“I can see it in the way the two of you interact,” Mina insisted. She smiled and then leaned in for a hug. “Anyway, congratulations on continuing to have hope and on eventually finding your Prince Charming.”
“Now we just have to find your Prince Charming,” I said, grinning at her.
Mina laughed. “Maybe Christian has a hot billionaire friend who you can hook me up with?”
“Never hurts to ask!” I said. “Anyway, I've got an appointment in a couple of minutes that I need to get ready for.”
“Yeah,” Mina sighed, slipping off the stool that she'd been perched on. “I should get back to the pineapples. I can't wait until we're working in the same building and I don't have to disappear every time you have a client.”
“Yeah,” I said. “Not long now, though!” I gave her one last hug before she went on her way.
Even though I only had Mrs. Miller on the schedule for that morning, Mr. Miller accompanied his wife in, and I wondered in a panic if I'd gotten something wrong and if Sandy might be working that morning so that I could steal Mina back for the second massage.
“Don't worry,” Jerry said, accurately reading my worried expression. “The massage is just for the Missus here. But I was hoping that you'd let me be in the same room as her while she gets her massage. I don't like to be too far from her if I can help it.”
I smiled at the two of them. “That's sweet,” I said. “Usually I have couples on their honeymoon who say things like that, but the hotel told me you're here on your fiftieth anniversary!”
Betty blushed demurely, and Jerry cackled. “If you marry the love of your life, every day of your life is part of your honeymoon,” he said firmly.
I raised an eyebrow at him. Betty scoffed. “You only say that because I never made you change the babies' diapers,” she said. “And I always made you breakfast in the mornings.”
Jerry shrugged. “I'm a simple man, and my wife takes good care of me,” he said.
I smiled. “It's no problem if you want to sit in the room with us,” I said. I held out a massage outfit to Betty and directed them back to the room. When I entered the room a few minutes later, Jerry had arranged himself near his wife and was holding her hand, lightly stroking the back of it with his thumb.
“You know, I almost didn't end up with this lovely lady here,” he told me pensively as I started the massage.
“No, you didn't,” Betty agreed. She laughed. “I almost ended up with Mick Forrester!”
“You would never have ended up with Mick Forrester,” Jerry grumbled. He shook his head and turned to look at me. “I turned my back for one moment, and the next thing I knew, this little doll was practically engaged to the town flirt!”
“I was the town flirt,” Betty corrected. “And you did not turn your back for one moment. You told me that you were going away to university and that you wanted to date some hot co-ed there! I wasn't just going to wait around forever for you.”
Jerry sighed. “Stupidest thing I ever said to a girl,” he told me. Then, he grinned wickedly at me. “Quite a lovely lady, was Katrina Laviolette, though.”
“She was not,” Betty grumbled. But their slight bickering was affectionate in the way that only two people who truly loved one another, and for five decades, at that, could manage.
“You had better legs, though,” Jerry said thoughtfully. “Lord knows, I loved your legs. Watching you dance was a real treat.”
Betty laughed. “I haven't danced in years, Jerry. I'm too old for that.”
“You'd better be a salsa-dancing señorita in the next life, or I swear I'm not taking you home again,” Jerry warned teasingly.
“I'll put in a word in with the Big One when I see him,” Betty told him.
I shook my head. “How did you get her back, then?” I asked Jerry, missing that part of the story. “After you found out she was…”
“Going steady with Mick Forrester,” Betty said primly. “He thought he could just come around and ask me on a date. I told him no.”
“So, I went to her father instead and told him I was going to marry his daughter and told him all about my university degree and how I was going to one day become a famous engineer,” Jerry finished.
I raised my eyebrows at him. “And that worked?” I asked.
“Of course not,” Betty said exasperatedly. “He was going to have to win me over, not my father.”
