Chapter 22

Dec

Even Irene had to admit the boat club had taken on a new life with Kenna's involvement. We stood in the parking lot, staring at the club house, repainted a bright white with new royal-blue awnings over each window. Signs were refreshed. Gravel and plants had been brought in to soften the landscape. The boats gleamed in the morning light, none looking worse for the wear after the storm blew through. Harley would be over shortly to address a few maintenance things and confirm the zero damages, but overall, I'd say we got off lucky this season.

"Almost too pretty to smoke next to it," Irene wheezed, blowing smoke right in front of us where the breeze caught it and sent it back in my face. I had to tilt my head to the side to avoid the secondhand smoke inhalation.

"Ever thought about quitting?" I drawled.

Irene chortled in disgust. Or maybe she was just coughing up some phlegm that rattled her ribs on a daily basis. "I ain't no quitter," she growled, stabbing me with her elbow in my side before she tossed her cigarette to the pavement and ground it out. "Unlike some people."

She marched off, bejeweled sandals slapping the ground just to annoy me. That had been the point of the parting shot too. Irene knew who I'd been and usually didn't bring it up. It didn't matter to her that I'd been a household name there for a few years. Except when she was trying to piss me off.

Harley's truck pulled into the lot. I waited until he'd exited and came over to greet me. He was grinning already, having found something to be delighted about before most people had their first cup of coffee.

"Kenna texted me that I'm to check out the Boozer Cruiser first." Harley took the hat off his head and scratched. "I already bought a ticket for it's maiden voyage."

I shook my head. As much as I wasn't a fan of the booze cruise idea of Kenna's, the guy who worked on all our boats should have gotten a free ticket. "You don't need to buy a ticket, dumbass."

Harley slung his arm around my shoulder and walked us to the dock. "Sure did. I think her idea is fire and I want to support it." He grinned even wider at my groan. "Plus I knew it'd make you mad."

I flung his arm off me and marched over to the boat we'd retrofitted for the booze cruise. "Why's everyone trying to piss me off today?"

Harley climbed aboard and started to immediately check out the lines. "Probably because we all know you're the one being a dumbass."

"Excuse me?" Here I was, giving him work, and he was calling me a dumbass. Irene was one thing, she called everyone a dumbass or at least implied it, but having your best friend call you one and mean it? Ruthless.

Harley kept right on working. "Well, you've got a good woman interested in you and you're fucking it up. That's the definition of dumbass."

I put my hands on my hips. "Please. I could say the same for you and Char."

Harley's head popped up. "That's a low blow. You know we'd never work out. She wants babies and white picket fences. I get itchy if I haven't traveled out of state at least once a month. I left the tour life but the tour life never left me."

I swiped a hand through the air. That was an argument for another day. "Kenna and I are fine."

Harley lost the grin in an instant. "Oh yeah? You told her who you are?"

I shook my head and got busy scanning the exterior of the boat for any scratches from rubbing against the dock during the storm. "No, but things are fine between us as of last night."

"See? Dumbass." Harley practically growled, forgetting all about why he was even here. "You think fucking makes everything fine. Just a typical male. You know, you're giving guys a bad rap, which I don't appreciate."

Harley had never been one to hold his tongue when it came to his opinion of me. He'd stood by me after everything went to hell, and he'd even moved his life to be here with me in Sunshine Key, but he had a barbed tongue. And I was getting sick of it.

"Kenna is fragile. You didn't witness her breakdowns the first weeks she was here. The woman was hanging by a thread over the betrayal. Her ex was a piece of work, the kind who takes your trust and damages it forever. I can't tell her about my past. Not when telling her will ruin everything between us." I threw a life preserver back in the bottom of the bench and shoved the seat cushion down. "Besides, she's probably not even staying here long term. Next summer she'll be back in California, mark my words."

Harley shook his head. "Only because she'll feel like you lied to her. I'd leave your ass too if you didn't trust me enough to tell me the truth. Thing is, Kenna's solid enough to keep your secret. You just don't trust her."

