He turned and walked away, taking the live wire with him as the water swirled around my toes.
Chapter 7
Grant
“You’re terrible at this,”Tom from Team Mistletoe said, lining up his shot for the coconut bowling game. “I think you set a record for most pins left standing. Good thing this is just practice.”
“My aim’s fine,” I muttered, scooping up another coconut.
My aim wasn’t the issue; the scorched earth that was my brain after last night’s fight with Valerie was.
When I’d almost kissed her. Had been dying to.Hell—still wanted to. How could someone cut me open and still make me crave everything about her? Like a kiss could bridge the wall between us instead of burning it all down.
If we hadn’t been interrupted…
I scrubbed a hand over my face, trying to shut down the part of my mind that had replayed the moment on a loop all night. Over and over. The warmth of her skin under my hand, the silk of her hair brushing my knuckles, the way her body had pressed against mine.
This wasn’t a fantasy. It was a waking nightmare where the one person who knew exactly which buttons to push was the same one I couldn't get out of my system.
Across the resort, the bartender and the lifeguard sat curled together by the pool, heads bent close, hands tangled. Valerie had done that. Or maybewehad.
My jaw tensed. I wound up and hurled a coconut. It bounced off the lane and popped into the sandpit, leaving all ten red and white Santa pins smugly upright. Pretty sure Old Saint Nick just laughed in my face.
“Wow,” Tom said, dragging out the word. “If Valerie’s game is as bad as yours, the two of you are cooked.”
I swore under my breath.
We were cooked either way because she wasn’t here. She’d stood me up for breakfast, forcing me to eat alone in a cabana so HR didn’t find out we’d broken our mandate. Then she skipped the guided meditation and the sharing circle, where I nearly shared my desire to throw her into the pool. But I covered for her there, too, telling the group she had a paralyzing fear of the share-stick rattle because it reminded her of snakes.
It wasn’t true, but it was petty, and it felt great.
I should have let her flail in front of the board. She’d deserved it after years of taking potshots at my integrity. But she’d just looked so… defeated. And the next thing I knew, I touched her.
So stupid.
Because now, every time I closed my eyes, I saw that moment again—her chin trembling, fear glazing her green eyes—and wondered if she wasn’t right about my need to save her. Which only proved how far the apple had fallen from the tree. It had rolled down the hill and been flattened by the fruit truck. Delaney's didn't do rescues unless there was a ribbon-cutting involved.
I glanced toward the pavilion, where the luau decorations still hung. No sign of her, and our next challenge was just about to start.
“Hey, uh, where’s your partner in crime?” Tom asked casually, setting up for his next throw.
I didn’t answer. There was no point. Valerie wasn’t coming. She was punishing me, this time with her absence instead of words. If we lost this challenge, we’d be out of the running for a high score.
My grandfather’s voice echoed in my head:Can’t you take anything seriously?
Apparently not. I’d saved her, and she was leaving me out in the sun to burn. She was probably in the spa right now, laughing with some too-built-for-his-own-good masseuse over my failure.
Enough.
I dropped the coconut in my hand and stalked toward the bar where Sage sat, hunched over her phone with a cocktail melting near her elbow.
“Where is she?” I swiped the phone from Sage’s fingers, holding it out of reach when she swatted at me. “Tell me now, and I won’t report all her absences today.”
Lies.I was already writing the report in my head.
My eyes narrowed at the screen. A string of unanswered messages from Sage to Valerie scrolled under my thumb. Something twisted hard in my gut.
“Give me my phone back, and I’ll tell you where she is.”