“So, one day, when she was out swimming in the lake with a few of her girlfriends, I stole all her clothes. I told her that I wouldn't give them back unless she gave me a kiss and swore she'd never go near Mick Forrester again for the rest of her life,” Jerry said, shrugging, a wicked gleam in his eye.
I blinked at him. “And that worked?”
“Of course it did,” Betty said, giggling like a schoolgirl, as though the event in question had just happened yesterday, rather than fifty-some years ago. “I always appreciated a man who was bold.”
“Anyway, I relented on the thing about never going near Mick Forrester,” Jerry said. “He was the best man at our wedding, and he and his eventual wife Mindy were our best tennis partners for years and years. He and I still hang out together at our country club and shoot the shit.”
I laughed. “It was a happy ending all around, it sounds like.”
“Life is always a happy ending if you're willing to let things happen the way that they're supposed to,” Betty said, a strange note in her voice. “When Jerry broke up with me, I thought I'd die. And when I met Mick, I knew that I didn't love him, but I managed to convince myself things were going to be fine anyway. But when you love somebody…”
“You just know it,” Jerry said, his voice gone a little husky. He dashed a tear out of one eye, looking adoringly down at his wife and squeezing her hand. “If I had lost this little lady here? That would have been the worst mistake of my life.”
I thought about my relationship with Lino and then my relationship with Christian. I could see elements of their relationship in both of those relationships that I'd had, but when it came down to it, if I had to lose one or the other, I didn't want to lose Christian.
“What about you, sweetheart?” Jerry asked me, as though sensing the introspective turn of my thoughts.
“I thought I had lost my man,” I said, tripping a little over calling Christian mine. We hadn't defined exactly what we were doing still. It was enough that he was there in Hawaii and living with me. The whole communal living thing was more from practicality's sake than anything else. There was no reason he should be paying to stay at a resort when I had a perfectly good guest bedroom that he could take over. We ended up sharing a bed most nights anyway.
“What did that rascal do?” Betty asked.
I sighed. “He had a job back in New York, and he was supposed to go back to it,” I told her. “I knew that from the start, but for some reason, I didn't think about it all. By the time we had to think about it, it was time for him to go, and we got into a fight.”
“But you didn't lose him?” Jerry asked.
“No,” I said, smiling a little. “He came back. He quit his job in New York, and he's moved down to Hawaii to be with me.”
“Now that's a good story,” Betty said. “I don't know too many guys who could figure out their feelings well enough to move across the country to be with a woman. At least in my time, we women were stuck following our men around, wherever they wanted to be.”
“You didn't follow me anywhere, you cow,” Jerry said, rolling his eyes. “I had to follow you to Missouri when your mother got sick; don't you remember that?”
Betty laughed. “That was my mother,” she said. “I had to go help out. You know that.”
“And I had to live in Missouri,” Jerry said with a bit of a shudder. He turned to face me. “Don't ever let him convince you to leave Hawaii, dear. Next thing you know, you'll be living on a cow farm in the middle of nowhere.”
“Oh, pish,” Betty said. “It was six months, not an eternity. And you liked those cows, don't try
to tell me that you didn't!”
As enjoyable as their bantering was, the appointment was over soon. I walked the two of them out, thanking them for coming in. I paused at the doorway, seeing Christian standing there with flowers. Betty paused as well, eyeing Christian shrewdly. Then, she shook her head, looking back at me over her shoulder. “If you've gone and convinced this handsome young man to quit his job and move across the country for you, I'm convinced that you're a witch,” she told me. “Whatever spell you've got him under, you could make a fortune selling charms to do half of what you did.”
Christian stared at her for a moment in shock and then burst out laughing. “That's exactly what it is,” he told Betty, nodding. “She's got me spelled.” He grinned at me, holding out some daffodils toward me. “I was just wondering if I could take you out to lunch.”
“You hear that, Jerry?” Betty said to her husband as the two of them walked off. “Why don't you ever take me out to lunch?”
