The shower trick was low. He knew how much I loved him in a towel. It reminded me of our first morning together. We’d woken up and showered together, and I finally felt like I had found home again.
Before I had a chance to come up with a witty comeback to his touching comment, our instructor showed up; he was a tanned young surfer dude with blonde hair and an accent to match his laid back style. We both stood to greet him, and he kindly shook our hands, but his eyes lingered on me, and Logan noticed.
“Nice to meet you, Derek. I’m Logan, and this is my fiancée, Clare. We’re here for the week celebrating our upcoming wedding.” It wasn’t lost on me that he emphasized the word fiancée or immediately wrapped a possessive arm around my waist.
“Well, it’s nice to meet you both. Very nice,” he said, his eyes still trying to lock with mine. Not happening, dude.
“Well, who’s ready to get wet?!” he said with enthusiasm. Logan’s hand gripped my hip harder and I sighed.
Oh, this was going to be fun.
I hated snorkeling. If that guy looked at Clare one more time, I swore I was going to shove his air tube up his ass. Note to self, request old, g*y instructor next time.
“Okay, guys…had a great time. Thanks for spending the afternoon with me,” the douche said, before he narrowed in on Clare. “If you need any one-on-one time in the future, please be sure to ask for Derek.”
Clare’s eyes widened a bit before giving a polite nod. She said thank you, which was more politeness than I could offer up at the moment. It was all I could do to keep my mouth shut. It takes a special kind of ass**le to flirt with your fiancée right in front of you days before your wedding. The ass**le in question sauntered away, no doubt thinking Clare was checking him out as he did. She wasn’t. She had turned to me, her eyes full of laughter.
“You’re jealous. And mad.”
“That was not fun.”
“You’re kind of hot when you’re mad,” she said, rising up on her tip toes to place a soft kiss on my mouth. Not giving her the chance to move away, I pulled her closer, deepening the kiss as I moved my tongue with hers. She moaned, making that sound I loved, and melted in my arms. I needed to pull away and stop before the semi I was now sporting went pro. Covering up a boner in swimming trunks was nearly impossible, and there was no way I was going to do so out in the open with our relatives and friends milling about.
I reluctantly pulled back, running my fingers down the side of her face, into her damp hair. The sun was hot, and her hair had already started to dry in waves against her back.
“Giving up so easily, Mr. Matthews?” she teased.
“Just trying to keep my sanity, Mrs. Matthews-to-be. If I keep going, I won’t be able to stop, and then your family will end up getting quite the show.”
She snorted out a laugh, giving me a playful slap on the chest.
“Come on, Casanova, let’s go find Maddie. I think her day program will be wrapping up soon and I wanted to take her shopping.”
I bent down to pick up our stuff which was still resting near the lounge chairs we had occupied earlier. As soon as I came back up, the world tilted, and my vision blurred. I grabbed the first thing I could find, the lounger, but I missed, or I think I did. All I know was I ended up on the sand, with the lounge chair upended next to me.
“Oh my God! Logan! Logan! Are you okay?”
Clare came rushing to my side, kneeling down to pull me into her lap. I was dizzy, so dizzy. I looked around, my vision returning back to normal a bit, but still a bit fuzzy. Clare’s father and mother were rushing over to us.
“I’m fine. I’m okay,” I said, trying to rise. “I just need some water.”
She dove into her beach bag, retrieving a bottle of water, and handed it to me. I took a few sips and let the water slid down my throat.
“Mom, go to the hotel. Have the front desk get a car ready. We need to get him to the hospital.”
“No,” I said simply.
“What?” Clare looked at me suddenly, her eyes filled with horror.
“Babe, I’m fine. Just a bit of dizziness. It’s passing.”
“But, what if…”
“Laura, Tom…can you give us a minute?” I asked Clare’s parents. They nodded, both still looking at me with concern. I understood. Everyone here had already lost someone to cancer. But I wasn’t going anywhere, and they needed to stop walking on egg shells.
After Laura and Tom walked back to their spot on the beach, not too far away, I looked up at Clare. Her eyes brimmed with tears, and she looked half a second away from sobs.
“Babe, come here,” I said softly, opening my arms so she could fill them. She came willingly like she always did. We sat in the sand, holding each other for a minute while I gathered my thoughts. She pulled back finally, meeting my gaze, waiting for answers.
I took another sip of water, trying to keep the dizziness at bay. “This has nothing to do with the cancer, okay? Remember, I have no symptoms yet. They caught it early.”
“Then why did I just watch you almost pass out a minute ago?”
“It’s the meds they put me on. That, combined with the heat. I haven’t had enough to drink, so I got dehydrated. I should have been watching my fluids. I’m a damn doctor, you would think I’d know this…but we’re usually the worst patients.”
“Well, then why the hell are we still outside!” she demanded, immediately jumping to her feet and trying to pull me with her. I weighed a good deal more than her so it was like trying to lift a bear. I helped her, rising to my feet slowly so that I wouldn’t get dizzy again.
We made our way inside, where she continued to fuss over me for the rest of the afternoon. After more water and a bit of food, I was back to normal, but I feared Clare was anything but.
Chapter Six
~Logan~
After a mid-afternoon nap, I was feeling like my old self again. The dizziness was completely gone, and I wanted nothing more than to find my gorgeous fiancée and spent the rest of the evening with her wrapped in my arms.
I knew she was supposed to be pool side with Leah and Maddie, so I threw on some board shorts, ran my hands through my hair and hurried out to the door in search of my family. I just about took out Leah in my attempt.
“Oh my God, Logan, would you slow down?” Leah said, catching her breath after having probably lost a year or two of her life from being scared out of her mind when I came barreling out of my hotel suite straight into her.