“I’m not letting you stop your life to care for him,” I said. She’d already done that once with her mom. I would do just about anything to make sure she didn’t do it again for a father who didn’t even appreciate what she’d done. “If we have to hire someone to be here while you’re gone, we will. But for today, you get to escape for a few hours, and he’ll be just fine.”
She huffed. “You’re not the boss of me, Beckett. Don’t act like we’rereallygetting married, and you get to make those kinds of demands or those kinds of promises.”
My newly obsessed brain jumped right to all the demands and promises I could give her while she writhed on my bed and begged me for relief. Desire hit me like gasoline reaching its flashpoint. Sharp and fast and brutal. What would it be like if I just let myself give in to it? What would it be like to have Maisey? To leap over the scars sealing my heart and take what I wanted?
I yanked myself back from the dangerous abyss. Denying myself Maisey might just be the hardest thing I’d ever done in my life. Harder than fighting fires for five days straight in the deepest mountain terrain. Harder than carrying a hundred pounds of equipment up twenty flights in full turnout. Harder than watching Dad all but bleed open as another woman left him for bigger dreams.
But Maisey’s friendship meant more to me than anything else on this Earth, and I wouldn’t jeopardize it. Not even for the earth-shattering sex I was suddenly certain we’d have if we gave in to this lust.
“What’ll it be, Maise? The easy way or the hard way?”
She rolled her eyes, and I grinned, dropping my shoulders as if I was getting ready to pick her up. She finally laughed, warding me off with a hand. But just that single laugh told me I’d done the right thing by pushing her.
“Fine. Fine. You get your way today. But only because I’m hot and tired and the lake sounds perfect.”
I headed to the door. “Ten minutes, Maise. Ten minutes or else.”
She threw a shoe at me, and I just batted it away with a chuckle.
? ? ?
As we crested the hill and Crystal Lake came into view, the sunlight caught on the surface, turning it into a sheet of teal-blue glass. The mountains stood tall behind it, the forest pressing close on the far side, andjust the view was enough to release some of the tension I’d felt over the last few days. And when Maisey sighed, it reassured me I’d done the right thing in pressing her to come.
The sandy beach on the Harrington Ranch was meant for resort guests, but Maisey and I had always had free rein. These days, I mostly came by to check on Dad or help out with odd jobs when he was short-staffed, so I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been there just to relax. It might have been since last summer.
I parked my SUV near a row of golf carts used to shuttle guests back and forth to the hotel and grabbed our bags from the back. As we headed down the pebbled path to the beach, Vader strained at his leash, insulted I’d put it on him. I didn’t blame him, but I also wouldn’t risk some guest freaking out because he was roaming around untethered.
The resort was packed with the Fourth of July approaching, and we were late enough arriving that almost every lounge chair and blue-and-yellow striped umbrella was taken. Just as I was about to suggest we head in the opposite direction, out past the boat dock, a couple at the far end of the beach started collecting their belongings, and I jogged to grab their spot.
I looped Vader’s leash over the handle of the lounge and adjusted the umbrella while Maisey started rubbing sunscreen over her skin. The scent brought back memories of summers we’d played together as kids, and she’d been doused in the stuff so her fair skin wouldn’t burn. But once she yanked off her T-shirt, all thoughts of our childhood disappeared.
My mouth went dry at the sight of the magenta bikini top that left one shoulder completely bare. I’d barely been able to restart my heart when she unbuttoned her jean shorts and let them drop. My chest tightened right back up, my balls swelled, and I was sure I was going to do something incredibly embarrassing before she turned away from me and said, “Get my back, will you?”
An innocent request. Something I’d done dozens, if not hundreds, of times before, and yet I was suddenly afraid of touching her.
When I hadn’t moved after several long seconds, she peeked over her shoulder at me. Nothing sexual about the turn of her head or the look she gave me, and yet it felt incredibly sensual anyway.
“Beckett?”
I cursed silently, grabbed the sunscreen, and pretended I was waxing the engine at the station rather than slathering her with cream. My hands slid under the strap, down along the smooth expanse of her shoulder blades, and I swore she shivered and inhaled. It didn’t help. I had to lighten things up before I did something stupid.
“Just so we’re clear, that wasyouaskingmeto touch you. I don’t oweyou another romance book for helping a friend.”
She chuckled, and as I reached around her to hand the bottle back, she turned at the same time, and it brought our mouths dangerously close. The smell of her, the water lily scent that existed below the sunscreen, filled my lungs.
“Thanks,” she said softly, looking from my mouth to my eyes and back.
She stepped away, and both relief and remorse shifted through me.
“Last one to the dogwood tree has to buy the nachos,” I said and then grabbed Vader’s leash and strode toward the lake.
I was surprised when a flash of vivid pink and pale skin sped past me.
Maisey was in the water, with a little squeal at the iciness, before I’d even dipped a toe in. She swam almost parallel to the shore, heading for the rope that divided the swimming area from the rest of the lake. Just past the buoys was a secret little cove, surrounded on three sides with oaks and pines and a single Pacific dogwood tree. Too narrow for Jet Skis and boats to enter, the inlet was the perfect hideaway we’d discovered in our younger years and used to escape the crowd of guests once the resort had opened.
A laugh escaped me as I watched Maisey race through the water. How had I forgotten how competitive she could be? It was a bit of Fallon that had rubbed off on her, or maybe it was simply the Maisey who would have bloomed if life hadn’t shit on her one too many times.
I hit the water, using long strokes and strong kicks to chase after her while my dog used superhuman speed to pass her right up. I didn’t catch her until she’d already ducked under the ropes, slid past the buoy, and swam into the tiny cove.