“Because I love your cooking too much when we're back home,” Jerry said sweetly. “But today, I got a recommendation for a seafood place downtown.”
“Seems like that was a fun appointment,” Christian commented as they walked out of earshot.
I smiled at them and then transferred my gaze to him. “It was,” I said. I bent down to sniff the flowers, smiling even more. “What are you up to?” I asked him. “Flowers and lunch? Did you break something? Do I have to fill out more paperwork for the business?”
Christian laughed and shook his head. “No,” he said. He shrugged. “I just wanted to see you, that's all.”
I shook my head, leaning in to kiss him on the cheek. Thinking back over everything that Betty and Jerry had said, I wondered if someday we could be like that.
I realized that what Mina had said earlier that morning was true. I was in love with him. I only hoped that he loved me back.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Christian
I rolled over toward Gretchen and pillowed my head on my forearms, playfully blowing her hair into her face. She wrinkled her nose, still asleep and batted it again. Only to have me repeat the movement as soon as she'd settled again. Finally, she blinked her eyes open, giving me an unimpressed look. “Good morning,” she said grumpily.
“Hey, put a smile on your face!” I said. “Today's the big day!”
Gretchen slowly smiled and shook her head. “Honestly, I think you're more excited than I am about this,” she said. “Which, it's my business.”
“And Mina's more excited than the both of us combined,” I said, grinning even more broadly.
“Yeah,” Gretchen said, shaking her head. She stretched widely. “So, what, it's time to get going already? I thought the ceremony wasn't going to be happening until the afternoon.”
“That's true,” I said. “But we have to go to the airport before the big event.”
“Oh, really?” Gretchen asked, frowning. “And why is that?” I could sense some mistrust behind her tone, and I hurriedly soothed it.
“I'm not going anywhere,” I told her, stroking her arm. “Jeff's flying in for the big day, though.”
“Oh, wow, really?” Gretchen asked, looking surprised.
“Yeah,” I said. “I told him about my new role as a business consultant, and he was excited. And winter's been a bit cruel to Boston this year, so I'm sure he's just looking for any excuse to get out of there and escape to someplace warm!”
Gretchen laughed. “Yeah, I can only imagine what that must be like. What time does his flight come in?”
“In about an hour and a half,” I said slyly. “I thought that before we got out of bed, maybe we could…”
I didn't have to say more. Gretchen quickly rolled so that she was straddling my hips, grinning mischievously down at me.
A little while later, we pulled up outside the arrivals terminal at the airport and waited for Jeff to come out to the car. He appeared quickly and dumped his luggage on the curb as he reached to hug both of us. “Great to see you, bro,” he said. “And great to see you too, Gretchen. I've heard a lot about you.”
Gretchen laughed and shook her head. “I've heard a lot about you too!” she said. “I'm glad that you're here to help us celebrate the opening of the new business.”
“Me too,” Jeff said. “And I'm happy to be someplace where I don't have to worry about my fingers freezing off!”
“I told you he was just looking for an excuse to get out of Boston,” I complained, winking at Gretchen.
She giggled. “Hey, isn't that just what you were doing when you first came here?” she asked. “For all I know, you're still just here because you can't handle New York's winters!”
I laughed and shook my head, loading Jeff's luggage into my new but nondescript silver car.
“So, tell me what I can look forward to today,” Jeff said to Gretchen as we drove, leaning forward from the back seat.
Gretchen laughed. “It's a good excuse to have a party,” she said. “And our new shop is down on the beach, so as it gets into the evening, we'll probably get a couple of bonfires started and have a sort of miniature luau. Good food, good alcohol, good people, what more could you need?”
“There will, of course, be plenty of pineapple on offer,” I said, rolling my eyes a little but grinning nonetheless. “You don't know how many piña colada recipes I've had to try over the past couple weeks. Mina was so intent on making them perfect.”
“Oh, woe is you,” Jeff said sarcastically. “You just had to spend your days sitting on a beach and sipping piña coladas?”
