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Face still absolutely on fire, Bonnie groaned, “I’m just gonna throw myself off this cliff now.”
“Um, no, you’re not, missy!” Jack declared as he and Michael swooped forward to grab her by the arms and haul her back into a proud, brotherly group hug. “We need to hear all about this!”
Zann didn’t think it was physically possible, but Bonnie’s blush intensified as Jack shook her lightly and started chanting, “One of us! One of us!”
It was so ridiculous that even Bonnie had to laugh. “What?”
“Yeah, what?” Alder cackled.
They all snapped around when a sharp whistle rent the air, and Zann ducked her head to hide the guilty smirk she couldn’t quite smother when she saw Aspen and Eve looking at them with matching what’s going on? expressions.
“Oh, shit,” Michael snorted. “Mom and Dad look mad.”
“Which one’s Dad?” Jack mock-whispered.
“Don’t be an idiot, Jack,” Kit told him in the same booming whisper. “Eve totally wears the pants in that relationship.”
Zann smiled as Lydia curved into her side, shoulders shaking with silent laughter as she buried her face in the crook of her neck, and Alder lost the battle to stifle her own mirth as a snort of amusement escaped her.
Aspen groaned and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Do we want to know?”
“Maybe?” Kit replied with an entirely unhelpful shrug. “I mean, it is some next-level gossip.”
“One of us,” Jack chanted quietly as he bounced next to Bonnie, all but giving the game away. “One of us.”
Eve smiled and arched a brow at Bonnie. “Do you need to be rescued?”
“Little late for that,” Bonnie muttered.
Zann barked out a laugh and immediately clapped her free hand over her mouth. “Sorry,” she mumbled, ducking her head apologetically at the exasperated look Aspen shot her.
“WHO?” Shannon shouted.
“Oh my god,” Bonnie muttered. And then, accepting her fate, said, “Jackie Billings and Vivian Nakamoto.”
“Was it good?” Kit asked.
“It was an experience,” Bonnie replied diplomatically.
“Viv was a handful,” Shannon muttered, shaking her head.
“God, she really was,” Bonnie agreed.
Jack hooted and started shaking her again. “One of us! One of us!”
“Would not have pegged you for a top,” Kit told Bonnie, impressed. “Damn.”
“It’s always the quiet ones,” Alder deadpanned. She shot Bonnie an apologetic smile, and then blew out what looked like a cleansing breath as she turned to address the group. “Anyway! We’ve got a couple of hours before we need to be back on the boat. Who’s up for tackling the trail to the other end of the island? The guide on the National Parks page says we might see some whales from the point, and there’s supposed to be some cool rock formations that way.”
“Wow, what a deft change of topic,” Kit teased.
Alder flipped her off. “Fuck off, Hawthorne.”
Zann looked down at Lydia as she patted her stomach to indicate she was speaking for both of them as she said, “Yeah. Let’s do it.”
While Lydia had quietly questioned the merits of taking a day trip to a deserted island to walk around and explore when they could’ve done the same thing on any of the multitude of trails by the resort, as she wandered away from the group with Zann’s hand tucked snugly in hers, she had to admit that the whole thing wasn’t as crazy as she’d originally thought.
It was peaceful out here at the edge of a jagged, rocky cliff overlooking the vast expanse of the Pacific, with the sun and the wind and the solid, warm strength of the woman she was falling for pressed against her back, holding her close.
