Breathe You - C.R. Jane Page 0,48

fast my heart started racing at the thought of a shark being nearby, since the scare was worth it just to hear her laugh.

Adonis calls out that lunch is ready, and we all swim back over to the boat.

Quaid and I both glare when Adonis helps Valentina get on the boat, making sure to touch as much of her naked waist as possible.

You can’t kill him, I remind myself again.

There’s a spread of various kinds of cold meats, breads, crackers, and cheese waiting for us on a large tray, and we dig in.

Valentina asks Adonis what it was like growing up here, and he regales us with stories that pretty much sound like what growing up in paradise would be like, if I’d ever stopped to imagine it.

“We should get a vacation house here,” Quaid interjects, looking around at all of us. “We could all pitch in, and it would be a place that we could just get away from it all. I bet we could find one while we’re here this week and get it all set up.”

Logan nods, interested, but Valentina’s gone even paler than she was at the threat of the shark. She looks like Quaid’s offered to off someone rather than buy a vacation home.

Quaid looks at Valentina eagerly. “What do you say?”

Valentina takes a long sip of her lemonade, obviously stalling. “Maybe we should wait on home purchases until we figure everything out,” she finally replies.

A somber dark silence ensues.

I say dark, because none of us take what she just said very well. Because it sounds like she’s thinking this thing between us is still temporary.

“Excuse me?” Quaid rebukes, and there’s a threat in his voice that’s a far cry from the class clown persona Quaid always seems to have going on.

Even Logan looks pissed, and he’d probably jump into shark-infested waters if she asked him to.

The anger inside of me, that’s always waiting there just under the surface, grows.

Valentina looks startled, like she doesn’t quite know what’s going on or why Quaid would be talking to her like that.

Adonis, who’s been listening avidly, finally figures out this isn’t the kind of “fun” conversation he should stick around for. Astutely, he takes his lunch and heads to the cabin area of the boat to give us some semblance of privacy.

But I’m not fooled by his cavalier attitude. I’m sure he’s still going to try and listen avidly to the fight we’re about to have. Which I don’t really blame him for. At times on this journey, it’s felt like I’ve stepped into the scene of one of those daytime soap operas my grandma always used to watch.

“What exactly do you have to figure out?”

“I just mean how everything is going to work. You live in Dallas, where you’re a famous football player. A celebrity who women can’t help but throw themselves at your feet,” she adds the last part somewhat bitterly. “Or have you forgotten that?”

If we weren’t stuck on a boat, I know Quaid would have stormed off with that comment. Although Quaid’s always been the life of the party, he’s also kind of a hothead.

And yes, I know, that’s the pot calling the kettle black.

“And you,” she continues, turning to look at Logan. “You have a partnership at one of the most prestigious investment banks in the world…across the country from Dallas.”

Logan’s shoulders tense, and I feel bad for the guy. Because Valentina obviously doesn’t see that he would give up everything for the chance to be with her again.

I know that because I would do the same.

Anything.

The realization of that hits me hard and fast. The force of the feeling is so strong that just the thought of it nearly knocks me backwards, back into the water. For the first time, there’s no anger when she next turns to me, lashing out because of her insecurities about how we’re all going to work.

We’ll work out because there’s no other option. There’s no place I wouldn’t go, nothing I wouldn’t do…for her.

“And, Carter, you travel all over the world. You told us all that you’re never home, that you’ve traveled almost everywhere. How would a relationship ever work like that?”

Her bottom lip quivers as she finishes her rant, waiting desperately for us to tell her that she’s wrong.

But I’m still trying to come to terms with the life-altering realization I just came to, so it takes me a second to tell her she’s fucking crazy to think that I’ll ever leave her again.

Logan