“Why? It’s a vacation that’s already been paid for. Someone has to go on it. It’d be even more depressing if all that money went to waste.”
“It’d be infinitely more depressing to sit on the beach in fucking Fiji drinking cocktails by myself while watching couples do activities and stroll around hand in hand.”
“The only parts of the sentence I heard were ‘fucking Fiji’ and ‘drinking cocktails on the beach.’ There’s no way that could be depressing, and if it is, you just order more cocktails.”
“You’re insane.” I folded my arms, but my gaze flicked to the clock on the wall. “There’s no way I’d make the flight anyway. It takes off in four hours.”
“It takes less than forty minutes to get to the airport from here. You’re already packed, aren’t you? Being who you are, I doubt you were leaving it until this morning before having your suitcase ready to go.”
“Of course, I’m packed but I haven’t even showered.” Nibbling on the inside of my cheek, I realized that—logistically, at least—she was right.
There was no reason why I couldn’t go. I had time to get cleaned up, grab my things, and make it to the airport with time to spare.
My passport was ready. My airplane ticket and accommodation at the resort was booked and paid for, and I already had the time off work.
If I didn’t go, I was staring down the barrel of doing nothing for much longer than I’d ever done nothing for before. I could go back to work early, but I didn’t really feel ready to face the pity and the “are you okays?” from everyone there.
Staying here would mean having to face that from family and friends who came around to check on me. I’d been getting messages about it all morning already.
“You’re really thinking about it, aren’t you?” she asked, excitement sparking in her eyes as she bounced on the cushion.
I nodded. “Any way you could come with me?”
She sighed and shook her head. “Unlike you, I don’t have all my ducks in a row to take off in such a short amount of time. There’s also the tiny issue of not having a paid-for plane ticket.”
“Good points.” I stared at her for another beat before slowly getting up. “I’m going to do it. I’m going to go on my fucking honeymoon. Alone. Screw it. I’m not sitting around here being felt sorry for and wondering how to get on with my life. I’m just going to get on with it.”
She clapped her hands and followed after me when I took off to my bedroom. “I’ll help get your things together and go drop you off at the airport. This is going to be epic! I’m so proud of you!”
So was I, but there was no time to waste. Getting ready and the drive to the airport were a blur. It was only once I was on the plane and my seatbelt clicked into place that I finally smiled.
Here I come, Fiji. God, please don’t let this be a massive mistake.
Chapter 4
JAXON
It was barely sunrise when I walked into the local hangar where I helped my friend repair planes when I was in town. Kavan and I had been in the service together, and after he got out, he’d gotten a job there.
The owner didn’t have a problem with me coming in to help—as long as I didn’t expect payment for any work I did. Which I didn’t, considering that it was a hobby for me and not one with many opportunities available to practice it. It wasn’t like I could walk into any old junkyard and find a plane to fix up.
Going over to the machine I’d been busy with before I left for my last haul, I found it exactly as I’d left it and grinned. This was another reason why I loved the place so much. Only Kavan and one other guy worked there, and both of them knew to leave my shit alone.
I got right back into it and was wiping sweat off my brow a little before eight when I saw Kavan coming in. He shook his head when he spotted me, walking up to give me a back-thumping, one-armed hug.
“Only you would get to my job before it’s even time for me to start work. When did you get in?”
“Yesterday. I woke up early and got bored at home.” I smacked him on the shoulder. “We’re not all slackers who sleep in, you know.”
He narrowed his blue eyes to slits in a mocking glare and dragged a hand over the top of his blond faux-hawk. “We’re not all perpetual bachelors who can sleep whenever we want.”
I smirked. “Hey, I was there when you married the lovely Mrs. Roberts, remember? You were of sober mind and senses when you said yes. You could still be sleeping whenever you want too. How’s she doing anyway?”
“She’s fucking pregnant, man.”
“Yeah, I know. That’s part of why I was asking.”
“I know, and that’s my answer. She’s fucking pregnant now. The baby’s kicking the shit out of her, she can’t really sleep much anymore, and as a result, neither can I. She keeps tossing and turning, and seven seconds after she falls asleep, she wakes up again because she needs to pee.”
“You knew all this before you knocked her up though, didn’t you?” I arched a brow at him in an attempt to stop myself from laughing. “As far as I know, it comes with the territory.”
“No. You think you know what comes with the territory. You fucking don’t, man. Thinking you know and living it are two very different things.” He patted his stomach. “I’m even picking up weight. Apparently, it’s a sympathy thing.”
“A sympathy thing or an excuse thing?” It was meant to be a joke, but Kavan flipped me off and punched me in the bicep with his other hand. I rubbed the spot. “You may be picking up weight but at least your fists can still do some damage.”
This time, he was the one who smirked. “We’re having a little girl. Now is not the time for me to ease up on my fighting skills. I need to hone them more than ever. Who knows when the first potential suitors will start showing up at my door? I need to be ready for those little fuckers.”
“Uh, I think you’ve probably got a few years yet.”
He shrugged. “Who knows with kids these days? The youngest girl I’ve ever even held was eighteen. I have no idea what to expect from having a kid, but especially not from a girl.”
