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It was shrill. Clipped. Abrupt. Shocked. “June!”

She broke the kiss and stumbled back, losing her balance. She’d been

leaning forward, into Arabella and now she was pitching back. She landed

on the sand on her bottom, unhurt, but confused.

“Oh, my God, what were you just doing?” Summer was there. Summer,

with her eyes wide and a disgruntled look that was something close to

disgust on her face. Shock too, but the ugly expression overrode that.

Summer pointed at Arabella, who looked incredibly nervous and

embarrassed. “How could you have possibly forgotten that she’s the worst?

Just. The. Worst. Like, literally, there was no one who was worse than she

was.”

“That was a long time ago,” June groaned.

The kiss wasn’t premeditated. It just happened and the rightness of it

caught her completely off guard. She wasn’t about to explain any of that to

Summer at the moment. Not when she was in the thick of her righteous

indignation.

“Okay, I deserved that,” Arabella said quietly. She was staring up at

Summer the way someone stares up at the sky trying to figure out if one

hell of a storm is about to descend on them and unleash holy hell.

“No, that’s not fair,” June protested. “It was a long time ago. Summer,

come on.”

“No, I’m not coming on!” Summer hissed. “You come on! Have you two

been…all this time?”

“No!” June scrambled off the ground. “It just happened. There was

nothing going on before.” She couldn’t look at Arabella. “There isn’t

anything going on. We work together, and I’m not against work

relationships, but I’m the boss and that wouldn’t loo

k right.” She finally

dared to turn and look at Arabella, afraid she’d see the hurt she’d just

wrought unleashed on her face, but instead, Arabella was just sitting there,