Third Chances (Men Of Manhattan #2) - Ivy Smoak Page 0,9

air was plenty of travel. But now we had been in this stupid car for hours too. All I wanted to do was curl up in bed.

"Seriously," Alina said. "Where the heck is this place?"

"We're almost there, ladies," the driver said from the front of the town car.

"See, we're almost there." Kristen pointed out the window again. "Another monkey!"

Layla groaned in her sleep.

"We should draw a mustache on her face," Kristen said. "I think I have a pen somewhere." She grabbed her purse.

"No." Alina grabbed Kristen's purse. "Don't be mean. You know how much Layla helped me after what happened at the ITAs. I don't think I could have survived all the backlash without her."

"You mean all the publicity? We were there for you too. And besides, I'm not being mean. I'm just pulling a classic bachelorette party prank."

"That's not a thing and you know it. Back me up, Momma Bear."

I stared out the window. I actually thought it would be kind of funny to draw a mustache on Layla's perfect face. But I knew if I didn't put my foot down, I'd eventually wake up with a mustache drawn on my face at some point during the week. And I wouldn't be able to pull it off nearly as well as Layla could. "Stop your bickering, you two. No mustaches."

Kristen sighed. "Fine. Ah look!"

The rainforest had suddenly parted and a high rise building appeared in its place. We pulled up under the porte-coch猫re. In the lobby, I could see a group of women in heels and tiny bikinis. Who wears heels with a bathing suit? I rolled my eyes. Alina, Kristen, and Layla were all going to fit in fine here. But it was pretty clear I was going to stick out like a sore thumb. Especially in the one-piece bathing suit I brought. It wasn't even one of those monokinis with sexy cutouts. It was just a straight up one-piece that an old lady would wear.

I nudged Layla. "We're here."

She immediately opened her eyes. "Thanks for preventing the mustache drawing," she whispered. "I owe you one."

"Wait, you were awake?"

"Yeah. I just wanted to see if Kristen would actually try it. I was going to titty punch her in the other boob if she did."

I laughed. I didn't know Layla that well, but she definitely fit in with us just fine. "As long as you don't draw one on me, we're even."

"You got it. Wow, this place looks amazing."

The driver opened the door and Layla stepped out. I quickly followed her as Alina and Kristen got out the other side of the car.

"I'm so sad that Em couldn't come," Alina said as she came up beside me. "She's always wanted to leave the country." Em was Bryce's little sister. We had all grown really close to her too.

"She could either get the time off for the wedding or this," I said. "I think she made the right call."

Alina laughed. "Still. She would have loved it here."

"Yeah." My stomach seemed to churn as I looked up at the hotel. I folded my arms across my chest. It was hot and humid, but I suddenly felt cold.

"Hey," Alina said. "I'm sorry, I could have worded that better. I wasn't thinking."

"What?" I laughed awkwardly. "I'm fine. It's fine." I shook my head. A good night's sleep would make me feel better. I just needed to clear my head and focus on having Kristen's kind of fun.

"We'll all have to take a shot for Em tonight then," Kristen said and grabbed Alina's arm.

"Wait, aren't we just going to call it a night?" I was exhausted.

"It's only 8 o'clock! This place is known for their awesome clubs. Let's get checked in and get this party started!"

Everyone else looked excited as they followed Kristen into the hotel. I slowly followed them with my arms crossed. We were going to be here for a week. If I didn't get enough sleep I'd just be a grumpy Gus the whole time.

"Welcome to the Blue Parrot Resort," said the man at the front desk. "My name is Javier. How may I help you?" He was several years older than us and wearing a black tuxedo. I had never seen a concierge dressed so fancy.

"Hi, we have a reservation for four under Kristen Dwyer," Kristen said.

"One moment please, Ms. Dwyer." Javier typed a few things into his computer and scanned the screen. "Ah, there you are. It says here that you'll be staying with us for seven nights in