Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 65643 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 328(@200wpm)___ 263(@250wpm)___ 219(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 65643 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 328(@200wpm)___ 263(@250wpm)___ 219(@300wpm)
That night, we were eating on the beach. A long table had been set out underneath a long trellis of lights and flowers. The air smelled like salt and jasmine blossoms. Tall candelabras flickered down the length of the table, shiny white droplets of wax dripping down the satin cones to pool on the silver ledges.
I stood back like I was admiring the scene, scanning the guests for a familiar pair of blue-green eyes, a long fall of dark hair. The table was filling. I saw Noemi’s brother and his wife saving a chair and glancing around. I didn’t gamble often, but I’d have bet my next book advance that they were saving it for Destiny. Noemi had told me she was going to ask them to look after her.
“I can look after her,” I’d said, and Noemi had laughed.
I stared at that empty seat with Jamie’s sweater over the back. There was an empty seat next to it, or there was a seat at the opposite end of the table. The smart thing to do would be to take the opposite side. With the candelabras, I wouldn’t even be able to see Destiny. Then Noemi’s agent took that seat, and with grim satisfaction, I headed toward Chris and Jamie.
“Hey, big brother,” Chris said happily, waving to the second free chair. “Sit with us.”
Chris had been nine when Noemi and I got married impulsively, and he’d just turned thirteen when we got divorced with about the same amount of forethought. He’d been crushed. “But now I don’t have a brother,” he’d explained.
I’d ruffled his hair and said, “I’ll always be your big brother.”
I’d played the part happily. After all, if Noemi and I were keeping each other around, why not keep the whole family?
I caught up with Chris and Jamie while keeping one eye out for Destiny. I sensed her before I saw her. A prickling along the back of my neck that brought my head up, my eyes scanning the darkness beyond the table, senses alert. There she was, standing at the very edge. Her face awash in the golden light, her hair curling into the night.
She met my eyes, and I couldn’t read the expression on her face. I stood up and pulled it out for her, raising my eyebrows like come on.
There was a clamorous greeting from Chris and Jamie, and then from the other people at our end of the table that Destiny knew. She smiled and responded to all of them, but somehow, her eyes stayed on mine. As she sank into the chair, Noemi and her fiancé appeared and all the attention turned toward the happy couple.
“Are you sure you should be sitting so close to me?” Destiny asked quietly, a taunting note in her voice.
“No,” I said honestly. “But here I am.”
That surprised her. The ironic twist slipped off her lips, and her breath caught. “Then why are you?”
I could have lied and told her it was because there was nowhere else to sit, but I didn’t want to. “Because I’m a glutton for punishment.” Unwillingly, my gaze slipped down to her body. Ripe and perfect and so close I could smell her perfume instead of the jasmine.
Dinner was exquisite. Spiny lobsters straight from the sea. Wine imported from France just for this night. I got to see one of the people I loved most be the happiest I’d ever seen her. It should have been the perfect night. Instead, it was torture. All I thought about was Destiny, but even though the thoughts all came from one brain, they were on decidedly different teams.
What the fuck were you thinking, turning her away?
What the fuck are you thinking now? She’s too young for you.
Destiny barely seemed to notice that I was sitting next to her. I realized I’d never seen her on before. She was laughing with Chris and Jamie, but she was also charming the people across the table and the couple next to them. She barely even looked at me, but somehow, her elbow kept brushing mine and when she tossed back her hair, the ends tickled my arm.
I talked to the people across from me and on my other side, all the while staying so tuned into her that sometimes I missed what they said.
It was fucking exhausting.
I was relieved when Noemi stood up from her chair at the end of the table and smiled at us. I knew she was about to say something about calling it a night. It was already eleven, and Noemi didn’t do nights. She was an early bird, up at the crack of dawn. Sure enough, she thanked us for coming and then held out her hand to her fiancé. The two of them disappeared from our golden circle and followed the path back to the villas.