"Riviera energy."
Bane throws a grape at him. Zero catches it in his mouth.
I bite the inside of my cheek as Zero winks at me and Bane puts his arm around the back of my chair.
∞∞∞
The lights go off downstairs at nine-fifteen.
I hear Margot in the hallway saying something low to Richard. The lock turning on the master bedroom door. Then nothing.
I am standing at the window of my bedroom in a hoodie and shorts, watching the moon come up over the water.
A floorboard creaks behind me. Bane.
"You ready?"
"Yeah."
He threads our fingers together and pulls me down the hallway after him.
The path to the beach is dark and cool. Moon high. Atlas is ahead with the blanket folded over one arm. Bane has the bug spray and a bottle of water and is carrying a tote bag bulging with the chips he allegedly does not eat. Zero, predictably, is carrying nothing but two bottles of red wine (the ones that didn’t fit into the tote bag), the new corkscrew, and the smug expression of a man whose midnight-swim lie is finally about to earn its keep.
"Margot bought it whole, by the way."
"Of course she did."
"She made me promise we'd do it again next year."
"Zero."
"I told her we would."
The sand is cold under my bare feet. The tide is far out. The whole stretch of beach is empty—not a light, not a soul, justdunes and dark water and a moon that's almost full laying a silver path across it.
Atlas snaps the blanket out flat. Drops onto it. Leans back on his elbows.
"Gentlemen."
Zero doesn't sit. He walks two steps onto the sand, peels his t-shirt off in one motion, gets out of his shorts and his boxer briefs in one practiced movement, and is naked and running for the water before any of us have processed it.
"ZERO!"
He doesn't turn. He hits the water at a dead sprint, dives, comes up shouting something obscene about the temperature.
Bane sighs. Long-suffering.
"If I drown out there," he says, peeling his shirt over his head, "I want you both to know it's specifically because of him."
He's down to skin in three seconds. Sprints after his brother. I watch Bane's pale back disappear into the dark surf and Zero's whoop carries back up the beach and—
Atlas's hand finds my wrist.
"Come here."
He pulls me down between his legs. My back to his chest. His arm settles across my collarbone, his other hand spreads warm and flat on my stomach over the hoodie, and I lean back into him and let my head drop onto his shoulder.
"Better."
