Made For Us, page 6
But the minute she came to town for Christmas and came with me to volunteer at the hospital, it was almost as if she knew right away. It’s a twin thing, just like I know there is a reason she moved to Dallas, and it’s not because she got bored with LA. I thought I held the secret really tight, but then when he was in the same room with us, it took her point one second to guess. She didn’t out me right in front of him. No, she waited until we were alone, where I couldn’t hide from her. The minute she guessed, it was almost as if the dam broke, and I finally admitted what I was hiding. She sat there and then put her arm around me when I sobbed, knowing there was no way I would ever do anything about my feelings.
That weekend I decided it was just a crush, and I pushed back my feelings. Every single time I would see him, I would tell myself I didn’t really like him that way. I would tell myself it was all in my head, and then two minutes in the same room as him, and I felt like a stalker. I would look over at him all the time. But then I somehow convinced myself it was because I was just drawn to Penelope and not her father. Besides, there is no way my feelings will go anywhere. He will never see me like that. I mean, surely, he didn’t see me like anything besides the girl who helped his daughter get better. Then I became the younger sister of his friend. Then I slowly got into the lane of a family friend, where apparently I’m still at.
“Yes,” I say, more confident than I actually feel. “It’ll be fine. I’m sure he’ll be hanging with the guys anyway.”
“Why don’t we get into our suits,” Gabriella says, “grab a couple of cocktails, and go lounge by the pool?”
I clap my hands, getting up, and know this is the exact distraction I need. “That sounds wonderful,” I agree, walking over to my suitcase. I wheel it into one of the bedrooms, and riffle through it until I can find the top and the bottom. I slip out of my shorts and into my white bikini. Grabbing a white linen button-down shirt as a cover-up, I walk into the living room, seeing Gabriella come out of her room with a black bikini. “Ready?”
We walk out of the villa and head back to the pool, finding it empty. “Where is everyone?” Gabriella asks, turning around and then looking down the pathway to the sand. “Ah, at the beach.”
“Might as well just go there,” I say to her as we walk around the pool toward the pathway to the beach. I can hear music and noise as soon as we take a couple more steps toward the beach.
“I forgot my camera,” Gabriella says, “I’ll meet you at the beach.” She turns around and heads back to the villa. Turning, I make my way toward the beach, my feet sinking into the hot sand as soon as I step onto it.
I take a look around, seeing there are about twenty daybeds all lined up in four rows facing the beach. A tiki bar is set up next to the water, with Franny and Erika waiting for drinks. The kids are running around the beds, heading toward the water and then running back.
Lounge chairs are scattered around the beach. As I make my way down to one of the beds, I see my mother. “Hey,” I greet her, sitting down on the side of it as she lies next to my father.
“Where is Gabriella?” My mother looks at me and then looks back at the villa.
“She forgot her camera,” I inform them. I’m about to get up to go get a drink when I hear my name being called.
Looking up, I can’t help but smile when I see Penelope coming toward me. “Abigail,” she huffs as she holds a plastic shovel in her hand. “Will you come and help me build a castle?” Her eyes light up even brighter, and there is nothing I wouldn’t do for this kid.
“Ohhh.” I shrug off my shirt. “I love building castles,” I tell her as I get up and hold out my hand for her.
“Daddy is waiting for us,” she says, and I look up to see him standing there wearing a pair of swim shorts and nothing else. I really wish he didn’t look so good in everything!
“Hey,” he says when I walk down close enough to him, “I’m really sorry.” I tilt my head to the side as Penelope runs off to grab a pail. “I told her to leave you alone.”
I smile at him. “It’s okay. I love spending time with her. Why don’t you go and spend some time with the boys?”
“No way.” He shakes his head. “I’m not letting you guys have all the fun.” I can’t help but laugh as I walk over to where all the plastic pails are. I look down and then up when I feel him staring at me. “Sorry.” He shakes his head, chuckling, then looks back up at me. “I really like your laugh.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
TRISTAN
“No way.” I shake my head at her. “I’m not letting you guys have all the fun.” She throws her head back and laughs, and I swear it’s like music to my ears. It’s the best sound I think I’ve ever heard after “I love you, Daddy.” I can’t help but watch her as she walks over to the plastic pails. She looks up and catches me staring at her, and I have to think of a reason that doesn’t sound dumb. “Sorry.” I shake my head chuckling, looking down at the pails, then looking back up at her. “I really like your laugh.” The minute the words come out of my mouth, I want to groan and kick myself in the ass. I could have said anything else, anything else. I could have said literally anything else, but the truth came out. “It’s a pretty laugh.”
She nods her head. “I’ve never been told I have a pretty laugh before.” She bends over and grabs a pail and I, for some stupid dumb reason, watch her every move. She bends down, and the white bikini bottom rides up her ass cheeks. My mouth waters as I take her in, and I wish I was wearing my sunglasses so I could ogle her without anyone catching me. “How are your castle-building skills?” She stands, looking at me.
“On a scale of what?” I walk over and grab my own pail.
