Otherwise Engaged (9 page)

Chapter Fourteen

The next day,
Daphne decided she and Rain needed a little break from each other. Daphne went
with Julio to see El Yunque. Julio had stopped by early that morning and asked
her if she wanted to go see the rain forest. Rain was still asleep when she
left. She left a note for him, encouraging him to go see the rain forest later.

Tomorrow would
be New Year’s Eve. It would also be the big spa day and then the rehearsal
dinner. This would be her last day to kind of chill out and get her thoughts
together without Carolina around.
And hopefully, without
Rain, either.

She knew that
kiss had to be to make Carolina jealous. There was no other explanation for it.
The thing that pissed her off the most was that she couldn’t get it out of her
mind. The way his lips had felt moving over hers. His
strong
arms
around her, holding her tight. She’d called Bettina and told her
the whole thing. Bettina had told her she’d better go out into that living room
and get her man. Daphne had been tempted to, but she knew better. If she
couldn’t stop thinking about one measly little kiss, what would sex with him do
to her? No, it was better this way. She was best off leaving him in the suite
and trying to put him out of her mind. Yeah, forget Rain. She was enjoying the
beauty of El Yunque with a gorgeous man who made her laugh—not as much as
Rain did, though.

Rain. Why the
hell couldn’t she stop thinking about him?

The more she
tried to focus on what Julio was telling her about El Yunque, the more her mind
drifted to thoughts of Rain. What was he doing right now? Had he finally gone
to confess to Carolina? Part of her wanted him to get it over with. The other
part dreaded that moment. She worried that Rain would destroy Carolina’s
happiness.
Even worse than that, a despicable and selfish
part of her cringed at the thought of Carolina and Rain together.
What
if Carolina really was his great love? What if a wedding happened on this
island, but Rain was the groom and Carolina the bride? She didn’t know if she
was prepared to face that sort of reality.

The forest really
was amazing, and who knew when she would get an opportunity like this again, so
she needed to focus on the right here, right now. Everything around them was
lush green with delightful shocks of bright colors interspersed. Adorable
little coqui frogs were everywhere. Julio pointed out one perched in a large
yellow flower, and Daphne smiled.

“It’s
beautiful, right?” Julio asked as they stood on a ledge, looking over at a
waterfall. She could barely hear him over the waterfall’s roar.

“Yeah.” It
really was. She wished she could enjoy it more. That she wasn’t so distracted
by thoughts of things she shouldn’t have even been thinking about.

The tour guide
called for them to move along, and she followed woodenly, trying to concentrate
on her conversation with Julio, but doing a pretty poor job of it.

“You’re
thinking about him, huh?” Julio asked. A rueful smile crossed his lips.

“Huh?” Daphne
said, startled out of her thoughts.

“Your
boyfriend. You said you two had some sort of fight, didn’t you? It must be
worrying you still,” he said. “You’ve been distracted all day.” Julio shook his
longish black hair out of his face.

“Yeah.” It was
easier to let him think that than explain the whole complicated truth. She
wasn’t even sure she knew how to explain the whole complicated truth. She hadn’t
even sorted it all out in her own head yet. So how in the world could she
explain it to someone else?

“He doesn’t
deserve someone like you,” Julio said. “I know I haven’t known you long, but
I’ve known you long enough to know you’re too smart and beautiful to put up
with his bull. Any man would be very lucky to have you. Any smart man would
know that.”

Daphne nodded,
looking around. Her opportunity to enjoy El Yunque was passing her by while she
was wasting time on dark thoughts. Too bad last night’s drama kept creeping to
the front of her mind. She turned her attention to asking Julio questions about
the rain forest, hoping it would distract her from thoughts of the other Rain.

After their
cave tour, they headed back to the city. Daphne went back to the suite to take
a nap before dinner. Thank goodness Rain wasn’t there. He was the last person
she wanted to see. Actually, the last one she wanted to want to see. The sad
truth was
,
she wanted to see him more than she wanted
to see anyone else in the world. As a result, her nap was a very restless one.

