But Knox had been trying for weeks, and nothing had worked.
Not even the best sex of his life.
Her heart was beating too fast.For a moment there, the way Knox looked at her, as if he could have jumped over the grill and taken her right there on the picnic table in front of everyone, Summer thought he’d say something mortifying.Like,your mother gives the best phone sex,orwe had the best sex ever at a sex club.
But Knox would never do that.He was biding his time; he had a plan.Knox always had a plan.
They’d taken a seat at one of the picnic tables, Cara beside her, Fallon across the table.
“That one sure was a hottie,” Cara said to her mom, winking at her sister.
Summer didn’t look up from her plate.“Which one?”
Cara jutted her chin.“The one handing out the hot dogs.”
“Oh yeah.”Fallon winked.“That one totally has the hots for you, Mom.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Summer said, following that with a bite of her hot dog.
Cara gave her a bared-tooth smile.“The way his eyes followed you as you walked away, he’s definitely got the hots.”
“Who is he?”Fallon wanted to know.
Summer wanted to cringe.At the next picnic table, a florid, beefy man drained his beer, then crushed it on the table, the sound like a shot through the afternoon, his glower focused on someone or something over by the barbecues.
“I think he’s a VP over at Silicon Valley Displays,” she told her daughters.“Since I’m in Customer Service, I don’t have a lot to do with any of them.”
“Oh, I bet he’d like to have a lot to do with you, Mom,” Cara snarked, and the two girls burst out with a laugh.
“Stop it, you two,” she admonished, but couldn’t help a small grin.Part of her felt joyful.She’d found camaraderie with the girls that hadn’t been there when they were teenagers.Like most teenage girls, they’d been a bit secretive, a bit angry with every rule she’d laid down.But they were growing up, young women, starting their adult lives, growing out of all the teenage angst that made them hate their mother.
A lovely dark-haired woman skipped down the row of picnic tables, two plates in her hands.Summer recognized her as a technician on the coating machines, but she couldn’t remember her name.She slid onto the end seat next to the crushed-beer-can guy, saying, “Sorry, David Farris stopped me with a question.You know he’s VP of Manufacturing, so I couldn’t very well brush him off.”
“The goddamn burger is cold,” the man grumbled as he popped open another beer can.
The woman picked up her hot dog.“It’s not cold.I wasn’tthatlong.”
“I don’t know how I let you sucker me into coming to this thing.”The asshole—Summer called him what he was—continued to grumble.
The girls had gone silent, not looking, but eavesdropping avidly, so Summer redirected the conversation.“Are you two going to have your faces painted?”
Cara laughed.“We’re not ten years old anymore, Mom,” she said in a singsong voice.
“I’m going to do the lazy river in one of those inner tubes,” Fallon declared.
From the barbecue grill, Summer felt Knox’s eyes on her, his gaze compelling her to look at him.Ignoring the feeling, she said, “I’m game for that,” and took another bite of her hot dog to distract herself.
She wondered why she’d taken a seat facing him.She could have turned her back to him, which would have been better for her peace of mind.And yet, here she was, only two picnic tables between them.
The line of picnickers wanting burgers and dogs opened up between a couple of people, allowing Knox’s gaze to laser right into her.She dragged her eyes away.“I brought my suit and water shoes.”
“We did too,” Cara said, and Fallon nodded, her mouth full.
Summer laughed.“You’re sure you don’t want to do the bouncy house first?”
The girls groaned and the dark-haired coating tech on the other side of the aisle, next to Crushed Beer Can Guy, said with a smile, “Oh my God, you’ve got to do the bouncy house.It’s so fun.”
She had a pretty laugh.Probably thirty-five, maybe a little older, she made a striking picture with her black hair pulled up in that high ponytail and her long, tanned legs.She was just Knox’s type.Summer was surprised he hadn’t gone for her rather than a relationship-phobe like Summer.But then the woman had a lug of a boyfriend.Or maybe he was just a date for the picnic.The man said nothing, just slugged back a long swallow of beer.
