Page 57 of Should've Been Us
“Oh, I…” She shook her head, trying to correct herself but Anna came to herdefense.
“Leave the poor girl alone would you? You’re embarrassingher.”
“What’s to be embarrassed about?” Sierra only snorted, “Getting it good and regular from the kind of man that knows the true meaning of the word pleasure? No shame in that,honey.”
“Oh my God.” Amber all but hissed, “Can wenottalk about Lulu’s sexlife?”
“Just because you’re not getting any doesn’t mean the rest of us can’t have fun.” Sierra rolled her eyes before turning back to Lulu, “You’ve been in la-la land again. Thinking about your man and the dirty, delicious things he’s no doubt promised to do to you when you get back to thebungalow?”
“I… no.” Lulu felt the heat rise all the way to the tops of herears.
“Liar.” Aubrey teased good-naturedly, “But that’s okay. I totally get it. We’re almost done here and then we can all go back to what we’d rather bedoing.”
“Our men.” Sierra announced and everyonelaughed.
Lulu dropped her head, ignoring the other women as they chatted easily around her. As it turned out, Aubrey had been telling the truth. They’d only done up 100 gift bags for guests and it wasn’t long before they were cleaning up their trash and boxing up the bags for the next day. Lulu fidgeted until a small hand landed on her shoulder and she turned to see Nikki smiling ather.
“Go on. We can handle therest.”
“Are you sure?” Lulu could hear the relief in her voice even before the younger girlnodded.
“Go.”
“Thank you. I owe youone.”
Lulu headed back to her cabana after saying quick goodbyes. She walked fast, her heart racing with the thought of seeing Connor. Had it really only been a couple of hours ago that he’d kissed her goodbye as she went off with the girls to do gift bags? It felt like an eternity, which wasridiculous.
What was she going to do when they got back to the real world and they had to spend the entire day apart at work? What about when work kept him late and she didn’t see him at all? How many sleepless nights were in her future as she lay awake, alone, worrying about him out there doing something dangerous in the line ofduty?
She burst into the bungalow, “Connor?”
When no reply came, her heart sank. She headed for the door between their two rooms, the one that hadn’t been closed in days, but just as she’d expected his room was empty. She pouted a little that he wasn’t here waiting for her to return but she knew that was as ridiculous as all the rest of her thoughts werelately.
He’d been with the other guys cleaning up. She was certain Derek had him doing some sort of best man duty or another as they prepared for tomorrow. At the very least, she couldn’t complain if they’d gone to one of the bars for drinks to celebrate Derek’s last night ofbachelorhood.
But without his big, strong, confident presence, the bungalow felt strangely empty and she felt whollyalone.
Lulu glanced at the clock. It was still early despite the long day she’d put in helping Aubrey and the others with wedding prep. She chewed her bottom lip, contemplating whether she should just take a shower and call it a night or give into the urge she had to talk to someone. It only took her another half second todecide.
She’d have loved to talk to Krysten. She wished for the hundredth time the girl was here with them on this trip. Despite being a few years younger than her, she and Krys had formed a strong bond over the years. It had been nice having someone that understood what it was like to love a Harper man that only saw her as a buddy. Krys had been getting the same treatment from Dean since they were children. But despite the fact Krys was her closest female friend, she wasn’t the one Lulu wanted to talk to rightnow.
Krys would be nice. She would be supportive. But it didn’t feel fair to call and tell the girl all about how she’d finally realized she was over Derek. Krys had enough of her own problems when it came to her Harper best friend. She didn’t need Lulu reminding her that years of friendship didn’t mean they were soulmates rightnow.
Instead of calling Krys, Lulu grabbed her iPad out of her bag for the first time since arriving in Mexico. She’d brought it thinking she’d be spending a lot of time alone and could read or play games but she hadn’t touched it once untilnow.
Carefully, she set it up on the equally unused desk in the corner of her room and then hit the button for FaceTime. She could have just called. She knew that. But she needed to see a familiar face right now and so she hit the autodial button for her first contact and waited as it rang through on the other end all the way back in Fate,Texas.
It only took two rings before the screen switched from black to a shaky, unfocused but familiar room and she heard the equally familiar voice saying, “Lu? Hold on a sec. Lu? Ok. Youthere?”
“Hey big brother.” She smiled as Lance’s face came into focus and she felt a rush of calming energy settle the worst of her nerves just as it always did when she talked to herbrother.
Lance was the most levelheaded person she knew. He was rational and logical. He was laid-back in a way that she had never mastered with all of her nervous energy and she wondered sometimes if he’d gotten all of the serene genes and she’d been left with nothing but nerves as the youngersibling.
“Hey!” His bright grin lit up the screen when he saw her, “We weren’t expecting you to call tonight. Sorry it took a sec for me to figure out what was ringing and find this damnthing.”
“We?” Her own smile grew, “Is Trent theretoo?”
“Hey baby girl.” Another familiar Texas drawl came through her speaker a moment before a gorgeous, blond haired man poked his head in behind her brother, wrapping his arms around Lance and flashing a megawatt smile, “It’s good to hear from you. Your brother has been freaking out since we’ve gotten nothing but texts since you left. How’sMexico?”
