“Two was to dye my hair blond.” She remembered the hours she’d spent in the salon chair to get her dark hair to lighten up that first time.
“Check,” Damion said. “And by the way, I like it. Of course, I liked your natural color, too.”
“Three was to spend a weekend sailing with a handsome man,” she lied, and he laughed. “I’ve told you two of mine.” She nudged his ribs. “Your turn.”
“Hawaii. I’ve always wanted to sail to Hawaii.”
“From here?” She jerked up.
He chuckled. “Yeah, it’s a trip, but…” He shrugged.
“You think?” She shook her head.
“It’s not as bad as you think. Straight down the Gulf, through the Panama Canal, then it’s pretty much a straight shot out to Hawaii. About three weeks of sailing, in good weather, with a few stops.”
“It’s the bad weather I’d be concerned about,” she said. “Have you taken any trips that long before?”
“I’ve been to the Keys plenty of times, to Jamaica twice, and Puerto Rico three times.”
“Alone?”
“No, I usually talk my dad or a friend into going with me. Dean and Carter have both gone out with me before.”
“Yeah, they would. They’re like your besties,” she said with a chuckle.
“Yeah.” He shifted under her. “You and Zoey seem pretty close.”
“She has her Wildflowers. But, yeah, she’s cool. Out of the five friends, she’s the one I feel the most closeness with. Her and Lea. We get each other.” She smiled.
“You got pretty pissed at the journalist who asked Zoey about her miscarriage today,” he pointed out.
“Yeah, you did too. I saw the fire in your eyes.” She glanced up at him.
“I was there. I saw what Zoey and Dylan went through. They wanted that baby. Loved it as much as they love Paige. I can’t imagine going through something like that.” He locked eyes with her. “It would kill me to see you in that much pain. Both physical and emotional.”
She reached up and cupped his face. “Same.” Her heart melted. Damion was more than she’d ever expected.
Living with him was so easy, she wondered why they had been fighting their attraction all those years.
“Do you think today helped?” she asked him.
“Yeah. I think that tomorrow morning, we’re going to be surprised at all the calls.” He kissed the top of her head. “Goodnight.”
“Goodnight.” She leaned up and kissed him.
She heard him fall asleep quickly. She’d learned he dropped off within seconds. If only she could do that. Instead, she lay there, listening to him breathing, feeling his chest rise and fall, and thought about the day. Her mind refused to shut down until finally, sometime after midnight, she slipped into a light sleep.
Damion was correct, that next morning, there were a ton of calls. Most were reservations, however, there were a strange number of calls from people shouting into the phone about the camp supporting the killing of babies, and some about drugs or illicit affairs going on there that the camp was privy to.
Whenever she or Beth answered those calls, they hung up.
Shortly before noon, the police arrived. At first, Jules thought it was just some of Brett’s friends coming to meet him for lunch, which they did often enough. But then they asked to see Zoey.
Jules called Zoey and then sent a text message to both Dylan and Brett.
The three of them entered the lobby at the same time.
“Larry, Troy.” Brett nodded to the officers. “What brings you here today?”