Sucking in a sharp breath, I quickly shook my head, forcing the strange feelings out of my mind, before breaking into a run for the shoreline.

"Don’t drop me!" she giggled, as she buried her face in the crook of my neck.

Laughing, I tightened my hold on her thighs and leapt over the waves until I was waist deep in the ocean. Only then did I dunk us both under the water, thoroughly amused with how quickly she let go of my body in her search for the surface.

When we both crashed above the waves, we were face to face again. "Looking a little wet there, Molls." I grinned, not bothering to push my hair out of my eyes. I could see her well enough. That was good enough for me. "Hell, you look like a drowned rat."

"You big jerk," she spluttered between fits of laughter. Her hair was caked to her face in drenched clumps. "Oh, you think that's funny, huh?" Narrowing her eyes in challenge, she dove for me, splashing and kicking in the water as she moved. "Let's see how you like being dunked, Daryl King!"

Feeling playful, I let her push me beneath the surface and then I moved for her legs.

"No, no, no –"

Bursting out of the water, I threw her into the air, watching as her hands and legs splayed out helplessly. Moments later, she landed in the water, sinking beneath the foamy waves crashing against us.

"Oh, you're a dead man!" She half-coughed/half-spluttered, swimming towards me. "I'm gonna kick your butt!"

"I'm shaking in my boots, Molly-Dolly," I taunted, dodging her pounce only to be toppled over by a wave. Dammit.

Moments later, she was on me, wrestling my big body with her little one in a valiant effort to make good on her promise to kill me. "I told you not to call me that," she growled, trying in vain to pin me in a headlock with her skinny arms. "King doofus."

"Keep it up and I'm gonna pants you," I laughed, reaching for her waist. "I mean it, little girl. I don't give two shits what you've got under there –"

"Try it, jerk face," she dared right back, legs locking around my waist, as she dug her claws into my nipple. "I will purple nurple you so hard, you'll be milking like a dang cow!"

"Y'all make me sick," Rourke drawled, paddling over on his board to where we were playfighting in the water. When he reached us, he sat on his board and leaned back on his elbows with legs still in the water, looking entirely unimpressed with our game. "You crushing on your sidekick now, D?"

"I ain't his sidekick," Molly replied, splashing him in the face.

Feeling embarrassed, I quickly pushed away from her. I wasn't sure what I was doing with Molly, but I was one hundred percent sure that I didn’t want to talk about it with him. "No," I finally replied when I had put some space between us. "It ain't like that."