Page 63 of Last Night Was Fun

Emmy’s own heart took a tumble when she found her phone inside and saw she had a text message from Axe Murderer. Not having thought to change his name in her phone, she threw a glance at her sister to make sure she hadn’t seen.

But Piper was too distracted to notice.

Emmy’s heart took another tumble when she opened the message.

You can add this text to my tab, but just checking in to say I got an earlier flight. See you tonight.

Chapter12

Emmy could hardly relax through her massage. She could hardly greet her parents when they arrived. She could hardly hold a conversation with Ben’s parents when they all gathered in the villa’s backyard for the pre-prewedding casual dinner. All she could think of was Gabe Olson on a plane coming closer by the minute.

He was scheduled to touch down at 8p.m. local time, which would be 6p.m. body clock time thanks to the time difference, which would mean they would beawakewhen he got there and have to figure out what the hell to do for several hours before they could then figure out how the hell to share a hotel room with one bed.

There wasn’t enough cool Caribbean breeze, beautiful scenery, or piña coladas to calm Emmy down now. She’d thought she’d have another day to prepare before he descended on her. But no. In true Gabe Olson fashion, he’d pulled one over on her and left her spinning.

Admittedly, the spinning was half lusting and concentrated in her lower abdominal region, which washighlyconfusing andnothelped by the piña coladas she kept downing in an effort to stop all the spinning but that only made her spin more. She had half a mind to text BethABORT MISSIONand have her come get her.

But.

Amid all the spinning and mingling with family and a few friends who’d arrived early, the worried creases on Piper’s face had started to lift. Emmy even caught her full-on smiling a few times, laughing with her future in-laws, and she wasn’t about to do anything to ruin it.

So Emmy kept her spinning to herself as she too mingled and laughed. A veritable tornado ripped around inside her, but on the outside, she performed her MOH duties with grace.

That was, until her phone pinged with anI’m heremessage from Axe Murderer.

Emmy had lost track of time in the festivities. Night had completely fallen. The moon shone on the inky sea like a spotlight. Someone had lit the torches lining the yard and sent the air dancing with flickering flames.

She checked the time on her phone to see it was after nine, which meant Gabe’sI’m heretext indicated he was already at the hotel and not still at the airport, having just landed in Mexico.

Her heart leapt into her throat. Her hands began to sweat. Her time for preparation shrank down to minutes if she was lucky. She was half drunk and all the way panicking. Through her dizzy haze, she tried to figure out what to text him back. Should she invite him to the villa? Meet him at the room? Go for a nightcap at one of the bars?

But it turned out she didn’t have to do any of that, because Piper materialized at her side and pinched her elbow.

“Em,” she said, and nodded toward the back of the house.

Emmy looked up to see Gabe standing there at the door, loose shirt partway unbuttoned, shorts, boat shoes. The flickering flames cut his face into dramatic shadows, arching his cheekbones even higher and leaving his dark eyes glittering.

Oh.He meanthere, here.

“Easy, girl,” Piper said when Emmy sagged against her. She hadn’t even realized her knees had given out. Her body was responding to him in the same way it had when she’d seen him in the office kitchen the morning after the big reveal, which, somehow, was only yesterday. It knew before her brain did, and on a deeper level, that she wanted to see him. Badly. Piper pushed her back up to standing with a laugh.

“Sorry,” Emmy said as a heat wave engulfed her. “I’ve had a few drinks.”

“Mm-hmm,” Piper said, like she didn’t buy that as the reason Emmy had suddenly turned to jelly. “Go make him feel welcome.” She gave her a little shove.

Emmy almost tripped on the edge of the lawn where they’d been standing. The space between her and Gabe expanded into infinity and somehow disappeared all at once. Without the context of their normal life around them—the office, the ballpark, their home city—a million cues to signify how things weresupposed to be—the world shrank to only them in a completely free new territory. He watched her the whole way while she walked toward him, as if his eyes were reeling her in on an invisible string. The rest of the party faded away: sounds of laughter, the soft music pumping from the house’s exterior speakers, the gentle splashing of someone kicking their feet in the pool. All she could hear were the waves and the sound of her own thundering heart.

And then, his voice.

“Hi.”

“Hi.”

“You look nice.” His eyes took a polite tour of the flowing floral dress she’d put on for dinner. It hugged her chest and draped openly around her legs. She wore a pair of wedge sandals with it.

“You look... here,” she said, still stunned and a bit overwhelmed by his presence. He’d obviously freshened up after his flight, and the smell of him reached out to grab her with a heady hand.

Gabe laughed, and the warm sound sent her chest fluttering. “Yes, here I am. I hope it’s okay I came earlier than planned. I got an alert for an open seat and took it.”