“I do, but I’d love to hang out... You’re always at the beach or working a—”

“And you’ve got a fuckhot boyfriend and a blazing career,” I say. Lola is probably the busiest person I know. When she isn’t editing her new graphic novel, Junebug, or visiting the set for the film adaptation of her first book, Razor Fish, she’s jetting off to L.A. or New York or wherever the studio and her publisher want her. “I knew you were working today and would probably spend the night with Oliver.” Squeezing her shoulder, I add, “Besides, what else is there to do on a beautiful day like this but surf?”

She grins at me over the rim of her cup. “I don’t know... maybe go out on a date?”

I snort as I shut the cupboard door. “You’re cute.”

“London,” she says, pinning me with a serious expression.

“Lola,” I volley back.

“Oliver mentioned he has a friend coming in from home, maybe we could all get together.” She looks down, feigning fascination with something on her fingernail. “See a movie or something?”

“No setups,” I say. “My darling of darlings, we’ve had this conversation at least ten times.”

Lola smiles sheepishly again and I laugh, turning to walk out of the kitchen. But she’s there, hot on my heels.

“You can’t fault me for worrying about you a little,” she says. “You’re alone all the time and—”

I wave a flippant hand. “Alone is not the same as lonely.” Because as appealing as the idea of sex with an actual person is, the drama that inevitably comes along with it is not. I’ve got enough on my social plate trying to keep up with Lola and her tight-knit and ever-expanding group of friends and their significant others. I’m barely past the Learning Their Last Names stage. “Stop channeling
Harlow.”

Lola frowns as I lean forward to kiss her cheek.

“You don’t have to worry about me,” I tell her, then check the time. “Gotta go, mid-tide in twenty.”

AFTER A LONG day on the water, I step behind the counter of Fred’s—the place nearly everyone lovingly calls “the Regal Beagle” due to the name of its owner, Fred Furley—and tie an apron around my waist.