Made For Us, page 4
“We didn’t get caught,” Wilson says, laughing, “and we weren’t doing it.” He just smirks. “I was feeling her up, and her ass got stung by a bee.”
“That’s my sister,” Cooper groans and pretends he’s going to vomit.
“One year”—Michael puts his hand up—“Alex ran away from Dylan.”
“She didn’t run away,” Dylan denies. “She was giving me space.”
“She took a plane and left the island,” Michael points out. “That’s leaving you.”
Dylan just flips him the bird. “One year, Michael fell asleep in one of those hammock things and had a glasses sunburn on his face.” All the guys laugh, even Michael.
“Needless to say, you never ask what can go wrong because with my family,” Cooper says, “the possibilities are endless. Especially now that Matty and Christopher are allowed to drink.”
“They got shit-faced two years ago,” Wilson adds. “We found them throwing up in the bushes.”
“Well, that sounds like a great time,” I say, “if it’s not too much trouble.”
Cooper picks up his phone and dials someone, and as soon as I hear Matthew’s voice, I just listen. “Dad, Tristan and Penelope are coming with.”
“Perfect, we have five extra houses, just in case,” Matthew replies, and I look over at Xavier.
“Just in case?” I whisper, and Xavier just shakes his head.
“Don’t make me judge my future father-in-law,” he says, and I laugh. It takes us about three hours to clean out the lockers, and the boys take one more picture before we all walk out.
When I finally pull up in the driveway, my phone pings with an alert and an email comes in from Matthew with all the trip details.
Grabbing the bag from the back seat, I walk up the path and open the front door. “I’m home.” The door to upstairs is closed, so I know she isn’t upstairs. I walk into the house, putting my bag right at the entrance to the dining room that we only ever use during the holidays. “P,” I yell her name and still hear nothing when I walk into the huge family room. It’s the whole reason I bought this house. It’s in the middle of the house, attached to a giant kitchen with an even bigger island. It’s where we spend most of the time.
The massive U-shaped couch in the middle of the family room took me six months to get since it was custom made, and it feels like you’re in a bed every time you sit on it. The whole reason for that was because we love to do movie nights, and if we fall asleep, she won’t get a sore back. I look over to the back door, seeing splashes coming from the pool.
I smile as I walk out and see her jump into the pool. “Hey,” I say to Roxanne, the babysitter, who is sitting on the side of the pool watching her. My parents just left after spending the past two weeks here. I hated to see them leave, but I know in a couple of weeks I’ll be with them for the rest of the summer.
“Hi.” She smiles at me. Roxanne has been with me for the past six years. My mother hired her when she came down, and she is the one who watches Penelope when I travel and for home games.
“Is she tired?” I ask, and she just smiles. I know she’s probably running on fumes at this point. “You can take off now,” I urge her, and she gets up, walking inside.
“Daddy,” Penelope squeals when she comes up from under the water, “did you see my jump?”
“I did.” I kick off my shoes and socks and walk over to the side of the pool, putting my feet in while she goes around in circles. “Did you pack your things for the lake?”
She looks over at me and just smiles. “No.” She shakes her head. “I thought you said we would do it together.”
“No,” I remind her, “I gave you a list of everything you needed to pack.”
She laughs. “I forgot,” she lies to me, and she smiles. “But we can do it together.”
“Fine,” I huff. “I was talking to Xavier, and he invited us to go to the beach,” I inform her, and her eyes light up even more. “You didn’t want to go to the beach, did you?” I get up, standing by the pool as she comes over to the steps.
She walks up the steps, leaking water everywhere. “I do, I do.”
“Good, because we leave in two days.”
“Yay!” She jumps into my arms like she always does, and I catch her, my shirt soaked from her. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.” She kisses me on the cheek every single time she says thank you. She wraps her arms around me. “Is Parker going to be there?” She mentions Cooper’s daughter who she is always with.
“She is,” I confirm as she wiggles out of my arms. “Let’s go pack.”
She holds out her hand for me. “Can we have pizza?” she asks at the same time as she puts her hand in mine and looks up at me. Her blue eyes sparkle as her hair drips all over the place. “Can we build sandcastles?” I walk her over to the chair where her towel is. She lets my hand go to wrap the towel around her. “Can we do mermaid tails?”
All I know is I would give her my whole world. “We can do whatever you want,” I tell her, leaning down and kissing her nose.
“Is Abigail going to come also?” she asks, and I look at her.
“I think so.” I think about the picture I saved earlier today of the three of us. “ That would be nice,” I tell her, but she just ignores me and walks inside, leaving me with my own thoughts. “Yes, that would be nice.”
CHAPTER FIVE
ABIGAIL
“The car is going to be here in ten minutes,” Gabriella yells from her bedroom. “Which means we have nine minutes to get downstairs.”
I huff as I zip closed the suitcase. “Or we can get downstairs before the car gets here and be early,” I yell back at her as I pull my luggage off the bed and onto the floor. I push it toward the door and it stops right at the door.
“You are already a buzzkill,” Gabriella accuses from my bedroom doorway. “This is a vacation, which means we go on island time.”
