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“Seriously?” Trinity’s eyes narrowed. “Then why is he always being a jerk about the things I do? All starting back on the night Jared died. I mean, I could rattle off a dozen comments over the last year. Hell, he got bent out of shape about me changing a flat by myself. As if my being a woman meant I couldn’t do it.”
Hayes smacked his forehead. “You were on the side of a highway. Alone. During rush hour.”
“I had hazard cones set up.” She folded her arms.
“It was getting dark. You should’ve had flares, and when Keaton drove by, he saw cars zooming way too close,” Dawson said. “You have AAA. You should’vecalled them, or hell, called me. I would’ve come and changed the damn thing for you.”
“And if I were a man?” Trinity asked.
“Yeah, babe.” Audra patted Dawson’s cheek. “What’s your response to that one?”
“Chivalry is different than misogyny,” Hayes chimed in.
“If I didn’t have flares, I wouldn’t have done it alone, either. Not on that highway. I’ve seen too many people die like that,” Dawson said. “Being a man has nothing to do with it. I would’ve called a buddy to have my back. That’s what friends do.”
“But you have no problem with me python hunting alone,” Audra said with a sarcastic tone.
“I’d rather you didn’t, but you don’t like me doing it alone either. Sex has nothing to do with it. That’s called caring about one another.” Dawson lifted Audra’s chin and gave her a kiss.
Trinity groaned. “Yeah, well, Keaton doesn’t give a crap about me. The man hates me.”
Everyone around the fire burst out laughing. Hard.
“I don’t see why that’s funny,” Trinity mumbled.
“He wouldn’t bother getting in your face if he didn’t care,” Dawson said with a more serious tone.
“Well, he’s not coming back.” Fletcher appeared. He snagged a beer and eased into a chair. “Of all the things you could’ve called him, you had to pick the one that pisses him off the most.” He turned and pointed his finger. “And don’t say the truth hurts.”
“If it’s not true, why does it bother him so much?” Trinity asked.
The three men glanced at each other.
“That’s not our story to tell,” Hayes said. “But I know that if any one of us was doing something he thought was reckless—and the key word is reckless, not dangerous—and for all the wrong reasons, he’d be up in our faces.”
“Do you remember the fight he got into with me over crossing to the Bahamas a few months ago?” Hayes asked. “Thing was, he was right. It wasn’t so much that I was being reckless. Just stupid. He was so pissed when he had to come out and save my sorry ass.”
“We all were.” Dawson cocked his head. “However, Keaton was over the top about it. But only because he cares.”
“My brother could be a Class A misogynistic jerk,” Baily said. She’d been incredibly quiet, but she often was around this crew. It seemed Dawson was the only one she’d begun opening up to, and that was only because of Audra. “He would push and push for me to leave Calusa Cove. He’d tell me the marina was no place for me. No place for the future wife of a Navy man.”
Fletcher coughed, pounding his chest. “Damn, that was a thought from a long time ago, and I can’t believe Ken said that to you. I mean, the plan wasn’t for me to stay in the military forever. I hadn’t thought about becoming a SEAL until four years in.”
“Ken said a lot of weird stuff back then,” Baily muttered. “It started with what went down the day Audra and her dad fought in town.” She swiped at her cheeks. “I still can’t believe he was involved at all with Benson and his dad, but his sudden departure and theway he left make more sense. However, I still don’t understand why he was so hell-bent on me getting out. I get that he had this weird thing about the four of us—me, Fletcher, him, and Audra—being together forever. But in my mind, the plan was always for Fletch to get his education and to come home. When it became apparent that wasn’t going to happen, and Ken moved on, got married, and our dad died, he pushed harder for me to sell. Once, he even spoke to an interested party on my behalf. I was so pissed at him that?—”
“Wait. What?” Fletcher sat up taller. “I didn’t know that. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“We had broken up and hadn’t gotten back to friendly terms just yet,” Baily said. “Ken kept telling me that I needed to get my act together and get out of Calusa Cove—out of the marina business. That it was no place for a woman.”
“I had no idea,” Fletcher whispered. “Besides that not being true, it wasn’t his decision to make.”
“No, it wasn’t. But he also wanted me to make things right with you.” She shook her head. “The worst part about that conversation was that Ken told me no man wanted a chick who was as self-reliant, independent, and as stubborn as me, and thatyou…” She pointed to Fletcher. “…would only wait so long for me to change my ways.”
“That was a dick thing to say,” Fletcher muttered. “And that couldn’t be further from the truth. Those qualities are a few of the many that made me fall in love with you.” He leaned back, sipped his beer, and stared at the starry night.
All the men lifted their gazes, and quiet overtook the campfire as everyone absorbed that information.
Trinity resisted the urge to stand and run. She was still an outsider in this group—still an outsider in Calusa Cove. No matter how hard she tried, she’d probably never bein the inner circle,even though she was their friend.