"I wish you'd leave my ass," I grumbled, irritated enough to give voice to the lie while also avoiding the subject of trusting Kenna. I trusted her as much as I trusted anyone these days. Which wasn't much.

Harley huffed out a laugh. "Fuck you."

We continued to work side by side, muttering about little things that needed fixing before the tourist season started in earnest next week. Neither of us mentioned Kenna again, but I could feel the unspoken judgement. He didn't know all the details about her ex. Had no idea that he'd been some kind of "big man on campus," luring Kenna in and then changing who she was. If I told her who I really was, she'd run away, thinking I was a carbon copy of her ex. Better to just enjoy the time we had and then part ways next summer, no hard feelings.

I was about to leave and go back home for the day when Harley opened his big mouth one last time. "I think you're discounting Kenna's ability to handle the truth. You think she'll crumble like she did when she first got here this summer."

I thought back over those first few weeks. "It's a fair assumption given what I saw this summer. She bleached her fucking hair neon orange and nearly bit everyone's head off."

Harley nodded, all traces of humor gone. "That's because you aren't really looking at her. You're just seeing what you want to see. Whatever will back up this stupid idea in your head that you have to keep yourself hidden. That's on you, Dec, not her."

And then he spun around and walked off to the Boozer Cruiser, whistling like he hadn't just verbally slapped me. Given that he'd been there that night, when everything had gone to hell, it pissed me off that he was taking her side. I shook my head, a bead of sweat slipping into my eyes. I swiped it away and headed for my truck. The heat was still oppressive and now I was hot with anger.

Why should I expose myself to Kenna when she was planning on leaving? Why should I tell her who I used to be when that wasn't who I was any longer? If the shell of a man I was now wasn't enough for her, then better to find that out before things got more complicated. Because I did see Kenna, unlike what Harley accused me of. She was built for great things and had the drive to accomplish whatever she put her mind to. She'd open that publishing house she dreamed of and have to move inland to a bigger city when it became a raging success, leaving me and Sunshine Key behind. Keeping my mouth shut was the kindest thing I could do for Kenna Ryan.

Everything stewed in my brain as I drove home, forming a headache that couldn't be soothed by anything but a dip in the salty ocean water. I headed straight there, not bothering to see if Kenna or Mona was home next door. I pulled off all my clothes, except for a pair of boxers and dove into the water.

It was warm, but the breeze cooled off my flesh as I bobbed up and down in the lazy waves. I went out far enough to barely be able to touch the sandy bottom as I watched the sun sink into the horizon. I floated there until it started to get dark, letting the rhythmic swell of the water calm me down. The salt was on my skin, in my mouth, and sifting through my hair. Small fish swam between my legs, a flutter against my skin that didn't concern me. Shark sightings were rare by Sunshine Key and I needed this time to relax more than I needed the worry about a slim chance of danger.

Splashing sounded behind me and I turned around, seeing Kenna knee-deep in the water, waving her hand over her head. I lifted my hand in return and moved closer to shore, meeting her when the water was up to our waists. She wore a black one-piece swimsuit with cutouts all over, showing more skin that a two-piece.

"Hey, stranger," she said on a smile, wrapping her arms around my neck and kissing me.

My hands found their way to every sliver of exposed skin. She moaned into my mouth, the sound the final thing that shoved the bad mood away. Kenna was here and she wanted me as much as I wanted her. All that shit Harley harped about was bullshit.

Kenna wrapped her legs around my waist and I kept us above water, our mouths devouring each other. The warm water felt like a bathtub, but a lazy breeze cooled us off. I twirled us in a circle, feeling light and playful, so opposite of how I'd felt when I came in here tonight. Kenna smiled, her brow shiny with sweat.

"Are you hot?"

She nodded. "I ripped out the downstairs vanity this afternoon. I was cleaning everything up when I saw you out the slider. Figured a dip sounded good."

