Ever After Always by Chloe Liese

Author:Chloe Liese [Liese, Chloe]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Chloe Liese

16

Freya

Playlist: “Rolling In The Deep,” The Ukuleles

An ungodly groan rolls out of Willa through her face cushion on the massage table.

“Hey,” Frankie grumbles. “Some of us like getting massaged without your animal noises.”

Willa laughs. “Sorry. I’m. So. Sore. I can’t help it.”

“Get Ryder to give you massages,” I tell her.

“Heh.” Willa sighs audibly as her massage therapist glides his hands up her oil-slicked back. “Ryder’s why I’m so sore.”

Now it’s my turn to groan.

Frankie cackles. “If I could high-five you right now, I would.”

“I want a new room,” Ziggy mumbles into her face cushion. “A quiet one. And could you please do it harder?” she asks her therapist. “Just brutalize my muscles, and then hands off when you switch things. Light touch is uncomfortable for me.”

Her therapist nods. “Absolutely.”

I have a tiny moment of pride in Ziggy because I couldn’t see her having done that just a few months ago. But now she’s getting more confident in voicing her sensory needs, whether it’s how to be touched in a massage or explaining what she needs for a group outing to work for her.

“Whereas you?” Frankie says to her therapist.

The therapist working her shoulders smiles wryly, as if there’s some shared joke between the two of them. “Keep my hands off your hips,” he says, “or be prepared for some involuntary blasphemous swearing.”

Frankie sighs in contentment as he slides his hands up her neck. “You’re the best.”

“How’s yours feeling?” my therapist asks gently.

“Fine, thank you,” I tell her. “Just keep doing what you’re doing, please.”

After finishing our evening massages, we shower off and slip into comfy sundresses, then catch an Uber to a late dinner and drinks. Mellow and relaxed, I’m looking forward to winding down with authentic Hawaiian food and a good cocktail, enjoying a beachfront view.

“I feel so loose,” Ziggy says, waving her limbs like Gumby as we walk up to the restaurant.

Willa laughs.

“I’m starving,” Frankie says. “I need a burger in me, then bed. I know I got a nap, but kayaking took it out of me.”

“The sun took it out of me,” I tell them. “I feel radioactive.”

Ziggy tests her nose. “Yeah. I got sunburned.”

We went for a kayak and snorkel trip this morning because it was something we were all interested in and wasn’t too hard on Frankie’s body. Then we came back, napped—well, everyone else napped; I read more Persuasion and soaked up the late-afternoon sun—before we packed bags for our evening massages and girls’ night out.

It was a strategic effort on the siblings’ part to—ahem—give our parents the house to themselves for most of the day. It is their anniversary vacation after all.

I glance out at the restaurant’s tall copper torches burning in the night, listening to the roar of the ocean. There’s a sensual, unending warmth to the air here. And something about the island—whether the kindness of its people, the abundance of natural beauty, the constant pouring sunshine and breathtaking ocean—makes me feel alive, hopeful.

And now? Firelight and crashing waves, shadows and warm, sultry air, I can’t deny it’s also incredibly romantic.

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