“Great,” I mutter. “So I’m out of excuses.”
“Yep.” His grin widens as he straightens. “I’ll tell ’em you’ll be up in twenty. Don’t chicken out.”
I flip him off without looking up.
He laughs, the sound fading as he heads back toward the house, leaving me alone with my smelly companions and the sinking feeling I’m about to make a huge mistake.
The Shaw estate is nothing like I expect.
It’s sprawling—massive stretches of manicured lawns, pristine white fences, and a house which looks like it belongs on the cover of a luxury living magazine. The pool sparkles in the distance, framed by tall oaks and stone patios. Laughter drifts through the air. I spot Colter near the grill, sunglasses on, beer in hand, talking to Lee like they’ve known each other since birth.
Pace nudges me with his elbow as we step out. “See? Harmless.”
I make a noncommittal noise, adjusting my sunglasses and crossing my arms. “We’ll see.”
As we walk toward the pool, Pace chatting easily beside me, I can’t shake the feeling I’ve stepped into another version of the life I’ll never belong to.
One that smiles too wide, speaks too softly and hides its sharpest teeth beneath the surface.
By the time I step out onto the stone patio, Pace has already vanished—probably off to charm someone or find a cold beer, which leaves me standing awkwardly on the edge of a party I don’t want to be at.
Laughter echoes from the far end of the pool where a group of women lounge in the water, their designer sunglasses and perfect smiles making me feel like an alien in borrowed skin. The smell of grilled meat drifts through the thick summer air, mixing with the sharp scent of chlorine and cut grass.
I adjust the hem of my T-shirt and seriously consider turning around and walking back to the SUV.
“Didn’t think you’d actually show.”
The voice—smooth, familiar, and already laced with amusement—draws my attention to the far side of the grill.
Colter.
He’s ditched the hat, his dark hair pushed back, sunglasses shading his eyes. He’s in swim trunks and a faded T-shirt that clings in all the right places, and for a split second I hate how effortlessly he belongs here. How he wears the heat and the noise and the easy smiles like a second skin.
“Didn’t have much of a choice,” I mutter, keeping my tone flat as I fold my arms. “Pace is relentless.”
Colter’s lips twitch like he’s fighting back a grin. He flips a steak on the grill, the metal tongs clicking as he moves. “Yeah, well, Pace has always been the social one of our group.”
“And you’re what? The broody one?”
He gives a low laugh, something darker curling beneath the sound. “Something like that.”
The tension between us crackles, the air stretched taut in the space where words should be. It’s always like this with him, too much unsaid, too much weight in every glance. The memory ofour last conversation in the barn flits through my mind, sharp and uncomfortable.
I shift my weight, uncomfortable under his gaze, even with the sunglasses hiding his eyes. “Don’t let me interrupt your fun. I’m sure there’s some poor soul you haven’t made uncomfortable yet.”
He doesn’t smile this time. Instead, he studies me, head tilted slightly. “You really think that’s what I’m doing?”
I blink, caught off guard by the softness in his voice. “Aren’t you?”
“No,” he says simply. The word is low, almost too quiet beneath the chatter and splashing water. He sets the tongs down and takes a slow step closer, enough that I catch the faint scent of cedar and smoke clinging to him. “If I wanted to make you uncomfortable, sweetheart, I’d try harder.”
My stomach flips—equal parts warning and thrill.
“Are you trying to intimidate me?” I ask, lifting my chin, refusing to look away even as every nerve ending fires.
“No,” he says again, but his mouth curves, slow and dangerous. “That’s me being polite.”
We stand like that for a moment, heat radiating between us, neither of us willing to be the first to flinch. Around us, the party hums on: music, laughter, the splash of water.
