“Maybe you should invite Curt to come with us, too,” Julia suggested. Turnabout was fair play.

“Why would I do that?” Andie made a sound of disgust, but Julia caught the way her friend’s face lit up at the mention of his name.

Kat must have noticed it too. “Come on,” she said, sharing a secret smile with Julia. “Let me show you those bathing suits.”

A few hours later, settled in with her notepad, a stack of travel magazines from the hotel lobby for research, and a drink from the pop-up beach bar for refreshment, Julia decided that, once again, her friends had been right. It was a perfect afternoon. The sky perfectly clear. The lake perfectly blue.

Her plan had been to review Kat’s notes from the interview with the resort owner, content to relax in her beach chair, enjoying the view of the lake and observing the interactions of couples scattered across the beach. Maybe it was the gorgeous weather, but the sandcastle activity proved more popular than she’d expected. She waved to Patrick and David, who were assembling an impressive-looking medieval fortress.

It wasn’t long before Andie’s competitive streak reared its head, and Julia laughed at her friend’s outrageous attempts to sabotage everyone else’s castles. Especially Curt’s. Julia watched in smug delight. The entire time Andie was taking jabs at Curt’s castle, the man stood there with a silly grin on his face, watching her with stark admiration. He was clearly giving Andie the look. And based on the way Andie’s smirks were holding less heat and more affection, Julia knew her friend knew it too.

Thinking about the conversation on “the look” that she’d had with Andie and Kat on the forest trail led Julia to thinking about Luke—something she’d been trying to avoid all afternoon. Things had started to get too personal yesterday. Talking with him on the beach, she’d let her guard down. Emotions were getting involved. It was unprofessional. She was here to do a job, one that, if she did well enough, would ensure she still had a job.

Reluctantly, her gaze traveled to where Luke was working on a castle with Kat. Several guys had volunteered to become Kat’s worker bees—including Luke. He was kneeling in the sand next to her, long legs folded beneath him, shooting dirty looks at Zach, who was kneeling on Kat’s other side and shooting dirty looks right back. As Julia watched, Luke leaned closer to her friend, pointing at something, and Kat’s face broke into a grin.

Pinpricks of jealousy pierced Julia’s chest. Kat had Zach, as well as an entire battalion of beefcake at her service. Why was she flirting with Luke?

For fuck’s sake, stop being an idiot. They were just having fun.