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“Tough love. That’s what they’re there for. The only one who will go slightly easier on you is—”
“Bronte,” he finished. “I’m learning the ropes quick.”
“Yeah?” She wrapped her arms around his neck, legs around his waist. “Like what?”
“I’m not sure if I’m allowed to tell you. On pain of death.”
“Hey.” She cinched her legs tighter as if that would do anything. It didn’t. He merely moved his hands to her backside, his fingers playing with the edges of her bikini. “You keeping secrets from me?”
He met her eyes and smiled into a kiss, the water lapping at their throats as he sank them both lower into the warm water. “You didn’t tell me your gossip.”
“Because there wasn’t any. We talked about how I’m the Tin Man and then got drunk.” Sam didn’t think she had to elaborate anymore. It wasn’t as if she hid who she was from Mike. She’d been honest with him from the beginning. The problem was now she didn’t know what to do or say about the feelings she couldn’t hide since apparently she had no poker face.
Although, he didn’t push it, so she didn’t either. Save thefeelingsfor a later date. Maybe after more cocktails.
“I learned,” he started, letting go of her to float on his back, “that Jason calls his daughter ‘chicken’ and that he really does want another kid.”
Sam reached her arms out over the top of the water. It was so calm and blue, it almost looked fake. “That’s not a secret.”
“He doesn’t seem to like Bobby much.”
“I don’t know if I particularly like Bobby at the moment,” she said, watching the man in question swim toward the surf.
“He said he’s feeling pressured to propose.”
“Pressured,” Sam whisper-shouted. “That can’t be true. He was the one who brought it up after an argument they had a couple weeks ago.” When Mike tipped his head up, his wet hair clung to his forehead, and she swiped it back. “What else?”
“Chris talked about Bronte’s family a lot. Said he doesn’t speak to his own.”
“That’s a sad story. Did he tell it to you?”
“Not really, just that they basically disowned him.”
Sam nodded. “What else?”
He laughed. “We played poker with pretzels and drank beer. It wasn’t anything deep, but it gave me a better understanding of you guys. Of how close you are.”
She swam behind him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders, pressing her chest against his back. “You get one of us, you get the rest of us.”
He hooked her legs on either side of his hips then slowly sliced through the water with his arms. “Good thing I’m pretty strong. I can carry the lot of you.”
Sam kissed his shoulder, then rested her chin in the crook of his neck, enjoying the gentle ride but utterly unable to respond to his offer. He wanted her. For real. Not for the summer or for a fling, but for real. He would accept everything that came with her, all of her emotional and physical baggage, including but not limited to the form of three other women. It was a lot to carry, and she didn’t know how to ask that of him.
“I thought you were the swimmer,” he said, cutting through her mental breakdown. “But here I am, carrying your lazy mermaid ass around.”
She threw back her head and laughed in relief at being able to avoid the topic for now. “If I’m a mermaid, what are you?”
“Pirate.”
“Come to pillage and plunder my treasure?” She ground her hips against him, but he stopped moving and stood up, guiding her around to his front.
They were closer to the beach, and she was able to stand now, her toes finding the sand. With one hand against her lower back and the other woven into her tangled, wet hair, he kissed his words into her mouth. “I want more than your treasure. I want everything.”
* * *
Sam and Mikespent a few hours soaking up the sun with her friends. Although he thought, at this point, he could call them his friends too. He was starting to understand their inside jokes and nuanced looks they gave one another. And before they knew it, it was time to get ready for the wedding.
Mike had packed his navy suit but decided to forgo the jacket. Even with a sunset ceremony, it was still too hot for that many layers. It didn’t take him long to shower and dress, but Sam stayed in the bathroom for a while, though when she came back out in a long, flowing dress that reminded him of ocean waves with tiny straps that tied behind her neck, his breath caught in his chest. With her lavender hair pulled back from her face and those enormous eyelashes she’d worn in LA, she really did look like a mermaid.
