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“Another friend of ours,” said Reese. “The guy we put in charge of things while we were gone.”
“If he’s a friend then you should trust him,” I said. “I’m sure he’d be thrilled to know what you’re really doing here. Let him do his thing, so you can do your thing.”
“Which would be?”
“Focusing solely on the race.”
His arms went scrumptiously tighter. They felt like two steel cables wrapped around me, pulling me into a cocoon of hard, manly warmth.
“It’s going to be hard to focussolelyon the race,” said Reese. Burying his face in my hair, he kissed the side of my neck from behind. “For obvious reasons.”
I paused as I was just about to say something. I said it anyway.
“You did it with the badass bitch.”
Silence. Waves. Reese’s hold on me loosened.
“Sorry,” I apologized somberly. “I didn’t mean to—”
“No, it’s fine,” he said. “Wediddo it with Melissa, you’re right about that. But it was easier to focus. What we had with her was just about over, although maybe we hadn’t come to terms with it. That eliminated a lot distractions for us. It made it easier to put everything we had into the challenges.”
“So just do that again,” I said. “Try to put everything we did here aside.”
Reese paused again, and this time I felt him chuckle.
“Canyouput this all aside?”
My eyes wandered the moonlit landscape. Everywhere I looked I saw good times, great memories. I saw us laughing, kissing, splashing happily in the water. Romping in the hot tub. Stretching out naked on our secluded little sundeck.
“I’ll never forget what we did here,” I said truthfully. “I… I guess I don’t know if I can just put it aside.”
“Exactly,” Reese murmured. “And you know what else?”
“What?”
He leaned in again, squeezing me tight. His lips ever-so-gently brushed my ear, and I felt those familiar tingles that made me warm all over.
“I don’twantto,” Reese whispered.
I felt thrilled, loved, cherished. But also sad, because the fantasy world we’d built here was finally coming to an end. I knew from the beginning it was only temporary. We all did. But we’d put that reality aside in favor of a non-reality, one in which we could live in the present without having to consider the bittersweet future.
“Noah pulled me aside to make sure I was okay running the Race with you guys,” I murmured. “And I told him I was more than excited about it.”
“Good.”
“But I need to know if you’re okay running the Race withme.” I paused. “Instead of Melissa.”
He cocked his head against my shoulder. “Why wouldn’t we be?”
“Because I’m not as strong as Carmen,” I admitted, “or as tall as Ingie. I’m not the puzzle queen that Meghan was, either. And without a doubt, I’m not nearly a badass.”
“You’re also not a hothead,” said Reese, without missing a beat. “You’re not bitingly sarcastic, or randomly bipolar, or prone to child-like tantrums.”
He leaned in close, and the tingles started again.
“You, my love, arenotgoing to throw a million-dollar meltdown on us.”
Spooning back into him, I slid my hands over his and squeezed them.
“Maybe,” I teased, turning to plant a quick, playful kiss on his gorgeous lips. “But you never know.”
