The Romance Revival(77)

She emerges from the last throw I’ve managed, breathless and laughing. My arms are getting fucking tired, but I’ll throw her around the pool as long as she wants.

Lucky for me, she wants to go to the hot tub.

We climb out and pad over, settling into the bubbling heat with a duet of happy groans.

“We should have done this first,” she says, “and then gone into the pool.”

“We can still do that, silly.”

She floats over, coming to straddle my lap. I look around to make sure no one is nearby, but with only about fifteen minutes left of pool time, everyone has cleared out and it’s just us here now.

“That was the first time I think I actually liked playing in a pool,” she says, cupping her hands around the back of my neck.

“Come on,” I say, laughing. “You act like you’re such a bookworm, but I saw you on the beach. You hike. You swim. You love being outside.”

“I think I’ve started to love that stuff because of you. I think Sunny Sundays made me so happy that I started to like being outdoorsy… ish.”

“Maybe it doesn’t just have to be once a week. We should add Merry Mondays and Thrilling Thursdays to the mix,” I say, laughing.

“Titillating Tuesdays,” she says earnestly. “Let’s do it.”

I reach up, holding out a pinkie, and she hooks hers around it. “Pinkie swears are on the Ick List,” she whispers, “but I like them.”

“It’ll be our secret,” I whisper back, and smile up at her before letting my eyes fall closed. “Coming into the hot tub was a good idea.”

“I’m telling you: I have excellent ideas.”

Skeptically, I crack an eye open. “Am I having a real memory that you once suggested putting pineapple on nachos?”

She laughs, delighted. “If you’re remembering that, it clearly made an impression. Maybe it’s worth a try.”

“A traumatic impression, maybe.” She splashes me lightly with water. “Emmy, it’s unfair how hot you look with your hair all wet like this.”

“That’s a pretty smooth line, Mr. Martín. Did you practice that one earlier, in front of the mirror?”

“Why would I do that? The mirror doesn’t blush back at me like you do.”

She laughs, bending to rest her face in my neck. “You’re insufferable.”

“I think you like it.”

“You’re going to be the king of dad jokes,” she whispers, and I tighten my arms around her.

“Someday.”

We fall into an easy silence, but I feel myself overheating and know we’re close to closing time for the pool.

“What do you want to do tomorrow?” she asks into my neck.

“Everything?” I say, and feel the enormity and truth in that single word. I want to do everything with this woman. I don’t want to waste a minute of this second chance we’ve been given.

She laughs. “Maybe we start with a hike?”

I nod. “We should do Bridalveil Fall Trail.”

She sits up, smiling in excitement. “I remember you telling me about the time you and Crash hiked that—”

“And we saw the sign that actually said, ‘Do not lean over the railing, you will die.’?”

“Yes! And Crash said challenge accepted and you had to drag him back to the trail.”

I laugh, trying to think back to the trip I took here with Emery. Before today, my head felt like a dark hallway; now there are windows with random glimpses of light. A forested path in one, the distant view of El Capitan surrounded by trees and mist. The Half Dome pizza with chili oil and honey, but so far nothing about the average days leading up to the accident. “We hiked to Twin Bridges and found those granite-lined swimming holes. Do you remember?”

Emery laughs, nodding. “You wanted us to skinny-dip.” She presses her hand to the side of my face. “You’re coming back to me.”

“Little by little.” I lean forward, kissing her, squeezing my eyes closed, and begging the memories to stay away for just a little longer.





38 EMERY




Luca is suddenly in a rush to get back to the room, and with the dizzying distraction of his warm, wet body beneath mine in the hot tub, I am more than happy to move this night to the next phase.

My nerves have evaporated; like always, just being with Luca—his silliness, his openness, his willingness to be whatever I need—has pulled me out of my head. We walk Honey before heading back to the room for the night, give her plenty of kisses, and send her to her bed by the window before turning to look at each other.

“I’m just going to…” I motion to the bathroom. “I’ll be right back.”

Luca presses a kiss to my forehead and taps my behind as I sprint quickly across the room.

With the door closed behind me, I take a quick shower and then reach for my overnight bag. I run some leave-in conditioner through my wet hair so I don’t wake up with a haystack on top of my head in the morning. I shuck off my suit and hang it up to dry, and I moisturize everywhere before adding a touch of lip gloss. With a towel wrapped around my body, I flip off the light and head out of the bathroom.

Luca is standing by the bed. He’s closed the curtains and lowered the lights and looks up at the sound of the door. He’s turned down the blankets.