Page 28 of Unveiled Wishes

“I don’t know how you put up with him,” Flo said to Wreck. Yelling at Pretty, she said, “No potato salad for you.”

“Hang on,” Cyph called, changing the brackets. “The two of you will play Emily and Zook.”

“You ready, partner?” I’d been calling her partner ever since I’d signed us up. I wanted her as a partner for life, and I hoped that the word was sticking.

“Yup, let’s do this.” She adjusted the hat she’d stolen from How in our first game.

We were pretty evenly matched, but Wreck and I were trying to not use full strength towards the women. This was supposed to be a friendly competition, and even though Prez and Pretty were still beating each other down the beach, no one else wanted to get hurt.

Wreck hit a ball down the middle of the court, and I moved to return it to him. I miscalculated where I was in the sand because as I went to hit the ball, a smaller set of arms did the same thing. We returned the ball together, but we were on top of each other,and our feet tangled as we pulled away. Falling into the sand, I made sure that most of my weight wouldn’t end up on Emily. As we hit the sand, I looked down into her upturned face and claimed the kiss that I should have gotten under the mistletoe, not even hearing the catcalls.

Chapter 11

Reliving the Past

Grizz

I helped the club pack for the beach.

“Are you going to be alright staying here?” Sabre asked me, before heading to his bike.

“I am a big boy. I can stay home by myself.” It was bitchy, but I was getting tired. Everyone looked at me as if I was cracking, and maybe I was, but I didn’t want to hear about it all the time. I didn’t want to see the pity on their faces. Meredith and I would get through this. I wouldn’t believe anything else.

Sabre threw his hands up and walked out the front door, and I headed upstairs to my bride. A smirk settled on my lips. She had been up when I had headed downstairs for breakfast. Choosing not to eat with everyone else, she’d made a plate and headed back to bed. I had an idea, and I hoped it worked.

Opening the door to my room, I quickly scanned her. She was sitting up in bed, watching TV. The breakfast plate was next to her, completely empty. It gave me hope that today was going to be a good day. I shut the bedroom door out of habit andlaunched myself onto the bed. She rewarded me with a small giggle.

“Hey, the club went to the beach, and I didn’t think you would want to go,” I started with. She said nothing as she slid further down into the bed, laying on the pillow so that we were eye-to-eye. “I have an idea. If you don’t like it, we’ll try something else.” I stared at her, memorizing her features as they were in this moment, in case things went south. “Get your shoes on.”

“Okay.” She rolled to the other side of the bed and sat on the edge. It took her a minute to stand, and I didn’t want to ask if she was in pain. I was afraid that the atmosphere would change. Meredith tied the laces and then stood up to face me. “Ready?” she asked.

“Yeah, let’s do this.”

I didn’t know if it was because the clubhouse was empty, but Meredith seemed to be relaxed. I led her through the kitchen, not paying attention to the mistletoe hanging above the door. We went out the back door and walked across the yard to the garage. I wanted to hold her hand or wrap my arm around her, but I kept telling myself to relax.

I slid the door open to the garage and led her towards the back. “Welcome to my office,” I told her, waiting to see her reaction.

Meredith moved around me and went straight for the wall where the broken furniture was. “Where did this stuff come from?”

“Garage sales. The church in town has a rummage sale. Some are just broken pieces from the trash.”

“What are you doing with all of it?” she asked, paying particular attention to a rolltop desk.

“I fix them, and when they’re done, Cyph sells them for me online. We split the money.” I watched her closely as she ran her hand across the top of the desk. It wasn’t in awful shape, but it needed some TLC.

She turned around to face me, waiting.

“I figured we could work on a piece. You pick?” I often tinkered in here until the early hours of the morning. It relaxed me, and I hoped it would do the same for Meredith. I had said nothing for fear she’d stop, but I had noticed that she’d been drawing more lately. It wasn’t just the banquet hall that was on her mind. I’d seen renderings for restaurants, bookstores, and even a new clubhouse.

She nodded. “The desk.”

“Sounds good.” I stripped off my club cut and hung it from the hook on the wall. As I went to pull back, my elbow brushed Meredith’s shoulder. She’d taken off my sweatshirt that she used for emotional support and hung it on the hook next to my cut. They looked good together, and I took a mental picture to remember this moment.

“Do you have gloves?” she asked.

“Yeah, why?” I was still thinking about the clothes next to each other.

“I am not sanding that desk without gloves.” She held up her palms towards me. “Do these hands look like they do manual labor? There are too many delicate curves to pull the pieces apart and run a sander over them.”

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