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Fuck a fucking duck.
9
Zeta stood on the edge of the gravel driveway, hugging her elbows. The red and blue flashing lights of the ambulance lit up the night, growing fainter as it drove away from the reception venue, taking Elisa and Angus to the local hospital. Behind the ambulance, in a big matte-black pickup, Lawson Mauboy drove her mom and dad. Lawson was taking them to the hospital and was going to wait with them while Elisa and Angus were in the ER.
That made Zeta feel a little better. Her mom had been insistent she stay at the reception with Bria. “We’ll let you know how your sister is as soon as we know anything,” she’d said, tucking Zeta’s hair away behind her ears in the same way she used to when Zeta was a little girl and upset or hurt or angry.
Zeta let out a choppy sigh and looked up at the night sky. Stars twinkled above, no longer shrouded by storm clouds. Not the stars she was used to, but stars all the same.
“Well, this is not how I imagined my wedding going,” Bria said at her side, a wry laugh dancing on her words.
Zeta shot her sister a look, trying to ignore the churning knot in her stomach. “No? You didn’t imagine a crazy wild storm, a blackout, a medical emergency, and Lis being rushed to the ER? Dio,Idid.”
Bria laughed, shook her head, and squeezed Zeta in a tight hug.
“I’m in on this,” Owen’s voice sounded beside them, and warm, strong arms wrapped around their hug.
Bria laughed, and Zeta smiled, burrowing into her sister’s embrace, wondering if other arms were going to join in?
They didn’t. Whatever Mick was doing, it wasn’t joining the group hug.
She pulled away, looking for him. He’d chatted with the paramedics before the ambulance drove away, his expression serious but calm.
Elisa was going to be okay. Her twins were going to be okay. Mick had declared that was the case, and she believed him. It seemed the paramedics did as well. And so did Angus and Elisa.
The trip to the ER—or ED, as they called it here in Australia—was a precautionary thing. Mick and the paramedics—or ambos, seriously, did Australians have slang names for everything?—agreed it was the best course of action. Elisa’s bleeding was only mild spotting, and her pain had completely gone, but Mick suggested some scans would put everyone’s mind to rest, especially Elisa’s and Angus’s.
“Coming back in?” Bria asked on Zeta’s left now, making her jump.
She glanced at her sister, her heart thumping faster than it should. “I should go get changed. My dress is still in Mick’s cabin.” She looked down at herself, scowling at Mick’s T-shirt and shorts. Or maybe she smiled at them? As stupid as it was, she liked wearing them. Liked that they smelt of Mick. It made her feel good. Safe. Warm.
A hot lump filled her throat, and she jerked her head up, staring out at the darkness surrounding the reception venue.
Oh God. Oh God, was she…was she in love with Michael Blackthorne? Was she?
“Mick’s inside, at the bar, dressed only in his boardshorts,” Owen stated, tugging Bria to his side. “I meanmyboardshorts.” He let out a melodramatic shudder. “I am never wearing those boardies again. Yech.”
An image of Mick in nothing but the brightly colored boardshorts he’d pulled on back in his cabin filled Zeta’s head. “At the bar?”
She could picture him standing there shirtless, shoeless, hair a damp, tousled mess tumbling around his eyes, those incredible shoulders and lats of his moving as he lifted whatever he was drinking to his lips. Lips that only a short while ago she’d kissed. Lips that only a short while ago had been all over her body…
Swallowing, she frowned. It was too easy to imagine him leaning up against the bar like that. Too easy to picture him, full stop. Too easy to remember how amazing being with him had been.
Too easy to imagine herself with him again.
Over and over.
“I thought he’d be out here?” she murmured, looking around the grassy, lush area of the reception venue’s main entrance. “Making sure the ambulance got away without any problems?”
Owen let out a soft grunt. “He mumbled something about needing a drink. Apparently, he needs to clear his head over something.” He pressed his lips to Bria’s temple and smiled at his new wife. “Wanna come in and dance with me? Or eat ice cream with me?”
“Or both?” Bria suggested.
“Both is it.” Owen kissed her and then smiled at Zeta. “Coming in?”
“In a moment,” she answered. Her heart pounded too fast in her chest. Going inside meant she’d see Mick. And she wanted to see him now. Way too much. And that terrified her somewhat. “I’m going to look at the stars for a while.”
Bria nudged her shoulder with hers. “It takes a while to get used to how different they are. But you do. And then you love them as much as the stars back home.”
