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“Me too, but I’m definitely ready for her to be back,” I said. She would be back to her regular job as my boss on Tuesday and I couldn’t wait.

“I bet you are,” Joy said, laughing.

“Oh my god, finally,” Layne said, looking over to the other side of the pool. I turned around and almost dropped my glass of water.

There was Ryan.

She came over wearing a light blue polo shirt and white shorts as if she’d just stepped off a golf course. Her aviator sunglasses were so effortlessly cool that I had to lock my knees so I didn’t just melt into a puddle right there.

Ryan pulled off her sunglasses slowly and then hooked them on her shirt. Her blue eyes were completely unreadable, but they were fixed on me. Shit, she was tall.

We were interrupted by a squealing sound as the twins hauled themselves out of the pool and launched themselves toward Ryan, who put out her hand and said, “red light.”

The two girls skidded to a stop, crashing into each other.

Ryan reached toward two chairs where some towels were stacked and pulled out two, handing them over to the twins. They dutifully wrapped themselves up.

“Thank you, Auntie Ryan,” one of the twins said. I couldn’t keep them straight in my head, but I was going to figure it out one of these days.

“You’re welcome,” she said, giving them a fond look. She sighed. “I can’t believe how grown you both are.”

The girls preened and started babbling at the same time.

“They just love her,” Layne said. “They’re so excited she’s going to be here for the summer so they can pester her.”

Ryan shot Layne a look and then flicked her eyes over to me. I felt my cheeks go red.

“And that’s my signal that she needs a drink,” Layne said.

“I’ve got it, babe,” Honor said, touching Layne’s shoulder.

“Negroni,” Layne told her.

“I remember,” Honor said, smiling before turning around and heading inside.

Layne watched Honor walk away with a somewhat dazed look on her face.

“She’s so hot, I can’t believe I get to marry her,” she said, shaking her head.

“I know what you mean,” Joy said, gazing at Ezra.

“We’re not getting married,” Ezra said, and then added “yet.”

That set off a flurry of excitement from Joy, but I was busy watching Ryan with the twins. She’d sat down on one of the chairs to bring herself closer to their level.

I wanted to talk to her. I wanted to stand near her. I wanted to watch her face and see her smile and I desperately wanted to kiss her again. The last one had been such a blur, I needed another chance. Kisses like that just didn’t come along every day. I had to see if it was a fluke or if it was something else.

Too bad she was probably never going to get her lips near my lips again. Since she was Mark’s niece, she was fancy and probably rich. I’d known she had money from that first day, but now her wealth was put in perspective and it was much more than I initially thought.

People like Ryan didn’t kiss people like me unless it was on a whim or to see what it was like to lock lips with a commoner once and then go back to their regular diamond-studded champagne lives.

Honor returned with Ryan’s drink and she took it and gave Honor her thanks.

The twins ran off to talk to someone else, releasing Ryan. She came back over to our group.

“What is even in a negroni?” I blurted out.

Ryan held her glass out to me. “Take a sip and find out.”