Saving Ever After (Ever After #4)

by Stephanie Hoffman McManus

  I was hooked to it next. When I took my first step out on the bridge, and felt how much it swayed, even I felt my stomach fall a little, but I’d always loved that feeling. It was the same one I got just before the big drop on a roller coaster.

  Chris moved impressively quick through both of the challenges, probably motivated by his need to make it to the next solid platform. At each one, the guide would transfer our clips from one rope to the next, one at a time, so that we were never unattached. With each challenge, as we crawled over ladders, maneuvered through dangling ropes with footholds in the bottoms, and walked across cables and beams, Chris seemed to loosen up a little. He even laughed as we flew through the trees on the flying foxes, which were definitely my favorite.

  He did not laugh however, when he was ahead of me on one of the long, suspended net bridges, and I started bouncing and rocking it side to side. He did not laugh at all then.

  “Mia! Knock it off, you’re not funny.”

  I thought I was. I gave it another little shake and watched him freeze, hanging onto the netting for dear life. Up ahead, Spade had turned back and was watching in amusement.

  “What’s the matter Chris?” He hollered back.

  “Fuck you!” Chris shouted and then quickly ran the last few yards to the end. I didn’t mess with him too much after that. I really had no desire to be thrown from the trees. However, a freefall toward the ground was what was in store for all of us at the end. It was a forty foot drop to the ground and we had to jump. Well we didn’t have to, but even Chris wasn’t opting to climb down the ladder instead. Probably because he didn’t want me to call him a chicken like a third grade bully for the rest of the day.

  I swear my heart stopped when I took that leap from the platform and began the fast freefall toward the ground. It was just a second before it started racing again and the scream was propelled from my lungs as I hurdled toward the forest floor. About two thirds of the way down, the harness caught, slowing my descent, and when my feet touched down, I laughed, “That was awesome!”

  Chris looked a little like he might be sick after his jump, but everyone else seemed to share my opinion. I think we were all ready to go again, but he insisted his feet were staying firmly planted on the ground for the rest of our trip. I didn’t remind him that his hotel room was on the seventy-second floor. I wondered how he felt about that.

  By the time we had returned our harnesses and the guys had taken a picture with some of the staff, and we were on our way out with brand new souvenir t-shirts, it was well into the afternoon. As much as I had enjoyed the treetop challenge, I was looking forward to being back on the beach.

  I didn’t need to shop. I wasn’t brave enough to try surfing or boogie boarding, at least not yet. All I wanted to do was spend the next two hours before we had to leave, with my toes in the sand and the sun on my face.

  When we returned, we all split up, choosing our own directions. Some of the group headed toward the market area, Spade chose to go get a nap in before tonight, and I went right for the beach and the water.

  I kicked my sandals off and threw my sweater down on the sand and walked to the edge of the water, letting the waves roll in over the tops of my feet. The cool water felt great against my warm skin. The light cloud cover offered just enough protection from the sun to keep it from being too hot of a day. I tipped my head back, soaking up the rays that broke through the clouds, before wading in a little deeper, joining the throng of kids and adults who were enjoying the water.

  The long stretch of beach was busy without being overwhelmingly crowded. I was so engrossed in watching a couple of young boys take the waves on their boogie boards, that I failed to notice someone coming up behind me until hands were going around my waist, lifting and then tossing me forward into the waves.

  I hit the water and then sprang back up, turning on my surprise attacker, not at all surprised to see that it was Chris, and he was laughing.

  “Jerk,” I sputtered, kicking water at him.

  “You had that coming.” He grinned, eyes hiding behind his dark shades.

  “I guess I did,” I shrugged, “but now that I’m wet, there’s nothing stopping me from dragging you under.” I took a quick step toward him, but he was quicker, darting and juking through the water as I chased after him. He started to fumble as one wave hit him right in the knees, and before he could right himself and take off again, I leapt onto his back, pushing him down into the water. Waves crashed over our heads, and we both came up laughing and spitting salt water. He bent at the waist, aligning his shoulder with my stomach, and quickly threw me over it. My head was hanging just above his ass, not an altogether unfortunate position to be in, because what an ass it was with his wet shorts molded to it like sculpted granite.