#

Rain didn’t
know when he was going to get his chance. Not that he was sure how to go about
taking it. That day, Carolina was going to the airport to pick up her last
bridesmaid, a woman who’d just flown in from California. The two of them were
going to spend the rest of the day catching up. Apparently, they hadn’t seen
each other since the woman moved out there two years ago. Manny was probably
going to be with them all day. He was wherever Carolina went. It was sickening.
Annoying. Didn’t they get tired of spending every moment of their lives
together?

Rain spent most
of the day wandering around the streets near the beach as a result, in kind of
a daze. Had Daphne been right? Was he just jealous? According to Daphne, he
didn’t want a relationship with Carolina so much as he didn’t want her to be
with anyone else. Ridiculous. Wasn’t it? Yes. Carolina had boyfriends in the
past. It hadn’t bothered him—too much.

Yeah. But this is her first fiancé.
Husband come
Saturday. Shit,
he thought. That was, if
Rain couldn’t convince her she was about to make the biggest mistake of her
life. He had to be able to convince her of that.

And that kiss
last night. Why couldn’t he get that out of his mind?
The
crush of Daphne’s lips against his.
The way they’d felt, tasted. Every
time he’d almost drifted off last
night, that
was all
he could see. As a result, the most sleep he’d gotten had been a few fitful
hours from around dawn until a little after ten in the morning. He’d awakened
from his restless sleep when Daphne came through the suite on her way to go out
to El Yunque with that clown’s cousin. He’d pretended to be asleep, though. It
was easier for them both that way.

“Yeah,” he
mumbled. “Easier for you.” What, now he was stumbling down the street all
disoriented, talking to himself? What would be next? Surely, he was going to
get himself carted off to a mental institution if he kept this up.

He grinned to
himself. Yeah, maybe that was where he belonged. He’d felt nothing but crazy
since arriving in San Juan. He’d been so sure he wanted Carolina, but now all
these doubts were creeping in. And, spending more time with Daphne than he had
since college, thoughts about her were creeping in. Very unwelcome thoughts.
Thoughts he didn’t want to welcome anyway. She was only a friend, she was only
interested in being a friend, and it was best that way.
Because
he loved Daphne.
No, Carolina. Carolina, Carolina, Carolina. That was
definitely what he’d meant.

Shit. Why was
this getting so complicated?

On the way back
to the hotel, he ran into Manny. Manny seemed genuinely glad to see him.
As Manny did with everyone.
Because Manny
was so fucking perfect.

“Hey man, we’ve
been looking for you all day.” Manny dropped an arm around Rain’s shoulders
like they were old friends. “I wanted to invite you out with us this evening,”
Manny said.

“What’s going
on this evening?” Rain tried to keep his tone neutral, but it was one of the
hardest things he’d ever done in his life.

“My uncles have
this tradition,” Manny says. “Before the wedding, all the men in the family invite
the new family-to-be over for a baseball game.
Bride’s side
versus groom’s side.
There’s always plenty of food and music and dancing
as well. I thought I’d ask if you wanted to come along. Carolina’s side could
use your help, and it’s a lot of fun.”

“Will Carolina
be there?” Rain asked before he could stop himself, hoping his agenda didn’t
come out in his tone.

“Sure she will.
She’s probably looking forward to laughing her ass off at me.” He laughed. “I’m
terrible at baseball.”

Hm. Manny
sucked at something after all. “Wouldn’t miss it,” Rain said. Especially since
Rain was the star of his softball team back in D.C. Finally, Rain would have his
chance.

Julio offered
to drive them all out to Manny’s uncle’s house that evening where there would
be dinner and baseball. Rain had gone back to the suit a little while ago to
find Daphne had recently awakened from a nap. He’d told her about the baseball
game, and she informed him that Julio had already called to ask her if she
needed a ride. Of course he had. After that, they got ready for a night of fun,
fun,
fun
in silence.

