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Then he offered her a quick smile. “Go to sleep. I don’t want you too hungover tomorrow. The rain stopped, and I want to go swimming with you.”
26
Chris and Bronte were busy doing pre-wedding things, leaving their guests to their own devices. Sam had woken up with a slight headache, cured by some hair of the dog and morning kisses from Mike underneath the covers. Laney texted the girls that she and Bobby were already on the beach, so Mike and Sam made their way out there to a group of chairs almost at the water’s edge.
Bobby was out swimming laps, actual laps. In the ocean. Sam gawked at him, impressed.
Laney rearranged her lounger. “He’s at home out there. Like a shark.”
“I haven’t swum in…” Mike’s words trailed off, his eyes somewhere off in the distance, and Sam grabbed the SPF.
“In a while?” she guessed, squirting some into her hand to spread along his back.
“I already put some on,” he told her.
She grinned, knowing full well he did. While she’d dug through her suitcase for her bathing suit, he’d sprayed some on all over before putting on his special waterproof prosthesis. “Don’t want you getting burned.”
He swung his hand back behind him to grip her hip with a squeeze. “Terrible liar.”
“How’s the business going, Mike?” Laney asked.
To answer, he lifted his hand flat in the air, wavering it side to side, and Sam took her time rubbing the lotion into his skin, tracing his shoulder blades, the thick muscles at his shoulders and on either side of his spine.
“Even with the channel?” When he didn’t answer, Laney tilted her head up to him. “Have you been posting regularly like I told you?”
He stayed quiet, and Sam let out a quiet “uh-oh” as Laney sat up, removing her sunglasses and oversized sun hat, glaring up at Mike.
“We haven’t known each other long, but if there is one thing I’m good at, it’s my job.”
Sam finished with the lotion and dropped it into her beach bag. “That’s true.”
“I’m more than happy to help, but I can’t do the work for you.”
He grunted.
“What does that mean?” she asked him, then poked her head around his shoulder to ask Sam, “What does that sound mean?”
“He’s thinking.”
“Well, you want to think out loud for my benefit, Marine?”
He huffed. “I don’t know what to say, what videos to make. It took hours to make that five-minute introduction.”
“Yeah, it was your first one. You’ll get better at it once you get the hang of it.” Laney shook her head and plopped her sunglasses and hat back on then laid out on her chair. “I didn’t think you’d give up so easily.”
“I’m not giving up. I’m saying it’s not my thing, talking to a camera.”
“It doesn’t have to be your thing, and you don’t have to take any of my advice. You could keep on doing what you’re doing. No one’s forcing you. Then again, you can find some of that testicular fortitude they’re always going on about in those military commercials for new recruits and put the work in.”
“I thought Gem was the ballbuster,” Mike said, staring down at Laney, yet she didn’t wither under his gaze like some other people might. She beamed up at him instead.
“Depends on the day. Now, can you move over? You’re blocking my sun.”
He looked to Sam, who merely slid her sunglasses on and smiled with a shrug. “I thought you wanted to swim with me.”
“You girls are savage. Jason was right. You’re a bunch of she-wolves.”
Sam bumped the side of Laney’s fist when she held it aloft, and Mike failed at hiding his smile as he gave them a dismayed shake of his head before walking out into the ocean with Sam. Once in the water, he pulled her to him. “I thought you’d back me up with her.”
