“I’m not sure you’reevergood at taking orders, but you donotwant to piss my dad off right now,” I assure him. “He can be absolutely ruthless if he thinks you’ve crossed him.”
“Don’t I know it,” he says, reaching his arm above him and holding onto the roll bar to lift and reposition himself so he’s facing me fully.
“Then what are we doing here?” I tuck my hair behind my ear, trying to ignore the way my stomach flips over when I’m asking hard questions but he’s looking at me like he wants me naked.
“We’re just two friends who went to the beach for the weekend,as friends do.”
“Uh huh.” A smile curls my lips, and it has him leaning toward me over the console between our seats. His gaze is focused on my lips, so I wet them with my tongue, and he groans before he leans in further.
“I think friends should take care of their friends’ needs.”
“Always?” I tease.
“Always if it’s you and me.”
His lips meet mine tentatively, with small kisses that have my pulse racing and my body leaning toward him, wanting more. I don’t know what it is about his physical proximity that lights me up, makes me want to be playful and sexy in a way that wouldn’t feel comfortable with anyone else. The only reason I’m not climbing over the center console and straddling him in his seat is that I’m aware we’re exposed in this parking lot. A fact that is confirmed for me when there’s a rapping on the window and we spring apart.
“Dude, really?” Aidan groans as he looks over his shoulder to find a guy with floppy brown hair and a big goofy grin standing there.
“Sorry to interrupt. Just wanted to tell you that you better stop by and see my brother.”
Aidan sighs. “Why’s that, Finn?”
“Because when I saw your Jeep and texted him saying I didn’t know you were in town, he was pissed you’re here and didn’t tell him.”
“Well, if you hadn’t gone spreading the news and then interrupted my date,” Aidan says, clearly annoyed, “he wouldn’t be pissed off, would he?”
Finn shrugs. “Just go see him. He needs that.” Then he glances up at me and smiles. “Hi, Finn Walker, and you are?”
“Oh my god,” Aidan groans, starting the car before I can respond. “Mind your fucking business, kid.” And then he’s backing out of the spot and pulling toward the road.
“Well, that was rude.” I can’t help but laugh, because that was the most classically male interaction I’ve ever witnessed.
“He’s always in my business like only a little brother can be.”
“I thought you were an only child?”
“Remember when I told you I knew how to drive a boat because my best friend’s family owns the local marina? That’s my best friend’s little brother. They grew up across the street from my house, and we were basically all inseparable. So now, we have to go make a quick social call. But then,” he turns and glances at me as we sit there, waiting for a break in traffic so we can pull out onto the road, “we’re finishing what we started.”
“We’ll see how I feel,” I say with a shrug, for no reason other than it’s fun to be contrary around him. Aidan practically growls in response, which has me holding in a laugh, and then holding onto my basket of food as he turns out of the parking lot fasterthan I was expecting. He’s clearly in a hurry to get this visit over with so we can get home, and I’m okay with that.
“You were down on Old Pilgrim and didn’t tell her about the time the harbormaster had to rescue us from Shepherd’s Rocks?” Liam asks.
Next to me, Aidan’s chuckle shakes the couch. “You’ll tell it better,” he says with a grin.
I’ve never seen him this relaxed. When we first arrived, we were greeted by his best friend’s five-year-old son, Jack, who we could hear through the door as he thundered down the stairs inside, yelling, “Uncle Aidan’s Jeep is outside.” He then proceeded to throw the door open and jump into Aidan’s arms, wrapping himself around the man’s torso.
Aidan jokingly called him “my little barnacle,” and the only thing that could have possibly shocked me more than how relaxed he was around a child, was seeing Jack’s dad walking out of the kitchen behind his son. Because standing right in front of me was the most recognizable face in professional football: Liam Walker.
Given my dad’s profession, I’m not normally starstruck in front of athletes. But there was a moment there where I was rendered speechless.
I should have pieced that puzzle together sooner—Aidan’s best friend’s wife dying, his little brother, Finn Walker. There’s no sports fan in the country who doesn’t know the story of Liam Walker, America’s favorite quarterback, whose wife, Kelsey, suffered a brain aneurysm while home alone with their son. Liam was away, and Jack had to call 911 because his mother was on the floor unresponsive.
The recording of the call was all over the news, and although the funeral was supposed to be a private affair, the media turned it into a spectacle with helicopters and camera crews. And Liam decided to take this season off to stay home with his son as they adjusted to this change.
Right now, though, Liam is all grins as he says, “So, about twenty yards off the beach, there are these four rocks called Shepherd’s Rocks. It’s one big rock, and three smaller ones around it, right on this point where a marsh river meets the ocean and two tides converge. At high tide, you can barely see the top of the largest rock, and the others are submerged. We were probably eleven or twelve when we had the bright idea to put a lobster trap out there and see what we could catch. So the next afternoon, we waded out to see if there was anything in the trap, but it had gotten kind of wedged in between two of those smaller rocks and it took us a while to get it loose.”
“Oh no,” I groan, already sensing what happened.
