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ChapterEighteen
FELIX
Gemma leaned back into my chest, and I kissed her temple. She didn’t want to talk about the job stuff, but I felt like she needed the push. If Declan told her to take a vacation to think about it, she had to actually do that. I wasn’t sure why she decided she wouldn’t be good at it when she was already doing the job. I understood her awful experience before, but she poured everything into marketing the brewery. There was no way she could fail. Declan wouldn’t let her, and neither would I.
I half-listened to the three women as they chattered on. I had some suspicions about Gemma’s relationship with Harper, but I’d ask her about that later. Right now, my thoughts were loud in my head again. My heart was trying to convince me that maybe Gemma and I had a shot. But I didn’t want to break her heart again.
“Hey,” her voice pulled me out of my brooding thoughts.
I looked down at her, and her bright eyes stared up at me in confusion. “Where’d you go?”
I gave her a quick kiss. “I’m right here.”
“I want to go back into the water,” she said.
“Okay.”
I watched her walk down to the lake and felt eyes on me. I turned and saw Harper and Keisha both giving me a hard look.
“What’s up?”
“Felix,” Harper began. “Do you have feelings for Gemma?”
I picked at a thread on the blanket. Yes, I did. I probably had for a long time. Gemma and I had only agreed to this fling two days ago. It was too soon to fall in love. But what if I already had those feelings and getting to know her these past couple of days unearthed them? It was all very confusing.
“Yeah,” I finally said.
“Then you should do something about it,” Harper said firmly.
I’d have loved to, but I couldn’t. They wouldn’t understand the pressure to be the provider. I had to make sure my sister had a roof over her head and food on the table. Being a single dad was hard, especially when that kid wasn’t even yours, but you’d do anything to protect her.
I felt my phone buzz next to me, and I took it out of the beach bag and saw my sister calling me. My heart jumped into my throat.
“Hey, half pint, what’s wrong?” I asked.
Skye laughed on the other end of the phone. “Nothing’s wrong, you just haven’t texted me eight million times, so I’m checking you’re not dead.”
“Half pint!”
She giggled. “Are you having a good vacation?”
I watched Gemma walking out of the lake. She flipped her soaking wet hair out of her face and walked toward our blanket. She was wearing the skimpiest string bikini that matched the bright color of her hair. She totally wore it on purpose, and it was doing wonders for me.
“Yeah, I am. You being good for the Parks?” I asked my sister.
“Of course! Ryan said to tell you to not be a dumbass and mess up with Gemma.”
I clenched my teeth together. “He did?”
“Who’s Gemma?”
I sighed. “A friend. She works at the brewery with me. When did you talk to Ryan?”
“He’s here for the rest of the weekend. He said Gemma’s with you at the cabin. Is she the one with pink hair?”
“That’s the one.”
“Big bro, she’s cute. So I agree with Ry. Don’t mess it up!”
