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A knock at my door brought me out of the memory, and I quickly locked my phone and tossed it onto the nightstand. I crossed the room to the door and peered through the peephole. When I saw my dad standing there in his flannel pajamas, I didn’t hesitate to open the door and stand back so that he could come in.
“Hey, Dad, what’s up?”
“You look nice,” he said as I closed the door behind him. “Are you going somewhere this late?”
I smiled. It was only ten o’clock, not too late to go out if I wanted to.
“I just got back from a date, actually.”
“Really?” He went to the loveseat in front of the TV and took a seat. “He treat you right?”
“Yeah, Dad.” I moved closer and took a seat beside him. “Is there something you wanted to talk about?”
“I just wanted to check in with you,” he said, patting my knee. “I know that this week is all about Michael. Your mom and I spent all day with him, and I wanted to be sure that you didn’t feel left out.”
That was just like him. My mom could be overprotective in a smothering way, but my dad was more thoughtful. He looked out for my feelings.
“I’m fine, I promise.”
“You’re sure?”
I nodded with a small smile. “Yeah, I really am.”
“Okay.” He stood up. “You let me know if you start to feel that way, and we’ll go out for some ice cream together, just the two of us.”
My smile widened. That was something we used to do together when I was a kid and had a bad day. He’d take me out to a local ice cream shop for a scoop of double chocolate chunk. He called it our special treat day.
“Thanks, Dad.”
He nodded and headed for the door. “Goodnight, Summer.”
“Goodnight.”
Guilt washed over me as soon as the door closed behind him. What was I doing? Looking at pictures of Levi and remembering the good times...the old feelings...it was all a betrayal of my father. He was the only man in the world that I could truly count on, and I owed him better than that.
Dad deserved my unwavering loyalty. Levi didn’t even deserve to take up space in my mind anymore.
CHAPTER6
Levi
My arms burned from exertion as I used the paddle to propel the kayak through the water. It was a two-seater and to my chagrin, I was partnered with Amanda. Keith had assigned us to do this activity together, and I wasn’t sure if it was his idea of a joke or if he truly didn’t realize how aggressive this woman was with me. She was still determined to seduce me, and I was getting tired of it.
When we’d gotten into this kayak with instructions to navigate it together out to a buoy and back to the shore, she’d immediately wasted time by slowly taking off her sundress, looking back at me over her shoulder as if it was some kind of striptease. The string bikini she was wearing underneath left little to the imagination, but I’d seen it all before. Amanda had a great body, but my mind was only on one woman and she wasn’t it.
By the time we’d finally gotten going, everyone else was out on the water. Then, another problem presented itself. Amanda put in as little effort as possible, meaning that I had to pick up the slack. At one point, she even put the paddle down, suspended across her lap, and pulled back her hair into a ponytail. I had the feeling it was an attempt to show off her long neck, but I just rolled my eyes. Attraction to her was the last thing I would feel while working my ass off to get us where we needed to be.
We were the last ones to finish, and everyone was waiting for us on the beach by the time we climbed out of the kayak. I bent over to scoop up cool ocean water in my hands and splash it onto my sweaty face. Amanda was prancing over to our coworkers, and I rolled my eyes at Keith as he came into the water to help me pull the kayak up onto the sand.
“The point of this is team-building,” he said when he saw my annoyed expression. “That means that everyone will be paired up at some point. Look at it this way, you don’t have to worry about being partnered with Amanda again for the rest of the trip.”
“Finally, some good news.”
He chuckled and clapped me on the shoulder. “Time for lunch. I know a great spot.”
I grabbed my towel and rubbed it roughly over my hair as we joined the others. This outing was right next to our hotel on the beach, and Keith announced to everyone that lunch would be at a small pizzeria just a block away, so we were walking.
I fell into step beside Keith while our coworkers trailed behind. We’d spent all day yesterday doing trust exercises and team building experiences, but kayaking and lunch were the only things Keith had planned for us today. I was pretty sure that he knew we would want to explore the island a little on our own and was giving us the chance to do it.