Rain wore a
pair of basketball shorts and a T-shirt to the game—his normal gym
clothes. Good thing he’d packed workout gear. Daphne wore shorts that showed
off the majority of her incredible legs and a nice and snug tank top. He
couldn’t stop his eyes from drifting over to check out those legs, and he could
only hope she didn’t catch him at least some of the time. He also hoped she
hadn’t chosen to wear so little for Julio’s benefit. If that were the case,
he’d rather see her covered up from head to toe.

Around seven
that evening, Rain and Daphne squished into the cab of Julio’s truck and rode
over to Manny’s uncle’s house with him. It didn’t escape Rain’s notice that
Daphne gravitated toward Julio’s side of the cab. He also couldn’t help but
notice how good her dark brown legs looked against the short khaki shorts she
wore.

He tried to
make conversation by asking her about El Yunque. She made small, mostly
non-verbal responses. Julio took the liberty of filling in the details, telling
Rain all about the day they’d spent together.

When they got
out of the truck, Rain grabbed Daphne’s bare arm. She looked at her arm gripped
in his fingers and then up at him with narrowed eyes but didn’t say anything.

Rain said, “I’m
sorry about last night. I don’t want things to be strange between us.”

“Just get it
over with.” She jerked her arm away from him before adding, “The sooner you
tell her, the better. For everybody.” She walked away without giving him the
opportunity to say another word.

Someone had set
up a makeshift baseball diamond in Manny’s uncle’s backyard. First base was a
sandbag, second base was a large and rusty garbage can, third base was a tree
stump—bonus points for strategic thinking there—and home was what
looked like the lid to a large bucket. Several men stood around the yard
warming up for the game while others were staying close to the food tables.
Rain’s stomach pulled him in the direction of the food tables.

Rain saw Manny
and Carolina standing close by with their heads bent together. They seemed to
be in serious conversation about something. Manny had his hands on either side
of Carolina’s face. Rain turned his back before the sight could ruin his
appetite and started looking for an empty plate that he could pile up with some
of this food. The smell of charcoal-grilled meat filled the air and made his
stomach growl. He went for the corn on the cob and beef kebobs first.

Damned Manny and his humility.
Either that or he’d flat out
lied about baseball. Rain was killing himself, trying to dust Manny. Rain was
good, but Manny was no slouch. That was making it just about impossible to show
Manny up. Rain was so intent on his frustration at Manny and on trying to think
up schemes to sabotage Super Fiancé that he was having trouble focusing on his
own game. As a result, he was getting sloppier and sloppier. He tried to strike
Manny out and only managed to walk him. In a last-ditch effort throw Manny off
his game and a moment of utter frustration, he aimed a ball at Manny’s head,
and Manny ended up hitting a home run with it.

“Great game,
right?” Manny patted Rain’s shoulder as he jogged past when they were
switching, Manny’s team infield and Rain’s team outfield.

“Yeah. Sure,”
Rain said. He had the feeling his team wanted to kill him.

“You can’t
pitch anymore,” a guy said in passing as he headed for third base. He didn’t
remember the guy’s name, but he knew the guy had a smoking hot girlfriend who long
curly black hair. “You’re killing us.”

“I guess I’m
stinking it up a little,” Rain said, not able to argue with what the guy had
said. He was definitely killing it—and not in a good way. That really
pissed him off because baseball had always been his sport. Normally, he
excelled at it. Normally, he wasn’t so distracted.

Rain glanced
over at Carolina. She’d tied the tails of her shirt together so that the lower
portion of her flat abdomen was exposed. She had her hair up in a sloppy
knot—a look Rain had always loved on her. She was clapping and cheering
on that fool Manny.

Okay. That was
it. He had to get his head back in the game. He had to come out looking better
than Manny. That was all there was to it.

And finally
Rain had his chance in the next inning. He knew it as soon as he heard the
crack of his bat after it connected perfectly with the ball.
The
sweet spot.
That ball went flying, and so did Rain. He barely heard the
cheers of the others or noticed everyone’s surprise at the sudden return of his
baseball abilities. Rain dusted first, rounded second, and made his way to
third. Then, in an attempt to show off because Carolina just had to be looking
and because he was going to score this run come hell or high water—no way
was Manny getting a home run and leaving Rain without one—Rain slid into
home.