With my adrenaline pumping, I stare Brett down, daring him to give me a reason. The mere thought of him trying to put his hands on Teagan has me seeing red. I'm warring between wanting to drown him and not wanting to commit murder in front of his wife and multiple witnesses.

Ritchie leaves the tub. Jeremy and Chet make their way out as well. I watch as Brett leaves down the hall. I didn't expect anger and words like that from a group like ours, but no lies were told. We've all had it.

With distance between us, I let out a breath to calm down and sit next to Teagan. Her hand covers her face, and she has her knees curled up a little too tight. "Well, hot tubs used to be fun," I joke.

Teagan laughs from behind her hand. She moves it and wipes a tear from her eye.

"Babe, no. Come on," I pull her into a hug, resting my cheek against hers. "Crying because of Brett? Are you drunk?"

Her laugh sounds like a sob. "Yeah." She hugs me tighter, not allowing me to let her go. As if I would anyway.

Holding her calms me further. I run a hand up and down her back. My finger gets stuck in the tie of her bikini top, accidentally tugging it a little looser. Her leg floats against my side, threatening to wrap around my waist. My blood is rushing too much to focus on that right now.

As the last of the bridesmaids leave, only two staff members remain to clean up on the lower deck. I breathe a sigh of relief.

"You gonna be okay?" I ask her.

"Yeah, I'm just embarrassed," she cries again. "Mary is going to be so mad at me."

"She won't. You didn't start this shit."

"But I made it worse."

"We're all exhausted and delirious. Everyone just needs to sleep it off and we'll be fine in the morning."

She leans away from me with a groan. "Shit. I'm supposed to share a room with the bridesmaids."

"Yeah, well, I'm supposed to share a room with Ryan and Ritchie. Wanna trade?"

A sniffle interrupts her laugh. Such a cute, pathetic little sound. "What are we gonna do?"

It's not even ten o'clock yet, but after day drinking for hours after a redeye flight, it's only a matter of time. "Give it another thirty and everyone will be passed out."

She nods.

I know Teagan was stressed before any of us were even thinking about the wedding. This, mixed with a lack of sleep, has her raw. She wipes her eye again and keeps staring down into the water.

The night sky is full of stars I don't know if I've ever seen before. The LED glow of the hot tub dancing mesmerizing lines over her body. "Teags," I whisper. "What's going on?"

She doesn't look my way. "Is Jeremy right?"

"Which part?"

"That we should stop being friends," she says. I feel my brow tense. "I've said it, you've said it. We're friends of proximity. Jeremy is leaving. Ryan is making me reevaluate how close we can be without threatening his marriage. I fucking hate Brett."

"And Ritchie."

"And Ritchie," she agrees. "We're all pushing away. I know it's natural. It's happened with every new school we went to, but . . . Am I the only one without other friends?"

"No," I admit. "I don't know how to meet people who can tolerate my bullshit."

She traces an absent minded finger over the tattoo on my shoulder. "How's Shelley?"

Ugh. "That's over. Like, really over."

She pouts. "Already? It's been, like, two weeks."

"I know."

"What did you do this time?"

I stare at her, knowing it's not the right time to fully explain. "The usual dumbassery."

"Why, Heath? Why can't you let yourself have a nice girl for once?"

There are so many things on my mind that I want to tell her. She knows. As oblivious as she has been acting, it has to be a ruse. "You know why," I say to her.

Her eyes stare into mine, but I can't tell what she's thinking.

"If . . ." she starts, but doesn't finish her sentence. Her gaze drops from mine.

"If?"

"If we didn't know each other—if we didn't go through everything we have, and we met for the first time tomorrow . . . Do you think we would like each other?"

She's drunk, but her question still hits me hard. She never talks about what happened. Sober, she would never forgive me. "Hypotheticals don't matter, Teags. Especially drunk ones."

Her laugh still has an edge of sadness, but she still smiles. She loops her arms around my neck and leans in closer. "You really broke it off with her?"

"Yeah."

Her grin turns into a smirk. I'm not sure if she wants to laugh at me or kiss me, but when she crawls onto my lap, I figure it out.

Her hips come to rest on mine. I instinctively grip them, my fingers sliding into the side of her bottoms, but I force myself not to pull on them. The pounding in my chest returns.

"Does that mean we can resume the contract?" she asks. My heart is beating too hard to put words together. Instead, I nod. Her arms tighten around me with a chuckle. "You have impeccable timing," she coos.

My eyes drop to her lips. I pull her closer.

"Sorry," a staff member interrupts us. My eyes snap open and I remember where we are. "We need to close up the tub before we turn in." They hand us towels, not giving me a chance to protest.

"Right."

