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Keaton, despite always taking pains to be seen out and about in Manhattan, didn’t have the raging social life or sex life people assumed. That heletthem assume. Casual sex was not a thing in his life. Sex meant something to him.
August meant something to him.
“Ugh.” He let out a long bellowing sound of frustration.
At that moment, the door swung open and August and Molly stood there, twin looks of concern on their faces. Okay, maybe Molly’s was less concern for him and more concern about what she was going to find inside the love shack.
It isnota love shack.
“Everything okay?” August asked as she walked Molly inside and unclipped her leash. The dog did a happy trot around in a circle, and then went to find her new BFF—the stuffed lobster.
Sunlight streamed in through the window and made August’s hair glow like embers in a fireplace. Her fair cheeks were lightly flushed from her walk and the fresh air outside, and she looked...
Beautiful.
The kind of beauty that you appreciated when you were in a relationship and you really knewwhysomeone was beautiful—the real reasons. Not that they had a perfectly symmetrical face or a banging body or great eyes, although she did have those things. But the beauty that went beyond the surface. Like how her kindness shone through her eyes and how she snorted when she laughed really hard and how she was always ready with a smile when someone needed encouragement.
Thatkind of beautiful.
Those are the things that cut you most when that person is gone.
He had to remember that. Because the better something was, the more it hurt when you didn’t have it anymore.
“Kea?” She stepped forward and he realized that he hadn’t responded.
“Yeah, fine. Everything’s fine. Super fine.”Three fines means everything is categorically not fucking fine.“I’m going to have a shower.”
He got out of bed, not missing the way August’s eyes were instantly glued to his naked body as he beelined for the bathroom. Oops. He’d forgotten that he wasn’t wearing anything.
He turned the taps on and stepped into the shower, the drumming water drowning out some muffled words from the other room. In spite of feeling all kinds of awkward about the whole thing—and having no idea at all how people normally handled this kind of shit—Keaton couldn’t help the goofy grin from spreading across his face.
Dammit. He liked her a lot.
Even more than he remembered.
16
The second day started with a social media workshop, which August attended while Keaton used the time to catch up on work back in the cabin. Before Leah joined the workshop virtually, she and August talked on the phone, and August was relieved to hear her friend was doing a little better. The flare-up had been a nasty one, leaving her completely drained the past few days, but her boyfriend, Will, was coming over to help out.
The workshop was a welcome distraction, even if it wasn’t one hundred percent effective at stopping her from thinking about last night. Sleeping with Keaton was like going back for another handful of candy when your teeth were already aching. It might feel good in the moment, but afterward there was an air of regret.
There’s no point regretting it...especially not when it was the best sex of your entire life.
Ugh, why did it have to be so damn good? She tapped her pen against her notepad as Isla wrapped up the workshop with some inspiring words about chasing your dreams. But August was struggling to stop her mind from ping-ponging back to Keaton.
A night of great sex is a lovely diversion from life...and nothing more.
It shouldn’t change her goals or her plans or what she was going to do next. Maxine Diamond had already emailed with some new potential matches. When they took a break later today she would read through them and pick someone to have a date with.
You’ve always been good at picking yourself up and dusting yourself off, so keep doing that. Last night is nothing more than a memory.
This was the resolve August wanted to embody. Because the next activity of the competition sounded like a doozy and shereallyneeded to get her head in the game to help Keaton and Molly do their best.
After the workshop she’d met up with the two of them to prepare. The competition was down five contestants from the elimination yesterday, which left them with fifteen animal and human pairings in total. Another five would go home at the end of today, and a further five would go home after another elimination round the morning of day three. Only five animals would make it to the end and August wanted one of those spots.
But Molly had somebigcompetition.
The top performers included a white-and-beige Chihuahua whose tongue permanently dangled out of its mouth and a Hungarian sheepdog—which was one of those dogs that looked like a mop—named Swish.
