CHAPTER 13
PACKING AND PEP TALKS
CHARLIE
Ilove Mackenzie’s place. It’s so cool that she lives in an apartment built inside her sister’s garage! But only for a few days longer. Livi, Mackenzie’s sister, Maggie, and I are all here with her, in the bedroom part of her apartment, helping her to pack up everything before the wedding.
Well, everything except for the laundry basket, where she’s put everything she’ll need between now and the wedding, and the suitcase already packed for her honeymoon to the Azores Islands in Portugal. The Azores are remote and peaceful, and they’re off the radar in the best way. I’m excited that they’re going there.
“Check this out,” Mackenzie says as she grabs a big manila envelope from her suitcase that hasTop Secretstamped across the front. She opens the flap andpulls out a briefing folder. “Knowing how obsessed I am with spy movies, Jace made our honeymoon itinerary into an operation briefing!”
Of course, I already know this—Jace put everything together himself, but he needed a good amount of help getting it all formatted just right and looking official. And since computers are my jam, I got to read it all. It’s fun to hear Mackenzie talk about it, since I didn’t actually get to see him give it to her. I miss having him on comms when he does cute things.
“It’s got ‘Important Mission Contacts,’” Mackenzie says and turns the folder to us, showing a photo of Jace with the wordsTHIS GUYwritten under it. “And then each of the next pages lists what we’re doing each day of our honeymoon, each as a ‘Mission’ with its own ‘Mission Objectives.’ And it has time-stamped ops schedules! We’ve got things like taking in the volcanic islands and lush greenery, checking out crater lakes, hot springs, black sand beaches, doing some whale watching, hiking through calderas, scuba diving for shipwrecks, and canyoning.
“And there are micro operation objectives, too. Like ‘Successfully kiss operative while laughing’ and ‘Execute three swoony glances.’ And it has an Operation Gear Checklist with things like ‘Standard Issue Sunglasses (for surveillance and sunset admiration), Evening Attire (in case of emergencytango needs), and Backup Flip-Flops (in case of beach-based ambushes).’
“And look! There’s even a map of the area!” Mackenzie says, turning the page and putting the folder on the bed for us all to see. “It has locations marked and labeled—Known Rendezvous Points, Suspected Scenic Overlooks, and Potential Extraction Sites.”
Maggie, Livi, and I are all looking at it with wonder. And, okay, longing. This place looks amazing! And I love that Jace had the idea to create this for Mackenzie. It’s so sweet.
“This is the greatest thing I’ve ever seen,” Livi says, poring over the briefing.
“Remember back before Jace,” Mackenzie says, “I used to ask every guy I dated if he could choose to go on a vacation to the beach or the mountains, which he would choose?”
Maggie nods. “Because you wanted to know if they wanted to relax on vacation or have an adventure. And you always hoped he would choose adventure.”
Mackenzie grins. “My biggest dream was to find someone who would hike with me. Or maybe even canoe. Can you believe that I get to go on an adventure honeymoon like this? This is so far beyond my wildest hopes and dreams!”
It’s so fun seeing all of Mackenzie’s excitement asshe’s moving on to the next stage. I can tell that she loves this place, but she loves my brother even more. So, she’s leaving a place she loves to move onto something better, doing things she loves even more. It’s kind of beautiful.
And it makes me want it, too. It surprises me how much I want it, because I’ve never really felt its pull before. I don’t know if it’s because of Owen or not, but it makes me want to be more open to a relationship with him.
Livi finally tears her eyes from the operation briefing to meet Mackenzie’s. “Someday, I tell you, I’m going to find a guy who will be just as perfect for me as Jace is for you, and we’ll go on a honeymoon this perfect for us.”
“Speaking of which,” Mackenzie says, “how did your fancy date with your boyfriend go last night?”
“Not awesome,” Livi says, flipping through more of the briefing. “We broke up.”
“You did?” I asked. “I thought you really liked him.”
“Well, I did, but sometimes it just doesn’t work out.” She hands the folder back to Mackenzie and then goes back to folding the clothes hanging in the closet and putting them in a box, like she didn’t say that she just broke up with the guy she’s been gushing about for weeks.
“And?”Maggie says.
“Get back to packing, and I’ll tell you.”
I swear, we all forgot that was what we were doing for a moment. I keep working on boxing up Mackenzie’s shoes—the girl has alotof shoes. Super cute ones, too.
“Okay, so Javier planned this fabulous date—a murder mystery on a yacht in the Baltimore Inner Harbor. We got assignments of what character we were supposed to play ahead of time, and I was a nineteen-twenties courtesan. So I was wearing a scandalously short flapper dress, and Javier was dressed as a nineteen-twenties gangster.
“As part of it, during the dinner, they handcuffed me and Javier together. I didn’t think it was such a big deal, but apparently it was to Javier. I knew he was claustrophobic, because we played ‘Guess my phobia’ once.” She stops in the middle of folding a blouse to give us a look. “Guess what his clue was? ‘I don’t like being trapped in small spaces.’ I’m like ‘Come on! You’re not even making this hard!’”
“What was the first clue you gave him about yours?” I ask.
“That I don’t like hiking in rainforests.”
“Ooh. Good one,” Maggie says.
