Cole shrugs, and Dane says, “I agree. As long as everyone is comfortable.”
A beat passes then he says, “As we’re leaving tomorrow. I think we should probably discuss what this will look like. Off the island. This is a good segue, as we probably won’t all be together like this after we leave.”
That makes my chest pang slightly, the thought of them being scattered again, like they were when I first got to Ember.
“It should look like this,” Nico says, sighing and popping a grape into his mouth. Around the bite, he says, “As much like this as we can make it.”
Dane gives him a look, and I know them enough now to recognize it. It says,life can’t always be a vacation.
“And why not?” Nico answers the look like it was spoken out loud. “At this point, in our fifties,” Dane’s brow twitches, and I flush again at the reminder of the age difference between us all. “We should be able to take a break. Enjoythis.”
Bythis, he might mean our budding relationship, or all their hard work, the money they’ve accrued to this point. They certainly don’tneedany more, and that makes me inclined to agree with him.
But I also understand wanting purpose. Having something to do.
“What do you want, Lucy?” Dane asks, carefully, his gaze steady on me. It reminds me of the way he looked at me the first time I walked into his office. Like he could cut right through me with it, see to the deepest, most secret desires I’ve buried inside myself.
I swallow and drop his gaze, heart suddenly beating hard. Of course I’m aware of the age difference between us, and it makes me wonder if I’m too naive. If my feeling about this is going to feel like playing Trivial Pursuit with them, grasping at answers I have no chance of really knowing.
Carefully, not wanting to sound like a daft little girl, I say, “I haven’t really… let myself think that far. I didn’t know if this was going to… if you guys wanted…”
I want to spend more time with them. Of course I do. They’re brilliant, interesting, and fun. Cole makes me feel smarter with each conversation we have. Dane makes everything feel steady, like he knows where to steer the ship, even in a storm. And Nico, over the past few days, has reminded me to stay bold. To have fun.
Of course I want this. I’d want it even if it didn’t come with the money and the glitz and the ease. Butwithall that? It’s a dream. An impossibility that makes me pinch myself each morning I wake up.
“Of course we do,” Cole says, mirroring my own sentiment, his voice matter-of-fact like always. I wait for the other guys to contradict him, but they don’t. They all just look at me, like I get the final say in this. Like the only reason it wouldn't happen is if I didn’t want it.
It makes me flush with pleasure. With the wanting and the having and thetoo muchof things beinggood. If I was someoneelse, I might be waiting for the other shoe to drop. As it is, I just can’t believe my luck.
“Okay. Then… I mean, yeah.” It’s a stammer matched to the overwhelming sensation of getting everything you want. Letting out a breath, I bring the back of my hand to my cheek, trying to cool my heated skin. “Yeah, of course I do. I want to… try.”
“Okay.” Dane nods, like that’s settled. Cole sits back in his seat.
“Not like three guys with a beautiful woman will be the weirdest thing a bunch of rich dudes have ever done together,” Nico jokes. Dane shakes his head and Cole punches him in the shoulder.
Together, collectively aglow in the matter we’ve just settled, we finish our breakfast and break out of the house, headed down to the beach.
“Put me down!”
“Are you sure about that?”
Dane stands waist-deep in the ocean with me cradled in his arms. His hair is flattened over his head, his fair skin rosy from a week on the island. Droplets of water dapple his shoulders, which are covered in freckles.
I don’t know why I hadn’t noticed them before, but out here in the sun, they’re more prominent.
My hair is stiff, the kind of rope-y texture it gets after swimming in salt water and drying for a few minutes. Over Dane’s head, the sun has dropped low in the sky, laden with the promise of dusk coming in just over an hour.
We’ve been out here forever, running in the sand, walking along the shore, diving into the water and letting the ocean wash over us all.
Getting his meaning, I wrap my arms around his neck and hold on tight, searching for a lie, “I don’t know how to swim.”
Dane’s laugh rumbles through his chest and into my body. “Lucy, we’ve been out here for hours.”
I bite my lip and look up at him, hoping a cute face, even if I look like a drowned rat, will keep him from tossing me back in the water. I already got a rush of salt water up my nose once today, and I’mnothoping to do it again.
“This reminds me of when I fell in the shower,” I murmur, tracing a finger over his chest, and I feel him stiffen beneath me, his eyes going dark at the mention of it. “And you picked me up, just like this.”
“Are you flirting with me just to avoid another dunk in the ocean?” Dane asks, his voice growling. Smoke rolls over to us from the shore, and we glance over to see Nico with the grill he dragged out here. He’d insisted on charcoal, said propane grills make the food taste weird. Cole lays back in the sand, tuckered from the day of play and sun.
