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Luke shoots me his classic devilish grin. “Good thing you love cheese.”
I laugh again as the yacht comes to a stop. The wind dies down and the sun shines even brighter. I’m about to ask Luke to put some sunscreen on my back when he speaks.
“So…Mom told me that Caden Everton is back in town.”
I feel like I plunged off this very deck into the icy water below. I take half a beat to collect myself.
“Yeah,” I say.
Luke is giving me a sideways glance. “Is that…like…a problem for you? I mean, just because I know you guys were together, so?—”
“No,” I say quickly. “I told you before, we weren’t anything.” It’s exactly what I said to Charlotte. “It was this one-off kind of moment a long time ago. We were really just friends. I saw him at the Screw yesterday, actually. I guess he’s come back to try and solve his mom’s murder.”
Luke raises an eyebrow. “Seriously?”
“Yeah.” I wish my stomach would settle down. It’s fluttering so hard it’s making my throat tickle and my jaw itch.
“What, is he like a detective or something now?”
“I don’t think so,” I say. “I think he’s just…upset that her case hasn’t been solved yet. He said he was in Argentina, working at a winery there.”
“You talked to him?” Luke looks unhappy.
“Well, yeah,” I say. “We were friends. So, you know, it makes sense that I’d talk to him.”
Luke is frowning. “Okay,” he says. “I’ve never been friends with any of my exes.”
“He’s not my ex,” I say firmly. “We aren’t even friends anymore—I mean, I haven’t talked to him in years. And I guess he’s only staying in town for the summer. Then he’ll go back to Argentina.”
“Oh,” Luke says, looking mollified. I get up and move to sit beside him on his lounge chair. He wraps his arms around me and I lean up to kiss him. His lips are warm from the sun and when he slips his tongue in my mouth, I feel a little prickle run over my skin.
“I do like this color on you,” he says, running his fingers over the line of my yellow bikini top, tracing the curve of my breast.
Suddenly, the blast of a ship’s horn breaks us apart. Luke scrambles to his feet and lets out a whooping laugh. I sit up to see another yacht, with Luke’s friends, Trip and Chad, waving at us from their own sundeck.
“Bro!” Luke calls.
“Thought you were playing golf, bro!” Trip calls back.
“Nah, that was this morning.”
“Hey Isla!” Trip says. I wave. “You guys need to come party with us at the Crab Shack later!”
Chad pushes Trip on the shoulder. “Bro, you got barred from the Crab Shack last summer.”
“Fuck you, dude, no I didn’t, that was the Oyster Shanty.”
“It was definitely the Crab Shack.”
My phone buzzes in the pocket of my cutoffs and I leave the men to their banter as I go back to my lounge chair to check it.
It’s Dev.
Hey Isla! Any chance you could help me with my booth for Magnolia Day?
Of course!I reply. The Grater Good’s booth is always popular, and Dev will need all the help he can get.
“What’s up?” Luke asks, coming over the sit beside me, pulling me back against his chest.