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“He’s being looked into,” Liam said.
“Why aren’t you doing it if you know him? Wouldn’t that be better?” I asked.
“I don’t answer to you. It’s getting done.” Liam’s tone was hard, suggesting I drop the subject, but you didn’t earn a reputation for being stubborn by giving up. Someone kicked me under the water. I assumed it was Jax because I saw her shift to the side and throw her legs over Liam’s lap.
“It is his night off,” Jax pointed out, but I wasn’t done.
“I—”
A splash drew our attention to the middle of the hot tub. Something had fallen into the water. From where? I didn’t know. We stared at the water, waiting to see if the object floated. And it did. Out of the frothy bubbles of the hot tub, a black snake came to the surface.
Peter was out of the tub faster than . . . fast. He slipped on the wooden steps and pulled down a strand of lights. I screamed, throwing my champagne glass at the snake. After I’d released my weapon, I was frozen in fear, standing on the back-corner seat of the tub.
"I'm blocked in. HELP ME HELP ME HELPMEHELPME!" My only way out was over the snake. I may have been raised a country girl, but a snake was a snake. I wanted out, and I wanted out. Now.
Liam stood up so quickly that he pulled Jax's feet with him, in turn pulling her head under the water. Jax emerged a moment later sputtering water.
"What the . . . " Jax was cut off by Liam grabbing her arms and dragging her out of the tub.
"HELPMEHELPMEHELPME!" I wished I were one of those strong Lara Croft types, but I wasn’t. I never would be. I was frozen in terror, standing on my seat, screaming like a six-year-old.
The snake swam in a slow circle coming around to face me. Its head reared back, hissing. Logically, I knew that it was probably just as upset as I was, but emotions were winning out again. The snake was going to bite me. I didn’t want to be bitten, therefore, I needed out. It all made sense to me.
"GET. ME. OUT. OF. HERE. NOW. PLEASE." I didn’t think I had ever been so scared.
“Regan, calm down. I’m here.” Gray’s voice penetrated my terror. I looked down. He was still sitting on the seat next to me like there wasn’t a snake in the tub.
“You didn’t leave me.” I stood shivering in the chilly night air, looking down at Gray. He moved his hand to rest on my calf, locking his grip on it. The touch fortified me. I was no longer scared. Well, as scared. There was still a snake after all.
Liam bent over the tub to look at . . . it. Reaching down, he pinched the head and scooped the body with his other hand. I gave a little shake to expel the cooties, like a dog shedding water after a swim.
"Get me a pillowcase, Peter," Liam said. He casually stood next to the hot tub holding the snake. Its tail swished back and forth occasionally. Peter rushed off. I wished I had an excuse to run away.
Gray left the tub first and reached back to help me out. Now that the snake had been contained, I crawled over the side of the tub, my legs rubbery excuses for support.
"It’s okay, Regan. It’s just a garter snake," Liam said.
"It hissed at me!" I shook my body again. My skin itched like bugs were crawling over it.
"It's just mad because someone threw it," Jax said. She had a fluffy beach towel wrapped around her like a shield.
Peter returned carrying an old pillowcase held out at arm’s length. Liam carefully dropped our new friend inside. He took the case from Peter, twisted the top and knotted it shut. Liam set the bag down, and let it wiggle on the ground at his feet.
"You saw it?" I asked, taking a towel from her.
"Yes, I looked over right as the snake was thrown. I didn't realize what it was, though, and then chaos broke out," Jax said.
“I saw someone over there, but then smelled a cigarette, so I didn’t think anything of it.” I regarded the pillowcase on the ground and turned to Liam. "Liam, I take everything back. I think you are my hero." I leaned into Gray. He was my hero. He didn’t jump out of the hot tub until I could move again. “Goodnight, everyone. Peter, thank you for a memorable night, I guess.” Gray led me to the stairs and eventually my room. He kicked the door closed with his foot.
“It’s time, Regan.”
“Time?” I hugged my towel closer. I pretended it was a shield. I knew we needed to hash this all out. I wanted to, but I didn’t know if I was ready. I started to sit on the end of the bed but rethought it. No, I needed to be standing. I needed to face him. I knew why he wanted to do it right then. My nerves were shot, and my defenses wouldn’t go up. It was cruel, but I got it. “Go ahead.”
“I want to wring your neck.” Gray ran his hand through his hair. He paced in front of the door. Two steps in each direction before turning back. “I knew, I knew I would be taking a chance proposing, but I had hoped you would listen.”
“I get that now. I am sorry. Truly sorry.”
“I didn’t even get the words out, and you ran. You looked like I had stabbed you in the back!”
“You did! You know how I feel about marriage.”
“I know your illogical thoughts on it. I thought after all our time together, you’d have seen clearly how it would actually be between us.” He stopped pacing to face me.
“I do. Now. Now, I get it,” I said.
“Now?”
“Yes.”
“And, now it’s my turn to trust you when you couldn’t trust me before.”
I finally saw the true blunder of my ways. It wasn’t an ‘I’m sorry and we’ll move on’ moment. It was a trust issue. One coming from both sides. I didn’t trust Gray to talk through my feelings, and now he didn’t trust me to stay. This was much deeper than I had thought.
“It was a momentary lapse in judgment. It won’t happen again.”
“Regan, you can’t say that. You don’t know. But, I do know that something else will happen, something that will scare you. It will rock you to your core, and you can’t say positively what you’d do. And I can’t say positively what I would do.”
“How do we fix this? Can we—no scratch that, I know we can. What do I need to do to prove it?”
Gray leaned against the door, his steel-gray eyes pierced my soul. My breathing slowed down as I waited for him to answer. The moments stretched on until I felt like I would shatter with one touch. I felt exposed having that conversation in nothing but a bikini and towel. Gray was wearing nothing but his swim trunks, oblivious to it.
“Commitment.”
“I said—”
“No, Regan. A true commitment. Before God, our families, our friends. It’s ‘make it or break it’ time.”
“An ultimatum?”
“No, not an ultimatum. I want you to think on this. Talk it through with friends and family. We can’t go back. We can’t stagnate either. We either need to move forward or move on.”
“Does this have to do with what Anais said tonight?” Gray walked toward me and rested his hands on my upper arms. He touched his forehead to mine. The tips of our noses almost touched.
“No. Maybe. Ultimately, it has to do with us. I want a wife. I want you as my wife. We don’t have to have the picket fence and two-point-two kids, but we do have to have the commitment. I don’t want to play house anymore.” He kissed me. A long, chaste kiss.
“Will I see you while I am thinking about things?”
“We’ll see.” And he left.