She stood on her toes, tugging my neck with her hands. "Ok, but kiss me on the beach. We're not coming back for awhile."
I dipped my head, taking her lips, pulling her into my arms. My mouth covered hers hot and urgent. My lust and love for her fired through my body. God, this girl could drive my crazy. My fingers snaked up the back of her shirt, eager to feel the softness of her skin.
"I love you, Syd."
"Don't stop," she whispered.
"Never." I pecked her check. "Now come on. I don't want to be late."
She rolled her eyes. "We have a private car and a chartered plane. Don't they run on your schedule?"
Her fingers threaded through mine as we walked along the beach.
"So, you don't have any pre-wedding jitters about you're ex?"
I stopped, my feet dragging in the sand. "Who said anything to you about Taylor?"
Sydney's hands went to her hips. "Eden might have mentioned it. It slipped when we were talking about the wedding party lineup."
My eyes narrowed. "She's the maid of honor. I'm the best man. I can't do much about it."
"I know that. What about seeing her? Have you thought about it?"
"Once or twice, but not like what you're implying. Our relationship never became serious." I tried to think of how to phrase it so she would understand. "But it wouldn't matter if I dated her for five years or five minutes." I squeezed Sydney's hand. "There's only you. You are the girl flying to North Carolina with me. You are the girl I'm taking to the wedding. And you are the only girl I'm going to spend two weeks with in France on an aptly named mooncation."
She grinned and suddenly I realized she hadn't been jealous. "I like it when you say things like that."
"You do, don't you?"
She nodded. "I like words."
"I'll try to remember that."
I looked up at the condo windows as we crossed over the Palm boardwalk and passed Eden and Grey's blue beach shack.
"Do you think our mooncation trend is going to catch on?" She turned slightly as she pressed on the latch, unlocking the gate to our boardwalk.
The wooden slats were chipped and the decking needed a coat of stain, but Sydney wouldn't let me touch it.
"It's perfect like this." She eyed me the day we moved into the house when she caught me making a list of improvements.
She grabbed the pad from my hand. "Old and dated is ok. This place has character. I thought that's why you bought it."
I shoved the pen in my pocket. "I bought it because the final condo sold at the Palm, leaving us homeless." I saw the look in her eye. "And because you fell in love with it the instant the realtor unlocked the door."
I had given in to the beach house, its crooked shutters, and the steps that creaked every time I climbed them. I chuckled to myself following Sydney up the stairs now.
"Let's see. We are taking a honeymoon without getting married, but vacation is way too understated for what we're going to be doing. I think more people will be mooncationing all over the place." My hands immediately cupped her bottom as she bounded to the last step on the deck.
"I think I hear the doorbell." She ran into the house before I could I could get my hands around her waist.
I walked inside, surprised when I saw we had guests.
"Mason," Lindy squealed before tackling my knees.
"Hey, tiger." I wrestled her free then tossed her in the air.
"We're going to sit on your house."
I looked at her quizzically and laughed.
Shawna walked toward us. "Lindy, it's called house-sitting."
"Oh." The little girl giggled.
Sydney handed Shawna a pair of keys. "Thanks for looking after the house for us."
"Not a problem. We'll come by every day after school and collect the mail."
I listened while Sydney doled out the instructions for the alarm and told Shawna the watering rotation for the tropical plants on the deck.
I crouched to the floor. "Lindy, what do you want us to bring you from France?"
She scrunched her face together. "A purple kite. A big one." Her hands spread wide, demonstrating she didn't want anything small.
"Ok. I'll see what I can do."
Shawna pointed to the glass door. "I think I see the car service in the driveway."
"Time to go." I rolled the suitcases to the porch.
"I want to see those wedding pictures when you get back." Shawna followed behind us.
"I'll text some to you." Sydney gave her a hug.
The driver met us at the top of the stairs and lugged the bags to the trunk. We left Shawna and Lindy with the keys, standing at the top of the staircase. The girl waved as hard as she could.
My hand clasped Sydney's as we pulled out of the driveway.
"I didn't know they were house-sitting."
"I forgot to mention it. Sorry. It seemed convenient since they only have to walk a few doors down from the Palm."
"Makes sense to me." I leaned into the seat. We had a forty-five minute ride to the airport. "You think they're happy living there? I know they don't have a yard or anything. And all their neighbors are over sixty-five."
Sydney touched her finger to my lips.
"They love it. Letting her lease to own one of the condos was the best solution. An amazing solution." She grinned. "You are brilliant sometimes."
"Only sometimes?"
"And so humble about it." She poked me in the ribs.
"Somebody's gotta be, baby."
I looked out the window as the car approached the bridge. On the other side was the resort construction site. The foundation was in. I couldn't see it from the road, but I knew it was there.
We started to climb over the sound, the car carrying us to the other side. I reached in my pocket for my phone, but hesitated.
"Syd, I have something to show you."
"What is it?" Her head was turned toward the opposite window. I had lost her to the October sun bouncing off the water.
I debated whether I should even mention the information I had, but I had sworn there wouldn't be any more secrets between us. Even if what I had to tell her would hurt her.
"This came through a few minutes ago when Shawna was at the house." I handed her my phone.
At first she didn't react. She studied the file on my phone. She scrolled to the bottom.
Her eyes flashed to mine. "What does it mean? What does James say?"
There was a copy of a rental agreement signed by Hannah P. and a few pictures James found on a neighbor's social media account.
"The email from James says the pictures are three months old. He flew into Portland yesterday and interviewed the neighbors."
"But she's not there." Her voice quieted.
"No, but he's close, Syd. Closer than he's ever been. My hope is that when we get back from France we'll know where Hailey is."
Her eyes glistened with tears. "We're really going to find them."
"Yes. And make them safe. I swear to you. No one will go near your sister or Gracie."
She leaned against my chest, her hair tumbling over her shoulders and I couldn't help but pull her into my lap. I needed to hold her, touch her, protect her.
"I'm glad you told me."
I ran my fingers over her head and down her arm. "I promised you I would."
She sat forward. "All these things you've done are because of me."
"Yes. And I'd do them over again. No question."
"You don't regret any of it?" she asked, toying with the collar of my shirt.
I reacted to her fingertips on my skin. "No. My only regret right now is that we aren't headed straight to France."
She squirmed under my hands. "And miss the wedding?"
"We can go to others." My hands massaged her lower back.
"I'm not missing it, or the chance to see you and Grey in tuxes at the same time. It's like a unicorn sighting. That's probably only going to happen once … " She stopped, her teeth sinking into her bottom lip.
I brushed my mouth over hers. "Or twice," I growled. I kissed her hard. I wanted her to know I wouldn't let her down. I would be there for her. I would love her. Make love to her. Fight with her. Make up with her. Kiss her when she needed to be kissed. Hold her when she had one of those days. Laugh with her. Cry with her when she couldn't hold it together anymore. Share secrets. Share life. Damn it, I wanted her to know I loved her every way I knew how to love.
I smiled, folding her into my arms. Yes, there was only one way this was going to go from the beginning. Somewhere between the Cove and that sandy stretch of beach to the Palm, I had landed the deal of my life. An unexpected, earth-shattering deal.
The car deposited us on the tarmac next to the jet. I helped Sydney out of the car and led her up the staircase.
She looked around. "This is going to be amazing. I can't believe we have our own plane."
"You have no idea." I ordered two glasses of champagne.
The flight attendant placed them on the table in front of us. We waited for the pilot to finish his pre-flight checks before we could leave Texas.