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“Shut up,” Charlotte replied with a chuckle.

“Where do you want to go?” Alex asked, holding her close.

“Your house,” she said as if she’d been thinking about it for a while. “Just you and me.”

“Deal.” Alex agreed. “Next point of order. When do I get to meet this Jayson? If he’s your family, I need to make sure I pass muster. Is his being a detective going to make that impossible?”

Charlotte’s eyes glistened. “He’d love to meet you. We’ll just all pretend that you only run the spa, okay? A lie of omission we all agree to.”

“Sold,” Alex said before kissing her again.

Sitting on Charlotte’s couch at three in the morning and using the co ee table as a dinner table, Alex had never felt so content.

EPILOGUE

FOUR MONTHS Later

ON THE WARM, late June afternoon, Charlotte dug her toes into the Barcelona sand and leaned back in her beach chair. The crowd at the shore had grown steadily as the day wore on, just like Alex and her cousins predicted.

“These sexy ass Spanish dudes are too much,” Frania said as she lowered her sunglasses while a pack of guys kicked a soccer ball at each other.

Charlotte laughed. The trip to Spain to celebrate Saint John the Baptist’s day coincided perfectly with Frania having dumped her boyfriend. A few days abroad had apparently been exactly what the love doctor ordered.

In a leopard print bathing suit and broad-brimmed hat, Frania knew how to stand out from a crowd, a trait that had led to two very busy nights already.

“You’re going to make Jayson jealous,” Charlotte joked, her attention drifting to where he was splashing around in

the water. She’d told him not to bring an American football with him, but once he knew they were going to the beach and the cousins were bringing their husbands, he saw it as a cultural exchange. Vera’s husband had been the only one to figure out how to throw it, but with Jayson’s patience he’d get Martica’s husband in on it too.

“Where’s your wife y las prima with the drinks?” Frania asked as she looked behind her, past the crowd, to a beachside bar where Alex and her cousins had gone to get more drinks and snacks.

“She’s not her wife,” Stephanie corrected. Under an umbrella and hiding behind huge dark sunglasses, everyone knew she was hungover even though she wouldn’t admit it.

Charlotte didn’t take o ense. She’d grown accustomed to her caustic humor. At least she’d started talking to her, which was an improvement.

“Yeah, not yet.” Frania waved Stephanie away while she gave Charlotte a knowing smirk. “Mark my words. The way she looks at you all bobita, she’s head over heels. It won’t be long now. What is she, fifty? How long is she really gonna wait?”

Charlotte laughed. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s you that’s getting hitched. Jay told me there was some dude outside your hotel room singing.”

“My man was so jealous,” Frania said as she pointed to Jayson with her thumb. “I told his ass before anything happened. I told him I was visiting this beautiful country to have fun, but he better not catch real feelings for me, or he was just going to hurt himself.”

“Ha!” Stephanie interrupted. “Whatever you’re drinking, order me one. I want to know what that kind of delusion is like.”

Charlotte furrowed her brow, but Frania didn’t miss a beat.

“Oh, what? You think just because your skinny ass was sneaking out of his room in the morning that means something?”

Covering her mouth, Charlotte resisted the urge to gasp.

She’d noticed how Stephanie softened around Jayson but didn’t know anything had happened between them yet. She’d have to get the gossip from Jayson when they had a moment alone.

“Here we go, chicas,” Martica said as she tried to open their cooler with her foot. Frania leaned over and helped.

“We have some cava for when the fireworks start.”

“And for now,” Lidia said as she appeared behind her, full plastic cups in her hands, “we got some Cuban mojitos in your honor, Charlotte.”

“Oh, please,” Vera contested. “You got them because they’re strong and you want to get drunk.”