As he put my swimsuit back in place, I sat up and blurted out the question. “Do you always carry around all the tools needed for a good ass reddening?”
“That your way of asking if I’m sleeping around?” He lifted a brow.
I narrowed my eyes at him even as my heart clenched at the idea. “Of course not. I don’t care who you sleep with. We’re just getting each other out of our systems, right?” I threw his initial reason for hooking up with me in the bathroom back in his face.
I only did it to have him correct me, though, because when I imagined Penelope and Cassie eyeing him up, I saw red.
“That’s good. Because I packed this aloe vera for anyone who’d bend over for me. Not specifically for you.” I swear he said it to get a rise out of me, and when I wrinkled my nose at him in disgust to cover my hurt, he full-on laughed. “Go have fun out there. Supposedly, we have to know everyone’s names for the damn campfire tonight. Come back for lunch.”
“Or I’ll come back to sleep, and you can eat lunch with whoever will bend over for you.” I stomped to my purse, grabbed lip gloss and a towel, and left him. I swayed my hips a little more than usual, hoping he was watching me the whole way.
When I heard him growl out a curse and mutter, “That outfit is a damn joke. Barely covers your ass,” I smirked to myself and flipped him off before turning the corner to get the hell out of that cabin.
The sun on my skin and the sparkle of the lake brought me back to the real world. I texted my sister on the way to Lucas’s cabin to check in on Bug. She was driving in every now and then to check on my cat, while my apartment building staff fed him twice a day.
Me: Bug still alive?
Lilah: The cat still lives.
Dom: Why the hell are we group chatting about this?
Declan: They wanted to make us feel bad that we didn’t offer to take care of her pet even though we live across the country.
Lilah: Well maybe you should all live closer.
Declan: Yeah, my job would allow for that.
Me: Doesn’t the NFL only last a season.
Declan: I’m kicking your ass when I see you, Izzy.
Me: I’d love to see you try.
Lilah: Does that mean everyone’s coming home soon?
Dimitri: I’m never coming home. Mom’s putting something in the water back there. I don’t want to be the next one giving her grandkids.
Lilah: Come on. My baby does need cousins.
Me: Oh no. She got to Lilah too. We might need to kick her out of the group chat.
Dom: I’ve sworn off women for this very reason. Izzy, you’re the only one I’m talking to from now on.
Lilah: Oh please. Izzy’s about to go down the same rabbit hole as me anyway.
Declan: What’s that supposed to mean?
Dom: Is she dating someone?
Dimitri: She’d better not be fucking around with someone dangerous like you were, Lilah. Izzy, are you being careful?
Each of my siblings, but especially my brothers, were so damn overprotective I couldn’t fathom telling them that their baby sister was screwing around with her boss, a mobster.
Especially not after Lilah married an Armanelli and they punched Dante square in the face.
Me: Lilah, look what you started. For NOTHING. I’m on a work retreat. Leave me alone, Hardy boys. Your baby sister is fine.
Declan called me as I trekked up Lucas’s porch stairs. His deep voice cut me off before I could even say hello. “You’re not doing something dumb, are you?”