22. Garrett

"What are you up to, Alyssa?" She's such a live wire that I don't know what to expect from one second to the next. It was an hour before her family was due to arrive; we'd just finished breakfast and came back to our room to get dressed for the day when she jumped me.

I was walking past the bed where she was sitting, staring into space, when she made a running jump, and I barely caught her before she fell on her ass. Now, she was looking at me like a live specimen in a petri dish. I wasn't sure if to grin or run for cover.

I wonder if she knows she talks to herself? Which is what she was doing before she attacked. "Let's have a quickie before they get here."

"No!" I tapped her hip and moved to put her down.

"What?" Oh hell!

"Only because you're still too sore." I rushed to add because she looked like she was ready to throw down.

"I am not!"

"The answer is still no. Maybe later, when you've had more time to heal." I wasn't sure what the squinty-eyed look she gave me meant, but it couldn't be anything good.

I was saved by my phone going off, and she released me after mumbling something under her breath, but I wasn't sure I was in the clear. One of the people I had at the resort was on the line with an update I was not expecting.

I hung up the phone, not sure I should share the latest news, but since I was about to start my marriage off on the wrong foot and she'd probably kill me if she found out I knew and didn't tell her, there was only one thing to do.

"Baby, come here." She gave me one of her looks and then ignored me.

"No. If you're not going to give me what I want, get bent." This fucking girl. I rushed her and took her down to the mattress.

She was laughing too hard to breathe, so I had to help her. "Breathe in. Hold it. Now out." She still had the giggles, but it wasn't too bad.

"Hey, you said no; why are you hard?" No filter.

"That's natural. It doesn't mean I'm going to pounce on you, knowing that you'll hurt."

I brushed the hair back from her face, and my heart jumped in my chest. I think it's going to take a long time before I stop getting this knee-jerk reaction to having her in my life. It doesn't seem possible that someone you barely knew could mean this much.

"What did you want to tell me?"

"Your parents shared a room last night." She didn't say anything for the longest while, and then she pushed me off of her and jumped to her feet.

"Dammit, I didn't get any pictures."

What the hell? "What? Why would you want pictures of your parents sleeping together?"

"Eww, gross, what is wrong with you? I meant I wanted pictures of them to send to Helen. Drats!" She smacked her leg and went back to getting dressed. Is she ever going to react the way I expect her to? Ever?

"I thought you would be upset."

"Why do you think I canceled Helen's ticket? I've been trying to get those two back together since I was eight. Do the boys know?"

"I have no idea. Why?"

"No reason. I guess I can get pictures on the boat."

"You really hate that woman, huh!"

"More than words can ever say." She didn't miss a beat and carried on getting dressed while I did the same.

By the time we were ready in matching colors, it was not planned at all, but there isn't much you can go with for the nautical look, but whites and blues, and that's where we're at. She wore white linen palazzos with a white and blue striped top, and I wore white dockers with a blue polo tee and dock sliders; we looked cute.

"I'm ready."

"Not quite." I lathered her in sunscreen, which she bitched about, then found her hat and pulled it down on her head.

"Where'd you get this?"

"If you'd look in your closet, you'd have seen it."

"Hmm! Are those Cartier?" She was after my shades.

"Go get your own."

"I have Cartier shades?" She ran back to the closet and yelled back that she couldn't find them, so I had to go get them for her. So domesticated.

Her family was arriving by the time we got downstairs, and I could see her brothers, especially, looking her over as if they expected that I'd harmed her or something during the night. Then it was my turn. "Well, you're alive at least." That was from Brian and I think he was serious.

We exchanged pleasantries and then headed down to the private dock where the crew was waiting. "Don't forget to alert me. Is your phone going to work out there?"

"Yes, there's Wi-Fi; this isn't the dark ages." She rolled her eyes and went after her Mom, poor woman, while her sisters-in-law went below deck to change into their swimsuits.

Her brothers and Dad cornered me as soon as the boat was on the way into the water. They wanted to know about the honeymoon, which I guess is fair. "North Island first, since she's a LOTR freak; once there, we'll take a tour of the whole country."

"Isn't that going to take a while?"

"Not by private plane, no. There's a lot to see; I want her to choose where she wants her vacation home."

"Vacation home?"

"Yes, didn't she tell you? She gets to choose the next one. I imagine you guys will get to come out in a year or so."

Her family is strange. I waited for the talk about money to start, but it never came. I knew from my own research that they weren't the type, but you can never be too sure. That makes things easier. I prefer to give to those who don't ask for some reason.

