Page 70 of Now or Never

“You can leave that, Chelsea,” he said, watching her struggle to lift the giant rectangular box. “We’ll bring it up.”

Chelsea clung to the box. “No, I’ll bring this box,” she said.

Adam narrowed his eyes at her. “I’m going to bring it to the kitchen so it can go in the cooler.”

Chelsea looked down at the box, then up at the cottage. “Where’s the kitchen?”

Adam laughed. “You’ll get lost trying to find it. Just leave it with me.”

She seemed to debate this, looked up into the air, then shrugged. “Fine. That’s fine.” She put the box back down but bent over it for a moment, fiddling with the bouquets.

The housekeeper came down to meet them on the dock. “Mr. Hartley, welcome back.”

Adam gave a polite smile. “Thank you, Ms. . . .”

“You can call me Shirley.”

“Thank you, Shirley. Is everything set?”

“Yes, the spa just finished setting up. Anyone interested can follow me.”

“Spa?” Chelsea said, whipping around.

Adam nodded. “Uncle David set it up. It’s his wedding present.”

Natalie walked to him, pulled him into a tight hug. When she pulled back, her eyes were misty. “Thank you so much. For everything, Adam. This is amazing.”

Adam nodded as relief washed over him. “You’re welcome.”

Chelsea and Natalie skipped off with Shirley; along with Ethan’s mom, Gayle; Amy; Jaclyn; and Jess. The moment they were out of earshot, Max started in on him. He’d been expecting an inquisition from Max, but even still, it was impressive how little time he wasted.

“You slept with her.”

Adam clamped his mouth shut. He looked over at Ethan, who watched on with the patience of a saint, and Mark, Ethan’s dad, whose eyebrows disappeared into his hairline.

“No,” he said, turning away to pick up the box of flowers. When he turned back around, Max was staring at him, hands on his hips.

“I knew this would happen.”

“Nothing happened,” he said. He glanced at Ethan, took in his expression, and winced. No one was buying the lie.

“It’s not a big deal, and it’s none of your business,” he said. “And you definitely didn’tknowit would happen.Ididn’t even know it would happen.”

“So it happened, then? You slept with Chelsea?”

Adam huffed out a breath but stayed silent. Whatever came out would just be a lie.

“Leave it,” Ethan said to Max. “It’s none of our business.”

Max shook his head. “He’s in love with her.”

Adam stopped moving, kept his eyes trained on the soft peach petals in the box.

“Are you?” Ethan asked.

Was he? He’d known the answer to that question for a while now. Just never wanted to admit it to himself.

“I knew this would happen,” Max repeated.

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