Evan put down the plate he was filling from the overflowing charcuterie board and casually checked the table for something besides a cheese knife that he could use to defend himself.
“I swear I told him you were going to murder me if he didn’t show. I think he’s testing both of us.”
The set of Isabella’s jaw hardened as her tongue ran across her teeth beneath her lovely, full lips. “I knowsomeoneis testing me.”
A cheer went up, and Evan blew out a heavy breath at seeing Lennox entering with Nate and Olivia.
“We picked up a hitchhiker,” Nate joked with his wide grin.
Isabella gave him a sharp look, then hurried over to Lennox and crooned, “Heath!” while giving his arms a squeeze. “I was worried. Why have you been hiding?”
Lennox turned a little pink and smiled. “Just needed some quiet time.”
She hooked her arm through his to lead him over to where she was sitting with an assortment of cousins, if Evan recalled the family tree correctly. No one had cheered whenhe’dshown up. In fact, they hardly paid him any mind. It stung, but whatever. He was one of them, after all. Just another fish in an endless, identical school.
“Oh, a Harvard man. Chose Yale, myself,” Nate had ribbed him during the first evening’s chat. “What firm did you say you were with?”
He hadn’t, but Nate had recognized the name when he did. It wasn’t a law powerhouse, but DeSilva and Seaver were enough of a name that someone like actual CEO Nate Spencer would hear of them from his Manhattan ivory tower.
Lennox was shiny and new to them, an outlier from the type of crowd Evan guessed typically frequented the island. An angelfish among carp.
He shook his head and wondered what was in the resort’swater to have him comparing himself to strangers and then fucking philosophizing about it. Whatever it was, it better be temporary. All this introspection and empathy were bad for his career.
“You sail?” Nate asked, joining him on the terrace to watch the boats bobbing in the turquoise waters.
“I know bow from stern,” he said, glancing at the older man, who eyed the water with a soft gaze. Evan’s disinterest in regattas was another of the many failings on his father’s lengthy list.
“I used to compete in the days when my back didn’t have so many opinions about my hobbies,” Nate chuckled, then sighed. “Getting old is a real bitch sometimes.”
“It is,” Evan agreed, cataloging his own dull aches. He hadn’t expected swimming and kayaking to leave him sore, but his body never failed to remind him that different uses brought different pains. “You look like you could still hoist a sail, though.”
Nate smiled and gave his chest a firm pat. “Faster than some of those younger pricks, for sure. It’s the morning after, and the morning after that, where I regret my hubris.”
They shared a polite chuckle, then Nate’s eyes lit. “You interested in going out some morning?”
“You have a boat here?” Evan mentally face-palmed. Of course they did. You don’t own a fucking island and not have a boat.
Nate pointed to where three decent-sized yachts floated next to offshore buoys. “In the middle there. She cuts through these waves like butter.”
“I bet.” Evan searched his mind for a plausible excuse for why he wouldn’t want to spend the day on a gorgeous yacht and came up empty. “I’d love to. Just let me know when.”
Nate clapped his hands together and rubbed them vigorously.
“Excellent! We’re going off-island tomorrow to some shops Livie likes, so plan for Wednesday or Thursday. We like to make a day of it, so let us know if you have requests for breakfast and lunch. We’ll be doing it up picnic-style.”
An entire day of hobnobbing in close quarters? Oh, great. Evan kept his smile intact, but schmoozing felt like work, and he wasn’t ready to turn that part of his brain back on. Nate, however, was obviously too busy inside his own head making plans to notice.
“Invite the husband too, of course. Though no doubt Isabella has already done the honors,” he said with a smile, his attention on the table where Lennox was holding court with the rest of the family.
Isabella was going? Well then. Watching her sunning herself on the bow was all the motivation he needed. “Looking forward to it.”
Thehusbandwould no doubt rather walk barefoot through shattered glass than accept anything from him, even an invitation to spend the day with his BFF Izzy. A suspicion easily confirmed by the glare he received upon approaching him at the table, where they were making eyes at one another while discussing another godawful lit classic.
“I’m not speaking to you.”
Lennox whispered it out of the corner of his mouth, but Evan could swear Isabella had heard. She had daggers in her eyes when he pulled a chair up to join them.
“I’m not speaking to you either.”
