I poured myself a glass of ice water and took a seat at one of the kitchen stools.
Emma ventured in and fixed a glass of water too. Her blonde hair was piled on top of her head in a messy bun and she wore a sheer ivory cover-up over her bikini. It had fringe on the hem, which made it very Emma-like.
She sat down beside me and I smiled. “So…do you want to see what I’ve sketched for your dress?” The wedding was fast approaching so I had to start the actual process of making her dress soon, so I hoped she loved what I’d come up with.
“Ooh! Yes!” Her blue eyes glimmered with excitement. “I wanna see!”
“Wait here.” I instructed her before running upstairs to grab my sketchpad.
I returned with it clutched in my hands and I bounced with excitement. I was nervous too, though. There was the very real possibility that she might hate what I’d come up with.
“Lemme see!” She held out her hands in a grabbing motion.
I suddenly felt very unsure of my design. I reluctantly handed it over. I wanted to close my eyes so that I didn’t have to see her reaction if she hated it, but I manned up and held my chin high. It was her dress and if she didn’t like it, that was her right, but my designs were my babies.
Her mouth fell open and a small gasp emitted from her lips. “Sadie,” her voice was full of awe, “this is amazing.”
“Really?” A huge weight lifted off of my shoulders.
“I know I didn’t give you much to go on, but this? This is perfect. It’s more than I could’ve dreamed of.” She reached out and tentatively ran her fingers over the sketch.
I’d opted to go simple for the dress, but kept within Emma’s personal bohemian style. I wanted her to be comfortable in it and feel like herself. The shoulders were bare, but a lace draping went around the top of the dress adding more support and ending above her elbows. The dress was fitted against the stomach and then billowed out slightly around the hips, before ending in a short train with more lace detailing.
“I’ll get your measurements when we get home and then we can look at fabric together so that you get something you like.”
“Thank you.” She set the sketchpad aside and reached out to hug me.
I hugged her back fiercely. She might be driving me nuts with her meddling, but she was still my best friend. We’d grown up together, shared each other’s good moments and the bad ones too, and I knew I was lucky to have her on my side.
The front door opened and Emma thrust the sketchpad into my hands. “Hide this before Maddox sees,” she hissed.
I hurried for the stairs and had only climbed three when I felt eyes glued to my ass.
“Where do you think you’re going?” His voice poured over me like sticky honey, rooting me to the spot.
I casually looked over my shoulder, taking in his tousled black curls and searing brown-eyed gaze. He could be so intense sometimes.
“To my room,” I answered, finally finding my voice.
He opened his mouth to say something, but Maddox strolled by then and asked him a question.
The spell was broken.
I ran up the rest of the stairs, and the next set as well.
I was out of breath from the climb, but my racing heart? That was all Ezra.
I quickly put my sketchpad away before joining everybody outside for volleyball.
“I think we should do guys versus girls.” Hayes declared. The other guys nodded in agreement.
“That’s not fair,” I argued, “There are four of you and three of us since Remy’s sitting out.”
“I’ll sit out.” Mathias volunteered. His eyes already strayed to Remy where she sat a few yards away on a beach towel with her hands resting on her round stomach.
The other guys nodded at his declaration. They probably didn’t want the liability of having him on their team anyway, since he’d be distracted checking on Remy every five seconds. Hopefully he’d relax once she had the baby, but somehow I doubted it.
“So, now are we good with guys versus girls?” Hayes asked me, grinning widely.
“I don’t know,” I shrugged, “depends on if you’re ready to lose or not.”
“Ooh,” Hayes mock-winced, “the trash talking has begun already. Me likey.”
“Shut up.” Emma glowered, and stole the ball from his hands.
“Somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed.” Hayes whispered conspiratorially. “Maddox, you better do a better job of making sure your woman wakes up happy. You know, maybe a little oral in the morning.”
Emma gasped and threw the ball at his head. It bounced off and Ezra caught it.
Hayes rubbed the side of his head, and mumbled something, before joining the other two guys on one side of the net.
“We better beat them.” I told Emma and Arden.
“Oh, it’s on,” Emma agreed, still glaring at Hayes.
“I’m not very good at sports,” Arden admitted, glancing over in worry at Mia.
Mia was sitting with Remy and Mathias. Remy had the little girl sitting in front of her and was braiding her hair.
I quickly went over the rules of beach volleyball with her, but she still didn’t look very enthusiastic about playing.
Hopefully Emma and I would be able to pull off a win just the two of us.
We lined up with me on the front left, Arden to the right, and Emma behind in the middle.
Ezra tossed me the ball. “Y’all can serve first.”
“Aw, look at you guys trying to be all gentlemanly.” I laughed and threw the ball to Emma. “You’re still gonna lose,” I warned.
“We’ll see.” He grinned.
Emma served and the ball went over the net. Maddox hit it back over in Arden’s direction. She screamed and started to run away, but I managed to bump it back over the net.
“Get your head in the game!” I yelled at her. Yeah, I was competitive. So what?
“Did you just quote High School Musical to me?” She laughed.
The ball came sailing back over the net and Emma ran forward to hit it back over.
“Oh my God,” I groaned, “just play.”
Arden joined in after that, but it was up to Emma and me to make sure we didn’t lose. Poor Arden would never make it in sports. It was a good thing she worked in retail.
We ended up tied and my body pulsed with adrenaline. We were so close. We had this. I knew we did.
Hayes served it and it headed in Emma’s direction, but was low to the ground. She dove into the sand and bumped it up. Arden hit it and it went a little higher, but not enough to go over the net. I ran over and spiked it over the net.
It landed in the sand before Maddox could get to it.
“Did we win?” Arden screamed in excitement. “We won, right?”
“Yeah, we won,” I grinned, sticking my tongue out at the guys. Childish? Yes, but when you were friends you were allowed to do those silly things without it seeming rude.
Emma dusted sand off her body and I did the same.
“I think I have sand between my boobs,” she groaned.
Maddox strolled over and kissed her cheek. “I’d be happy to help you clean them.”
“Of course you would.” She snorted. “I really do need a shower, though.”
“Good, me too. We can shower together. You know, save the planet and conserve water. I’m very environmentally conscience like that.”
“Mhmm,” she hummed in agreement, “and it has nothing at all to do with getting me naked.”
“None at all.”
She shook her head, fighting a smile.
We all headed inside to shower and relax for a while. We were all tired from being outside all day.
I grabbed a quick snack before heading upstairs to my room to shower.
The bathroom attached to my room was just as dazzling as the rest of the house. Metallic glass tiles covered the walls and the floor was some kind of white tile that resembled wood. The shower was glass and there was a large Jacuzzi tub. I’d have to put that to use at least once before we left.