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by S. E. Rose

  “Congrats, guys! That’s great news,” he says, raising his beer to salute us. We nod at him and then the group splinters into about four different conversations. It’s our typical night out. We don’t always have this big of a crowd, but most weekends we get at least four or five of us. Once in a while Lily and Lance come down from New York, but only when they can get a sitter for the kids.

  It’s weird to think my sister has three kids already. I mean we’re barely twenty-six years old. Although, she sort of got an insta-family, when she adopted my niece Leidy. She met Leidy at an orphanage while she was volunteering in Colombia at the same orphanage where our parents met us. Strange how that works, and for her to get pregnant with twins right after getting married is even crazier.

  My mind jumps around all those events. My family has had this whirlwind of chaos the last few years and just recently, it’s calmed down. My mom, who became an author, after my dad died in a car accident nearly twelve years ago now, met her current husband, Jack, when she went to Scotland almost four years ago. Jack, as it turned out, was involved in some crazy spy stuff, and my mom got wrapped up in it and nearly killed by some crazy Russian crime boss, Alexei. My sister, Lily, who was almost sold into the sex slave trade because of this, took some time off to travel in South America. That’s where she and Zoe met Lance and Cody. Lily ended up spending time in our birth city and found out our biological father had been involved in human trafficking and had actually worked with this crazy Russian dude. Cody, who was also working in the same city, ended up working with another man who had taken over the Russian guy’s slave trade after my mom killed him in Scotland. I know, this shit is crazy and complicated.

  Anyhow, poor Zoe and Cody got sucked in because the crazy Middle Eastern dude, Mohammed, who was working with Cody tried to get a USB drive back that Cody apparently had by accident. Who the hell leaves info on a USB drive anymore? Well, this guy did, and he chased them all the way to China trying to get it back. Zoe nearly got killed, and Cody ended up killing Mohammed. Then, just when we thought our family had finished with this crazy international crime shit, my uncle Jesse got sucked in last year. He had the info from the USB drive because he is crazy awesome with computer software and was helping to decode the encryption on it. Mohammed’s brother, Saeed, tried to get it back and almost killed my uncle and his now wife, Vanessa, AKA the famous singer. Vanessa killed Saeed and the rest is family history.

  And that’s my family and our messed-up crazy few years. As it turns out, my stepdad, Jack, is actually a consultant of some type for the FBI or CIA or Interpol; honestly, I’m not really sure, and I don’t think I want to know.

  “Earth to Nick,” Zoe says, snapping her fingers in front of my face. “Jesus, you’d think I’d be the one who spaces out, but nope, you and Lily still win at that one, my friend.” I roll my eyes at her. Zoe, my mom, Jack, and I were in a plane crash going to get my sister in Colombia. No one died, but Zoe had some pretty bad head trauma. She’s good now, but boy does she like to rub that in.

  “Did you need something, Zoe, or are you just snapping your fingers in time to the music?” I ask her, giving her my sweetest cousin smile I can muster. She gives me the middle finger and Cami nearly chokes on her margarita.

  “You alright there, Cami?” Colin asks and hands her a napkin. She nods.

  “What are we doing for your mom’s birthday?” she asks.

  “Oh yeah, that. I don’t know. It’s not for like a few more weeks,” I groan. Lily put me in charge of the party and I am not a party planner. I’m more like the “fly by the seat of my pants, let’s have a carefree barbeque” type of guy. Lily is the type A twin for sure.

  “Well, unless you want to have it at one of our houses, you should start planning,” Zoe says.

  “Oh, that’s a great idea,” I say. I pick up my phone and text my uncle.

  Nick: Uncle J, can we use your house for mom’s birthday party?

  “Did you seriously just text Jesse?” Zoe asks.

  “Yep,” I reply and down the rest of my beer.

  My phone pings and I look down.

  Jesse: LOL. I was waiting for this text.

  Nick: Puhlease…with a cherry on top.

  Jesse: Kid, you owe me.

  Nick: I know…but that’s why I’m your favorite. ;)

  Jesse: [eye rolling emoji]

  Nick: You know you love me the best.

  Jesse: Goodnight, Nick.

  “And we’re good to go,” I say with a smirk.

