“Come with me in the shower.”I hook a finger at him.“Or I’ll come without you.”
He’s off the bed so fast I don’t have time to blink.
We shower together, climax together, and an hour later, we’re on Monty’s yacht, slicing through Sitka Sound.
Not for the first time, it strikes me how bizarrely gentle summer is here.It’s cool at the edges.Soft around the lungs.Feels like a reset.
Wolf and I lie on the outdoor couch tucked against the cabin wall, our bodies entwined on sun-warmed cushions.His leg drapes heavily over my thigh, his cheek resting on a bent arm, his eyes regarding me from inches away.Every time the boat rocks, his breath kisses my cheek.
Across from us, Leo and Frankie are passed out on a shared sun lounger near the railing.Leo sprawls like he lost a fight with gravity, one leg hanging off the edge and a tangle of braids covering his cheek.His arms cradle a curled-up Frankie, her face tucked against his chest.
He looks different in sleep.Younger.Less threatening.Whatever storm lives in that man, it goes quiet when his wife is protected in his embrace.Even unconscious, his hand splays over her baby bump, guarding the fragile life within.
“Look at them.”I nudge Wolf with my knee.
He follows my gaze.“Leo just finished an insane accelerated program for his ATP license.”
“He needs that license to run private aviation tours in Alaska?”
“Nope.This is Leo being Leo.He doesn’t do anything halfway.”
None of them do, including their pregnant wife.Monty mentioned that Frankie worked a brutal shift at the hospital before he dragged us all out here.Sounds like she and Leo needed this break the most.
Inside the open cabin, Monty sits at the polished bar while Kody teaches him how to make cocktails I’ve never heard of.
“Don’t bruise the basil.”Kody slices herbs with assassin precision.
“I don’t care about the basil,” Monty mutters.
“You should.It’s the whole point of the drink.”
“Vodka is the whole point.”
“It’s gin, you overpaid lightweight.Try to keep up.”
They continue to bicker like lifelong friends.Like husbands.Definitely like brothers.
The resemblance between them is ridiculous.Same dark hair, same athletic build, same controlled intensity beneath their broody moods.Monty is the older, smoother version, Kody the rougher, colder one.They carry themselves with the same squared shoulders and stony expressions, ready to protect and defend that which they hold most dear.
Family.
The word lands in my chest like a pebble in deep water.
“What is it?”Wolf tucks his voice beneath the wind, ensuring no one else can hear.
“It’s… I don’t know.”I stare past him, watching Monty steal a taste of the drink, and Kody smacking his hand away.“They’re so comfortable with each other.Like they’ve been doing this their whole lives.”
“They didn’t start that easy.But now?Yeah, the four of them are annoyingly made for one another.”He sounds entirely too happy about it to be annoyed.“Next question is mine.”
“Okay.”
We’ve been trading questions for days.Questions that started as nothing but turned into… Whatever this is.Honest.Disarming.Sometimes absurd.Sometimes bold enough to stop my heart.
“Your mother Celeste…” His fingers graze my wrist.“Tell me about her.”
“I don’t remember much.Just flashes here and there.She was very pretty.And young.But always tired.Always scared.”
“Scared of what?”
