“If it would make you more comfortable with it, then yeah, I’d do it.”

“What would you tell him?”

“That we’re hanging out, having some fun, helping each other through a rough time. Something like that.”

“How do you think he’ll react?”

“Truthfully, I think it’ll be the least of his concerns. He’s got something else weighing on him.”

Abby wasn’t sure how she felt about the idea of Grant not caring—at all—that his brother was seeing her. “You know, girls have a secret girlfriend code.”

“Which is?”

“No dating my exes.”

“Guys aren’t usually as territorial, especially years after they’ve moved on with someone else.”

“So you’d be fine with one of your brothers dating Sasha?” she asked with a smile.

“I’d probably warn them to lock up their valuables, but otherwise, I don’t suppose I’d care.”

Abby laughed at the valuables comment. “And you just broke up with her a few days ago.”

“So Grant ought to be fine with it, right?”

“If you say so. It’s not like this is a relationship or anything. That would probably be different.”

“Exactly.”

“So when can we skinny-dip?”

Adam stopped walking and turned to her. “That’s usually done under the cover of darkness.”

Abby took a long look around the deserted stretch of beach. “Who would know?”

“You’re serious.”

She forced herself to look at him, wishing he wasn’t wearing sunglasses so she could see his eyes. “Dead serious.”

“I’ve never done it during the day.”

“So we’d both be doing something new.”

“I don’t know, Abby. We might get caught. Would you be okay with that?”

“Would we get arrested? Fingerprinted and all that?”

He laughed. “Why do I get the feeling you might enjoy that?”

“Another thing I’ve never done. Have you?”

“I’ll never tell.”

“You have! What’d you do?”

Adam laughed and shook his head. “No way are you getting that out of me.”

“Come on! After what I told you last night, you have to tell me.”

“Nope,” he said as he took off down the beach, jogging away from her and her questions.

Abby gave chase, and when she got close to him, she leaped onto his back, expecting him to keep moving. Instead, he went down like a fallen oak, landing with an oof in the wet sand. Somehow she ended up on top of him. Shocked by the turn of events, Abby burst into laughter. That hadn’t gone as planned.

“Shit, girl,” he said when he could talk again, “are you trying to kill me?”

Abby was crippled with laughter.

“Glad you think it’s so funny. I may never walk again.”

That only made her laugh harder. And then she realized their bodies were perfectly aligned and one part of him was letting her know it approved of her proximity. She pushed up his sunglasses so they rested on his forehead. “That’s better,” she said.

His arms encircled her, keeping her pressed to him. “Now that you have me where you want me, what do you plan to do with me?”