Page 85 of Revenge Honeymoon

“Hey, Rubes,” she called out from underneath the full blast of the shower head. “The photos have been deleted.” Instead of joy rushing through her at the thought of salvaging Ruby’s revenge cruise experience and fending off the intrusive Weird Twins, an odd tightness wrapped around her chest and squeezed. She’d used him. She’d led Max on and used him. Did that make her a bad person?

“Your plan worked?”

Emily leaned into the spray and washed away every trace of Max the Gorgeous. The best sex of her life would always have an asterisk next to it in her mind: insecure liar seduces hot man. “Yes, it worked. No more photos.”

“You are fab, Em. Thank you so much. I should’ve guessed no crazy scheme of yours was ever going to fail. Everything you do turns to gold.”

“What?” Did she hear Ruby right? She thought Emily had a golden touch? Was she serious? Her messed up, pathetic, ridiculous life where she moved in with her parents to save on rent yet struggled to keep up with the payments for her car insurance? Sounded more like a crap touch to her—everything she touched turned to crap. If she thought about it long enough, she’d probably find a reason to blame herself for Tyler bailing on the wedding. Why not? She’d screwed up everything else.

“I’m hungry. You almost out of there?”

“Almost.” She toweled herself off and slipped into her clothes. “Hey, wait a minute, what about that text from Tyler?” Emily opened the door to see her best friend adding more lipstick to her perfectly made-up face.

Hold on, who puts full on make-up to go ATV riding in the jungle?

Ruby caught her best friend eyeballing her. “What?” The auburn-haired beauty capped the lipstick. “Something wrong with a girl wanting to look her best?”

Emily rubbed her hair as dry as she could with the towel. “For a muddy, sweaty ride through the jungle?” She picked up her phone from the nightstand and read the excursion description in the cruise app. “Start your engines and prepare for an unforgettable adventure driving your own all-terrain vehicle along well-maintained trails through the interior jungle. Get your adrenaline pumping as you maneuver these easy handling machines on the best trails around. Enjoy the beautiful jungle as the flora and fauna envelop your off-road trail.” She cocked an eyebrow.

Ruby tightened her thick hair into a high ponytail and avoided eye contact. “Okay, I’ll admit it’s just in case.”

“Just in case what?”

“Just in case Tyler’s really there at the pier.”

“So you were planning on abandoning me in the dangerous jungles of Mexico to hook up with the man who jilted you?” Emily crossed her arms. Would Ruby really make her drive the ATV all by herself?

This sounded bad. Very very bad.

Ruby patted her nose with pressed powder. “I wanted to hear his reasoning, his excuse. Maybe even see if he was going to apologize. I mean, if he flew all the way down to Cozumel—”

“He hurt you.” Emily placed her hands on her friend’s shoulders.

Ruby caught her gaze in the mirror and set down her compact.

“He ruined what was supposed to be the happiest day of your life. He doesn’t deserve you, Rubes.”

The former bride squeezed Emily’s hand. “I know. And it means a lot to me that you’re so supportive, Em. But if he’s there, I have to find out what he has to say. I have to.”

Although Emily wished Tyler would be sucked up into space never to be heard from again, that wasn’t realistic. Ruby and Tyler shared the same adventurous spirit and would be living in the same town. It was inevitable they’d run into each other again. “If I have to drive an ATV by myself, I can do it.” But even as she smiled, she worried about flipping it over and breaking a bone, driving it through a mud puddle so deep that she ended up coated in brown, or crying in frustration when she forgot which was the clutch and which was the brake.

Ruby gave a faint smile. “Thanks. I want to have the option if he’s there waiting for me.”

Emily tried to squish her fears into a tiny little box inside her chest and, at the same time, squish her mixed feelings about Max and how they left things last night into the same cramped space. “Whatever you want. I’m here for you.”

* * *

Emily and Ruby waited in line to exit the ship and join up with their ATV group. They’d arrived late, so had been ushered out of the theater seconds after arrival to make sure they didn’t miss the group bus for their excursion.

“Remember, look for the crab flag.” Ruby stood on her tiptoes trying to see over the line of people in front of them, past the gangplank, and out to the pier.

“Do you see it?” Emily’s view was not only blocked by her much taller friend, but by a portly newlywed husband who struggled to carry two massive tote bags full of beach gear.

“Oh, my God! Look at that.” Portly man’s wife, wearing a one-piece bathing suit and a see-through rainbow cover-up, pointed at the sky. “Can you read it, Sherman?”

Several cruisers who had reached the gangplank also gawked at something above.

Ruby touched her cruise card to the reader near the exit. “Have a wonderful day, Ms. Evers,” the uniformed cruise employee said in a chipper tone, as he read her name off the computer screen in front of him.

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