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Laughing, Lauren gestured toward the main tent. “Come on. Let’s go find something to drink that doesn’t taste like Chanel Number Five.”
In the moonlight, Lauren’s face was soft and her eyes so luminous that they left no shadows for Sylvie to conceal herself. She left no room for her to continue to lie.
“What are we doing, Lou?” Her question was so quiet Sylvie wasn’t sure she’d spoken it aloud.
Lauren neared, her gaze dropping to Sylvie’s lips. Her body saying everything Sylvie wanted to know but couldn’t believe.
“We’re getting to know each other,” she replied, her fingertips finding Sylvie’s wrist.
The slight contact triggered an ache that spread like molten lava, singeing everything in its path. Around her, everything disappeared.
The blaring music. The warmth of the sand beneath her feet. The expectations set by three generations before her. It all melted around them, leaving nothing but Lauren’s face and Sylvie’s racing heart.
A Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine tribute band claimed the stage and filled the air with high energy hits suited for a 1980s nightclub.
Sylvie stretched her petite body over the bar to toss cash into a tip jar. Lauren couldn’t hide her amusement. She didn’t know anyone under the age of fifty that carried cash with them. No one but Sylvie.
“What?” Sylvie’s inquisitive eyes narrowed when she dropped back to her feet.
“Nothing,” she lied, her gaze snagged on the smudged eyeliner creating a heart-hobbling contrast to Sylvie’s honey eyes.
“I know when your devious ass is lying, Machado.”
Lauren smirked. “You’re getting less and less believable with those insults, Campos. Careful with that or I’m going to start to believe you like me.”
“Ha! You wish.” Sylvie took a sip of water. “I can’t stand you. Spending time with you is such a tremendous act of charity that I’m pretty sure I can write it off on my taxes.”
Laughing, Lauren couldn’t match Sylvie’s outrageousness. She was the queen of dramatic responses. “Who hurt you, Sylvia? Who made you like this?”
Sylvie tried to hide her smile with her water bottle. “Your mom broke my heart pretty good.”
“Are you ripping off my fifteen-year-old insult and using it against me right now Sylvia?” Lauren’s body was so featherlight she was weightless. “Man, I had so much respect for your caustic little brain.”
Instead of escalating, Sylvie chuckled. Her face bright and her body relaxed. “Do you remember that fight?”
“Remember it? How can I forget it? You know I didn’t get my car back until I left for California. A full month after we graduated.”
“You’re lucky! I didn’t get it back until the fall. I was so mad at my parents. They wouldn’t agree that the punishment should be over as soon as Sister Gloria no longer had power over me. I was out of her freaking jurisdiction already.”
Lauren’s body buzzed as they strolled through their memories. “I know, right? I wonder whatever happened to Patty Guerra,” she mused before sliding a lime wedge into her water bottle.
“Oh my God, you didn’t hear?” Sylvie’s eyes danced with the excitement of gossip.
Lauren shook her head. She hadn’t thought about her high school crush in years.
“She left her husband and three ugly kids to live with her yoga instructor in a yurt somewhere.”
Lauren nearly choked on her water. When she coughed her lungs clear, she asked Sylvie to tell her the whole sordid tale.
“Looks like we dodged a bullet,” Lauren decided when Sylvie was finished. “That could have been one of us stuck with three unfortunate looking children.”
Sylvie bit back a mischievous smile. “You know I didn’t even really like her. I found out that she had a thing for me, and I jumped on it.” She almost looked ashamed, but was too amused to sell it. “I just thought it would really hurt you, you know. Maybe even make you cry.”
“You’re truly unwell,” Lauren decided, long over Sylvie having dated her crush. “Let me live vicariously then. What was it like to date her?”
For a moment, Sylvie seemed to consider what she was going to say.
Sylvie quirked a thin, light brown brow. “The truth?”
