I swallow. “We shouldn’t do this here.” The party is lively, and children are playing and chasing each other between the tables. “It was a beautiful ceremony.”
“Yes, it was.” She smiles. “When did you arrive?”
“Last night, much too late to do anything after the manager told me you weren’t in your room. I had breakfast with the men in your family this morning.”
“I’m glad you came.”
That she would even doubt that I would come… I touch her cheek. “I wouldn’t dream of missing something so important to you.”
Through the rest of the ceremony, I stay by her side, meeting the members of her extended family and enjoying the happiness that permeates the air. We linger at the beach long after Brett and Laurie leave for the first stage of their honeymoon. Then we all head back to our hotel.
“I have sand everywhere,” Rachel complains in her room.
“Yes, I probably need a shower too.” I start to remove my shirt then remember all my clothes are in my suite a floor above. “My clothes are in my suite.”
Her eyebrows go up and she gives me a naughty smile. “Do you think you’ll need them?”
The teasing invitation is all I need. “Come on,” I pull her into the bathroom. We’re both laughing as we shed the clothes from the beach. In the shower, I finally get to kiss her as I’ve been longing to do all day.
“About Thursday night…” I explain when we return to the bedroom. We’re sitting in bed wearing hotel robes.
Her smile disappears as she waits for me to continue.
“I love you,” I say simply. At the core of everything, that is what matters the most. “I need you to know that. I need you to know I’ll never do anything consciously, deliberately to hurt you. There is nothing as important to me as you are.”
Her eyes fill, and I want to stop and kiss the tears away before they fall, but I have so much more to say.
“I should have told you I was going to see Ava, and I should have told you why. I was hoping I’d be able to resolve the whole situation with Evans before coming here and you’d never need to know he was missing.” Now, I realize how stupid that was. “Of course, that was wrong as well.”
“At least I know now,” she says, reaching for my hand. Her voice is tender. “You still haven’t found him?”
I shake my head, frustrated. “I have no idea what he’s doing or planning, and Ava refuses to get the police involved. With his drug use, he’s irrational and unpredictable, and it’s been such a relief that you were here while I was trying to find him, because at least I know you’re safe.”
“What about you?” Her eyes close and she shudders. “There’s a madman on the loose who blames you for his life choices, and I’ve been partying over here with no knowledge of that. It makes me feel useless.”
“I understand that now, and I’m sorry I didn’t think of it that way before. I didn’t want to ruin the experience of your cousin’s wedding for you.”
“I’m not a child you protect from everything, Landon.”
“I know.”
“So, Ava didn’t know where he was?”
I tell her what Ava told me.
Rachel searches my face. “Do you believe her?”
“Maybe, but I don’t believe him.”
She’s deep in thought, and after a few seconds, she shudders. I know she’s thinking about Evans and what he could do.
I need to find him.
I sigh. “You understand why I had to meet with her.”
She nods. “I do.”
“We have something special, Rachel. I want to know you won’t ever let anything like suspicion make you think of throwing it away.”