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I madefriends with the pool bartender. She told me that my new iguana buddy was partial to mangos and beet greens, and she snuck me a secret supply of both. I kept them in my bag and intermittently fed Iggy, as I’d started calling him, under the table.
He’d followed us up from the beach. He could tell I was a sucker for a majestic-looking lizard. He could have been a dinosaur with that spiky ridge on his back!
Cole laughed about it. He kept telling me I was adorable and holding my hand. “I think Iggy’s into you,” he chided. “It might have something to do with the crop top and the thong bikini.”
I grinned. “Or it might be the beet greens.”
We had fruity drinks withumbrellaswhile we sat beside theinfinitypool. I was feeding aniguanafrom my secret stash of beet greens. Cole and I were sharing a watermelon and feta salad and an order of truffle fries. I had zero idea what a truffle was, but I knew it wasn’t a seared octopus, so it was okay. And the fries were delish!
All this was the long way of saying I was having the time of my life. “Coley, I always wanted to go to an island. But this is so much better than I even dreamed about,” I admitted.
He squeezed my hand and gave me one of his looks, deep into my eyes. “This is better than I dreamed about, too.”
We smiled at each other, all happy and dopey. That dang weed of hope sprung up inside me again, begging to be tended to, begging for more water and more light. Begging for more of Cole’s words. Luckily, Audrey and James entered the bar. Happy for the distraction, I nodded toward them. “They look better.Waybetter.”
“Wow, you’re right.” Cole inspected the much happier-looking couple. “I’m glad to see it.”
“You think they’re a good couple?” I asked.
“I think they’re a great couple.” He smiled. “I’ve never seen James like this with a woman before.”
I nodded. Selfishly, I wanted to ask: what about you, Cole? But of course I didn’t. This wasn’t about me.
Cole waved them over, a grin on his face. “I see some people who look like they had sex and made-up.”
“We didn’t have sex,” James said good-naturedly. But I could see how Cole thought so. James’s skin was flushed and glowing, a happy smile on his face.
“You didn’t?” Cole asked. He looked impressed. “You might as well put a ring on it, bro. You’re done for.”
“Cole, leave them alone,” I said, punching him playfully. “You two go have lunch and then come swimming with us.”
I stood up and grinned at Audrey. “I’m glad you two look happy again.” I couldn’t wait to hear the details, but I could tell they needed privacy. Iggy the iguana scooted out from beneath the table and booked it toward the beach. I hoped I would see him again later.
We headed toward the pool, and Cole put his hand firmly on my ass. I turned and winked at Audrey before putting my aviator sunglasses on. She had her billionaire, and I had mine.
And even if, for me, it was only for a little while longer, having Cole by my side was wonderful.
It was something. It was everything.
When you vacationed with billionaires,no one worried about how high the bar tab was getting. The older guests, including Mr. and Mrs. Preston, sat under umbrellas, playing cards and sipping an endless supply of white wine. Mrs. Preston intermittently cast disapproving scowls at Audrey, but my friend seemed to be cheerfully ignoring her. She was currently being pinned up against the side of the pool by James. They were seriously making out—she was probably enjoying herself too much to give old Celia any attention.
The rest of us were drinking rum punches punctuated by shots of tequila. Probably not a great combination, but the white-linen-clad waitstaff kept serving them, so… By the time the sun started to set, there were a lot of extremely drunk, extremely rich people around the infinity pool.
All the rum punches were making Cole competitive. Or maybe it was the tequila? In any event, he’d challenged Todd and Evie to a cannonball contest. In between jumps, we were doing tequila shots. Even though Evie and I were competing against each other, we kept giving each other knuckles and high-fives in between rounds. Evie hadn’t been my favorite to start with, but now that she was married and all and had invited me on her honeymoon, and we’d had four shots of tequila and endless rum punches, I was starting to warm up to her.
Cole jumped up and did a massive cannonball, leaving an atomic blast of water in his wake. It was clearly the winning splash. “Woo hoo! Yes, babe!” I clapped and jumped up anddown on the side of the pool. When Cole came up from underwater, I reached down to give him a high five.
But he pulled me into the pool and gave me a huge kiss.
“This is the best day ever,” he said as we floated in a victory lap. “I can’t remember the last time I had this much fun.”
I grinned at him. I was just drunk enough that the weed of hope was jutting proudly in my chest, and I had zero intentions at the moment of pulling it out.I could be happy. I AM happy…
I kissed him, other words floating inside my head.I love you. I love you, and never have I ever said that to a man.
It was either cowardice or the tequila that kept me from saying it out loud. Scratch that—it wasdefinitelythe cowardice.
The tequila had other things to say. “Coley, is it okay to sleep in the pool? And can we bring Iggy back to thecasitatonight?” Those were the last things I remember saying before falling asleep (or rather, passing out) in my fake boyfriend’s arms.