“Tutus, tiaras, and tea parties?” I suggested and dodged his fist when he swung it at me again. “I’m not even trying to give you shit. That’s honestly what I expect you’re in for with a daughter. Besides, at least you’ll have Shira around to help you.”
“Shira’s brain has turned to mush.” He scrubbed his hands along the stubble on his jaw, his mouth hanging half open. “I don’t know how long it’ll be before she’s back online either. We’re taking it day by day for now. At least we’re almost ready for the baby to come.”
“By which you mean you’ve been spending your salary on diapers instead of beer?”
He nodded, grimacing. “Whenever I even look at a beer, Shira reminds me we have better things to spend our money on. I can’t even remember the last time I tasted alcohol.”
I took a step back in case he would be tempted to try hit me again, then laughed. “I never thought I’d see the day any of this happened in your life. Weren’t you always the one who said you’d never let a woman rule you or have kids running around? Look at you now, bro.”
“We were in our early twenties when I said that shit, Jaxon. We could’ve taken down Zeus back then in our minds. Times change.”
“You mean you don’t think we can take down Zeus anymore?” I smacked a hand over my chest. “That’s insulting, man. And discouraging. I had a beatdown scheduled with the king of the gods for this afternoon. Think I should cancel?”
“Yeah, I think you should fucking cancel.” He laughed as he pushed past me. “At our age, the only thing we should have a beatdown scheduled with is some or other joint disease.”
“Speak for yourself. I’m still healthy and fit as a fucking fiddle.” I curled my arms to show off my biceps and he snorted in response.
“I’ve known you, what, almost twenty years now?” He eyeballed me with amusement in his gaze. “Trust me. I’ve seen you look much more ready to take o
n the king of the gods than you do right now. Sorry, bro.”
“I think I look pretty good for my age.” I lifted the hem of my T-shirt to smack my abs before dropping the act and walking to the breakroom with him to get coffee. “All joking aside, you really ready for this kid?”
“Ready or not, she’s coming.” He sighed as he pushed through the door and flipped on the ancient coffeemaker. “I think we’re as ready as we’re ever going to be. We’ve got everything the books say we need and we’ve been to the classes. What about you? What’s going on in your life?”
“I’ve actually been thinking about taking a trip to Fiji,” I said as I grabbed two mugs from the drying rack beside the rusted sink. “I probably won’t do it, but we just flew over there, and I got to talking to a guy who’d visited. Sounds fucking chill.”
“I’ve seen some pictures.” He scratched his jaw while he thought. “Why don’t you think you’ll go? I would. You don’t have any ties here holding you back.”
“Yeah, that’s why I’ve been playing with the idea. I haven’t taken a real break in years. It’ll be nice to cut loose a little.”
“So go.” He lifted the pot when the coffee was ready and filled the mugs I’d set down. Cocking his head at me as he picked his up, he flashed me a smile. “Maybe you’ll meet the future Mrs. Scott on faraway shores. Fair warning, if you do, all the shit you’ve ever given me is coming back at you tenfold.”
“I wouldn’t expect anything different.” I cracked my neck before wagging my eyebrows at him. “Why don’t you come with me? Isn’t there a name for a break before the baby is born?”
“Yeah, it’s called a babymoon and it’s taken by the parents.” He waved a finger between our chests. “Shira would never agree to you and me going on a babymoon and leaving her behind.”
“I could always talk to your baby momma. Shira loves me.” I took a sip of my coffee just as Kavan nearly sprayed the one he had just taken all over me.
Once he swallowed, he coughed a few times before he had his laughter under control. “She doesn’t love you that much. Fuck, I don’t even think she loves me that much. Letting us take off to go on vacation in Fiji when she’s due in less than eight weeks? There’s more of a chance that all the profit made from every oil reserve in the world will be donated to charity than there is of Shira agreeing to that.”
“She’s been making you watch documentaries about the importance of conserving nature and marine life again, hasn’t she?”
He nodded, a heavy sigh parting his lips. “It’s the baby animals, man. They get to her.”
I hummed a sympathetic noise at the back of my throat. “You have less than eight weeks to go. You’ll make it. Just hang in there. It’ll all be worth it in the end.”
“I think so.” He smiled and gave himself a visible shake. “Worrying isn’t going to help anyway. So, Fiji? You going?”
“I think so,” I said, echoing him. “Fuck it. Why not, right?”
“You only live once. Or whatever it is the cool kids are saying these days.” We walked out of the break room and to our respective workstations.
When I got to mine, I took my phone out of my pocket and pulled up the airline’s website. There was no harm in knowing when the next flights out were.
As if fate itself was giving me the nod on this plan, there was a crew seat available on a plane leaving in just a few hours. I hovered with my thumb above the reserve button for all of thirty seconds before I made my final decision.
Kavan and the cool kids were right. We only lived once. If even fate wanted me to go to Fiji, I sure as fuck wasn’t saying no.
Chapter 5
LINDSAY
A wall of thick humidity hit me as soon as we disembarked from the plane. From my quick view of my surroundings before I got whisked away in the crowd, it was green there. Green and lush and lively.
