Page 21 of Irresistible Second Chance

I laughed. What a jerk. But my busted foot did make me waddle. I was hoping he hadn’t notice. But who was I fooling? Chris noticed everything about me. He always had. He noticed when I was upset. He noticed when I wasn’t feeling my best. He noticed when my mom’s absence finally broke my heart…and I remember how he vowed to never do the same. And how had I rewarded him? By turning around and breaking his. I didn’t deserve Chris. I had no idea why he still cared for me. I’d been a crappy friend. I’d been a terrible girlfriend. Maybe he was a glutton for punishment or maybe he saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself.

Life was full of maybes, but I liked certainties.

He came back then, chatting with a voice I recognized. It was Lucia. She was wearing a tiny bandeau top and a long skirt that floated around her ankles. She looked like a goddess…which of course made me feel like Medusa.

“Hi,” she said coming over to greet me with a kiss on each cheek. She seemed to be in a great mood.

“I’m going to join you guys today,” she said putting her hands on her hips. “It looks like you got into a little spill. What happened?”

“Crazed monkey,” I said.

She looked surprised, “Really? Normally those guys are harmless. You must have spooked one somehow.”

“It actually spooked her and then she went careening off a rock into the water.”

I shot Chris a look. “Thanks for that, Chris.” I didn’t mind looking stupid but not in front of someone I was trying to do a business deal with.

“What?”

Lucia sat on the edge of the couch looking amused, “You two are so cute. So, I thought it would be a good idea to hang out together for the day. What do you think?”

“I think that sounds wonderful,” I tried to find the words that said, “but I don’t want to”, in the nicest way. “But my leg is going to make that a little hard.”

“Nonsense,” she said, “We’ll make it work.”

She smiled at me, and I wanted to groan but instead smiled back tightly and said, “Sure, Lucia. I think we can make that work.”

“Well, put on something more…um…appropriate and I’ll meet you at the car. This is going to be fun!” she squeezed my shoulder on the way out, her skirt swaying gently as she walked gracefully out.

When she was out of earshot I groaned and snuck a look at Chris. “This is all your fault, isn’t it?”

He shook his head.

“I thought it was just going to be the two of us.”

“Hurry, darlings!” Lucia called from the living room. “We have quite the day ahead of us.”

He looked at me and extended his arm, “Let’s go, darling. We don’t want to keep Lucia waiting.”

I couldn’t help but laugh.

An hour later, I didn’t see any humor in the situation at all. Lucia’s good time had meant lunch on her father’s yacht. Fausto wasn’t there, which I was happy about since apparently, I wasn’t a boat person. I was laying down in one of the bedrooms below deck hoping the Dramamine I just took would kick in soon so that I wouldn’t feel like every rock of the boat was going to make me sick.

Lucia had assured me that I would get my sea legs soon, and it took so much to remind her that I didn’t even technically have land legs since I was incapacitated.

Speaking of the devil, she made her way downstairs to come see me and said, “Feeling any better?”

“I’m afraid not,” I said evenly.

“You will soon,” she said and then leaned closer to me. “So, Sydney, I noticed that you and Chris seem to be close.”

I gave her a small smile that I didn’t feel. “We grew up together, but lost touch over the years, so I’m not sure how close one would consider us.”

“Oh,” she sounded surprised, “Body language says otherwise. I assumed you all were together.”

I laughed harder than I intended. “God no. We’ve crossed that bridge before, and I don’t plan on going back.”

She titled a brow, “Oh so you and Chris were involved?”

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