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“Good morning, Daddy.”
“It’s almost afternoon, but you had a long day yesterday.”
I pulled back and blinked at him. “Afternoon?”
He laughed. “We were just about to have lunch.”
I looked up and the sun was almost reaching its crest in the sky. If it weren’t for that stupid man and those stupid storms, I’d have seen the sunrise. “Can we talk after lunch?” I asked quietly.
My father was generally an easygoing man, but when I told him about the incident in the laundry room, he would not be happy. And the jerk would be gone forever.
The first genuine smile since I’d arrived pulled at my cheeks.
“Of course, my dear.” He gestured to the seat next to him. “Sit. Sit. I’ll go let Matilda know you’re joining us.”
I stiffly kissed my mother’s cheek. “Mom.”
“So glad you could grace us with your presence,” she said acidly.
I bristled, grateful my father would be a buffer between us when he returned.
“Sister, dear!” Alma rushed me from the pool, dripping wet.
My younger sister flung her arms around me with no regard for my dry clothing. I caught her and hugged her hard. It had been a few months since I’d seen her. She looked like she’d spent the entire summer frolicking on the beach.
Her hair was like spun gold and her skin like sun-kissed bronze. Although only two years separated us, she’d always been more beautiful, more . . . everything.
“Missed you,” I murmured in her ear.
She blew a raspberry on my cheek like she was still five. “Missed you too. Where’s your bikini? You can’t go in the water in that.”
I looked down at my flowy dress with a print pattern in earthy tones. Her swimsuit took the termitsy-bitsy teeny-weeny yellow polka-dot bikinito a new level of barely there. But she could pull it off like few others could.
“I’m not swimming today.”
A pang hit my chest, but I tamped it down.
Alma squeezed my hand. “Put your feet in at least.”
I forced a smile. She understood. She and Daddy and Grandma Josephine loved me. Accepted me.
“Maybe.”
She dragged me over to the chair I was supposed to take next to Daddy’s. “I want you to meet my boyfriend, Kane.”
I froze.
Casually leaned back with aviator sunglasses and shirtless was the man who had haunted me all night.
“Boyfriend?” I stuttered the word out like it was vile.
He couldn’t be. He was a pig. I was going to have him tossed out on his ass this afternoon.
He beamed at me. “Hello, Alma’s sister.”
Charming prince, my ass.
Alma draped her arms around his neck from behind and kissed his cheek. “This is my sister, JoJo.”
