the late afternoon sunlight falling through the front windows. The days were getting shorter as we moved into autumn, but we still had sunshine in the evening for now.
“How many staff do you think will be here tonight?” Gemma asked as Daphne and I took our favorite spots off to one side in the front.
“Almost everyone showed up last week. Will Diego be here?” I asked.
Gemma shrugged. “I think so.”
Daphne laughed at my side. She was bent at the waist, her hands resting on the floor as she stretched her back, so her voice was muffled as she spoke. “Of course, he’ll be here. Then he’ll go home with Gemma. We’re gonna have to find another person to take his room.”
“Do you think Harley will stay?” I asked as Daphne straightened. I was referring to Diego’s little sister, Harley, who’d come to stay in the staff house a few months ago and had extended her stay several times since.
Daphne shrugged. “You know as much as me. Of course, she’s welcome to stay as long as she’d like. She’s been helping out with the website and everything.”
“I know. She’s made it look great. What do you know?” I asked, looking at Gemma.
Diego, one of the pilots here, had recently fallen for Gemma. “I’m not sure either. I don’t think Harley really has any plans, and her work is all online, so it works out for her to stay here.”
“Is she falling for someone here?” Daphne asked, looking around the room.
Gemma snorted a laugh. “I don’t know.”
As if conjured by our conversation, Diego came strolling through the door with Harley right behind him. He crossed straight to Gemma, stopping in front of her and running his hands lightly from her shoulders down to her elbows as he leaned down and pressed a kiss on her temple.
It felt as if we were interrupting a suddenly intimate moment. Harley called over, “Cut the PDA, y’all.”
Diego stepped back and cast a lingering smile at Gemma. The warmth and possessiveness in his eyes sent a ping through my chest. Lately, it seemed I was watching all of my friends fall in love and wishing I could have something like it.
Diego crossed the room to fetch his yoga mat and put his shoes in a cubby while Harley walked briskly over to unroll her mat beside Daphne. She smiled over at us. “Don’t get me wrong, I love that my brother’s in love. But really. Some of us—” She cut her words off abruptly when Diego stopped beside her.
“Some of us, what?” he prompted as he unrolled his yoga mat.
“Nothing,” Harley replied airily.
I felt a prickle on the back of my neck that raced down my spine, and I knew Gabriel had arrived. Great, just great. I’d come to yoga class to relax, and now I would be a ball of tension because he was here.
Too late, I realized there was room for someone on my other side. In a matter of seconds, he was there.
“Hey, Nora.” His voice was low, and even though others were around, it felt as if we were alone. His tone was warm and intimate, sending butterflies into flight in my belly and tingles chasing through my body. I’d had that unsettling and confusing reaction to him ever since we’d given in to the chemistry that sparked between us.
I was so easily turned on by him, my nerves firing and sending signals of passion and need through me. It wasn’t solely that, though. My heart felt a visceral tug toward him.
Chapter Fifteen
Gabriel
“Hell, yeah!” Diego said, raising a fist in the air as he laid down a winning hand on the coffee table with his free hand.
Flynn, who often won, simply grinned and pushed the small pile of coins across the table to Diego.
Seconds later, he was collecting cards and shuffling them for another round. I leaned back into the couch cushions, rolling my achy shoulder. “Can you grab me a beer?” I called when Grant stood and walked into the kitchen.
We were at the staff house, a house we’d built two summers prior. Once the resort had gotten busy, it was clear the staff needed somewhere else to stay other than occupying needed guest rooms. These days, I lived here with Grant, Tucker, and Harley, Diego’s younger sister. Lately, Diego was mostly over at Gemma’s.
It was almost amusing—almost—that I’d been teasing my friends about falling in love, thinking all along that I would never fall. Now, I had to convince Nora to