I can’t help but laugh at her and look at her outfit. She’s wearing cream-colored yoga shorts and a yoga bra with an open, white linen button-down top, with white sneakers, “I’m not a buzzkill. I’m just saying it would be nice if we…” I toss my earphones into my blue Christian Door purse. “And by we, I mean you, were on time.”
She huffs at me, “You know there are like a million people going, right?” She puts her hands on her hips. “And you know it takes a good hour for us to even load up the plane.”
“Which is why we are leaving forty minutes later than everyone,” I point out to her, “but we should still be ready when the car gets here.”
She throws up her hands. “I’m ready.” She looks me up and down. “Are you ready?”
“What is wrong with what I’m wearing?” I look down at blue jean shorts and my oversized gray-and-white striped linen shirt, tied loosely at the waist, and the sleeves rolled up to my elbows.
“Nothing if you aren’t trying to pick up anyone,” she says, turning and walking back to her bedroom.
“We are going on a plane with our family members!” I shout at her retreating back. “Who the fuck am I trying to pick up?”
She looks over her shoulder at me. “The pilot.”
“Who could be a woman.” I can’t let her have the last word, obviously.
“Don’t forget to pack condoms,” she fights back with words. “Wouldn’t want you to get knocked up on your first try.”
“You are such a bitch,” I tell her, and she just smirks.
“Takes one to know one.” She holds her arms over her head and puts her hands together in the shape of a heart.
“Why are you even living in my house?” I ask, and all she does is laugh at me. I grab my Dior bag and then carry my luggage downstairs. “Four minutes,” I yell and hear wheels rolling across the floor. Gabriella comes out of her room with one suitcase in front of her and another behind her.
“I’m coming,” she declares, getting to the top of the stairs, picking up one bag, and carrying it down before walking back up and repeating it for the next one. When she finally gets back down the stairs, she is panting.
She walks over to the fridge, grabbing a bottle of water. “You are bringing two suitcases?” I ask her. She just nods while she drinks half the bottle of water as if she just worked out for an hour instead of twenty-six stairs.
“Remember the last time I brought one suitcase and I was missing all sorts of stuff?” She looks at me, and I just shake my head. “This time, I brought backup plans.” She points at me. “And I’m not sharing.”
“Fine by me,” I walk to the door when I hear someone in the driveway. “I’m planning on being in my bikini all day and having one outfit per night.”
“Same,” she agrees, coming to me, and I just look at her. “Okay, fine, I will go to breakfast in one outfit and then bikini and then dinner.” I tilt my head to the side, and she throws her hands up, “Okay, I have outfits in case there is someone I need to impress.” I just laugh at her. “Let’s go.” She ushers past me. “We are going to be late.” She stops mid-step. “I’ll bring my camera,”
I walk out after her, and the heat hits me right away. “It’s so hot,” I mumble as I close the door behind me but then rush back in to make sure I closed and locked everything. I jog up the steps to Gabriella’s room, seeing it in a total mess. But I just walk toward the bathroom, making sure she didn’t leave anything on. I do a quick sweep and then walk back out, closing and locking the door.
I see the black car with the trunk already closed and the driver waiting for me by the door. He opens the back door for me as I slide in. “Did you go back and make sure I didn’t leave anything on in my bathroom?” Gabriella asks, looking up from her phone.
“No,” I lie to her, and she just laughs.
“Maury said that’s a lie,” she jokes with me. “You forget.” She turns and continues on her phone. “I know you better than you know yourself.” I’m about to say something to her when she just looks over at me and smiles so big it fills her whole face. “Also, I was ready before you.” I snicker. “Was I not in the car before you while you did what you did?”
I don’t bother answering her while I buckle my seat belt and the car starts moving. My phone beeps in my purse. I open my bag, grabbing it and looking down to see that Christopher texted the family chat.
Christopher:
I’m on the plane.
Gabriella:
Congratulations, you have activated Squid Games.
I snort out.
Christopher:
It feels like Hunger Games on this plane.
Me:
How many people are left to board?
Christopher:
No one, we are closing the doors now. Your boarding pass has been canceled.
“He’s hilarious,” Gabriella says to me while her fingers go nuts.
Gabriella:
Good, so we’ll fly in our own plane. Bottom line, you still lose.
Christopher:
I really think our family needs to stop producing children. It’s like the Gremlins in here.
Me:
You were one of those Gremlins at one point.
Dylan:
Did you just call my kids Gremlins?
Gabriella:
He did.
Me:
You should kick his ass.
Alex:
I thought I left this group chat.
Me:
Dylan added you back in.
Alex has left the group chat.
Dylan has added Alex back to the group.
Me:
You can run, but we’ll find you.
I toss my phone back in my bag when the car stops, and I look over to see the huge charter plane waiting. The stainless-steel stairs are pushed up against the door, which is open. I see four cars in front of us as various people get out of them. The porters are there with luggage carts unloading the trunks of the cars.
I open the door and step out, squinting with the sun hitting me in the eye. I slam the car door shut at the same time as Gabriella does. “You guys are late,” my uncle Matthew declares, coming over to us.