We leave the water and dry off. I keep Teagan from tumbling over when she grabs her things and we walk to the hall. She stumbles off without me, always leaving me with sexual tension and words hanging in the air.

"We'll talk tomorrow?" I ask her.

"Yeah," she smiles suggestively. "We'll talk."

. . .

I was right. The minute everyone woke up, we were back to smiling and laughing again as if the fight had never happened. We can't un-ring the bell, but not being sloshed makes it easier to maintain civility. We'll get through the wedding, have fun while we do, and we'll handle it later. Or never.

Teagan and I moved into our room separately. It's little, but it is cool as shit. Separated from the main building, the only way to get to it is through an outdoor pathway that snakes through a garden, or to swim up from a private pool. There are only three rooms in the area, and so far, the others are empty.

We'll be alone at last.

I know the contract ultimately brought us together, but it will be over just a few days after we get back. That's what I asked for, what I thought I wanted. I was lying to myself then and I'm lying to myself now.

This was my way of getting her close to me again, even if all we would have was sex. I convinced myself I didn't want a relationship with anyone. But, the last few months made me realize the truth. I will ruin every relationship I have as long as there's a whisper of a chance to be with her.

I love her. The only thing I hate about Teagan is that she hates me.

Words still jumble in my head, none finding their way into something coherent before I arrive at the pool. Everyone is here, some floating on inflatable unicorns, the others sunbathing beside it. It's loud but chill, full of all the laughter we should have had last night.

Teagan stands with Brett at a drink stand. She wears those tall sandals with crisscrossing strings that defy physics. The height makes her legs look thin, yet more defined. Her potato sack shirt thing hangs from her like a sexy rag—yeah, I don't know how that's a thing either—and shows the strappy black swimsuit she has on underneath.

She wears her braids in a big bun on top of her head like a crown, looking like a queen. All I want to do is knock her off her throne and into my bed.

Brett brushes his hand down her arm and walks away. She looks relieved, closing her eyes when she drinks from the straw sticking out of a young coconut.

I make her jump when I say, "Tell me he's behaving."

She clutches her invisible pearls, then moves her hand to grip my arm. "You cannot sneak up on me during crunch time, Heath. I almost peed."

I laugh and slide her coconut my way. "Is he being good, though?"

"Mostly."

"So I don't need to murder?"

"I didn't say that," she laughs. "I know you talked to him, so whatever he does tonight, I'm blaming it on you."

"Fuck. What is he doing now?"

"Not completely sure, but it sounds like he plans to start his annual apology tour after the rehearsal dinner."

"Are you for real?"

"Sadly. Fuck my schedule, I guess."

"Sorry, babe," I chuckle. "Weddings are the worst."

"They're trash," she agrees. We share sheepish smiles.

A loud rumble of thunder sounds in the distance. I look up at the sky, swearing it was sunny a few seconds ago. "Jesus. It sounds like it's going to—" I can't finish my sentence before it starts pouring.

People scramble from the pool. I cover her with a towel and we run toward our room.

The winding wooden planks are a bitch to navigate in the rain. I slip a few times and she does the same. We're cursing and laughing at the absurdity the whole way.

Under the cover of an awning, we stop to catch our breath. The rain comes down in sheets. We can barely see the door to our room, even though it can only be a few steps away.

Teagan is still laughing. "You could walk better if you weren't holding a towel. My hair would have been fine and look at you." She runs her hands over my hair to squeeze out the water. "You're sopping wet."

While she tries in vain to dry me off, I'm captivated by her smile and the carefree look in her eyes. "Teags . . ."

"What? I can't help that you look like a wet dog."

She wipes my cheeks. I grab her wrists, not wanting her hands to leave me. Her smile dims. Those big eyes stare into mine.

I stare back for a moment, then without another thought, I pull her into my kiss.

In the warm rain, alone in a garden, I lose myself in her. Kissing her does dangerous things to me. Her plump lips feel amazing against mine, her tongue smooth and delicious. She melts into me, her hands pulling me closer, her breath heavy against my cheek when I press her back against the wall.

I don't want to stop. When I try, she pulls me back in for more. When our lips slowly part, I lick my lips to taste what lingers while I open my eyes. The look of desire on her face is more than lust. There's something else hidden behind her heavy gaze.

Maybe she feels it too. Maybe I'm only seeing what I want to see. Either way, I have to tell her.

"Teags," I whisper. "Please don't hate me for saying this."

Her brow stitches. "For saying what?"

It feels like the rain is stealing my oxygen. "When you asked me if I was catching feelings . . . I wasn't talking about someone else." My heart pounds hard in my chest. "I meant I was catching feelings for you."

_____

"Oh my god, it's happening! Everyone stay calm! Stay f*cking calm!" - Michael Scott

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