  Zoe literally knocks her head against the table. “You are really unbelievable. It’s like no matter what shit storm life throws at you, it ends up raining rainbows, unicorns, and little pots of gold at the end of it.”

  I smile. She has a point. Although not everything comes up roses in my life, I have had some good luck here and there. I really can’t complain. My life is generally good, even when shit gets messed up, usually something good comes out of it.

  Slowly, our drinking party dwindles until it’s just Colin, Cami, Zoe, and me. By midnight, Zoe is yawning. “I better skedaddle, kids. I got a twelve-hour shift tomorrow. Cami, you coming?” she asks as she stifles another yawn.

  Cami nods. “Peace out, Girl Scouts,” she says to us as they slide out of their seats. “You working tomorrow, Colin?” she asks innocently, and Colin nods. “Well, see you at work then. ’Night, Nick.”

  I wave goodbye to them and turn to Colin. “You gonna tap that or what?” I ask him.

  “Jesus, Nick, way to be blunt, buddy.” Colin grimaces as he finishes his fourth beer.

  “Well?”

  “Don’t know yet,” he mutters. I throw my hands up and stand up to leave.

  “I’m heading home, you done?” I ask him.

  “Yeah, let’s blow this joint,” he says.

  The next few days fly by as I wrap up work at my first engineering job. It’s bittersweet since I made some good friends there, but I’m stoked for my new work. Diana, Garrett’s assistant, set me up with my travel for the Azores a few days ago. This morning is my first day in the office and tomorrow we leave. It seems fast-tracked, but I’m excited and ready to dive into work. Garrett’s already set me up with a company email and computer, and he’s been bringing me up to speed on the last few days. We’re working on a wind farm on a small island in the Azores. The islands are in the middle of the Atlantic off Portugal. My mom’s been there before, but I’ve never been to Portugal, so I’m pretty excited to be going.

  I spend my first day in my office learning everything I can about the power plant we’re working on over there. There are some design challenges to it and laws that make it a little more difficult to design. It’s going to be complicated, but it’ll be fun. I love complicated.

  “I’ll see you tomorrow at the airport,” Garrett says. He says a car will pick me up and take me to the private jet they are using. Apparently, the “mother” company to ours has a jet that we use on occasion.

  I pack up my stuff and head home. Colin greets me with a pizza and we spend the evening chilling until I decide it’s time to pack. I head to bed early, excited for my next big adventure.

  Chapter 2

  Nick’s Playlist: “Life in Technicolor” by Coldplay

  The car pulls up to a jet in a private hangar at the airport. I climb the steps after a flight attendant takes my bags, and I’m greeted by Garrett and Cody.

  “Welcome aboard,” Cody says as he sits back down in a big black leather seat. The plane is decent-sized and looks to hold about twelve people. I take a seat across from him.

  “Drink?” the flight attendant asks. I look and see that both Cody and Garrett are drinking scotch or bourbon or some manly shit. I’m more of a beer person.

  “A water please,” I say.

  I see Cody glance up at me and smirk. “You can drink an alcoholic beverage if you like,” he says as he looks back down at his laptop.

  “Perhaps later,” I reply, trying to play it cool. “I’m just going to go over s
ome of these documents again.”

  “Suit yourself,” Garrett says as he puts some earbuds in and flips open his tablet.

  We all sit silently doing our own work for the next few hours. At some point, we are served lunch, and then shortly after we finish eating, the plane lands. Our hotel is an old fort in the marina city of Horta. I step outside and see a number of superyachts in the harbor. I mean yachts the size of small cruise ships with heliports on the back. I suppose I should be used to such money seeing as how some of my family members like my uncle have billions of dollars, but yeah, nope, not used to that at all.

  I get a text as I’m staring out the window.

  Cody: Meet down in the bar in twenty.

  Nick: Yep.

  I unpack a few things and then make my way downstairs. Cody is already at the bar.

  “We’re going to dinner tonight with the contractors for the project, and then tomorrow morning they’ll show us the site,” he says.

  “Sounds good,” I muse as I order a beer.

  When Garrett arrives, we dive into business talk before heading over to a nearby restaurant. The meeting goes well, and we finish up early. The sun is still up as we leave the restaurant.

