I chuckled, out of breath, then promptly swallowed a bout of unease when it struck me how much I adored the boy. Fuck. It felt heavy. Enough that my smile faltered, and I had to clear my throat and avert my eyes.

The two men were like night and day, as were my reactions to them, but the end result was the same. I couldn’t imagine one without the other, and two types of feelings were still equal when stacked up next to each other.

“Pizza sounds great, darlin’,” August replied. “I’ll dust off the pizza oven in a bit.”

“Of course you have your own pizza oven.” I forced a casual grin and swam backward toward the stairs.

“Of course we do.” He smirked back. “Where do you think you’re goin’? I wasn’t done with you.”

But one day very soon, he would be, and I needed to get my shit together.

“I thought I’d call Nicky. I’ve avoided him long enough.” Avoid was a strong word, but he’d put two and two together after I’d posted a photo on Instagram of me replacing a string on my guitar and saying I was looking forward to the gig on Saturday. My brother had seen the picturesque background of August and Camden’s patio and pool area in the photo and texted me something about my shitty motel having surprisingly high standards. His way of asking where I really was.

He’d also asked how I’d come to play at the food festival, after which he’d let me know that our sad Facebook page—that hadn’t seen an update in over a year—had gotten two hundred new likes overnight.

That last tidbit with the new likes had made it easy for me to dodge his other questions.

“I mean, you could tell him the truth,” August drawled.

“And what’s that?” I had to go there, didn’t I?

He swam over to me, trapping me against the wide steps. “That you’ve been kidnapped by a Southerner and a desertin’ Yankee.”

I let out a breathy chuckle and shook my head. “I think he’d have follow-up questions to that.”

“Mm.” He dropped his gaze to my mouth and kissed me quickly. “Tell him that any further information is rated R. Or NC-17. Or however porn is rated.”

I laughed and nipped at his jaw. “I’ll think of something.”

I had no plans to hide whatever I was going to say, though. August could listen in. It mattered to me that he didn’t want to be too discreet where I was concerned, and I wanted him to know I was on the same page.