  He carried me out deeper until the water was waist level for him and the waves were crashing against my head. “Put me down, Chris.” I smacked him right on the ass.

  He just laughed and returned the favor, only he smacked me harder and I yelped, squirming and almost falling right down into the water. Eventually he did drop me, gently down into the water and then we resumed the chasing and splashing until we were both exhausted, drenched and had probably swallowed a gallon of seawater each. We waded back to the shore, plopping down in the sun heated sand. The side of his body was aligned perfectly with mine, our shoulders almost touching, and I was all too aware that I would only have to inch my hand over slightly to link our fingers. I sighed and closed my eyes. “I think I could stay here forever.” With you. I didn’t say that last part out loud.

  “Me too. It’s just about perfect,” he said softly, and I couldn’t agree more. The only thing that would make it more perfect was if he closed those inches and took my hand in his, but he didn’t.

  Chapter 19

  Chris

  I watched Mia at the edge of the beach, sitting in the sand with Abel in her lap. She was laughing as he enjoyed burying his hands and toes in the sand, squealing and sometimes flinging it. A camera went off beside me and I turned to see Jax with her lens pointed right at me.

  “What was that for?” I asked her.

  “I haven’t seen you really smile like that in a while. Just wanted to get it on camera,” she said casually, but there was nothing casual about the mischievous glint in her eye.

  “Let me see it,” I said walking over to her. She held out the camera and flipped through the pictures she had just taken. There were several of Mia playing with Abel, and then, sure enough, she’d caught me staring off with a wide grin on my face.

  Jax looked right out at Mia, “The beach sure is gorgeous here, isn’t it?” I knew what she was doing just as assuredly as Jax knew I had been watching Mia.

  “Mmhmm,” I mumbled, turning away.

  “I just wonder Chris,” she said, stopping me, “if there’s something at home that makes you smile like that.”

  I only paused a moment before continuing on the walkway back toward the hotel, but Jax’s words went with me. All night they were in my head. On the car ride back into Brisbane, during rehearsal, while we were dressed and fitted with mics, and even while we were out on that stage. They were on replay. So was the day I’d had.

  And all of it brought me back to a single thought, a single truth. The smile, it was Mia. She put it there, it was for her. She was the reason for it today and so many other times. I could hate it, I could fight it, I could deny it. It didn’t make it less true. She’d made me feel lighter and more carefree today than I had in a very long time. And she did it just by being her.

  She was happier and more carefree than I’d ever seen her. Nothing was weighing her down or dimming the life in her, and this wasn’t just a moment or a little glimpse I was seeing. It was just her. Letting go and having fun. And she was bringing it out in me. Even when I’d wanted to strangle her for shaking that bridge today and making me feel like I was going to piss my pants forty feet above the ground, there wasn’t a single moment of the day that I would trade, or anyone e
lse I wanted to share it with.

  That was a problem. One that wasn’t going away, but was actually going to get worse. The next morning, after our early wakeup call and quick flight from Brisbane down to Sydney, there was a surprise waiting for me at our hotel there. She was standing in the lobby when we arrived.

  Katrina.

  I should have been happy to see her. I should have rushed to her and pulled her into my arms. I didn’t. I stood there stunned for a minute before she walked over to me, setting her bag down and wrapping her arms around my waist. I had to tell myself to stop standing there like an idiot and return the embrace, but it felt so off, especially with Mia standing just off to my left. I don’t know what caused me to look over at her, but I did. Her head was turned away, hiding her face from me.

  I pulled out of Katrina’s arms and tried to muster up some joy that my girlfriend had flown to Australia to surprise me, but it just wasn’t there, so I faked it until I could figure out what to do.

  “Hey,” I forced a smile. “What are you doing here?”

