Page 79 of One More Shot
Somehow, I manage to restrain myself. But only just. Instead, I let Cash and Finn take the lead while I hang back with James and Leo. Cash reaches them first and pulls Bailey into the kind of embrace you give someone if you haven’t seen them in years, not four days.
I get it though. Because I’m itching to do exactly the same thing to Eliott right now. I want to pull her into the kind of hug that’ll sweep her off her feet and let her know just how much she means to me. Instead, I have to settle for giving her a friendly wave. Like there’s absolutely nothingbetween us and we didn’t spend an evening mutually masturbating on FaceTime together two nights ago.
‘This is Eliott,’ Bailey says once Cash has her back down on solid ground again. ‘Not sure if you guys all remember her from the engagement party?’
Finn, Leo and James all say their greetings to Eliott before Bailey turns to me. She’s got a sly look on her face that I don’t trust for one second.
‘And Dane? You remember Eliott, right?’
Cash coughs into his elbow in a terrible attempt at disguising a snort of laughter. I ignore it in favour of shooting Eliott an easy grin. ‘How could I forget such a gorgeous face?’
Everyone rolls their eyes. They’re all used to my flirting and probably don’t see it as anything more than a quick one-liner being thrown at a pretty girl.
But Eliott knows that it’s more than that and she gives me that smile again. The soft one that’s just for me.
‘Hey, Dane. It’s good to see you again.’
I can hear the unspoken ‘I missed you’ underlying her words and I give her a nod, hoping she can hear my unspoken message, too.
Me too.
We have the entire first-class carriage on the train to ourselves. James and Leo each snag a row to themselves andboth conk out before the train even pulls out of the station, while the two happy couples sidle into a four-person booth together.
On any other occasion, this might irritate me, being left out like this, but not today. Instead of claiming the empty row next to their booth as my own, I follow Eliott down towards the other end of the carriage and drop down into the empty seat next to her.
‘You don’t want to sit with your friends?’ Eliott asks as I shove my bag under the seat in front of us.
I drape an arm over her shoulders and pull her into me as close as she can get. ‘I promise you, baby, I’m exactly where I want to be right now.’
She sighs as she nuzzles into my side. ‘Me too.’
From up the carriage, Cash catches my eye. I expect him to say something, to alert the others as to what’s going on over in my corner of the carriage, but he doesn’t. He just smiles and gives me a small nod before he turns his attention back to his future wife.
I half expect Eliott to pull away once the train starts moving, but she doesn’t. She stays curled up by my side like that’s where she’s meant to be; where she belongs. At some point in the journey we both fall asleep and, if I’m honest, it’s the best sleep I’ve had in weeks.
‘Just look at thisview!’ Bailey squeals as she throws open the doors to the balcony. ‘It’s even better than in all the photos.’
Cash and Bailey definitely undersold this place. They’ve been describing it as a villa for the last few months, but it’s more like a castle embedded in the mountains than anything else. The host has been giving us a guided tour for the last thirty minutes, and I don’t think we’ve seen even half of the property.
Even Finn, who bought Amber a multimillion-dollar lake house in New York like it was nothing, looks impressed.
‘We’ll be conducting the ceremony down there,’ the host says, following Bailey out onto the balcony to point towards the fairy tale-esque terrace below us. ‘My staff are still setting up below but we should be finished within an hour or so for you to check through.’
I peek below and get a glimpse of a small army of staff setting white chairs up and draping the trees and bushes with lanterns. An unexpected wave of emotion hits me and I can’t help but grin as I turn my attention back to the rest of the group. Tomorrow, I get to stand up there with my little sister and my best friend and watch them get married.
I’m happy.Genuinelyhappy.
A cloud of dark brown curls suddenly appears in the corner of my vision. My grin widens and that feeling of happiness expands in my chest, morphing into somethingelse entirely. It’s an emotion I don’t think I’ve ever felt before, and I can’t quite put my finger on it.
Eliott’s down there, amongst the staff setting up, getting some test shots in preparation for the big day tomorrow. Even from here I can see the smile on her face and I just know there’s a glimmer of excitement sparking behind her beautiful brown eyes as she works.
I can’t wait to see if I can coax out that same level of excitement and joy from her later tonight.
Everyone who is part of the wedding party is staying here over the weekend, but Eliott’s got a room at a boutique hotel in the town below us. If I’m being honest, I’d much rather her join me in my suite so we can take advantage of the comfortable king-sized bed in my room, but I doubt she’ll go for that idea.
She looks up suddenly and meets my eye. Her expression softens slightly and that emotion from earlier, the one I can feel in the very core of my chest, swells within me some more.
I could stand here and watch Eliott work all evening, but our host pulls us away to continue the rest of the tour and I reluctantly follow.
