Page 18 of Made for Us

Gabriella and I walk out of our rooms at the same time and laugh because we are wearing the same thing. “I’m not changing.” She laughs at me.

“It’ll be fun. Think we can mess with people?” I tell her, “Take off the ring.” I point at the gold and silver ring she wears on her index finger. “Fluff your hair a bit more.” I walk over to her and touch up her hair a bit. We both raise our hands and touch each other’s noses. “Boop,” we say at the same time, turning and walking out of the door. The lights from the edge of the pathway make it very bright.

I take two steps when I turn and see Penelope coming out of her room with Tristan behind her. She wears pink shorts with a white shirt, and her hair is in a French braid. I smile as I watch Tristan walk behind her with his head down. He’s wearing light orange shorts and a short-sleeved white button-down shirt. My stomach literally flips over as I see him run his hand through his hair. My mouth waters when I think of how it must feel to have his hair under my fingers. I wonder if it feels as silky as it looks. Gabriella stops walking as she looks over also. “Great timing,” she mumbles, and Penelope looks up.

“Look.” She turns around, showing us her back. “Dad did a French braid.”

“Oh, jealous,” Gabriella replies, and Tristan looks up at the same time that my eyes find his, and I quickly look back at Penelope.

“Hey, you two,” Tristan greets us. “Nice outfits.”

Gabriella laughs, and Penelope looks at her and then at me. “But can you tell us apart?” Gabriella asks, and he just smirks.

“You’re Gabriella.” He points at her. “And you’re Abigail.” We just look at him with our mouths hanging open.

“How in the H E double hockey sticks did you know?” I question him, and he just shrugs.

“It’s easy,” he just states. “What time is dinner?” He looks at his black Apple Watch on his wrist.

“Now,” Gabriella says, turning to walk down the path while I walk next to Penelope, who slips her hand in mine.

No one really says anything. When we walk on the beach, picnic tables are set up everywhere, with about two hundred tiki lights all over the place, so it looks very bright. “Hey, you guys,” my father says to us and looks at our outfits. “How are my girls?”

I whisper, “He doesn’t know who is who.” Tristan just looks over at me.

“I know who is who,” my father defends, putting his hands on his hips, “but I’m not going to tell you. Go grab a plate and eat.” He points at the long tables set up on the far right with silver platters on them and chefs standing behind them.

“Nice save, Daddy-o,” I say, kissing his cheek. “Nice save.”

“My dad knows who is who,” Penelope tells him and then walks toward the tables with a chuckling Tristan behind her.

I just roll my lips as Gabriella folds her arms over her chest. “It wasn’t even a question; he knew right away.” She then looks at me. “I wonder how that could be.”

“I’m getting food.” I ignore her, trying not to even think about that question. Even though the whole time I was walking here I asked myself the same one. How did he know? How could he know?

I grab myself a plate of food. My head still going around in circles, I don’t even notice when Penelope sits next to me, and Tristan sits next to her. I’m saved when Xavier and Vivienne join the table, so I don’t really have to talk.

I look over as I see them setting up a bonfire in the middle of the beach off to the side. “What is that?” Penelope asks, and I look over and see the fire starting and they are preparing a small table beside it.

“Smores.” I smile as I tell her and her eyes light up.

“Dad, can we get smores?” she asks, and he just nods at her. “Can we go?” She looks at me, asking me, and I get up and hold my hand out to her.

We make our way over as the kids all come running. I help a couple of the kids put their marshmallow on the long metal rods they provided. “Remember when we did this with sticks?” Dylan says from beside me, and we all laugh.

“One year, I think I ate a piece of stick,” Michael remembers. “We didn’t get the fancy stuff. We had to go grab a stick somewhere.”

I can’t help but laugh as Penelope comes running to me, and I see her marshmallow is still burning. “Help!” she shouts as Tristan walks over with his hands in his pockets. I blow out the marshmallow as she laughs, clapping her hands.

“Here you go,” Tristan says as he holds a graham cracker with a piece of chocolate on it. I watch Penelope and Tristan do the smores, and she takes a bite of it, then turns to hand it to me so I can taste it.

I grab it from her and bite a piece, but the marshmallow strings out all around me. I move my hand to break the strings, but the wind blows, and I feel some fly onto my face. Penelope laughs at me, and Tristan just smiles at me as he leans in, raising his hand. I hold my breath as I watch his thumb come up and touch my cheek. “You’ve got a piece,” he says, and my whole body lights up. My heart feels like it’s going to explode in my chest. “Right here,” he adds as he takes the marshmallow off my face, and then he puts his thumb into his mouth, licking off the piece on my face.

“Thanks,” I mumble to him. “I’m going to go wash my hands.” I make an excuse and walk away from him. My cheek feels on fire as I walk away from the beach and toward my villa. I close the door behind me and only then do I let out the deep breath I was holding. “What in the fuck was that?”

CHAPTER TEN

TRISTAN

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