  “Hey, there’s a fun outdoor bar across the street,” Garrett says. “You guys up for another drink?”

  “Sure,” Cody replies. I nod. I’m feeling a bit out of my element. I like to drink, and I definitely saw a few toilet bowl mornings during my frat days, but I’m still wrapping my head around mixing drinking with business. Maybe my last firm was just uptight?

  We are seated overlooking the marina a few blocks from our hotel. We order some local beers and discuss our plans for the next day. Garrett has arranged a driver for us. I’m looking forward to actually seeing the location for the wind turbines. The island is beautiful, but it’s hard to grasp the topography from the little I’ve seen so far. I know there’s a volcano on the island and that has kept me up nights double-checking figures. Volcanos equal possible earth tremors, and I want these turbines to stay upright.

  I’m mulling this over while Garrett and Cody discuss the semantics of two types of material we’re considering. Suddenly, a movement to my right grabs my attention. A young woman in her early to mid twenties with the most beautiful blondish-red hair I’ve ever seen walks past our table and joins a group of five men and women a few tables over from us. She turns to sit facing me, and I freeze. She’s beautiful, breathtaking even. She has wide, green eyes with thick lashes, high cheekbones sprinkled with freckles, her nose is small and slightly upturned, her lips are the perfect shade of pink, and her small chin sits above a long, thin neck that’s exposed by her pulled-up hair. She doesn’t appear to be wearing any makeup, and she doesn’t need to be. She’s absolutely flawless. She has on khaki shorts and a polo shirt with some logo on it. She’s delicate and petite, like a little fairy from a children’s movie. Her legs and arms are toned and are freckled and lightly tanned. She clearly either works out or just plain works outdoors. She hugs a few of the people at the table and gives them the European double-cheek kiss before taking her seat.

  “Hey, you alright, Nick?” Cody asks, drawing my attention back to him.

  “Uh, yeah, jet lag, I guess,” I cover quickly.

  “Yeah, it can be a real bitch. Get a good night’s sleep, and you’ll feel better tomorrow. Drinking water helps too,” Garrett says.

  “Thanks, I’ll do that,” I say to him with a nod. I try to join their conversation, but I keep glancing over at the goddess that’s sitting in front of me. She’s oblivious to me, completely enthralled by some conversation with the man next to her. I’m almost ready to let it go, figuring they’re an item when another woman comes in and kisses the guy, like really kisses the guy. OK, not taken, maybe, I mull it over to myself as I continue to watch them.

  “You up for that?” Garrett says, drawing my attention back to him.

  “Oh sorry, what?” I ask.

  Cody claps me on the back. “Dude, I think our new guy needs to hit the sack early,” he laughs.

  I roll my eyes at him. “No, sorry, what?”

  “Mitch and Steve had mentioned going out on one of those dolphin excursions after our meeting in the morning. You know, a little team bonding. You interested?” Garrett asks.

  “Oh, uh, sure,” I say, trying to remember if the contractors at dinner had talked about that and maybe I completely missed it. I sigh, I really need to get my head in the game.

  “Cool, I’ll have their staff set it up for us then,” he says.

  “Great,” I quip and take another sip of my beer. I look back over at my eye candy, and she’s looking straight at me. I smile and tip my head at her, and she smiles back and blushes a deep pink. Fuck me, I think to myself.

  Now, I know I’m a decent-looking guy. I’m half Colombian and half American, although my biological uncle has informed me that his side of the family is part Irish, French, and English. My biological grandparents who my sister found on her travels last summer have said we are fifty percent Spanish and fifty percent Native American. Even though I remember being adopted, it still has taken some getting used to for me to embrace my biological family. Anyhow, needless to say, I have a tinge of Latin-lover looks going on with dark hair, but my blue eyes and my nose and jawline are definitely thanks to my father, that and my height are probably the only redeeming qualities I’ll admit I got from him. Human trafficking isn’t something that has made me proud of that man. Yes, human trafficking, but that’s a whole other story. Lily likes to think I’m only 5’10”, but I’m actually a hair shy of 6’ and no matter how many times I tell her this, she never believes me. Of course, she’s a good number of inches shorter than me, so I like to rub it in when I can.

