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“A man, specifically?” Iconsidered. Who did I know in the area? Who could I get to fly in?It would be a little work, but I could pull it off. It would beworth it. “All right. Tomorrow night. I’ll make thathappen.”
“Okay.” She took a few stepsback, pulling her hand away. “We’ll see.”
“You’ll see,” I called afterher as she turned and headed off down the path.
“Goodnight,” she calledback.
“Goodnight.” I watched hergo until the path bent through some hedges.
She never looked backonce.
CHAPTER SEVEN
(Charlotte)
I was in line at the breakfast buffetwhen I overheard it.
“You would not have believedit,” Aunt Pam’s scandalized whisper carried much farther than thesmall group of senior female family members clustered around her.“They were so loud. So loud.”
I cringed inwardly. My whole fantasy ofan audience wasn’t so hot if some of those people were from ourfamily. I’d thought they were all staying in the villas.
“And it went on and on,”Pam elaborated dramatically. “Finally, I called down to reception.I said, it’s two in the morning, if someone does not get thosechildren into their rooms and under control—”
“Oh, thank god,” Iexclaimed before I could stop myself. I looked over at the aunts.None of them had noticed my outburst. I looked up guiltily at theman in the chef’s hat who held a spoonful of scrambled egg poisedover my plate, a questioning look on his face. I cleared my throat.“Thank god they have eggs,” I blundered on. “Because I certainlywanted eggs.”
“Is this enough?” the manasked, clearly envisioning some kind of hellish scenario in whichhe kept piling mountain after mountain of eggs onto the plate of anoverenthusiastic weirdo. I nodded gratefully, taking the eggs andmoving along.
I didn’t even likeeggs.
After last night, I’d woken up totallyout of sorts. Had all of that happened? Was there a gas leak in thevilla? The soreness in my thighs and lower back from being bentover a chair for close to an hour was one of the few clues I hadthat yes, my unbelievable night with Matthew had happened. It wasthe part where it was supposed to happen again that seemedimpossible.
He wasn’t actually going to get a guyto come have sex with us, right? That was all bluster. It had tobe.
“Hey, kiddo!”
I turned at the sound of my brother’svoice, all my thoughts about Matthew shoved sharply into a lockedcabinet in the back of my mind.
“Hey!” I could only giveScott a one-armed hug due to the plate in my hand, but he made upfor it by crushing me like a boa constrictor murdering its prey. Igasped out, “Fashionably late to your own pre-pre-weddingbreakfast?”
“I wish I was stillasleep,” he groaned. “Matt made me go to that resort party lastnight. He completely wore me out.”
There’s a lot of that goingaround.
“Oh? Late night, huh?” Itcouldn’t have been that late, because I’d been with Matt, too. Butmy brother was born sixty-five years old. Or so I’m told. I wasn’taround then.
“I didn’t get to bed untilmidnight,” Scott said, keeping his voice low as if it were ascandalous secret. “I haven’t been up that late sincecollege.”
“You’re truly the mostboring person alive,” I chided him.
“You look exhausted, too,”Scott observed as I held out my plate for bacon.
“Can my brother get aplate?” I asked the server, dodging the comment. “He’s the groom,it’s okay if he cuts in line.”
Another server handed a clean plateover the glass barrier, and Scott took it with a “thanks,” but hedidn’t get any bacon. He noted my surprise and said, “Diet. I’mtrying to stay healthy. You know. Forty is coming.”
“Yes, it is.” And I knewthat he was careful about his health. Why wouldn’t he be, after allhe’d been through?
“Mom and Dad okay with theplace?” he asked, glancing around the room.