guess he’s got to get used to living in the big city now,” Pierre says as he babies his dog. It’s very disconcerting that this beast of a hockey player is talking in a baby voice to his dog. Things blew up the past month for Pierre, but in the end, he got what he wanted, a move to the Manhattan Mavericks. Everyone is losing their minds. Having the St. Pierre brothers playing together for the first time is apparently a big deal. The sponsors have gone crazy for them and their profiles have exploded. Pierre found a home to rent in the city and asked Felix to move in with him once the season starts, and he said yes. That kind of sucked, but it’s what weagreed on, what I’ve been pushing this entire time, I can’t be mad at him for that. I’ve become used to him being around. His routine in the mornings, going for a jog with my brother, and now his brother joining in. He still walks me to work and picks me up when I’m finished. Since helping his brother it’s brought us even closer as we tried to salvage his career and reputation.This is what you wanted.I know. I can still be sad about it.

The helicopter takes off and poor Frankston howls the entire way in Pierre’s lap as we fly over the city, which is a beautiful view over the Hudson, then over Central Park, and across the East River toward Southampton. It takes us about forty minutes to get there which was forty minutes way too long for Frankston. He was extremely excited when we landed and was able to stretch his legs. We had cars waiting for us when we arrived to take us to my family’s home.

“I’ve never been to The Hamptons before, I’m kind of excited,” Felix whispers in my ear.

“You’re going to love it,” I tell him as we head out of the heliport and toward our home, which is a five-minute drive from the Southampton Heliport. We arrive via our circular drive, and I can see Felix clocking the houses with every mile we have driven. We pull up out the front of the traditional Southampton home with the gray shingling.

“You have a tennis court?” Felix asks, spying it through the gardens.

“Yes, my parents put one in for me to train on during the summer holidays.”

As we pull up, I see Camryn and Nate hugging each other with Sam and Kimberly.

“You made it,” Sam says, welcoming us.

Camryn comes running over to me and pulls me into a hug. “Thank you for making me go find him,” she whispers into my ear. At the wedding reception, I told Camryn to sort her shit outwith Nate, as she was flirting with one of the Sons of Brooklyn boys.

“I’m so happy you two are back together. I’ve missed you so much. Never, ever run away again,” I tell her.

“I won’t, I promise. He’s stuck with me now.”

“Good,” I tell her.

“Hey, Felix, nice to see you again,” she says, greeting him. “Sorry, last time we met it was a weird time.”

Felix gives her a smile before her returns his arm to around my shoulders. “Glad everything worked out,” he says as Nate comes over and pulls Camryn to his side.

“Come inside, guys, let’s get the party started,” Sam shouts.

“I can’t believe this is your holiday home,” Felix says, nudging me.

“We used to come up here for parties when we were teens. I can’t believe how many memories are coming back,” Pierre states. Felix frowns at his brother as he pulls me tighter to him. Is he jealous of me having memories with his brother?

“Let me take you up to my room.” I tug him away from the group. We walk up the grand stairs to the second floor and turn right down one of the wings. I push open the door and pull him into my room. As soon as I slam the door shut, I pull him into a kiss, and we tumble onto the bed. “We have literally five minutes before one of our nosey friends comes and finds us.”

“I can be quick when I need to be.” He grins.

Dinner was perfect tonight,such great company, way too much wine, and so much seafood I might sprout fins and swim in the ocean. The music is pumping and everyone is drunk as we sit around the fire.

“Would you like to go for a moonlight walk along the beach?” Felix asks me.

“Oh, how romantic,” I tease as he helps me up from my chair, and we walk hand in hand toward the jetty that takes you out to the beach. You can hear the waves crashing but everything else is quiet. We stumble a bit thanks to the ton of alcohol we have indulged in and burst out laughing as we continue to wind our way down to the beach. “I love it here. Nothing but darkness for miles, the crashing of the waves, the twinkling of the stars, the moon. I can feel all the stresses of the city melt away as soon as my feet hit the sand.”

“It sure is pretty here,” he says as we slowly walk along the beach.

“Hope you’re having fun tonight?”

“For sure.”

“It’s the first time we’ve all hung out properly without anything else going on, but it also feels like we’ve been doing this for years. It feels normal looking across the fire and seeing you sitting there,” I tell him.

“It feels normal to me, too,” he agrees, pulling my hand to his lips and kissing it.

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