Third Chances (Men Of Manhattan #2) - Ivy Smoak Page 0,40

bottle and then dropped it on the bed.

"You do realize that I thought you were suffering from withdrawal? You scared the shit out of me. I thought you were actually addicted to Penny. You know, like...unhealthily. I thought I was going to have to have an intervention and make you break up with her before you ruined both your lives."

James lowered his eyebrows. "I'm not addicted to her. Not like that, anyway."

"I know." And I did. He loved Penny unconditionally. It was such a deep connection. They could share one look and know what the other was thinking. I was almost certain that Penny knew that James was stressed out. Just like he knew that she was still upset about our parents not coming to their wedding. They were the perfect couple. There were pictures of them all over the internet tagged with #relationshipgoals. It was puke worthy.

I grabbed a shirt out of my suitcase and pulled it on. I wasn't sure I cared as much about anyone as James cared about Penny. The thought was a little chilling. James and my sister, Jen, were probably the highest on my list. I loved them unconditionally too. But of course, that was different. Penny was at the top too. I loved Penny. But as much as I enjoyed teasing her, I would never actually want to steal her away from James. She was perfect for him. She wasn't perfect for me.

Shit. Am I jealous of their relationship? I shook the thought away. I wasn't jealous of James and Penny. I didn't want to be stressed out over a stupid wedding. The way it was tearing James up made it even more unappealing. If the stuff with my parents was bothering him, it would probably bother me whenever I got married too. Whenever, way way in the future that was.

"I have to go. Promise you'll head back down to the pool?"

"I'll come back down with you."

"Okay, but I'm not going back to the pool."

"Where are you going?"

"I want to surprise Daphne."

James smiled. "You should invite her to the wedding."

"Why would I do that? We just met. That would be ridiculously inappropriate."

"More inappropriate than screwing around with her all weekend and never talking to her again?"

"Absolutely."

"You should think about it."

"Just because you convinced Mason to settle down with Bee doesn't mean you can do it with me. I bet you're just trying to get me to date someone so that I have to stop flirting with Penny."

"I'm not trying to convince you to do anything. By the way, Penny told me that you called her your little sister the other day to cheer her up. That was really nice. It meant a lot to her."

"Yeah, yeah. Did she also tell you that I jerked off to the thought of her in the shower that night?"

James frowned.

"I didn't think so. I'm disgusting, remember? Don't start getting any ideas in your head." I wasn't sure if I said that for him or myself. Because now that the idea of me being jealous of my brother getting married was in my head, I was having a hard time forgetting about it.

Chapter 15

Daphne

This was what living was supposed to be like. I stared up at the canopy of green above us. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. I let myself spin in a circle as I stared up at the parrots darting between the leaves. This was how I felt whenever I stood in front of the ocean. Small. It grounded me somehow. I fidgeted with the bracelet on my wrist, the one that I always wore. The one I hadn't taken off since I got it. It made me feel even smaller in the sight of all the beauty. Like my problems weren't significant. Like everything was how it should be.

These were the moments that made everything worth it. For some reason I wanted to cry. I stopped touching the bracelet and just stared at all the green. I didn't want to think about him. I couldn't think about him. Not now. I had been doing so well. I breathed in the musty smell of the rainforest and relished the humid air against my skin. It almost felt like I was floating amongst the trees.

"You okay, Daphne?" Alina asked.

I was pulled back down to the ground, back to the now. My legs were tired from trekking through the rainforest and I was thirsty. I tried to focus on that. It was safer