  “I wrapped up my shoot in Manila early and decided, why not just hop on over to Sydney instead of flying back home?” She beamed brilliantly.

  “Fantastic,” I leaned down and kissed the corner of her mouth.

  “You’re really going to think so when we get to the massage I booked for us here at the spa in an hour. So we better hurry up to our room and get ready.”

  “Chris?” Spade said questioningly. In an hour we were supposed to be on a boat out in Sydney Harbor for the group parasailing trip we’d booked.

  “Umm, babe, the group is going parasailing in a bit, do you want to join them, and maybe get a massage later?”

  “If I cancel our appointment I don’t think they’ll be able to fit us in,” she said, slightly annoyed. “It was hard enough getting an appointment last minute. If you’d rather go parasailing with everyone else, that’s fine, but you know it’s not really my thing, so I’ll just stick around here and go to the massage by myself.”

  “No, it’s alright,” I sighed. Trying not to make my disappointment too obvious, I turned back to face the rest of the group. “You guys go on. I could really use a massage.” They nodded, but I think Katrina was the only one who actually bought it, smiling brightly. I’m not sure what Mia thought, she was still looking away from me. I watched her for just a second longer, hoping she would turn my way and I could read her face, but she didn’t. I told myself it didn’t matter anyway, and followed Katrina up to the room I would now be sharing with her.

  The massage was fine, nice even, but I could get a massage any time I wanted one, and it was hard not to spend the entire time wishing I was out on the water with everyone else.

  “Hey, is everything alright? You seem a little off,” Katrina asked when we were walking hand in hand through the hotel afterward.

  “I’m fine. I think I’m just a little tired. That massage really relaxed me. What do you want to do now?” I changed the subject.

  “How about we sit by the pool for a while? We can get a drink and then cool off when it gets hotter.”

  My phone buzzed, alerting me to a new message.

  “Or we could go find a beach, take a picnic, do some snorkeling,” I suggested, checking my phone and seeing that it was a picture message from Jax.

  “Ugh,” Katrina groaned, as I opened the message. “I’m so sick of the sand. I swear my last four shoots have all been on beaches.”

  Barely hearing her, I made the picture full screen, wondering why Jax had sent it. I was looking at Mia with a smile that could only be described as ecstatic, plastered across her face as she soared high above the water, harnessed into the chute being pulled by the boat. Without thinking about it, I saved the picture and then closed it, slipping my phone into my pocket.

  “Alright. The pool it is then,” I said as enthusiastically as I could manage.

  Out on the pool deck, she found us a couple of loungers under a cabana and immediately waved over an attendant to get us some drinks. It seemed she was content to lay there, going back and forth dipping her feet in and then returning to her lounger, occasionally moving it out under the sun.

  I was bored as shit after thirty minutes. Lying poolside all day just wasn’t my style, not when there was so much else to be doing and we had limited time to do it in. Parasailing, diving in the harbor, renting a boat or jet skis. Those were all things we’d talked about on the flight this morning.

  Spade texted me when they’d finished parasailing, asking me if I was going to be diving with them after lunch. I looked over at Katrina, basking in the sun beside me, doubtful that I could talk her into leaving her spot, and texted him back that we would just meet up with them for dinner before the show.

  Taking a hopeful shot that I was wrong, I got her attention by rubbing my hand up her arm.

  “Mmm, that feels nice.”

  “Hey babe, the others are grabbing lunch and then going diving in the harbor, do you want to meet up with them?”

  As I expected, she quickly shot that down, saying she’d rather we spent time together, just the two of us.

  “Then what do you want to do? I can’t just sit around the pool much longer,” I said, trying to keep my irritation in check.

  “Well,” she sat up and smiled coyly at me. “I can think of something we could do back in the room.”

  I didn’t say anything.

  My girlfriend just suggested we go back to our room and have sex, and instead of tossing her over my shoulder, I sat there awkwardly, trying to come up with an excuse not to.

  I took too long and Katrina’s seductive smile twisted into a frown. “Or not,” she muttered.

