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“Yeah, I did.” He smiled at me. “Although I did start drinking…”
He lifted the bottle of soda, and I laughed, slipping into my seat, setting my camera on the table and the flipflops on the sand. I leaned forward looking at my full plate. All my favorites, it looked like—a burger, fries, and he’d grabbed some sort of barbecue chicken dish in a small plate between us.
“I got you your usual, and me a bit of a everything.”
I nodded, wiping my hands on a wet napkin before starting to dig in.
“I want to see those pictures, you know,” he said, digging into his burger.
I took a couple bites of my burger, nodding. “Later.”
“While we’re still on the island. I know you. Later will turn into never.”
I chuckled, reaching for my soda. “Fine, later…maybe even later tonight.”
Dominique wandered over a few minutes later, her drink in hand, a smile on her face. “How’d the photos go?”
“I think they went well.”
“Good. I’m glad to hear it.” She stood there in the glow of the candlelight, her T-shirt over her swimsuit, her denim shorts showing off her legs.
I caught Lucas glance at her, and my heart dropped slightly. I looked a mess yet again, and she always looked picture perfect. I could feel my mood start to drop. “Thanks for inviting us for dinner, that was unexpected,” I said.
“It’s something we like to offer our special guests, a dinner under the stars…” She motioned around us. “It’s a once in a lifetime memory, that’s for sure…”
16
Lucas
I parked the Jeep in the parking lot where we were supposed to meet up with Dominique for the day. I would have bet my life savings that Abbie would have been amazed with the plans I’d made for our vacation when we landed, but now that we’d been there a few days, it seemed like she was anything but after our tour guide appeared.
We’d had an okay first meeting with Dominique, but the last day of snorkeling hadn’t seemed to go as planned. I’d talked to Terry and we’d managed to make the best of it, changing direction on what Dominique had originally laid out. And it seemed to work, but to be honest, I didn’t know what to do.
Abbie’s mood seemed to change in an instant.
The closer it got to the time to meet up with Dominique, Abbie changed on me. It was practically in an instant the Abbie I knew would disappear before my eyes.
She was silent through breakfast, barely nibbled her toast and fruit, and pushed away from the table before I was even finished. It was like she didn’t even want to look at me.
We’d gotten home late the night before from our excursion. We’d spent a few hours on the private island, eating, talking with the crew. Abbie took some portraits of the crew members and promised to send them back to them, and then we’d headed home. I’d surprisingly still been hungry, so on the way back, I’d grabbed us a pizza and we’d had a couple slices once we got home. But once we were through the door, she was quiet and withdrawn again. I caught her glancing through her camera a few times, but she never said a word, never showed me a single photo.
For a heartbeat, I’d worried she’d damaged her camera, but I’d seen the waterproof label on it when she’d left it on the counter a few days before, so I hoped that wasn’t it.
I had to be missing something somewhere.
I looked around the parking lot. It was still early in the day and fairly empty. There were a few tour vans from the local resorts with their logos splashed across the sides and a couple other tour companies.
I glanced at Abbie in the seat beside me, just a few inches apart, but it felt like a million times that.
I said the first thing that came to mind.
“We’re supposed to have Dominique for another three days.”
“Wonderful.” Her voice was flat as she stared out the passenger window. She couldn’t even look at me.
“You don’t mean that.”
“It is what it is.”
