Page 18 of Love Off Course

My eyes skim the rundown room. It’s dated but clean. I don’t see any critters. No creeps are trying to get in. “I’m safe. I just…I don’t want to miss the wedding. I want to be there with you. For you and Mona. We had to do a forced landing because of the storm. It looks fine, though. Can you send me a plane?”

“You won’t miss the wedding. We’ll hold off and wait for my favorite girl on the planet. Maybe relax a bit until the storm passes.”

Relax?

I’m already shaking my head. “No. Um, they don’t even have a spa.” At least I don’t think they do. “I just want to leave. Can you send a plane to pick me up and we can just fly around the storm? Please, Daddy?”

I reserve my whining for desperate situations, this being one of them. Daddy always caves to my whining. I’m his little girl after all.

“Oh, Sher Bear, I’m sorry. I really am. But no, I can’t put you in harm’s way. I looked up your location for this number and it’s in the path of the storm. You’re going to need to stay safe until it’s no longer a threat. I’ll send a plane just as soon as I can.”

Silence hangs in the air.

He told me no.

I’m not used to being told no.

“But, Daddy?—”

“You’re a Reid girl,” he reminds me in his conference room tone that makes men sign on dotted lines. “Don’t you forget that.”

I swallow down the emotion and swipe at my tears. “So I’m just stuck here?”

“Like your momma used to always say, ‘When life throws you lemons, throw them back, grab some limes, and make marga?—’”

“I have to go, Daddy. I’ll call you when I can. Love you.”

Click.

It was unfair. I should have let him finish. Let him talk about Momma. God, I am such a bitch. Maybe he deserves to have a little break from me. Truth is, I haven’t left his side since the moment I was forced to leave Momma’s.

“Everything okay, Sherrie-dan?”

Estefania hovers nearby, looking like a beach babe in a pair of shorts and a tank top. Her makeup has been redone and her hair has been styled. She’s so pretty and put together.

“I could go for a drink,” I grit out. “What about you? Want to, uh, look for coffee?” Coffee. Chardonnay. Whatever we find first.

She claps her hands, her orange nails catching my attention and reminding me we’re freaking twins. “This is the best day of my life!”

I stare at her in horror.

How could this be anyone’s best day?

It’s turning out to be one of my worst.

Chapter 6

Camilo

Carson struts out of the bathroom wearing a borrowed pair of my board shorts, grinning my way. “I was thinking?—”

“Oh, here we go,” I groan as I change into a pair of swim trunks. “This is never a good thing.”

“It’s always a good thing,” he argues. “Maybe you ought to ask her out.”

I glower at him. “No.”

“There’s chemistry, man. You’re like some Latin lover boy, right? Woo the gringa.”

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