“How are we the ones late when there are four other cars here at the same time?” I ask him as I walk over to him and give him a hug. “Oh, Uncle Matthew, Gabriella wants to know if there will be condoms given out in our room.” I look over at Gabriella, whose eyes go big. “She really wants to be safe.”
Matthew looks at me and then at Gabriella. “I thought after I survived Zara and Zoe, I would be safe from having a heart attack.” He looks at Gabriella. “She’s joking, right?”
“About having safe sex?” Gabriella replies. “Absolutely, it’s so much better playing Russian roulette with my ovaries.”
I can’t help but laugh out loud as Matthew’s vein in his forehead goes bigger. “Get on the plane,” he grits between clenched teeth
We walk away laughing, stopping when we come face-to-face with Dylan. “Why are you late?” I look over at him, and he just laughs.
“This isn’t our first rodeo,” he reminds, as Alex looks at Maddox and says something to him. He’s wearing blue shorts with a white shirt, a Stanley Cup baseball hat turned backward, pushing his ‘hockey flow’ hair back, and gold aviator sunglasses cover his eyes. He bends down and kisses her cheek. “I’ll be fine, Mom.” He smirks at her. “I’m going to hang with Christopher and Stefano.”
“Absolutely not,” Dylan declares, putting his hand on his hips, and I see they are dressed alike, just Dylan isn’t wearing a hat.
“The legal drinking age on the island is eighteen, which means…” Maddox smirks at Dylan.
“Which means I’m going to be watching you like a hawk,” Dylan warns him.
“You look like my father”—Alex tries not to laugh at Dylan and the way he stands there—“and Uncle Matthew all wrapped in one.”
“Dad, what’s the worst that can happen?” Maddox asks.
“One year, your father and Uncle Michael got so drunk your father fell asleep in the bathroom,” I start to say, and Dylan just groans out. “I went to the bathroom and thought he was a home invader and kicked him right in the balls.”
“Dad, you didn’t?” Maddox says out loud, gasping.
“I was eighteen, and you should learn from me,” he advises, and Maddox just shakes his head.
I walk toward Maddox. “I’ll take care of him,” I reassure, putting my arm around his waist. He places his hand around my neck, and we turn around and walk toward the stairs. “Would you go easy, please?”
He just laughs. “Always,” he says, jogging up the steps to the plane. I walk up the steps, holding on as the wind now blows my hair across my face. I turn the other way when I get to the top, pushing it away from my face as I step into the plane.
“Hi,” the flight attendant greets me with a smile. “Welcome aboard.”
“Thank you,” I reply, turning and looking into the plane. There are three seats on each side of the plane and even in the middle.
I look around, and my eyes find him right away. The minute I look at him, everything inside me stops as my head screams, “What in the actual fuck?” I try to get my heart beating a normal pace, but when he’s around, it’s very fucking hard for me. The sound of my heart beating erratically now echoes in my ears. I try to look around to make sure no one can see the internal freak-out I am having. I need to sit down before he sees me and talk myself off the ledge.
“Abigail.” I hear Penelope say my name. I blink a couple of times and put on my game face. A face I’ve been perfecting for the past six years. From the first day I met him, there was something special about him. I just didn’t know what it was. I was lucky enough to witness the first time they met. I saw magic happen before my eyes. He was scared shitless, but he also knew what he needed to do. His becoming the best dad I’ve ever seen made me fall more and more in love with him.
Penelope gets up and comes over to me, hugging me around my waist. I smile down at her. “Well, what do we have here?” I ask her as she puts her head back and looks at me.
“We are coming with you,” she says and then grabs my hand. “Do you want to sit with me?”
I look up, seeing Tristan’s blue eyes watching us. “Of course,” I agree, faking it. I mean, not faking that I want to sit with her but faking that I’m happy about it. There is absolutely nothing I wouldn’t do for her. She owns half my heart, and sadly her father owns the other side, and the best thing is, he has no clue either. No one does. I’ve been perfecting masking my feelings for the past six years. To be honest, the only one who has homed in on it has been Gabriella, who has been sworn to twin secrecy.
I walk down the aisle smiling and stopping to kiss my grandparents before walking two rows farther toward Tristan, who is now standing in the aisle. “Hi,” he greets me, smiling, and I don’t know why I expect him to lean in and kiss my cheek. But he doesn’t, which then makes me wish he had.
“Hi,” I say to him, putting on a smile. “This is a nice surprise.” I try not to stutter as my mouth goes dry.
“Yeah, we decided at the last minute,” he shares as I look at him. A little warning would be nice, my head says to itself.
“Can I sit at the window?” Penelope asks, walking into the row, sitting down, and looking out the window. “Abigail, sit next to me.”
I smile at her. “There isn’t anywhere else I wanted to sit anyway.” I look over at Tristan, who just looks at me. I tuck the hair behind my ear, putting my bag in the overhead bin.
I step into the aisle and sit in the middle seat, telling myself the minute I can escape, I’m going to. I sit in the middle seat and grab the seat belt when I feel him sit next to me. The smell of his aftershave makes my stomach flutter. I can feel him looking at me, but I tell myself he’s looking at Penelope, and I’m just in the way.
