AllFreeNovel
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The mention of Cindy had sent a pang of pain through me. It’ll pass like it always does, but I stop at the pool bar to get a mojito to help it along.
I quickly discover that the people who left the beach because of the turning weather just migrated to the pool area. They’re sprawled in cabanas and lying beneath umbrellas. The place is packed.
I grab my mojito and beach bag and walk around the long side of the pool. There’s a single free lounge chair at the very end, protected from the potential rain by the oversized umbrella.
If no one else takes it.
I soldier on in my flip-flops, my eyes on the prize. This place is a veritable gold mine of inspiration, and I can’t wait to get my notepad open again.
I’m so focused that I miss the small kid who races in front of me. I hear his excited scream before I make contact with the inflatable he’s carrying.
It all happens very fast. I take a step to the right to avoid hitting the kid and sacrifice my balance in the process. I tilt toward the only thing close by.
A lounge chair. A currently occupied lounge chair.
My knees brace against the cushioned seat, and I come to a graceful stop. No harm, no bruise, no damage except for the painfully overpriced mojito in my right hand. The plastic glass tumbles out of my hand and spills its icy contents all over the lap of a man and the laptop he’s currently working on.
“Oh no,” I say, reaching out to grip the pole of the umbrella for support. “Shoot. Hello. Gosh, I’m sorry.”
Phillip is staring at me like I’ve just grown two heads. “Eden?”
“Yes. Shit, did it get on your laptop?”
He looks down. “Yeah. Wait, it’s not too bad…”
He starts to wrap his towel around it, but I beat him to it, throwing my own across it with frantic movements. “I’m sorry. I promise I’ll get you a new one if this one is ruined.”
“No need.”
“I mean it. It’s just, I didn’t see that kid, and then—”
“Not your fault,” Phillip says. “This resort is marketed as kid-free.”
“It is?”
His voice darkens. “Yes. It was one of my very few requirements. I don’t know why they’ve made an exception for this one family, but…”
“Is your computer okay?”
“It’ll live,” he says, but he doesn’t sound enthused by the prospect. He sets his laptop on the side table next to him and it does look fine. Usable.
“The spill mostly missed it, thank God,” I say. “But then… oh. It got on you.”
We both look down at his legs, and his trunks, and the beige polo he’s wearing. There’s a lonely mint leaf garnishing his right thigh, and I can see ice cubes trapped between his knees.
“Sorry,” I say. “Really.”
He gets out of the chair and shakes himself off. I watch the tiny mint leaf sail to the ground. “Stop apologizing.”
“Let me get you another drink.”
He stares at me. “Eden, you spilled yourowndrink.”
“Oh, that’s right. Sorry.” I chuckle in apology and pick up my bag from where it had fallen on the ground. “Let me get you a drink in apology, then.”
“That’s not necessary. It wasn’t your fault.”
I give him a wide smile. “Come on, let me. What do you want? Oh, were you working?”
