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I’d thought long and hard about what I could do to make this a memorable vacation for Abbie. I’d talked to Marnie, too, about what she might like. I knew Marnie and Jimmy were more family to her than her own family at times. Ever since her graduation, her family hadn’t exactly been the most supportive I’d ever seen. I’d wanted to protect her from their overly…lousy opinions. I still remembered grabbing Abbie’s hands and leaving the house early when her younger sister had started on a tangent about Abbie’s job.
I finished my wine glass and chuckled as Abbie set the phone down, leaning forward to refill my glass and top hers up. I was glad to see her enjoying herself. And it seemed like she was—she was in the moment, which was great to see.
11
Abbie
I headed out into the garage to wait for him. I went through my tote bag one last time to make sure I had everything—spare battery, power bank, cord, phone. I figured my tote was a better choice than my cross-body bag; it could hold more, and if I bought anything, I could stuff it right in there without having to carry more bags around.
Lucas joined me a few minutes later, closing the door and activating the alarm. He hit the button on the fob and unlocked the doors.
I slid into the passenger seat, putting my bag at my feet and getting ready for the drive.
Lucas smiled at me as he hit the remote and the garage door started to lift behind us.
“All set?”
“All set,” I agreed.
He followed the GPS directions as I rolled the windows down, letting in the warm morning Caribbean air, smiling as it instantly began to whip my hair around. Lucas laughed glancing over at me and turned the radio up louder.
We turned off the road a while later and headed into a semi-crowded parking lot already at that time of the morning, loads of people getting out of their vehicles and tour vans, all headed towards the beach entrance.
Who could blame anyone for wanting to be there bright and early and spend the day surrounded by such amazing sights?
I’d happily be there from sunrise ’til sunset every day.
Lucas reached for my hand as we walked through the entrance to Mambo Beach—easier to not lose each other in the growing throng of people around us. Even from here, not within sight of the actual beach, I could sense the place was pretty packed even at this early hour of the day.
Our hands swung casually between us as we walked, a smaller crowd ahead of us as we waited to get into the beach itself. I could hear the mix of voices and water crashing against the shore and smiled to myself, excitement bubbling up in me.
For the last few weeks, I’d been dreaming of just this, being on a beach somewhere and here we finally were.
Could it get any better?
The beach and the water looked amazing. There were loungers in a row all the way down the sandy expanse, and a couple restaurants and bars up top on a different level. I could stay here happily all day.
Lucas held my hand as we made our way down to the sand. We kept walking ’til we found a spot that wasn’t quite so crowded and set our stuff down. I kicked off my flip flops and wiggled my toes in the warm sand.
I loved that feeling.
And even better was that feeling in December.
I’d have to take a picture to send to Marnie.
I set the red and white striped beach towel across the already sun-warmed lounge chair and was about to sit down when Lucas looked at me, holding out a bottle of sunscreen.
“Oh...” I put my hand out for it. I’d need to coat myself so I didn’t burn since we weren’t exactly in an overly shady spot, not that I minded. But the one problem with being so fair—if I didn’t, I’d be in so much pain by the end of the day that taking one simple step forward would make me cry. It had happened before, and I didn’t want to suffer through it if I didn’t have to.
“I can do your back?” he offered.
“That’d be great, thanks.”
I moved to the bottom of the lounger and sat down on the edge while he moved to sit behind me. I could hear him open the tube of sunscreen followed by the sound of him rubbing his hands together and a moment later, icy cold lotion hit my back.
I jumped at the sudden contact and heard his chuckle behind me at my reaction.
“Sorry…” I could hear the laughter in his voice.