  I really want to approach this woman that I keep exchanging looks with, but by the next time I look up, she’s gone, vanished, just like that. I frantically search the bar and don’t see her anywhere. Well, shit, I think to myself. I lost my opportunity. I’m feeling a bit bummed about this and tell Cody and Garrett that I’m going to turn in early. They nod and agree we should head back. I do, in fact, go to bed when we return, dreaming about golden-red locks falling over my body and pale, freckled skin rubbing against me.

  I wake with a start and realize I’ve come in my sleep. Jesus, I haven’t done that since I was a kid. Clearly, I need to get laid. I haven’t for about two months, not since my last relationship ended. I groan and grab some tissues to wipe myself off before jumping into the shower. Then I head downstairs and grab breakfast with Cody and Garrett before we head over to the turbine site.

  The site visit goes well. Steve and Mitch are the head contractors, and they give us the lay of the land, literally. It’s a beautiful location not too far from the volcano, but far enough that it should be safe. I run some calculations as we speak, taking more measurements and soil samples. We wrap up at around eleven thirty and grab a quick lunch.

  “Meet us down there in about an hour,” Mitch says, pointing to a wharf area that has little huts set up that are clearly selling day trips, whale watching tours, and other expeditions.

  “Sounds good,” Cody says. “I’m looking forward to having a little outdoors time here. I’d like to go over to Pico next.”

  “Oh yeah, it’s beautiful over there,” Steve says. “Let me know when you’re going to come out next time, and I’ll get us a boat for the day.”

  “Great,” Cody says.

  We head back to the hotel and change. Steve and Mitch are waiting for us at the dock when we arrive.

  “This place does the best tours,” Mitch says pointing at one particular hut. We head over there and a young woman about my age takes our names and payment for the afternoon excursion.

  “I hope you don’t mind,” she says. “One of our biologists is collecting some data today, so she’ll be out there with you. However, that means you’ll get the boat to yourselves and our two guides.”

  “No worries,” Cody says. “What type of res
earch is she doing?”

  “Oh, Melissa is actually doing some echolocation studies. She’ll be collecting some soundbites during the trip today,” the young woman says with a warm smile. She has a French accent, and she seems familiar, but I can’t place her.

  Chapter 3

  Nick’s Playlist: “Lovesong” by The Cure

  We get debriefed on our trip and then a boat pulls up and offloads some passengers from a morning tour. We get ushered onto the vessel. It’s not huge, about twenty-five feet in length. The two guides, Marco and Peter, introduce themselves. Marco is from Lisbon but has lived on the island for ten years, and Peter is Irish and has been helping with tours for two years. They seem like nice guys, and again I’m trying to remember where I’ve seen them as they look familiar too. Marco is handing out life vests and snorkel equipment when I hear a lovely voice.

  “Sorry I’m late, gentlemen. Marco, can I get a hand with this equipment?” The voice is deep and husky and smooth like a fine liquor.

  I look up and lock eyes with the goddess from the bar. She must have seen me before I saw her because she doesn’t look as surprised as I do in this moment. Our eyes are locked together for seconds, maybe a full minute before Marco says something and jerks her attention away.

  “This is Melissa Burke. She’ll be joining us today. Melissa is working on an echolocation study and needs to collect data from a pod of dolphins that we’ll likely be seeing this afternoon.” And now I know why all these people seem familiar, I saw them at the bar last night.

  Peter extends a hand and helps Melissa onto the boat. She smiles at us and my dick literally jumps to attention. She’s radiant, fucking radiant.

  “Hello,” she says warmly reaching out to shake Mitch’s and Steve’s hands first as they are the closest, and then she extends her hand to Cody and Garrett before shaking mine. I notice goose bumps form on her skin as I grip her hand for a moment too long. Her skin is warm and smooth, and the wind blows toward me as she goes to pull away. I catch her scent, and like a shark smelling a drop of blood in the ocean, I’m drawn toward her. I physically stop myself from leaning forward and dipping my nose along her collarbone to inhale more of the lavender and honeysuckle smell emanating from her skin and perhaps her hair which is pulled back in some sort of intricate braid.