Not that any of the liveliness extended to me.
I felt like I’d been hit by a water balloon filled with vapor and my lungs were mildly protesting with every breath I drew in. As my fellow travelers swept me up in their wake, everyone seemed to know where they wanted to go.
I followed willingly, feeling like a fish out of water and as uncomfortable as a cat with tape stuck beneath my paws. Rock anthems blared in my earbuds, and I was tempted to scream out the lyrics as I tried to find the carousel with my bag on it.
I couldn’t hear the announcements in the airport, but when I lifted the earbuds out and heard that none of what the airport management was saying was in English, I realized they wouldn’t help me much anyway.
Hoisting the strap of my backpack on my shoulder, I looked around and hoped to find out where to go. A flickering screen on a pillar to my left displayed flight information coupled with the number of the belt where passengers’ luggage had to be collected, but Houston wasn’t on it yet.
My fellow travelers were nowhere to be seen—none that I recognized anyway. People swarmed past me like ants on a mission to get to a fallen cube of sugar, but no one stopped when I tried to speak to them.
It didn’t help that there was a whole contingent of honeymooners arriving, acting as a constant reminder that I should’ve been there with my husband as well. Will might not have knocked my feet out from under me, but I really had been looking forward to being married to him. We’d been friends for years before he finally asked me out on our first date. Transitioning from friendship to a romantic relationship had been as easy as breathing, even if it wouldn’t have qualified as the most epic of love stories. Without him being there with me, I felt empty and lost in more ways than one. I’d lost my friend and my fiancé in one fell swoop, and now I couldn’t even find my luggage.
Houston finally snuck onto the board with the collection information, but when I got to the carousal corresponding with the number displayed on it, there was nothing and no one there. I shut my eyes and sucked in a breath in an attempt to keep the tears threatening to fall at bay.
“Excuse me, miss?” a chirpy voice behind me said. “Have you arrived on the flight from Houston?”
Opening my eyes, I spun around to see a young woman dressed in an official-looking uniform smiling at me. “I have. Do you know where I can collect my luggage?”
“This carousel is giving us problems today. Please proceed to number six. Everything is being offloaded there.”
I nodded my thanks and made my way through the crowd of people, searching for the number six above each belt as I went. Silently fuming about why they would’ve put up a different number on the display screen just minutes ago, I almost missed the other people from my flight clamoring around a carousel on my right.
A relieved sigh escaped me as I joined their ranks with my trolley, waiting patiently for my suitcase to come around. The same cases appeared time and again, until they were all gone and the people around me had dispersed.
Eventually, the belt stopped and the screen above it switched off. I frowned up at it, dread already pooling in my stomach.
“Is there a problem here, miss?”
The same woman from before came to stand beside me, smiling as politely as before. It seemed she was the official dealing with this flight.
I sighed as I turned to face her yet again. “Yes, there’s a problem. You just directed me to this carousel a little while ago. It was supposed to be the one for the flight that came in from Houston, but my baggage never came out.”
She nodded briskly while I spoke, asked for my boarding pass to check the baggage tag on it, barked something into the handheld radio she carried with her, then gave me an apologetic smile when a reply came through.
“I’m so sorry. It seems your luggage has been misplaced. Rest assured that it is our priority to return it to you safely. We will deliver it to your hotel tomorrow. I just need you to sign some forms for me.”
Rage, frustration, annoyance, and immense sadness swelled inside me and battled for dominance. In the end, all that came out was a soft grunt and a half sob.
&n
bsp; “Fine. Just tell me where to go.”
Arguing with her wouldn’t get me anywhere. She was only doing her job. It wasn’t her fault my bag was missing, and making a scene wouldn’t make it miraculously get here faster. The only thing I could speed up was how soon I could get out of the airport, and cooperating seemed like the best way to get that done.
What felt like a whole ream of paper later, I was finally on my way out with nothing except for the backpack I’d had with me on the flight. At least I had my toothbrush and some other basic toiletries in there.
Once I got to the resort, I’d have to wash the simple tank top and shorts combo I was wearing. At least it would dry overnight, considering the airy fabric it was made of.
Trying to keep my emotions in check and my spirits up, I reminded myself that I was in freaking Fiji—without Will—but I would have to get used to doing things without him anyway. Being alone had never bothered me before and I was determined to get back to that frame of mind.
When I walked out of the terminal, I focused on the vivid colors and the beautiful scenery instead of the gaping hole beside me where my husband should’ve been. Bustling roads surrounded the airport, but beyond them were mountains covered in lush greenery and palm trees reaching up toward the bright blue sky.
A slight smile was on my lips when I spotted my resort’s counter. Unfortunately, the parking bay behind it was empty. The smile dropped, and once again, I got the distinct feeling that something else was about to go wrong.
“I’m sorry,” the man manning the desk said. “The shuttle service left about fifteen minutes ago. There will be another shuttle, but it is only arriving in time for this evening’s flight.”
I rubbed my hands over my cheeks and brought my palms together underneath my chin. Maybe coming here had been a colossal mistake after all. It was becoming increasingly clear that the universe or fate or whatever just didn’t want me there.
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