I snorted. “I know, right? How did I get this lucky?”
“You worked hard,” Jeff said quietly. “Luck had nothing to do with it.”
I glanced over at Gretchen and then reached over to squeeze her hand. “I wouldn't say luck had nothing to do with it,” I said, pleased to hear her giggle in response to that.
The beach was already pretty crowded by the time we arrived, and Mina was buzzing all over the place trying to make sure that everyone was happy. “There you are!” she exclaimed when she saw us. “I was beginning to think I was going to have to run this whole thing by myself!”
“Which you would have done an excellent job of,” Gretchen soothed.
“Sorry,” I said, grimacing a little because I knew that it was my fault that we were late. “We had to pick up my brother—this is Jeff—from the airport on the way, and the traffic was really bad getting back here; there was an accident. It looks like you've been doing a great job, though.”
“Can we get the speeches and the formal part out of the way first?” Mina asked.
“Sure thing,” Gretchen said. She grabbed her friend's hand and led her up onto the front porch, which today would double as a stage. Then, she looked back at me, frowning when she saw I was still standing there next to Jeff. She beckoned me up toward the stage, and after a sharp nudge from my brother, I slowly made my way up to join them.
“This is your day,” I said in an undertone to Gretchen.
“I never would have made it here without your help,” Gretchen shot back. “It's our day.”
The way she smiled up at me left me unable to argue.
“Hi everybody,” she said into the microphone, giving a little wave. “Neighbors and friends and whoever else our neighbors and friends have dragged along.” There was a short laugh at that. “A lot of you out there know Mina and me, and most of you are getting to know Christian as well. Now, Mina and I have been operating our businesses next to one another for years now. Lately, we've been successful at intermingling our client pool, so that people who come to me for a massage then go to her for a shake and people who come to her for pineapple then come to me for a massage. Our aim in all of this has been to give everyone the most relaxing experience that they can have on this beautiful island.”
“But there's so much more to our partnership than that,” Mina said. “I'm lucky enough to be standing up here with my best friend, and about to go into business wi
th her. We believe that a great shop experience begins the moment you encounter the smiling face of your shopkeeper, and we both know that with the two of us working together, we're always going to be smiling.”
They continued talking along this vein for a little while, and I, along with most of the audience, I was sure, couldn't help from smiling along with them at their sheer enthusiasm at the fact that they were going to be coworkers. Finally, they wrapped it up, and together they cut the brightly-colored ribbon that had been strung across the back doors to the new place. The crowd erupted in cheers, and then it was time for the party to start.
“Just like a luau, huh?” Gretchen asked a little while later, smiling next to me as we watched people begin grilling up tasty bites for dinner.
“Pretty much,” I said, grinning at her. “Looks like Mina's having a good day too, doesn't it?”
Gretchen looked over where I was pointed and gaped at her friend. I'd been watching them over the course of the past few hours, and Mina was unmistakably flirting, tossing back her hair every once in a while, and totally focusing all of her body language toward-
“Is that your brother?” Gretchen asked in surprise.
“Yup,” I said, grinning over at her. “He's not a billionaire like some of us, but he's a pretty good guy.”
Gretchen snorted and lightly hit my arm. But I could tell that she was pleased to see Mina looking happy. “Do you think that she's ever going to convince him to leave Boston and move down here?” she mused.
“Stranger things have happened,” I said, shrugging.
“That they have,” Gretchen said. She bit her lower lip. “So, I know that you're part of the business now, as a consultant if nothing more, but…”
“Are you asking me again whether I regret moving down here?” I asked, turning to face her. “Because I definitely, definitely don't. And you don't need to ask me that every month, you know!”
Gretchen sighed. “I love seeing you here with all my friends and everyone else. You look like you're having fun, but I don't want you to feel like I'm holding you back. I know managing a little massage parlor-slash-pineapple shop probably wasn't exactly what you had in mind for your life.”
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