“How does she look at me?” he asked, and he couldn’t deny that his sister’s words felt exhilarating.
“The same way you look at her,” she said, and it was as if the sun broke free on a rainy day. But then, something didn’t add up.
“Why would she say she only wants to be friends then?”
“Oh, gee. I don’t know. Is it maybe because you give off the I’m-not-over-my-ex vibe?” Kat asked in a singsong voice.
“That’s not true. I’m over her. Completely.” He slashed a hand through the air to emphasize his point.
Kat arched an eyebrow. “Are you, Nate?”
He nodded. He was sure of this. Absolutely sure. “Yes,” he said confidently. Then he lowered his voice because he didn’t like admitting this out loud to anyone but Kat. “Maybe my pride isn’t over it. But the rest of me is.”
She gripped his arm, squeezing him. “I get it. I understand,” she said softly. “Pride sometimes takes even longer to heal than the heart does. But maybe it’s time to let that go?”
He shrugged. “Maybe.”
“And look, I’m not dismissing what happened to you or the way your marriage ended. I’m simply saying maybe it’s time to fully jettison the past.”
“It’s not that simple.”
“Actually, it is that simple,” she corrected. “And I know that from experience. Bryan broke my heart when I was younger, though obviously not for the same reasons your marriage ended. His reasons were different, but five years later when we reconnected, I had to make the choice to forgive him. The heavens didn’t split open. I didn’t wait for a sign. I didn’t see an apparition. I made a choice to move into the future. You can do the same.”
A choice. It was as simple as putting one foot in front of the other. But could he make that choice? Could he truly choose to shuck off the way he’d lived his life in the last few years? That was the big question.
“So that’s it? Just let it go?” he asked skeptically, miming tossing trash into a garbage can.
She nodded. “Yes, especially since if I’m picking up on the ex-vibes, you can bet Casey is too. Maybe that’s why she said you should just be friends.”
Once more, he nearly froze in place. His sister was turning on the light-bulb in his brain left and right today. “You think Casey assumes I’m not over Joanna?”
“I can’t imagine she’d operate under any other assumption, considering how you sometimes act. I know dealing with your ex-wife can hurt, but part of letting go is choosing to let go of all of it. Not just the emotions, which you shed a while ago, but all the residual pain. The anger and the pride too.”
Those were his reliable companions. His armor, and his safe harbor too. They’d served him well, and protected him from falling for any woman who might hurt him.
Until now. Those twin emotions hadn’t held him back when it came to Casey. They hadn’t rescued him from wanting more with her than he’d ever wanted from anyone. But perhaps they had held him back from actually having the guts to go for it.
“You really think she’s crazy about me?” Nate asked, returning to a simpler matter.
Kat rolled her eyes, then held up her thumb and index finger to show a sliver of space. “Maybe a little.”
He dropped his arm around her shoulders and squeezed. “A little? C’mon. Feed my ego.”
“Ha. Never. I will never feed your ego. Besides, I already fed it when I told you she feels the same way you do.”
If she felt the same way then he was the luckiest son-of-a-bitch in the world. But now he’d have to figure out the hardest part—how to put his heart on the line. Knowing something in his head, and being able to act on it were two different things.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
In the air . . .
There wasn’t a chance of a private conversation on the plane. They were nowhere near alone. Sharing the jet with Michelle’s brother, Davis, and his wife, as well as Clay and a pregnant Julia, and also Michelle’s best friend, Sutton, and her husband left them with no privacy.
Maybe that was for the best, since Nate hadn’t figured out yet what to say, how to say it, or even how to deal with the way his heart raced just from looking at Casey. The noise in his head from being near her and all of these people at the same time didn’t make the situation any easier. Never had he been so eager for a flight to end. But this was a humdinger of a plane ride—they flew across the Atlantic Ocean, rode over Europe, and then soared above the Middle East en route to the island paradise. The eight of them passed the long hours sleeping on and off under soft blankets, playing Scrabble, watching The Italian Job, and reading.
Somewhere above the Indian Ocean Julia challenged them all to a game of poker.
That might’ve been the toughest part of the plane ride to get through as they gathered around the table, laughing, telling jokes, and raising the stakes as Julia dealt. During the game, he met Casey’s eyes several times—countless times, actually—and she often smiled in those moments. But he couldn’t read her. All he knew was that she seemed like the Casey she’d always been—outgoing, upbeat, quick with a joke. She fit in seamlessly. Not that he expected anything else. But he longed for an hour—heck, even thirty minutes would do—to steal her away to the back row of the plane, and talk.
But the rhythms of all the passengers didn’t align, so he never found himself with a quiet moment to do anything more than make amiable chit chat.
At least there was that.
When they landed in the city of Malé in the late afternoon, they were shuttled onto a speedboat. Casey slid in next to Nate. Her leg was wedged against his, and the slightest touch tripped his heart rate into overdrive, not to mention sent other parts of his body into an upright position.
Damn, he hoped the ride to the hotel was a fast one.
The boat ferried them twenty-five minutes across the sun-kissed, crystal-blue waters of the Indian Ocean as the sun cast its perfect cloudless rays. The motor slowed as they neared The Luxe’s property on a secluded, tranquil outpost among the islands, the dust-white sand of the serene beach coming into view.
Once inside the hotel, they found Michelle and Jack waiting in the open-air lobby, looking windswept and relaxed as overhead fans turned lazily, stirring up the faint scent of coconut through the tropical air. Michelle’s hair was pinned up on her head and she wore a sundress, while Jack was in shorts.