“Of one to ten,” she states as she takes the heel of her foot and makes a square in the sand.
“Negative one,” I tell her as I just watch her. “What about you?” She looks up at me. “You look like a professional.”
She laughs. “Not sure what you think a professional is.” She finishes doing the square. “But I have had some practice with Emma and Mia.”
Penelope comes running over. “What are we doing?” She looks at me and then at Abigail.
“Well, Abigail has built castles before,” I say, pointing at her, “and she was going to tell us how to do it.”
“Really?” Penelope asks with her eyes big.
“Yes,” Abigail confirms and looks at my daughter. “Do you think you have what it takes to make the best sandcastle in the world?”
“Yes,” Penelope assures her and looks over at me. “Do you think you have what it takes?”
“I think I’m going to try my best and hope that I do.” I put my hands on my hips, looking back over at Abigail. “Okay, what do we need to do?”
“There are five steps to making the best sandcastle out there,” she starts, and I roll my lips. She points the shovel at me. “I googled it.” I hold up both my hands. “Step one I already did,” she says, pointing down to the square she did with her foot. “This is how big our castle is going to be.” She looks at Penelope, who just nods. “Step two.” She smiles. “We get to make a huge pile of sand.” She gets on her knees and fills up her bucket. “Then put it in the circle. We can use buckets or even our hands, but we need to get a huge mountain.”
“We can do that,” I say, looking at Penelope. “How about you fill them, and I carry them.” She gets on her knees and fills her pail as I fill my own. We do this for I don’t even know how long, but when I look over, we have a decent-sized mountain.
“Is that enough?” Penelope asks as she stands by the mountain.
“That looks good to me,” Abigail praises. “Ready for step three?”
“Yes.” Penelope claps her hands, jumping up and down. “We are so close.”
“We are going to have to add water to the mountain,” Abigail explains to us. “This way, the sand will become thick like concrete, and we will be able to make a nice foundation for the castle.” She walks to the crystal water and grabs a bucket of water, coming back over and pouring it in the middle. We both follow her to the water, the warm liquid running over our feet as we step in a bit to grab the water. I carry both the pails as we run back and forth to our mountain, and at one point, I stop, and Abigail looks over at me.
“What’s wrong?” she asks, and I laugh.
“It looks like a pile of shit,” I tell her, and she looks over at the mountain that is now half the size because of the water.
“It does, doesn’t it?” She laughs. “But now comes step four. We start creating the castle.”
“How?” Penelope asks.
“That is the fun part,” she says, walking up to the mound and getting on her knees while she pats it down. “We play pancake until it’s level.”
Penelope walks up to her, and she talks quietly to her as I watch. She has always been good to Penelope. Even before I knew she was my daughter, it was Abigail sitting beside her bed, making sure she was never alone, out of the pureness of her heart. I walk over to them, getting beside Abigail as I watch her. My hands now mimic hers as we build the foundation of the castle. Our hands touch each other as we pat down the sand. My whole body fills with feeling from her little touch. I’m trying not to overthink it when I hear her say, “Now, how about we add some steps?” Penelope just nods as she shows her how to do a step. “Now your turn,” she tells Penelope, who does her own step. “Now it’s Dad’s turn.” She smiles at me.
I move over, making the longest step for the bottom. “Well, we have steps.” She claps her hands. “Now, let’s make a couple of towers.” She gets up, and Penelope follows her as they make four corner towers.
I can’t help but watch how effortlessly she is doing this. Not caring that her bathing suit is getting dirty. Not caring she is spending all her time with my girl and me. Not caring about anything else, only focusing on making sure she finishes this castle. She gets up and grabs a pail of sand, and then turns it upside down on the foundation. We work side by side the whole time as we put in more towers. I lean down to grab the pail at the same time she does, and our hands touch again. “I’ve got it,” I tell her, and she moves her hand away. “So are we on step five?”
She laughs at me. “That is the fun of this. We have already worked into step five,” she tells me. “We just have to shape things.”
“It’s hot,” Penelope complains, getting up and looking at the water. She walks over and I think she will rinse off her hands. After a minute, I look over and see Penelope is in the water with the other girls.
“Penelope!” I call her name. “Stay where I can see you.”
“I’ve got her,” Xavier assures, walking past me toward the water with Vivienne behind him. “You two can continue to play in the sand.”
“Just watch my daughter while I build her a sandcastle,” I huff, turning back and looking at Abigail. “It’s okay. You can go and grab a drink or whatever, and I’ll finish the rest.”
“Um, not on my watch.” She shakes her head. “Although, I will go and get us something to drink, but I’m invested now.” She puts down her pail. “What do you want to drink?”
“Get me what you are having,” I tell her, “and a bottle of water.”
“Got it.” She brushes the sand off her hands as she turns and walks over to the tiki bar. Her ass is on fucking point, and my cock starts to rise. I look around to make sure no one is looking at me before I walk back into the water and beg my dick to go down. When I see her coming back holding two white drinks in her hands with umbrellas, I almost groan. Not only is her ass on point, but I’m pretty sure her tits can fit perfectly in my hands.
