Free Keeping Her Love by Tiger Hill Page B

hadn’t seen happen since he proposed in the garden at Sacramento. “Yes, that sounds wonderful!”
    “Your birthday is April twenty-seventh, right? We’ll just get away from everyone next week. No wedding worries, no talk about your job or the business. It’ll just be waves, birthday cake, and maybe some of that pink champagne you like.”
    Tula got up to hug him, and in that moment, he felt like they didn’t have any worries in the world.
    A few days passed after that, and to both Tula and Rhett’s surprise, Layla had some interesting things to report.  
    “Tula! You will not believe what I have to tell you!”
    It was a Thursday evening and Layla was walking through the front door with a blaring pink skirt that featured rainbow suspenders. Tula was lounging on the couch with Rhett, relaxing after a long day at work. “What is it?”
    “Okay, well…” She plopped herself on the couch, and they noticed that her makeup was a little more bright and colorful than usual. “You know that in the past that Max wasn’t so into me, right? Well, all that time of sending him love notes has finally paid off!”
    Tula’s mouth dropped. “He’s agreed to go out with you? Really?”
    “Yes! Isn’t it amazing? I knew he would eventually give in to me. I mean, who wouldn’t want a bodacious babe like myself? He’s just finally opened his eyes.”
    Rhett and Tula traded a look.  
    “And I know we’re all going to have so much fun when we spend that weekend at the beach!”
    “What?” Tula asked.
    “The day at the beach. It’s your birthday, right?”
    “Yeah, but…” Rhett could see that she was trying to back track things in her mind. “How did you know about that? I don’t remember telling you.”
    “It was on your calendar. I just assumed that you’d want to invite some people. I am invited, right? I wanted to bring Max, too. We bought the nicest present for you the other day. You just have to let us come—I’ve never been to a bonfire before, and I’m so excited to spend a night under the stars!”
    Another look was traded between Rhett and Tula. Rhett wanted to pretend to vomit in front of Layla, but that wouldn’t exactly have been proper manners.  
    “I mean, I guess you can come,” said Tula. “You do know that we’re going to be sleeping in tents, right? Does that bother you?”
    “Not at all!” Responded Layla with a smile that bared all the metal in her mouth. “I have a spare tent at home that Max and I can use. It’s a little small, but I don’t think that’ll bother either of us. Hehe!”
    Double vomit, thought Rhett.  
    Not able to further push the issue, Rhett kept his mouth shut concerning this addition of people to the birthday weekend. Internally, he was certainly grumbling about it, but he wasn’t going to burden Tula with his objection to the addition of her annoying cousin and withdrawn brother. The most that was said about it were a few traded words of wonder on how Layla had found out about it. She was a rather nosy girl, they both agreed. It was certainly not out of the realm of possibility that she would find out and then invite herself.
    So that Saturday morning they all loaded into Tula’s hatchback sedan and headed for the beach. Rhett volunteered to drive so that his fiancée would be able to relax through the early morning ride. Layla was about as tired as her cousin was, her head laying against the seat as she napped for the first hour of the ride. Max did not fall asleep after making himself comfortable in the car. Rhett felt on some level that he should make conversation, but considering that the girls were asleep, he thought it best to just keep conversation to a minimum. He felt a strange mixture of eeriness and thankfulness at keeping his eyes on the road and attempting to avoid thoughts of Max. Every once in a while Rhett would sneak a look through the rear view mirror at what was going on in the back seat. Max would always be looking through the window