  I needed to say something fast. “It’s not that I don’t want to, but you always wear me out babe, and we have a show in a few hours. I think the fans might be pretty pissed if I was off tonight because my girlfriend rode me too hard right before.”

  Some of the tension on her face melted away and she rolled her eyes, but at least she was smiling. “Fine. Since you sounded interested in diving, how about we go check out the Sea Life Aquarium. I saw it on a brochure in the lobby. It’s almost the same thing, but we won’t have to put on those stupid suits and masks and get in the water.”

  “Sure. That sounds good.” It sounded a lot better than sitting around the hotel the rest of the day anyway.

  Katrina tried to change my mind when we were up in the room and she slipped out of her bikini. It almost worked. She looked good naked and she knew it, but even though parts of my body were very interested, my head just wasn’t in it. The desire was lacking, so I brushed her off by exaggerating my excitement for the aquarium a little, and implying that we would have tonight after the show.

  Maybe by then I would know what the hell I was going to do, because I couldn’t keep this up. Pushing Katrina away and making excuses. It was messed up and I needed to get past whatever had changed in the last twenty-four hours that had me feeling this way.

  My fear though, was that it wasn’t something that had changed, but me who had changed. And that it was Mia who was changing me, and changing what I wanted. I wasn’t sure that was something I could just get past, or if I really wanted to, but Katrina deserved for me to at least try. I owed her that much and she still meant something to me, so I cleared my head of all thoughts of Mia and just focused my energy on enjoying my day with Katrina. It had been a long time since we’d spent time together doing something fun. Maybe I just missed that.

  The aquarium was pretty incredible. I held her hand as we walked from exhibit to exhibit in the different sections. It looked like they’d taken chunks right out of the harbor and the Great Barrier Reef, rather than just recreating the environments. Even Katrina seemed to grow more animated the deeper we got into the aquarium.

  I knew I wouldn’t have seen this many different sea creatures out diving, but still it was hard not to want to be out in the water, swimming with them. The only time I was thankful for the glass separatin
g me from the sea life was when we toured through Shark Valley. I had no desire to meet a shark face to face out in the wild, especially not some of the ones they had in these tanks. As fascinating and fucking cool as they were, most of them looked like they could take my leg off with one bite.

  At the end of the aquarium tour was a little café where we stopped off to grab some fish and chips, and of course Katrina couldn’t leave without popping into the gift shop. I grabbed a couple things to take home to Abby, and then my eye caught on a plush, stuffed turtle. It made me think of Mia. Jaxyn had played Finding Nemo on the flight from LAX. Mia had said she’d rather find Crush while she was here. She loved turtles. Without really thinking, I grabbed the stuffed animal. I didn’t know if she’d found any turtles while diving today, but I hoped this one would make her smile.

  “What have you got?” Katrina came up behind me.

  “Oh, just some stuff for Abby,” I told her.

  “Oh cute, but look what I found.” She held up matching his and hers aquarium t-shirts.

  “They’re great.” I smiled and took them from her, adding them to my stuff so we could get out of there before she found anymore matching shit.

  I didn’t even know why I was so turned off by it. We’d had a great time together. I’d enjoyed her company, talking and sharing our favorite things we saw, laughing at some of the funnier creatures. It was nice to see her lighten up a little. Yet, all day, doubts had lingered in the back of my mind, making me question our relationship and what we saw in each other, why we were together, whether or not we even made each other happy anymore.

  I’d had to make an effort to just be in the moment with her and enjoy myself. I couldn’t help but compare that to that natural ease that seemed to exist between me and Mia. I never had to try and have a good time with her.

  It was more than that though, whatever this connection was, and I couldn’t shake it or ignore it, as hard as I tried. Mia was the last person I wanted to fall for. In my head, Katrina was the better choice in every way. She was more mature and more stable in her life. There wasn’t the huge age difference issue with her, and I already knew that my career wouldn’t come between us because she understood the demands it put on me and accepted them.