Page 38

Goodbye Fiji

T

here wasn’t anything speedy about how quickly Liam finished his meal. Avril barely let him get a mouthful of soup or even look at his lobster without interrogating him further on his transfer plans. He shared it all, including when the idea had appeared in his head, how Victoria had helped him, and how Anna had found out. At the very least, she seemed partially impressed by how long he’d been planning everything, and she agreed that involving Victoria had been a good idea.

“Now, I can get involved too,” she said, stroking her chin thoughtfully.

“It’s kind of late for that,” Liam said. “I’m supposed to hear back from Bellmore in a few weeks.”

“Yeah, and?” Avril stared directly at him. “A billionaire’s granddaughter putting in a good word for you can do nothing but help. Especially when said granddaughter is about to become an alumnus.”

“I… suppose,” Liam said.

Avril read his concerns plainly, then dismissed them with a slash of her hand. “I’m not going to bribe anyone. I’m just going to play the game, Liam. You’re not so ignorant as to think that merit is more important than connections, are you? Good grades are great, but a stamp of approval from the family who owns the city’s baseball team goes a long, long way.”

Liam chewed on his tongue, slowly quashing his stubbornness. He knew she was right, and really, he’d already grabbed onto one such connection. From the get-go, he’d requested help from a professor at Bellmore, so was there really much of a difference in relying on a soon-to-be alumnus? So long as she kept her word and didn’t do anything illegal, he knew he’d be a fool not to let her help him. She knew how this side of the world worked far better than he did.

“Okay,” he conceded. “Thanks, Avril.”

Avril nodded. “I get to take you on a campus tour this summer. Just me.”

“I suppose that’s a pretty fair price.”

“Oh, that’s just the first of them. Think I’m going to let you off easy, keeping me in the dark for this long?”

“I guess that would be ignorant of me, too, huh?” he said, shrugging.

Avril grinned. “You’ve got it.”

Eventually, surviving the barrage of questions that Avril flicked over the table at him with her fork, Liam filled his belly. Delivering one final delicious bite of sorbet to his tongue, he set down his utensils. Avril, who’d been done for several minutes longer, smiled.

“All done?”

He nodded.

“Great. Back to the others, then.”

Liam glanced to the side, knowing he wouldn’t see a boat coming their way to swing them from one beach to the other. When he met Avril’s eyes, she was still smiling.

“Your dress is going to get wet,” he noted.

“Not if you carry me like the damn princess I am.”

As was so often the case, Avril batted her eyelashes, Liam sighed, and then Avril got her way.

Removing his shoes and socks, Avril at least agreed to carry those with her. Rolling up his pants as high as he could get them, he took into his arms one of the most beautiful—and confounding, frustrating, but beloved all the same—women he’d ever known. Avril grinned the whole way, of course, waving him onward.

Liam stepped into the ocean, toes smushing the wet sand of the submerged sandbar. He could already tell that he hadn’t rolled up his pants far enough—that he couldn’t have rolled up his pants far enough. Avril quickly noticed that too, and she hastily rolled her dress up around her legs, forming a blue cocoon around them.

“Don’t let me get wet,” she said, flicking him on the chest.

“Then you might need to get up on my shoulders,” he replied.

“Well, that wouldn’t make for a dignified arrival. Just lift me higher.”

“Neither will your butt being soaking wet,” Liam grunted, though he did his best to help keep Avril dry.

Fortunately, he’d already reached the deepest part of the walk. With the water flowing just above his knees, he kept Avril mostly dry. Combining that with his worries about a stumble or slip on the sandbar, which would see them both soaked and sputtering in the ocean, he didn’t make very good time. Avril’s complaints, playful though they were, drew an equally playful amount of ire.

“I could just drop you, you know?”

“I could just strand you here,” Avril returned to.

“I’m half and half on thinking it might still be worth it,” he said, kissing his favorite redhead on the forehead.

Eventually, they made it past the deepest part of their journey. Every few steps, the water level receded ever so slightly. By the time Liam had a clearer view of the three figures waiting for them, obviously having seen them coming a while ago, the water was down to his calves.

