They’d have decided to go at five and left at six, and it would have been perfect.
And while planning wasn’t Molly’s favorite part, she loved how their group had grown and how every new addition brought something wonderful to their experience. So change was good.
Phones out, Sarah and Emily were a blur of thumbs, looking things up and taking notes on games, food, and drinks. Then breaking down each of those categories—not just into meals, but snacks, appetizers, and late-night snacks with alternatives based on whether it was warm or rainy. Because you didn’t want to be making s’mores if it was pouring.
“I know we just had our honeymoon, and that vacation was spectacular,” Sarah said, a dreamy expression on her face. “But the buildup to the wedding was so intense, and there’ve been a million things to do since we got back. Max and I are really looking forward to a weekend off the grid.”
“Jase too,” Emily added, her brows furrowing in concentration as her thumbs sped across the screen of her phone. “Do we know if Brody confirmed the campsites again?”
Molly laughed, because Emily took everything so seriously. To her, this camping trip was being handled the way she handled a promo spot for one of her campaigns.
“I’ll double-check with him,” Molly promised. Then thought better of it. “Forget that. Let’s just find out.”
Five minutes later, she’d grabbed Brody from the back. When they were all settled at the table, he slapped down a pad of paper in front of them and started scribbling notes. While the rest of the world would be using their phones, Molly imagined those thick fingers of Brody’s couldn’t make more than the simplest texting very easy.
“I’d been planning to get organized next weekend, but since you girls are all here and your lesser halves tend toward last-minute preparations, let’s work it all out ourselves.”
“Speaking of lesser halves,” Emily sang, leaning in toward Molly. “Think you and Sean will be able to share a tent without another boner incident to report?”
Sarah chuckled lightly. “God, I hope so. I don’t think I can handle a replay of the groin-to-groin contact that nearly blew my husband’s head off during our honeymoon.”
Molly froze where she was, her iced tea halfway to her mouth, a sense of dread spooling through her stomach. “You okay, Moll?” Brody asked, looking over his phone, then turning it to show Emily the picture of the new tent he’d ordered. Thankfully, neither of them was paying too much attention, because Molly felt like she’d just swallowed a frog. She’d been working overtime to remind herself that Sean was not her other half. The two of them together did not make a whole. And yet on some level, even their friends saw her and Sean as another couple within this group.
Things had been going smoothly with Sean. He seemed to have gotten past their night together without a glitch. And she was getting there. Absolutely. But suddenly, those two weeks she had until she was sharing a tent with him didn’t seem like much time at all.
* * *
Mature adult men didn’t throw tantrums about their parents bugging them. But Sean was about to blow a gasket if his didn’t exit his office, his sanctuary, in the next thirty seconds. They were driving him nuts, going on about who would represent Wyse for this commitment or that. How dreadful some coming event would be, but how it was their responsibility to attend regardless. Obligations that couldn’t be avoided, and opportunities to advance relationships.
None of it was new.
Sean had been participating in conversations like this one, and doing so without complaint, from the time he was twelve. But in almost twenty years, this was the first time the conversation felt truly old.
It was the first time he felt as if every second that ticked past was another second lost.
Finally, he snapped. “Every year, we attend that dinner, and every year, it’s a complete waste of time. I say we decline.” When he was met with silence, he pressed, “Why not?”
His mother sat neatly folded at the edge of her seat across the low coffee table, looking at him like she didn’t know who he was. When she deigned to answer, it was only to say, “Appearances, Sean. That is why.”
Of course. He shouldn’t have asked when he already knew.
It was just that everything felt off with him lately. His fuse was just a little shorter, his patience taxed just that much. It was as if he had the constant sense he ought to be somewhere else.
Even the office wasn’t the balm it once was…and he loved work. He loved the Wyse.
Hell, he loved his family, but in that moment, his mother’s voice was hitting him like nails down a blackboard.
Enough of this. “Fine, whatever you decide. Copy Carson on the schedule, and I’ll make it work.”
The sun was setting, and he could see the elongated shadows falling across the Drive from his window. By his standards, it was still pretty early, but he wanted out.
“Are we about done for the night?” Sean rose from his seat on the couch with purpose and headed back to his desk.
“Are we keeping you from a meeting?” his father asked, sinking farther back into his chair. “I thought Carson said your schedule was clear.”
