Page 27 of Beauty
I suppose he’s right. So I give them a very brief overview of the night, quickly touching on how Sienna and I danced and talked.
“But she was by herself this morning,” Bert states.
“Yeah, when we left, she was having breakfast on her deck.Alone,” Ernie emphasizes.
I duck my head and chuckle. “I walked her back to her place and haven’t seen her since.”
Without stopping, Ernie looks at me head-on, his face twisted in confusion. “Why?”
“Because—” I shake my head. “Wait, why are you pushing this?”
In unison, they let out obnoxious sighs.
“You really like her,” Ernie says.
I shrug. “Yeah, why’s that bad?”
“Because we thought this was a vacation fling.” Bert runs a hand over his shiny bald head. “If we’d realized you liked her like this, we’d have turned you down when you asked to switch rooms. Now we feel bad.”
I frown. “What difference does it make?”
“Because now you’re less likely to casually ‘run into’ her,” Bert explains like I’m an idiot.
“I appreciate the concern, but I’ll be okay.”
“No you won’t,” Ernie grumbles. He stops, so Bert and I do the same.
Ahead on the beach, a dozen or so women sit on towels, lined up in rows. Between them and the ocean, a man with his own beach towel laid out beside him stands, gesturing like he’s speaking.
“But fortunately for you,” Bert says, “we’re here to help.”
I scratch my head, still surveying the scene. “Huh?”
Just as the word leaves my mouth, it hits me. Because there, in the back row, pushing to her feet on her towel, is Sienna. “So you’re my fairy godfathers?”
Ernie throws his head back and guffaws. “I kind of like that title.”
Bert mouths the words a few times and shrugs. “It works.”
Now that I’ve spotted the woman who’s occupied all my thoughts since we touched down in the Bahamas, it’s as if there’s a tether connecting me to her, tugging, insisting I get closer. “Thanks, guys.”
I hustle onto the beach, though I only make it a few steps before Ernie calls my name.
“You need this.” He tosses a turquoise towel to me.
With a grin, I snag it out of the air. When I turn back around, Sienna is looking our way. And when our eyes meet, her lips lift like I’m the greatest surprise.
“You found me,” she says as I place my towel beside hers.
I nod. “Yup. I found you.”
My body feels surprisingly good after yoga. It’s nothing like the workouts I’ll be doing in a matter of weeks, nor the training I follow even in the offseason, but the stretches loosened up my muscles, and since I’m supposed to be relaxing during this trip, I guess that’s fitting.
“Would you maybe want to run into each other for lunch?” I ask her as we shake out our towels.
Sienna shrugs, but she’s smiling. “Maybe. What did you have in mind?”
I glance around the resort, then point at the beach bar. “There work for you?” I don’t want to waste time traveling, so that place is probably our best bet. “We can go back to our rooms and change, then meet at the restaurant in thirty minutes?”
