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“Jesus, Everett. You’re like a panting dog.” Ryan laughs at me. “I’m about to start barking.”
Ryan
As the county’s deputy sheriff,
I don’t know her name, and by the sound of it, she has no intention of ever seeing me again. But I can’t help myself as I lean in. Her eyes widen as I press my lips to hers, soft and feather-light, just one final taste of this mysterious, fierce, alluring woman I’ll never get to see again.
Convince her to see me again because I’m nowhere near done with her. I’m nowhere near done with her lips, with those eyes, with the body I didn’t even get to see in full.
I know exactly why he’d come after me, exactly what he wants from me. But Darby doesn’t, so I confirm her claim and tell her I’m going back to sleep before she can ask why I’m awake at this hour in the first place.
“Maybe you could take them down to the offices on Monday and introduce yourself to the staff there. I know you’ve got a few weeks before you start, but it might be nice to familiarize yourself with the space and get to know everyone. You can meet Everett too.”
and knowing that I hold the key to his livelihood,
My parents have never loved me or my daughter, but they shrouded us in a veil of money and power.
“Not so quick, darlin’.” He smiles down at me, but it’s coated in disgust. “We’re not done. You’ve got something that belongs to me.”
“Get your fucking hand off her.”
“Suppose I shouldn’t be surprised.” I watch her physically flinch at the blow of his words, and then I see red as rage overtakes me. “You’ve always been a slut.”
“Who are you?” he gasps between choking breaths. I smile. “I’m her boyfriend. Who the fuck are you?”
“If by ‘that bastard’ you’re referring to my brother, I’d think twice before opening your fucking mouth again.”
“You’re Darby’s sister.” It’s not a question. She finally lifts her head, and all I see is the color blue. “You’re Leo’s brother,” she says quietly. I nod. “Well, fuck.” I can’t help the laugh that escapes me. There’s that string I was looking for, I guess.
Secretly, I hope she’ll text me just to talk, that maybe I’ve been as stuck in her head as she has been in mine.
I want that too. I don’t need it with a man; I know I can find that with my daughter and my sister, and Pacific Shores is the closest I’ve ever found to that feeling.
You can’t see someone as a brother-figure if you think about how hard they made you come every time you’re in the same room as them.
“It’s good to see you again, Wildflower.”
They’re a bit more curated. Proper.” He hums. “Doesn’t fit you at all then, does it? Wildflower is much better.”
I don’t like the way he smirks at me like he knows what I look like naked.
Like he wishes he could see it all again.
“I was thinking of something more like colorful. Bright. Resilient. Sprouting up in the places you least expect them and blowing away on the wind just as quickly.” That wicked smile mor...
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can’t help but smile at that. It normally takes a while for Lou to warm up to someone new, but she seems to have taken an immediate liking to Everett.
shoulders, flashing that mischievous smile. “Goodnight, Wildflower.” The way he looks at me takes my breath away, and I have to remind myself where I am.
He stands on the curb, watching me drive away until I’m completely out of sight.
When I was younger, I had this dream of living in an old van for a few months, just driving up and down the West Coast and exploring; having the top down and the doors off felt like a few moments of how I imagined that life would look.”
“What I did with you at Emilio’s was not something I’ve ever done with anyone else before.”
Fuck. I want her to be jealous. I know it’s messed up, and I don’t know what it is about her that makes me feel this way, but I want to know she’s bothered by the thought of me with anyone else.
I needed to mean more than status and success.”
“And I never did. It’s like…I went to one end of the spectrum and Darby went to the other. She tried to make up for all the noise I caused by being quiet and timid and perfect until both of us were so fucked up, there was no way to fix it.”
that they’d never be the parents I needed. That, even if I didn’t, my child sure as hell would deserve more than they could ever give.”
Soft freckles dance across her nose as she smiles at me, resembling something like the sunrise after a hurricane.
Regardless, though, Everett isn’t that person—that place. So I try not to think too hard about why it was so easy to vent to him about all my fears, about my past.
“That kind of reaction is exactly the reason we opened this place, the joy we want to spread to anyone willing to accept it. So…that’s what I get out of it. The smile on the face of a kid who just discovered how great it feels to be out there on the water.”
“That’s a good nickname, Mom,” Lou says as we make our way back to the car.
I think he was holding out hope that Darby was obedient enough to go crawling back. I think he thought I was too dependent on him to run away too. But I’d been waiting years to get away, waiting for the perfect moment.
But once Darby ran away, I knew we’d need the leverage, especially once he tried selling our grandma’s house out from under her.
So, I went over to my parents’ house that day. The house I grew up in. The house that had never been much more than a prison to me. I gave my father that check and told him I was leaving town with my daughter. Then, I explained the documents I was in possession of, and that if he made any move against my sister or myself to bring us back, to prevent us from escaping him and that town, from moving on with our lives, I’d make sure he’d lose everything.
Wincing as a door slams down the hall again, I’m reminded of that particular fact.
She left him all those years ago for me. Because I was pregnant and I needed her.
I can’t help the way it makes my insides twinge a little, knowing that other people look at him that way, find him as desirable as I do, that he may be giving others the same soft eyes, intense attention, and knowing smiles he gives me.
“From the outside looking in, I can tell she’s your whole life, so I wanted you to know that she looks happy. She’s full of light, and I think that kind of iridescence only comes from the deep knowledge of being loved.”
I can’t stop staring at his stomach—the way it flexes when he walks, how his body is all hard lines and fine points and muscle. So much muscle. So much strength.
“I brought water,” Monica chimes. My head snaps sideways to face her, her dark brows raised behind her sunglasses. “Your mouth must be dry from all the panting.”
“¿De repente tus brazos dejaron de funcionar? ¿Ya no eres capaz de ponerte tu propio protector solar?”
“Mamá, ¿por qué tienes que seguir interviniendo? Sólo relájate.”
Fuck. The man is fluent in two romance languages?
my eyes getting stuck on his glistening, wet skin, the beads of water that run the length of his torso. I track one as it disappears beneath his shorts.
“I didn’t know you could speak Italian.” What a stupid fucking thing to say. I nearly wince at myself. His laugh rakes along my skin. “Bella, ti parlerò in qualunque lingua tu mi dica se questo ti farà continuare a guardarmi in quel modo.”