Sean closed his eyes and drew an even breath. “No meeting.”
“Dinner plans, then?” his mother probed.
“No dinner plans either. I was going to head over to the gym. I’ve missed a few days this week and could use a good workout.” He could use about two hours to burn off some of this pent-up whatever-the-hell-it-was that had gotten into him. He’d swim and then hit the weights, and if he wasn’t on a more even keel when he was done with that, there was always the treadmill. Or maybe he could head over to Belfast and say hi to Molly. And Brody. Molly and Brody.
“So the work on your apartment is finished?” his mother asked, and Sean suddenly wondered if he was being an ass.
Maybe his parents were just looking for an opportunity to talk with him. To spend some time as a family, and this was the only way they knew how. Things hadn’t really been right since everything had come out about his father and—
“We were relieved when you came to your senses about that Molly situation,” his mother added, her eyes locked on him as if she was studying his face for a reaction.
The muscles down his spine started to knot. He would definitely be hitting the treadmill.
And if his mother was waiting for a reaction, she wasn’t going to get it. After all, Sean had been schooling his emotions for appearances’ sake since he was old enough to walk.
He began flipping through a report Sarah had left for him, and after a moment, his father stood. “We had lunch with Valerie this afternoon. Did you know she was back from Rome?”
“No.” He hadn’t known she’d left.
“Well, she is,” his mother stated, standing. She straightened her skirt and adjusted the heavy gold bracelet at her wrist. “She made some exceptional connections while she was there. You ought to set something up this week.” Then, meeting his eyes, she added, “She’s still receptive, Sean.”
That tension that had been ratcheting tighter and tighter down his spine suddenly released, and he took a deep, easy breath. He smiled a genuine smile at his mother and rolled up his sleeves. “You know, I think I’ll call her tonight.”
The sharpness of his mother’s features softened, making her look more like the woman she’d been to him growing up. The woman who was so proud of his efforts to follow in his father’s footsteps.
That softer side of his mom was nice.
He just wasn’t sure it was entirely real anymore.
* * *
Ninety minutes later, Sean was seated in the back corner of a mostly empty coffee shop with Valerie across from him. Her hair fell in immaculate glossy waves to a few inches past her shoulders, and her clothes looked like her personal shoppers probably earned enough in commissions to buy their own
summer place in the Hamptons. It was no mystery why his parents had pinned their hopes on this woman.
Valerie laughed, recounting the hard press his parents had given her at lunch, and sat back in her chair, smiling over her espresso at him. “I must admit, Sean, I was surprised you called.”
He nodded, setting his own coffee aside. “Thanks for meeting me on such short notice. I imagine your calendar is booked for months.”
She laughed politely, but he knew from when they’d dated it was true. “It was easy enough to push my dinner plans back.”
“David?” he asked, remembering he’d seen her and Stanthorpe in the paper not too far back.
She shook her head. “Alan Ryder.”
Right. He knew the name. “Serious?”
“I suppose it could be.”
The answer was just ambiguous enough to leave the door open, validating his decision to contact her. “Valerie, I’ve been reconsidering my stance on marriage, and with the somewhat open-ended way we’ve left things”—and considering his parents’ conversation with her at lunch—“I thought you deserved to know.”
It was time to close the door.
Chapter 13
Molly should’ve known that with Brody, Emily, and Sarah coordinating the camping trip, there was no way it wasn’t going to be perfect. Or over-the-top. Or as unlike traditional camping as you could get while still sleeping in tents in the woods. They’d gone to Google Earth and scouted out the available sites, securing the last four backing up to the woods with a decent distance between them and the next campers in front of them.
She’d ridden up with Emily and Sarah Friday morning, leaving around ten. Both the girls had a few things to handle at their respective offices, which left Molly an extra couple of hours of sleep. But mostly it had given her a handy excuse not to ride up with Sean.
No matter how she sliced it, the two of them were a pair. Not that it was something new or something terrible. It was just that with the way her brain had been misfiring recently, anything she could do to avoid that coupled-up feeling seemed wise. So she’d ridden with the girls in Max’s Charger, Sean had gone with Jase in the SUV, and Max had ridden along in the truck Brody rented to transport all the necessities.
Sarah pulled to a stop, both hands secure around the wheel as she leaned forward, her mouth hanging open.
