“You’re right. It was dark when I got here. My apologies.”

Laura spun her float around to look at her. “You got here last night? Why did it take you so long to call me?”

“I…I had things…to do. Then—”

Laura met her gaze. “You left early last Sunday, you got here late yesterday—a Thursday. So…”

Cassidy sighed. “You know why.”

“You were avoiding me.”

“Yes. And don’t ask me why. You know why.”

“Because you kissed me.”

“Look, it wasn’t only me kissing you. You kissed me too, you know.”

“Against my will!”

“Oh, please!”

Laura smiled. “I thought we weren’t going to talk about it?”

“Yeah…let’s don’t.” She paddled over to the beer bucket. “Did you have a good week?”

“I did. I stayed busy. I hardly gave you a thought at all.”

“Good. Me too.” She put two beers into koozies. “See? We kissed. We didn’t give it another thought. It’s over with. See how easy that was?”

Laura met her gaze. “I’m lying, you know.”

Cassidy nodded. “Yeah…me too.”

Laura took the beer from her. “So we won’t ever do that again, right?”

Cassidy tried to read her eyes. “Is that what you want?”

“Yes,” she answered quickly.

Yes, that was probably the best way to handle this. Just don’t do it again. That’s what Laura wanted. But no. That’s what Laura was saying she wanted. Her eyes, however, said something else entirely. But Cassidy would play along with her. For now.

“Okay. We won’t ever do that again.”

Laura smiled. “See? Now we can forget about it and get back to normal.”

“Normal? Like me bringing women here on the weekends? Normal like that?”

“Yes. If that’s what you consider normal,” she said a bit tersely.

Cassidy went to great pains to hide her smile and keep her expression even. “Wish I had known that before I came down. I’ve got some friends coming tomorrow—Erica and Amber. I would have made arrangements for them to bring someone. You know, for me.”

Laura simply stared at her but made no comment.

“Of course, if you’re free, you might want to join us.”

“I don’t think so.”

“I’ve known Erica ten years or so. Amber’s been around the last two, I think. They’ve been out here before a couple of times.”

Laura shook her head. “No.”

“Steaks,” she said with a teasing smile. “Cooked to perfection.”

“Must you?”

“What? Tempt you with food?”

“Yes.”