I held her close, proud of her hard work. Proud of what she'd accomplished with Maeve's house. Maeve would have been proud too.

"Ready for an actual dip?" I lifted an eyebrow, daring her to go under. The woman protected her hair more than most people protected their precious belongings.

Kenna arched an eyebrow in warning, but then a devious smile wiped away her ire. "Dip me, salty," she drawled, a siren of middle-aged perfection.

I nipped at her neck and then gave her a second to hold her breath before I let the water slide over our heads. One beat, then two, before I kicked back to the surface. Kenna's eyes popped open, hair slicked to the shape of her head. She tossed her head back, the long strands dipping back into the water like once they'd gotten a taste, they needed more. She let out a whoop up into the sky that sent a pelican gliding in a different direction. The shorter strands around her face were already curling, a sight I was delighted to see. All the blow-drying and flat ironing of those curls was a damn shame. Kenna brought her head up and smiled at me like everything she'd been through this summer had been worth it just to be in this moment with me.

Fuck, tonight was turning out perfect. The view I'd been gazing at every night for ten years, a woman wrapped around me who wasn't here because of who I used to be, the water bobbing around us as the sky grew darker. As she ran her fingers through my hair, I wanted more. I craved this every night. I wanted something more than the meager existence I'd sunk into in Sunshine Key. I wanted again.

Which is why when I asked her where her mother was and she told me she'd taken a rideshare to my dad's house for the evening, I waded out of the water with Kenna still wrapped around me like an octopus. I carried her up the sand, my lips nipping at the smooth flesh of her neck, and dropped to my knees on the lounge chair positioned under the palm trees that separated our back porches.

"Do you love this swimsuit?"

"What?" Kenna panted, her hands trying to pull my head back down to kiss her.

"Fuck it," I muttered, letting her claim my mouth as I reached down between us and pulled the swimsuit to the side.

The noise of fabric ripping had her wrenching her mouth away, eyes wide with surprise. I didn't give her time to grouse at me for ruining her swimsuit. I reached into my boxers and pulled out my dick, harder than steal just from kissing her. Rubbing up and down her flesh once, then twice, Kenna mewled impatiently. I gripped her hip and guided myself inside her, my eyes squeezing shut at the exquisite feel of her gripping me.

I pushed her all the way back on the lounger, pulling the straps of her swimsuit down enough to trap her arms and prop up her breasts for my gaze. I leaned down, needing to taste her, needing her to be as wild as I felt inside. Needing this to last longer than the thirty seconds I felt like I had left. Her nipple pebbled instantly, the noises coming from her mouth intensifying with each draw of my mouth and lave of my tongue.

She bucked and I thrusted. The chair let out a few squeaks of its own, but the webbing held. Her hair spread out beneath her, a riot of flaming curls slowly drying in the breeze. Kenna looked wild and debauched, and so fucking happy with that soft smile.

"So. Damn. Beautiful," I managed to say with each thrust.

I leaned over her, sliding my hands into her thick hair and kissing her with everything I had. I felt her tightening around me before she cried out against my lips. I trembled and quaked, but I held out long enough for the cries to turn to sighs. And then I let myself go, spilling into her like she was the very air I wanted to breathe. Like this was so much more than a summer fling. Like this was where I was meant to be.

We stayed there on the lounger, connected and breathing hard, until Kenna started to giggle. I lifted my head to give her a look that held no real heat even though she was laughing when I could barely feel my legs.

"I've never had sex outside like this," she admitted.

"Don't worry. No one walks way down here. Besides, if someone did, they'd only see my pale ass."

Kenna grabbed my backside and gave it a playful squeeze. "But what an ass it is, salty."

I plucked a kiss from her lips and pulled the swimsuit up over her breasts so she'd feel more comfortable. Her eyes were gleaming in the moonlight. "The salt life looks good on you, sunshine."

She smiled, tightening around me once again and making me groan. "You look good on me."