“Thank you.”

Margaret acknowledged that with a tilt of her head, then struggled to sit in her chair again, mostly falling into it.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m old.” Margaret tried and failed to hide a wince of pain and went back to watching the kids.

Sarah sat on the edge of the blanket, kicked off her flip-flops, and sank her toes in the sand. She pulled her phone out of her cutoff jeans shorts back pocket and tapped the screen, sighing when she saw 123 new emails from yesterday to today.

“More work?” Margaret asked, an edge to her voice.

“Just a few emails,” she said, hoping to not have another argument about how she didn’t pay enough attention to the boys.

“Mom! Can we go in the water?” Jack called, all three kids standing and waiting to splash in the waves.

Sarah stuffed her phone in her tote bag and got up. “Wait for me.” Before she joined the boys, she turned to Bridget. “Do you mind if Sophia goes in the water?”

“I mind that she’ll be staring at you in that skimpy bikini top.”

Jealous much?

Sarah’s suit wasn’t any more revealing than those of any of the other women sunbathing on the beach.

Bridget wore a simple one-piece tank-style suit. She looked cute in it, but obviously didn’t feel that way and kept a sarong tied around her hips and covering her thighs to her knees.

“But she can swim, right?”

Bridget waved her away. “Yes. Go strut your stuff.”

Sarah rolled her eyes. She didn’t strut anywhere. But she did join the kids down the beach where the waves crested on the sand. She took Nick’s hand and walked with him farther into the surf. He was too little to keep his balance in the rolling waves. Jack did better, but Sophia had to help him every once in a while. But the kids had a blast and Sarah found herself laughing and kicking and playing in the sand and surf with the kids and really enjoying herself like she hadn’t done in a long time.

She needed more of this.

She definitely needed more sleep.

But instead of doing that the last few days, she found herself leaving her laptop in the boys’ room with the camera on so she could keep an eye on them on her phone while they slept, and she snuck out of the house in the dead of night. She didn’t think Margaret would hear them from downstairs if they awoke for some reason. She walked in the fresh air and under the stars so she could wind down and finally sleep after work. Inevitably, she found her way to Luke’s place and the horses that drew her there as much as thinking about him did.

She didn’t know what it was about him that had her turning over their every interaction to figure out what she’d said or done to make him react the way he did around her. Or what she should have said or done to make him like her.