They were… naked. Well, two of the three stunning women on Yawini Island were naked. One of them was just mostly naked.

Liam knew he wasn’t the only surprised new arrival. Still in his arms, Avril cocked her head.

Liam felt like he was the hero of a Greek fable. Two, actually. In the first, he’d been tasked with carrying a capricious goddess back to her domain. However, he’d unknowingly stumbled into a second one at the end of that journey. An island of nymphs. Yet, he’d been forced to arrive too late to have witnessed their brand of sensual frolicking.

He was a step quicker in noticing what Avril didn’t.

“And just what is going on here?” she demanded, tapping him on the arm. He let her down, and she handed over his shoes. Taking a few steps closer to the voluptuous set of women, she finally saw what Liam already had.

Anna glanced toward Victoria, who nodded back in her direction. And then, as the only woman who wasn’t completely naked, the younger woman spoke.

“While you two were having dinner, we finished ours. After that, Victoria decided that now was the right time for her to cash in her right to pick when our next game of strip poker would be. We’ve just finished. I won.”

Liam hoisted an eyebrow high, more surprised with how evenly Anna said it all than the actual reveal. Avril didn’t take it quite as well.

“Excuse me?” she demanded, folding her arms. “How exactly do you play a game of strip poker with forty percent of the group missing?”

“More quickly,” Victoria said.

“Without any unexpected twists being introduced midway in,” Tess said.

Avril glared at them both.

“And as Anna has won, if we go by the previous rules, she gets to decide when the next game will occur,” Victoria said, completing the verbal pummeling that the professors forced their most troublesome student to endure. “And who will be invited to participate.”

Avril scowled deeply. “You are some evil, evil women. Not just them either, Anna. When did you become so cruel?”

As far as Liam could tell, Anna took the recrimination without so much as a blink. “You made us all watch from across the water as you set up a romantic dinner for yourself and Liam. Victoria just decided that we should find something to do other than watch you two eat…”

“Lobster and sorbet,” Liam volunteered.

“Lobster and sorbet,” Anna finished, nodding gratefully.

Avril, on the other hand, skewered him with a narrow-eyed look. He held out his hands, shrugging. Nothing Anna had said was wrong or unfair. As much as it also hurt him to have missed this second game of strip poker, he couldn’t really be mad at them over it.

As one final dagger to the side, Victoria began throwing her bikini back on. Tess soon followed, and Anna grabbed her top—the one article of clothing she’d lost along the way. None of them would even hint at what had transpired during their time on the other side of the sandbar. Liam and Avril were intentionally left to wonder and wish about what deals had kept the game going for longer than fifteen minutes.

As ever, Avril recovered quickly. Once she was through throwing dark looks at the other women, things quickly flowed toward the final true moment of their vacation. The five of them, entirely alone, under the stars. An almost identical replica—more so, now that a game of strip poker had transpired—of that very first night.

Soon enough, the final hour would pass by, then the final minute, all leading to that final second, where they’d climb aboard the boat that came to ferry them back to the resort. From there, final packing, loading themselves aboard the first of two planes they’d use tonight, and then heading back to Avril’s jet.

Can’t believe it’s coming to an end, Liam thought, sitting cross-legged beneath the shimmering mat of stars high above. His first real vacation with Tess. His first real vacation with Avril. With Anna. And now, developing into something truly wonderful on this very trip, Victoria.

With the four of them, spending that final hour, minute, and second on the beach, Liam experienced the kind of contentedness that seemed surreal, impossible. His senses felt altered, like he was experiencing something that his mind couldn’t fully wrap itself around. It knew everything that had happened this week was true, yet it struggled to accept it. There ought to be a tolling bell growing louder in the distance, something to break the trance, awaken him from this long, thrilling dream.

There wasn’t. Nothing melted his wings and sent him hurtling back to earth. No horrible event shattered his dream like glass. He spent one final hour with the women he loved, sharing it with them all, and then they boarded the boat that came for them, returned to the resort, and prepared to say goodbye to Fiji.