Before anyone could say anything, though, my phone went off again, and I got her attention. She excused herself and headed down as well, and I excused myself for following. "I'll be right back."

I'm not sure I was needed, but who knows. I'm not even going to ask her if she's not going to warn her Dad that he was about to lose his house. I figure she knows what she's doing and I'll be there to back her no matter what either way.

I looked it up. The house is worth three-quarters of a million dollars. If she's not going to bat a lash at that, then I will make very sure that I never piss her off because who knows what she'd do to me.

I guess I can understand her anger, though I've never had to deal with anything like it myself, and from what I've gathered so far, she's very headstrong, but she doesn't do anything without careful planning, though her reactions seem to say otherwise.

She grabbed my hand as soon as I got below deck as if she was waiting for me, or it was a given that I would join her, which I liked, and dragged me into the bathroom, though there was no one else in our room.

She was so excited her hands were shaking. We were just in time to see Helen answer the door, and the gentleman from the city, who looked bored out of his mind and was probably pissed about being called in to work on his day off, stood there for all of two seconds before he noticed what was going on behind her in the house.

It was even worse than a couple hours ago. Maybe because more than the thousand she'd asked for, I'd sent two, and those two thousand had been multiplied. He started writing on his little pad and then made a phone call, all while the woman was yelling and trying to close the door.

We watched in silence as he slapped something on the door and walked away. "That's it?"

"You see that paper he just taped to the door? That's the notice to vacate."

"Then what happens?"

"You said you wanted it demolished."

"With her in it? Can they do it with her inside?"

"Geez." I pulled her up from the closed toilet seat where she was sitting. "No, they'll give her time to leave, but she won't be able to take anything with her unless an approved exterminator cleans it first; that'll take time. By the way, you know your Dad is going to be billed for the demolition, right?"

"Serves him right. But can we pay extra to have them…."

"No, murder is off the books, especially now that you've got the city involved." She seemed really put out by that, and I had to wonder.

"Dad's going home tomorrow, I wanted it gone by then."

"I know, but it'll take a few days. They do have neighbors, and these things take time." The truth is it'll only take a few more days, but that was the best my people could do. It usually takes much longer than that, but I don't think I'll be getting any thanks from this one for all my hard work.

We went back to join the others, and she acted like nothing happened. I almost felt sorry for her Dad, knowing what he was going back to. The rest of the day was uneventful until it was time to go back to land and the going away dinner we had planned for her family's last night.

Her Dad seemed kind of nervous, and I wondered if he'd caught wind somehow but I was soon to learn different. I'm not sure why they chose the night before we were set to go away to spring this on her, but I guess they had their reasons.

We were all sitting around the dining room table back at my place, having our after-dinner drinks, when her parents announced that they had something to tell her. I kind of knew what was coming, but she didn't seem to have a clue.

I'm not sure what her Mom told her, if anything, while we were out to sea or if she even mentioned knowing that they had slept together since no one else mentioned it, but I wish that was all he was about to say.

"Alyssa, your Mom and I have something to say."

"What? That you spent the night together?"

"How did you…. Never mind, no, it's not that. Well, kind of. Your Mom and I are getting back together."

No one said anything for the longest of seconds, and from the looks of it, her brothers didn't seem too surprised, although the eldest looked worried.

"Aren't you married?"

"Not for long. I've already had the divorce papers drawn up. There's something else." He looked at his ex-wife as if seeking help.

"What?"

"We've been kind of seeing each other."

"You've what?"

"Um, I think you should take this into the study, I'll leave you guys alone."

"No, stay. I wanna hear this. How long?" She gripped my hand to keep me in place, and I could feel the tremble in hers.

I thought this was what she wanted, but from the way she was acting, I couldn't be sure. "Ten years, give or take."

"What did you say?"

"Now, Alyssa." That was her brother Cam, who was almost out of his seat. What the hell were they expecting to happen?

"Wait, did you say ten years?" I asked. Maybe I had heard wrong; I thought he said days

"You knew? All of you knew?" She looked around at her brothers, who were all nodding.

"Not that they were seeing each other, but that they were on speaking terms."

"And no one thought to tell me."

"We wanted to wait until you were older until you were settled."

"Where are you going?" Her mother called out to her when she stood from the table and walked away.

"I'll take care of her." I got up to follow, not even sure what the hell was going on.

She walked into our bedroom and threw herself onto the bed, pulling the covers over her head. "Tell them to leave."

"Alyssa!" She pulled the covers down from her face, and the look on her face made me change my mind about what I was about to say.

"I'll take care of it."