“Ryan!” His wife laughs, smacking his arm.
“What? She cleans up nice.” He wiggles his brows, cutting glances between me and Nate, hungry to narrate every second of the collision.
Leo doesn’t share the joke. His chair screeches across the floor as he straightens, jaw locked, eyes pinned on Nate in silent warning.
Our parents stay measured, but I catch the truth in their faces. My dad buries a smile in his glass. Mom busies herself with napkins, glittering with knowledge she’s not sharing. Janice, meddler to the bone, lifts her phone and snaps a picture before anyone can stop her.
I clear my throat and sink onto the sofa beside Mom. Nate’s gaze tracks every step, burning into me, fierce and unyielding. Janice presses a glass of wine into my hand, and it trembles against the stem.
Dinner is loud,fragrant, endless. Platters of pasta, roasted vegetables, Antonio’s famous artichokes, all tastefully arranged in the center of the big dining table.
Halfway through the meal, Ryan’s youngest wriggles freeof his high chair and toddles straight toward me. “Lap!” he declares, pudgy hands reaching up and insistently tugging at my dress. I scoop him up, settling him onto my knees. Nate reaches across the table, slides the boy’s dish in front of me, his knuckles grazing mine. It’s fleeting, familiar, and enough to light me up.
The boy demands a bite. I guide pasta toward his mouth while Nate dabs sauce from his cheek, so gentle it makes my chest ache.
For a moment, it’s the three of us—my lap, Nate’s steadying hand, a child between us.
And of course Ryan notices. His chuckle rumbles across the table, smug enough to fill the whole house. “Well, doesn’t that look cozy.”
“Ryan,” his wife groans, burying her face in her hands.
“Don’t Ryan me. I’ve got eyes.” He raises his glass, smirk sharp. “To second chances…and the guts to finally take them.”
The table erupts. Janice snaps photos, everyone laughs, relieved Ryan is calling it. Everyone except Leo, who just sits there, jaw locked, his stare cutting through me sharper than the toast itself.
Heat rushes up my neck, mortification clawing at my chest. I want to disappear under the table, crawl into the fire, anything but sit here on display while the whole world drinks to secrets I’ve barely admitted to myself.
Nate meets my eyes over the rim of his glass, mouth twitching, daring me to laugh. And against every instinct, a helpless giggle breaks free.
I try to keep my head down, forcing forkfuls of pasta past the knot in my throat. For one blessed minute, the table’s attention shifts away from me. Then Janice claps her hands, bracelets jingling, eyes twinkling. She’s been waitingall night to spring her trap. “Nate, baby, did you show Eden the boat yet? Antonio had it winterized, it’s tied up at the dock. You oughta go check it before the freeze.”
“Hold up,” Leo says immediately. “I’ll come.”
Janice waves him off with a breezy smile. “Now, sugar, you’ve been chasing those kids all day. Sit down and rest.”
Ryan jumps in before Leo can argue. “Actually, Leo, do me a solid? Watch the monsters for twenty minutes so I can show Meghan the renovation.” He’s tugging his wife to her feet, lips twitching.
Leo’s mouth opens to protest, but the kids are already climbing on him, shrieking, “Uncle Leo!”
“See?” Janice says, sweet as pie. “Perfect solution.”
The dock stretches into darkness,salt and woodsmoke threading the air. Nate’s hand closes around mine with quiet certainty.
I glance at him, pulse skipping. His eyes glint in the dark, steady and unreadable. He doesn’t let go. Instead, he tugs me in, close enough that my breath hitches.
“Nate—”
He doesn’t let me finish. His mouth claims mine, hot and hungry, a kiss that rips the air from my lungs and buckles my knees. A shiver tears through me, scorching down my spine. “Show me how much you missed me today,” he murmurs against my throat, scattering kisses over the exposed skin.
My breath drags in sharp and searing. His mouth covers mine again—slow, deliberate sweeps that consume me whole. My hands fist against the hard plane of his chest, every nerve sparking alive. Heat coils low in my body.
“They all know,” he mutters, rough against my lips.
A shaky laugh slips out. “We weren’t exactly subtle.”
He kisses me again, tongue tangling with mine until the cold disappears, replaced by the furnace of his body pressing into me.
“This is all I thought about that last summer.” His grip locks around my hips as he draws me to the rail. “Walking you out here. Having you to myself.” His voice drops, rough velvet. “You drove me crazy, Trouble. Every night your brother glued himself to us, and all I could think about was how to get you alone. How to touch you the way I wanted.”
