Page 33 of Knot Your Sunshine (Snugverse Romcom #2)

Chapter thirty-one

Mia

I sway in the hammock between two palm trees, slurping coconut water.

The guys' voices drift over in a comfortable hum from the lounge chairs nearby. Something about wave dynamics has Josh using his hands to demonstrate calculations while Keanu throws his head back laughing.

Down by the water, a family builds sand figures. The littlest one, maybe four, carefully places a crown of seaweed on their creation.

"Look, Mommy!" He bounces on his toes with pride. "It's you!"

The mom's face goes through a journey. First the instinctive smile, then the slow realization that her child has created a lumpy, seaweed-draped sand blob. Her expression freezes somewhere between forced delight and poorly concealed horror.

I snort coconut water straight up my nose.

"You okay over there?" Noa calls.

"Perfect." I wipe my face, eyes watering from witnessing that moment.

But watching that little boy beam up at his mom as she ruffles his hair, something shifts in my chest and images flash through my mind.

This pack. Children. A house somewhere with a beach...

Heat floods my face, and I drain the rest of my coconut water like it might wash away the thoughts.

Since when do I think about—? It’s only been, what, a week since we met? And I'm already imagining a happily ever after?

"Another coconut water, Ms. Everly?"

I jump hard enough to make the hammock swing. A resort worker has materialized beside me, tray balanced perfectly in one hand. "Or perhaps a cocktail?"

"Yes, cocktail please," I say too quickly.

"Thank you, Kalani," Noa says from his chair. "And remember what we discussed about taking breaks. Don't push yourself too hard.""

The young man's face lights up. "Never, sir. Always a pleasure."

I take a large sip of the frosty pink drink Kalani hands me. Liquid courage. Because there's something I've been thinking about since yesterday, and if I don't say it now...

"I want to stop taking the blockers." The words tumble out in a rush.

Three heads turn toward me in perfect synchronization.

My fingers twist the cocktail stem as my face turns crimson. "The scent blockers, I—I'd like to stop. And I was hoping... maybe you would too?"

The silence stretches. One heartbeat. Two. Three.

Oh why did I say that? It's too soon for them and—

"Of course, sunshine." Keanu's face splits into a grin so bright it could power the entire resort.

"You got it, Princess." Something fierce and pleased burns in Noa's eyes.

Josh looks at me like I've handed him the moon wrapped in starlight. "It would be my deepest honor, my queen."

My shoulders drop and I let out a breath. "Really? You don't mind?"

"Mind? We need champagne." Keanu's already on his feet, sand spraying from under him. "You guys have your phone with you? We need to call our supplier for the best bottle."

Josh pulls out his phone. For a second, his face drains of color. He blinks, swallows, forces his expression back toward normal. But tension radiates from every line of his body.

What the hell was that?

The hammock sways as I sit up straighter. "Josh? What's wrong?"

Silence.

"Josh, what's going on?" Noa asks.

Josh's throat works as he swallows. When he looks up, his eyes find mine first. "I just received intermediary test results for today. It's still early, but the numbers are..." He stops, tries again. "Total revenue is down."

The cocktail turns to ice in my stomach. "What? Down how much?"

"Mia—"

"How much, Josh?"

He winces. "Thirty percent from yesterday. But listen—"

My mind races. "Which franchises? Mine or Chadwick's?"

"I—I don't know. The attribution data still isn't available between individual franchise locations yet, so—"

"Of course it isn't." The hammock rocks violently as I swing my legs over, my feet hitting the sand hard. "So we have no idea if it's my approach or his that's dragging everything down."

"This could easily be a false signal." Josh's voice is careful, measured. "Dips happen in any business launch—"

"That's not a dip, that's a crater." I'm pacing now. "What the hell happened? Maybe something went wrong with the system. Maybe if I call Chadwick and check—"

"Sunshine." Keanu's hand finds my elbow, warm and steady. "Business hours are far from over on most of the mainland. This could be—"

"A third of yesterday's revenue, Keanu." My voice cracks on the numbers. "What if people realized overnight that my whole concept is ridiculous? What if—"

"Mia." Noa steps directly into my path, hands settling on my shoulders. His thumbs stroke slow, soothing circles on my arms. "Breathe."

"I can't when my dream might be—"

"Chadwick switched to twice-daily reporting starting today." His voice drops, not quite a full-on alpha bark but close enough to cut through my spiral. "He told us last night. Josh and I agreed we'd still only check end-of-day numbers because anything else would be statistically meaningless."

I blink, trying to process. "Then why did Josh look at—"

"Because the email notification popped up right as I was about to call for champagne." Josh's voice is strained. "I shouldn't have opened it. Shouldn't have reacted. Noa's right, it's too early on the mainland for this to mean anything."

The fight drains out of me all at once, leaving me hollow and shaking. They're right. Of course they're right. This is barely half a day's data.

"Okay." The word comes out as a long exhale. "Okay."

"It's going to be fine." Keanu tugs me against his side.

"I know." I lean into his warmth, trying to recapture that peaceful feeling from five minutes ago. "I know."

Josh still looks miserable. "I'm sorry. I should have—"

"Don't be." I reach for his hand, squeezing gently. "It's not your fault."

He squeezes back, relief flickering across his face. But me? I have a hard time shaking the cold dread settling in my chest. What if the numbers stay down? What if they get worse?

The beach suddenly feels less like paradise and more like a beautiful distraction from impending doom. But I paste on a smile, take another sip of my cocktail.

"So." My voice sounds artificially bright even to me. "About that champagne?"

They exchange glances, worried, protective, then Josh nods and returns to his phone.

They're right, it's too early to make conclusions. So we'll celebrate stopping the blockers. We'll toast to us… And I'll pretend I don't feel like I'm bracing for a crash.