“Sorry.” I cringe.
“For what? If the story is talking, I’m guessing you need to get it out,” he says easily, and I wonder how long it’s going to take me to realize he’s not Josh; he doesn’t get pissed about nonsense or act like a dick just because he can. He’s supportive and considerate. He’s everything to me. “Now I really do gotta go.” He leans in, kissing my lips and whispering there, “Have a good day, baby.”
“You too,” I say as he lets me go, then I watch him grab his beanie from the top of my dresser before winking at me and disappearing out the door. I head to the bathroom with a smile on my face, and hurry through my morning routine so that I’m ready by the time Gia arrives to pick me up.
“I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure that I’m going to be able to make it through your parents’ party tonight,” Gia says, sounding sleepy, and I roll my head in her direction, the movement seeming to take every bit of strength I have left. “This is the most relaxed I’ve been in months.”
“Same.” I give her a lazy smile, and she returns one of her own. When we arrived at the spa, Gia was just as shocked as I was to find out that our guys went above and beyond. I expected that they might have planned for us to get massages and maybe our nails done, but they booked us a full day of treatments, from getting waxed and buffed from head to toe, massages, time in a sauna that made me want one for my house, and manicures and pedicures. It’s been a great day and just what I didn’t know I needed. I haven’t had a spa day since I was getting married, and that day wasn’t very relaxing with my mother and Josh’s mom nitpicking every little thing about the spa and the wedding—neither of which they paid for. It had me stressed out and worried, because in my gut, I knew I was making a huge mistake, but I was too far down the rabbit hole to call the wedding off, even though I should have.
“Do you think the guys actually remembered to rent their tuxes for tonight?”
Gia’s question pulls me from my thoughts and I focus on her.
“I don’t know.” I worry my bottom lip. “I hope so.”
“I hope so too. I’m really looking forward to seeing the two of them dressed up.”
“Yeah,” I agree as I try to picture Tide wearing anything besides jeans and the thermals he’s worn since the weather started to cool. Not that I would ever complain, because he looks good, even when he’s not trying to.
“Sorry to interrupt.” Maria, the woman who owns Rock Salt, steps into the room as the girls who have been giving us our pedicures place white flip-flops on our feet and begin to pack up. “I wanted to see if either of you would like another glass of champagne while you wait for your nails to dry?”
“Unless you want me to spend the rest of the day asleep here in your chair, I’m going to have to pass,” Gia says and Maria looks at me.
“I don’t think I would fare much better than her but thank you today was wonderful.” I smile.
“In that case, thank you both for spending the day with us.” She smiles warmly.
“Can we leave a tip?” I ask, and she shakes her head.
“Your tab is paid in full, and generous tips have been left for the girls. You’re free to go as soon as you’re dry, which should be in about ten minutes.” She bows slightly, then backs out of the room, with her girls going with her.
“I think that we need to plan one of these days every other month,” I say, turning off the massage feature on my chair.
“So I shouldn’t schedule us to come back every week for the foreseeable future?” Gia pouts, making me laugh.
“If I came here every week, I wouldn’t be able to afford the sauna I’m going to talk to Tide about putting in at my place.”
“You’re a genius.”
“I know, right?” I wiggle my wine-colored toes, then hold up my hands to inspect my nails that are painted the same deep burgundy.
“That color is going to match your dress perfectly.”
“I hope so.” I turn her way. “Has Colton seen your dress yet?”
“No, I want to surprise him. I put it in Gino’s closet, and he never goes in there.” She sits up and checks her nails that she decided to paint a classic red that is going to look awesome with the sexy black lace dress she picked out for tonight. “Do you want to pick up something to eat, then hang with me and Gino for a couple of hours before we have to start getting ready?”
“I’d love that,” I agree, carefully getting out of the chair, my muscles feeling weak after time in the sauna and a full body massage. “Do you want to order something from the Greek place down the road?”
“Do they have salad?”
“I think so.” I frown at her.
“Don’t look at me like that. I swear I’ve gained five pounds in the last week, and I haven’t even been eating all the junk food I want to. It would suck if I couldn’t fit into my dress tonight because I went crazy at lunch.”
“You’ll fit in your dress.” I roll my eyes. I don’t know how she looked before giving birth a few months ago, but I don’t think she needs to lose weight, and I’ve been around her and Colton multiple times and know he loves her to the point of obsession.
“But I could do with eating a salad, so if they don’t have one on the menu, we
can choose somewhere else.” Honestly, since Tide showed up in my life, the constant worry about how I look and what I eat has disappeared. I don’t even remember the last time I got on the scale. That’s not to say that I don’t still think about my weight sometimes.
“Tonight, all bets are off. Once that dress is zipped, I plan on eating everything in sight and drinking until Colton has to carry me around.” She grins, getting out of her chair, her legs seeming to take just as long to hold her up as mine did. “Do you think our nails are dry?”
I bend and check hers then mine and nod. “Yeah but we should keep on our flip-flops just in case.” I grab my shoes and socks, and she does the same before we head for the door. With a quick goodbye to Maria in the front of the spa, we head outside to Gia’s oversized Suburban and place an order for two Greek salads from the spot down the road. After we pick them up, we drive to her house, where we spend the rest of the day entertaining Gino before we have to get ready.
________________
“Fuck me.”
At that comment, I spin around to face Tide standing just inside Gia and Colton’s guest bathroom, and the look in his eyes makes my pulse race. I normally follow the rule of dark lip, light eye or vice versa, but tonight I decided to go all out with a smoky eye and deep burgundy lipstick that makes me look and feel sexy and judging by the look in Tide’s eyes he likes the way I look too. When Gia picked this dress out and insisted it was for me, I was skeptical. I had never worn something so form-fitting in my life, but just like the first time I saw myself in it at the boutique, I swear it was made for me. The velvet, dusty rose, V-cut sleeveless top shows just enough of my chest to be classy, and the empire waist is flattering, especially with the way it flows into the multicolored sequined mermaid skirt that ends at my ankle so that my heel’s can be shown off.