I think about walking out of the water, but my cock is still awake, and I can’t do anything to shield him. “Tomorrow, I’m wearing bigger shorts,” I mumble as Abigail stops by the sand castle. Opening her arm, I see a water bottle fall from her arm to the sand. She walks into the water toward me with the drink in her hand.
“Here you go.” She hands me one of the drinks, and I look down at the slush inside the glass.
“What’s this?” I ask before I take a sip from the straw.
“It’s a double pina colada,” she states, squatting down in the water in front of me as she takes her own sip. “Nothing says vacation quite like a coconut drink.”
“I guess so,” I agree, taking another sip.
“You don’t like it?” she asks, and I just shrug. “It’s an acquired taste. I can take it off your hands if you want.”
“No way.” I shake my head. “Not after you slaved away over a sandcastle and then went to get me something to drink.” I hold up the glass to salute her. “To the best sandcastle forewoman I know.”
She can’t help but throw her head back and laugh, and if that doesn’t make my cock even harder. What the fuck is wrong with me? my head screams as I take another sip of the drink, trying to finish it fast so I don’t have to drink it anymore.
“This is so peaceful,” she observes as she turns around in the water, “almost like the calm before the storm.”
I walk a bit farther out into the water, hoping she follows me. “What are your plans after this?” I ask her, and she slowly moves toward me, drinking another sip of her drink.
“I start work one day after we get back,” she informs me, and I just stare at her.
“Where?” I ask her, shocked that I had no idea where she will be working. I knew she had just graduated from nursing school, but no one mentioned where she would be working.
“I got a job in the pediatric unit at Mercy Hospital,” she says, and I just look at her with my mouth hanging open.
“Holy shit, that’s amazing. I knew you had moved to Dallas, but I had no idea where you would be going.”
“There were a couple of places interested in me, but my heart was set on Mercy,” she says, standing up and holding out her drink to me. “Can you hold this?” I reach out for her drink. “Don’t drink any of it.” She smirks at me as she takes the black elastic on her wrist and pins up her hair. I hand her back her drink when she reaches for it. “Thank you.” She takes another sip. “What about you? What are your plans after this?”
“Go home,” I say, looking over to make sure I see Penelope. She is with Xavier as he carries her on his shoulders into the deep water.
“So you are staying in Dallas?” she asks, and I shake my head.
“No, I meant go back home to Canada. I have a house in Muskoka, right on the lake. My parents don’t live far from there so…” I tell her of the little lake cabin I have, and by little, it’s a ten-bedroom house right on the lake. I love it so much. It’s just so peaceful there.
“That sounds like so much fun.” She smiles at me, and the need to kiss her is so much stronger than it’s ever been before. The need to touch her and just be next to her is growing so much, it’s only going to be a matter of time before I ruin it all by admitting to her how I feel. I could never take advantage of her like that. I could never cross that line with her because she means so much to me, and the thought of losing her is just unbearable.
“It really is. I have a trainer there who comes over every day. I train in the morning, and then in the afternoon, it’s either hiking, or I take Penelope fishing.” I smile, thinking about how much fun we have there. “It’s a dream, and it’s so peaceful.” I look at her. “You should come up sometime.” The minute the words come out of my mouth, I want to take them back. Why the hell would I say that? It’s not that I don’t want her there, but I don’t know how I can last living in the same house as her. “I mean, if you are ever in the area.”
CHAPTER NINE
ABIGAIL
Did he just invite me to go to his house in Canada? My brain screams at me as my mouth wants to ask, “When is a good day for you?” But instead, I take another small sip of my pina colada. “Your house sounds like a dream,” I finally say, “and not going to lie, I might be a bit jealous of you missing the summer heat in Dallas.”
He chuckles and takes a sip of his drink, and all I can do is wish I was a fucking plastic straw. This is insane. From the minute we started building the sandcastle together, my body has been on fire. I’m blaming the sun for it, but the truth is that it’s all him. I want to climb him like a monkey climbs a tree, wrap my legs around him, and basically hump him to the ground. The thought of me humping him makes my head spin, and I stare into my drink to avoid him looking at me. If he knew what I was thinking right now he would be so grossed out.
“It’ll be nice to get away from the heat,” he confirms. “Not going to lie, we went back to Canada during the winter break, and I swear my blood has gotten thinner. I was frozen the whole time.”
I can warm you up. The words almost slip out of my mouth, but I catch them just in time.
“Dad.” I hear Penelope from behind me and look over at her. “Watch!” she yells as she stands up on Xavier’s shoulders as he holds her ankles until she jumps off. Xavier takes two steps forward to make sure he can grab her. She smiles at Tristan and then swims over to us. “Did you see?”
“I did.” He puts his hand out to grab her and pull her to him.
“Did I make a big splash?” she asks, and he lies to her.
“So big, I felt it here,” he fibs, and then I just look at the two of them.
“I’m going to head out and take a nap. All this playing in the sun,” I say, “it’s rough.”
“I’m not tired at all,” Penelope declares to me, and I just laugh.
