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“I should have asked; you can swim right?”

Her answer is to reach out and push the top of my head until I’m under the water. I feel the movement as she uses the wall to push off and swim away from me. When I surface, her laughter is across the pool. Grinning to myself, I chase after her. Despite nothing going the way we planned, this might be the best date I’ve ever had in my life.

We mess around in the pool for a little while longer, just swimming, and being playful. It’s interrupted with a few more kisses and light make out sessions, but nothing that’s as heated as the first one, before we decide to get out of the water. We collapse on the blanket, and I’m instantly regretting not having any towels. We make it work with some blankets, and then cuddle in close to fight off the chill.

“Why’d your mom call?” I feel her stiffen under the movement of my fingers on her shoulder blade before she relaxes again. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

“It’s not that. We just have a messy relationship and I’m not sure it’s something that can ever be fixed.” She tilts her head back to look at me. “I’ve told you my family is chaotic at best.”

From what she’s told me, they sound like assholes, but we’re too new in our relationship for me to say that right now. “Do you want to talk about it?”

She moves until she’s sitting up; her legs crossed beneath her. Something in the air shifts, telling me we’re about to have a serious conversation, so I follow her lead and sit up a little straighter. She picks at the edge of the blanket but doesn’t say anything. Reaching for the glass of wine I’d just poured her, I offer it to her and watch as she takes it with shaky hands. She takes a small sip before setting it back down.

“I’m a disappointment to my mother and Thomas in so many ways,” she begins, and I hate her parents even more than I did two seconds ago. “Thomas never really wanted kids; he’s not wired for them. He and my mom are perfect for each other, though. Two emotionally unavailable people who were able to find love and physical attraction with one another. All the emotional currency they have, they use on each other.”

She continues, “It took me a long time to be okay with knowing I’ll never measure up to what they want me to be. I didn’t think Thomas would ever hire me, but my mom was worried about how embarrassing it would be for me not to have a job in the field my stepfather monopolizes.”

“So that’s why you got hired?”

Her eyes lift to meet mine. “Carter, this place is the biggest project he has ever trusted me to lead. Normally I’m assigned small businesses or family homes. Anything he doesn’t think is worth the company’s time—that’s where I go and it’s always in Charleston, so he can keep an eye on me.”

My gaze sweeps across the amazing pool deck surrounding us, taking in all the hard work and painstaking detail Kat put into it. The way she brought a dream of mine to life. My gaze drifts back to her. “But you’re amazing at your job.”

She laughs, bitterly. “I know! He just refuses to see it and my mom refuses to see me as anything other than someone who should be on the arm of an important man.”

“I’m sorry, what? Why would that be what she wants for you?”

“Because it’s all I’m good enough for.” She throws her arms out in the air, the anger at her mother coming out. “She’s mad at me because I ended things with Will. She’s the one who set us up. Apparently, she basically told him I’d make a good wife despite my many flaws. All the flaws she meant are superficial.”

“Kat,” I groan, closing my eyes, and counting to three in my head. “I want to be with you, but I never want to meet your parents.”

“There’s the family you’re born into, right?” I nod, urging her to go on. “And then there’s the family you get to create. I never really thought I’d be lucky enough to find one that I get to create, until I came here, and met all of you. You’re the family I’m choosing to create and, to be honest, I’m not sure the family I was born into is necessary in my life.”

I can’t imagine not having my family on my side or never seeing them again. They mean everything to me, but they’ve never treated me the way Kat’s parents have treated her. They’ve never made me question my worth. If Kat were to ask my opinion, I would tell her that people who make her feel small aren’t worth the effort, but I know it’s harder with family, and I’m grateful to know that she’s found something better to hold on to. Something that will empower her.

“I don’t know what the future holds for me or us,” she says, “but I really don’t think my future is in Charleston or at Dalton Enterprises. To be honest, I’m not sure they’d even care if I left. I think they’d be relieved to know they no longer had to babysit me.”

“You’re a thirty-year-old woman, Katrina; you don’t need babysitting.” I hope she knows the anger in my tone is directed at them, not her.

She nods, reaching out to take my hand. I unclench my fist, flexing my fingers before tangling them with hers, my thumb rubbing over her knuckles soothingly. “I know that now. I feel like the future is mine again, you know? Like I get to have control over where my life goes and if that means cutting out toxic people, even my parents, I have to do it. Right?”

I reach my free hand up to cup her cheek, tenderly wiping away one of the few tears that escaped the corner of her eye. She blinks in surprise.

“I’ll never tell you what to do, Kat. That’s not my style. I’ll just stand here and support you—whatever you want to do. I’m on your side, no one else’s. If they make you feel bad about yourself, screw them. If you want to give them another chance to make things right, I’m there. Whatever you need, that’s my priority.”

She blinks up at me, like I’d just offered to pull the moon down for her. Taking a deep breath, she grabs the hand I have on her cheek. “I’m worried I don’t deserve you.”

I’ve never felt my heart hurt like it just did, the pain shooting down into my chest. I lean forward until I can brush my lips against hers. “You deserve more.”

Idon’tgobackto Georgia until Sunday afternoon, which means Kat and I can have date number two and three in one weekend. By the time Bryce comes over to Kat’s rental on Sunday morning, she and I have officially decided to be together, cute titles and all. Which I think Bryce can tell the second I open the door after he knocks.

“Say nothing,” I warn, turning to go back to the living room where Kat’s waiting for us.

“What would I even say?” he asks, closing the door behind him and following me. “Kat, your boyfriend is being mean to me.”

“Nope.” Kat’s shaking her head, not even looking up at him. “We’re not doing this, Clark. I don’t know what he’s told you, but I’m not looking at your weird, knowing smirk.”

I haven’t told him much of anything, just that we’re officially together and I’m happy. Which I know, in turn, makes him happy.