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“If you guys don’t quit staring at us,” Sly says dryly, “I’m going to need one of those drinks, and we’ll be sleeping here tonight.”

I turn to him and raise a brow. “Oh. No, no, no. You wanted the full van life experience, and you’re getting it, starting with sleeping in it tonight—all six-foot-whatever of you.”

“You’re right,” he says, admitting defeat. “I did ask for the full van life experience.”

He inches the pads of his fingers up my leg before pinching my inner thigh. I yelp and bat him on the shoulder. He grins lazily back at me, flashing those dimples. His expression is so full of lust and hunger—it’s like he doesn’t care that we’re not the only ones in this hot tub.

The way his eyes dart from my flattened lips to my breasts, and back up to me, I know that he is picturing us back in the van, doing any number of things. Any one of those acts would satisfy the want and need that’s been building low in my core from admiring the way his long, muscular arms flex when he stretches them over the sides of the hot tub. I start to get lost in his eyes until Sutton chuckles, sounding just like his brother, and sets the pitcher down on the edge of the hot tub.

“God, this brings back some memories. I’m just glad Mother Earth—” He turns to Grace for confirmation. “Gaia? Karma?”

She takes a sip of her drink and flops her hand at him. “Either works, I think. Just go with it.”

“Right,” he says, angling back toward us. “I’m glad something, or someone, brought you two back together, because I was so over keeping it a secret that Josie was bouncing around Jackson with Grace all winter and this spring.”

Grace narrows her eyes at him. “As much as you like to blab, I’m amazed you pulled that off, and managed to keep it a secret from TJ that you and Josie freaking knew each other this entire time.”

He shrugs. “Like my girlfriend said, I’m pretty talented, not just a pretty face in the kitchen.”

Kelsey scrunches her nose and looks at him. “I said pretty, not pretty talented.”

He levels a knowing grin at her. “That’s not what you said last⁠—”

“Sutton Sterling, do not finish that sentence.” She turns a shade of red darker than she already was from the steamy water.

He holds his hands up in surrender. “Fine. I will keep my pretty mouth shut.”

TJ hums to himself. “Yeah, this might actually be more entertaining than when you hated him, Kelsey.”

Grace slaps him on the arm. “Tommy, be nice. They are so in love, and you need to appreciate that.”

Something about this entire exchange, besides the fact that they’ve taken their attention off Sly and me, feels so mundane but also completely and utterly familiar.

Part of me thinks that in an alternate world, this would have been normal for Sly and me if things had worked out differently. Even if we hadn’t split up, Grace and I would’ve still met in college. Sutton was already following in Slade’s footsteps, and in culinary school to become the world-class chef that he is today. And Sly, I don’t know—I want to dive down that rabbit hole of potential emotional pitfalls, and I equally want to avoid it like the plague.

Dwelling on what ifs has never been something I’ve been fond of, and now—when I’m comfortably curled into the side of someone I swore I would hate for the rest of my days—is certainly not the time to change that policy.

TJ lifts a shoulder. “Yeah, you know love when you see it.”

“And look at these two.” Grace gestures at me and Sly with her palm. “Everyone with eyeballs can see they’re still clearly in love, even after a decade apart.”

Sly chokes on his soda, and I literally feel the blood drain from my face. I don’t know if that would leave my skin bright red, given the hot water or not, but I can’t believe what my best friend just said.

“Grace!” I whisper-shout, jutting my chin out. “Are you serious?”

She shrugs. “What? I’m just stating the obvious. Look at you two.”

I don’t have to look at anything because I feel Sly’s arm curl around my waist below the water, protectively and instinctively holding me closer to him—exactly where I want to be. What she’s saying is true for both of us, although neither of us are willing, nor open, to uttering that four-letter word. Neither of us have even been willing to talk about what happens to us beyond this weekend, much less for the future, or whatever eternal cosmic realm that I’m sure Grace is currently picturing. Sly and I spent a nearly thirteen-hour drive today managing to dance around that topic entirely.

Sutton throws his head back with another amused laugh. “Oh, boy. The last time I saw these two together, it was constant PDA—horny teenagers that had to be pried off each other with a stick. Truly inseparable.”

Sly scowls at him, but Sutton, still sporting his playful, shit-eating grin, only winks and tips his drink at us. “I would say that hasn’t changed either.”

Sly makes a one-fingered gesture at his brother. “And I forgot how insufferably funny you think you are.”

Kelsey snorts an amused laugh. “He is pretty full of himself.” Sutton gives her a questioning look, which she ignores as she looks my way and continues. “So, where are you off to next? Grace says you’re constantly on the go.”

Sutton winces. “Geez, Shadow. Ripping the Band-Aid off, wow.”