Waterfall Kisses (The Kisses 9)

I immediately located Bastian, Gabe, and Leo all sitting at the head table. Ava sat next to Bastian, positively glowing with happiness. There was an empty chair next to her and the final two seats contained two friends, Jack and Emma Saunders.

Emma laughed, her dark hair piled on top of her head in a glorious crown of curls while her billionaire oil-baron husband, Jack, looked on adoringly. I had hoped the two of them would come to our gala and auction, as they were billionaires and had a connection to the island. In fact, it had been Jack that had told Bastain about this undiscovered paradise before he bought the house here. Two years ago, they met on the beach just south of here and fell head over heels in love. It was a love story I loved watching unfold a little more every time I saw them.

“There you are,” Bastian greeted me, rising from the table as soon as he saw me. Several flashbulbs went off behind me and I knew the billionaires' table, not the woman singing on stage, was the center of attention.

I took my seat between Ava and Emma and all four men stood in an attempt to be formal. It made me laugh as Gabe, Leo

, and Bastian were perhaps the least formal men I knew. Most evenings, the three of them just sat on a couch eating pizza in sweats. Jack had grown up with money, but even then, it felt strange. It was something that I certainly had never gotten used to living with the upper crust.

Leo sat across from me at the table. Our eyes met and he grinned. All I wanted to do was talk to him, to make sure that the kiss we shared on the porch was actually real and not just a part of my over-active imagination.

Unfortunately, sitting at a table with my overprotective big brother and a host of photographers just hoping for the next big news break was not the place to talk, let alone make out.

“Bastian,” Jack said as our salads arrived. “This is an amazing thing you're doing here.”

“Thank you,” Bastian graciously accepted. I stared down the pretty arugula salad, not wanting to eat. I wanted to kiss Leo, not munch on rabbit food. Unfortunately, there wasn't an easy way to get out of dinner. Perhaps, after dinner I could pull him aside for a moment...

“I plan on bidding on several items tomorrow just to support your cause,” Jack continued. “But, I don't think I've ever actually heard the full story as to how you got here. To be honest, I didn't even know you were in the foster system. You've managed to keep yourself out of the limelight.”

Bastian took a sip of his wine. “That was intentional. As I recall, the limelight nearly destroyed you and Emma not too long ago.”

Emma chuckled. “Well, I'd say it brought us together, even if it wasn't entirely planned that way.”

Bastian nodded and set down his glass. “For a long time, I kept my past a secret. I couldn't keep the car accident a secret since it was in the papers, but I kept what happened to me after quiet. The foster system was rough. I got lucky and had a good family, and I then I got Charlotte.”

Bastian paused to smile at me warmly. If anything, I was the lucky one. I got Bastian.

“We had a good family, but a lot of kids fall through the cracks.” Bastian looked around at everyone at the table, his passion vibrating through every word. “There are kids who have been in the system since they were little and don't know what a family should be. There are a lot of very dark things that occur in the world.”

I stared at my salad. I knew that the world was dark better than most, and I still considered myself lucky. I'd put my past behind me as much as Bastian had. My parents weren't my family. Bastian was. He was the only person who had always been there for me, even after Leo started looking after me as well.

Thinking of Leo and Bastian made me remember Leo's crazy idea that Bastian and I would end up together. On the one hand, I could see how he might come to that conclusion. Bastian and I had always been close, and he wasn't the first to make the assumption that since we weren't biologically related, falling in love was the next logical step.

Except, Bastian and I were broken the same way. We shared the same cracks in our armor and similar defense mechanisms. For a romantic relationship to work, for two people to connect on the level needed for that kind of love, they couldn't be the same. Our armor would clash and we'd fall apart.

And besides that, Bastian was just Bastian. Ugh.

“Yet, here you are with a billion-dollar corporation. It speaks to your strength,” Jack was saying. I tried to focus back into the conversation. It was hard with Leo literally right in front of me but with no real way to talk to him. So close and yet so far.

“Thank you, but I think it speaks to my friends more,” Bastian said with an easy smile. He grinned at the other two men sitting at the table. “Without Gabe and Leo, there would be no business. Without Charlotte, we would have been lost in all the details.”

“Okay, so I love a good origin story and this sounds like it is one,” Emma jumped in. Her dark eyes were bright and interested. She wasn't the typical Hollywood beauty or even model pretty, but she was still stunning. She was real and that made her beautiful. It was easy to see why Jack had fallen so hard for her. “How did you get Kindling Dating started?”

“Let me, I love telling this story,” Gabe offered. Bastian and Leo both rolled their eyes. Gabe loved attention, especially from pretty ladies. Even if they were married.

“Go ahead,” Bastian said, leaning back in his chair. I looked over at Gabe, interested to hear yet another one of his infamous versions of how integral he was to starting the business. The last one had him basically creating everything from scratch all by himself.

“It was all my idea,” Gabe began. Leo made a soft snort and I giggled. He glared at both of us before continuing. “Bastian here had just gotten his heart stomped on. I felt for the guy and wanted to set him up with a girl who wouldn't break his heart.”

“That's the story you're going with this time?” Leo teased. “Not the finding an easy way to get laid side of the story?”

Gabe ignored him. “So, being such a good friend, I started looking around and realized that we had an opportunity. There was no good way to sort potential dates on the market, so we made one.”

It was then that our dinners arrived. I had ordered the chicken and was pleased to see that it was perfect. All the other tables were going quiet as everyone started to dig into the delicious food. I took a bite, savoring the succulent breast combining with Caribbean flavors and heat. Jerk spices, mixed with some sort of sweetness that made the heat tolerable rolled across my tongue. It was hard not to snarf the entire thing in one bite.

“Anyway,” Gabe continued once the servers moved on to the next table. “We built the core business together, and then focused on our strengths. Bastian figured out how to make it all work, I did the marketing, and Leo was our money guy.” He took a bite of his steak, making a pleased face before swallowing. He put his hand on Leo's shoulder. “Actually, Leo deserves a lot of praise. I don't know how he did it, but he got us a sweetheart deal on a loan. Enough for us to really get going. I don't know if we would be where we are without those start-up funds.”

Leo turned bright red and nearly choked on his chicken dinner. “It really wasn't that important-” he stuttered.