Emily’s hands clutched between her breasts as she practically bounced in her seat. “This is going to be awesome!”
Awesome? Definitely. Over-the-top to the point of ridiculous? Already there.
The girls piled out of the car and walked down to the campsite where Brody was manning a gleaming six-burner grill parked beside the half-rusted-out traditional pit provided at the site. Jase and Max were assembling a screened-in gazebo, and where any other campsite might’ve had an assortment of folding chairs, theirs was littered with a deep-cushioned set of wicker patio chairs, end tables, a love seat, and this crazy sort of blow-up tube that looked like it might be a cross between an inflatable couch and hammock.
The girls ran down to greet their husbands. Emily got dipped back into one of those showy kisses Molly never would’ve guessed Jase had in him but had become all but standard since the two had gotten together. And Sarah stepped into Max’s arms, pushing up to her toes to meet him for a kiss Molly ended up having to turn away from. He was her brother, for crying out loud.
They had a routine. Each couple, their own thing. And seeing it usually made Molly smile, but then usually, she wasn’t fighting her own thing. Because she had one too. She and Sean. And right then, he was stepping out from behind the truck, dressed in a Wyse Hotel T-shirt that had found the perfect balance between fitted and tight, a pair of ripped-up cargo shorts, and hiking boots with socks. There were two coolers stacked in his hold, and it took everything she had not to give in to the pull of habit, skip down the gravelly slope, and cuddle into Sean’s side for a minute before helping out with whatever she could.
Not today.
Sean scanned the site, checking out the couples who were greeting each other as though it had been weeks rather than hours since they’d last had the chance. And then his eyes landed on her, his smile going wide and crooked as he jutted his chin in a nod of greeting.
Offering up a wave, she forced herself to go to Brody first.
“Hey, Moll, how was the drive up?” he asked, that too-observant stare shifting between her and Sean.
“Great. Little later start than we intended, but Sarah made good time.”
A chuckle rumbled deep from Brody’s chest “For being married to a cop, the girl’s got a lead foot on her, doesn’t she?” His eyes flicked past Molly’s shoulder. “Hey, man, let me take one of those.”
Molly turned to find Sean standing beside her, an expectant look on his face. Because whether he’d dissected it or analyzed it or not, Sean knew the routine too. He handed the top cooler off to Brody with thanks, and when the other man walked it back to the prep area, Sean searched her face.
“You okay?” His biceps were flexing as he stood there holding the oversize cooler. “We okay?”
She sighed, feeling like a jerk. Of course, Sean would notice something off.
With a shake of her head, she sighed. “Yeah, we are. It’s just me being weird.”
“Weird how?” He raised a brow, pulling the corner of his mouth a bit higher in the process.
She stepped closer, her eyes trailing around the campsite where everyone was laughing and starting to come together. Everyone except for them. “Residually weird?”
“Ahh, because of…” He let his voice trail off, but they both knew what he meant. Because of that night.
“Yes. It’s stupid, and I’m sorry. But every now and then, I feel like maybe things are different, and I really want them to be the same.”
He turned, angling his back to the rest of the group so it was just them. “What’s different?”
She might as well tell him. “Me seeing everyone couple off and maybe thinking of us that way a little too. I mean, not like I want to run and jump into your arms, showering kisses all over your face because I haven’t seen you for three and a half hours. But”—she looked behind her again—“I don’t know, it’s always Emily and Jase, Max and Sarah, and in my head, I guess I realized I always add us like that too. Sean and Molly. I know we’re not a couple, but in certain ways, we are.”
Like it was just understood that they would share a tent. That they sat together. That all their private jokes were for each other.
“Don’t overthink it, Moll.” Hefting the cooler to readjust his grip, Sean started toward the area where they’d been piling everything up. “We are together. Not like they are, but I can’t remember a time when we haven’t been paired up. Can you?”
“No, I guess not.”
“I think we’re both sensitive about making sure everything is okay between us. After what happened, there’s bound to be a little residual weirdness, but we’re good, Moll. We’re just us. Even if occasionally one of us thinks something about the other they shouldn’t.”
Molly stopped walking and turned to face him. Their eyes met, and again, she found herself caught in a hold that made her heart beat faster, her skin heat, and her belly start that slow needy churn she only associated with Sean. His eyes slowly dropped to her mouth, and she felt something deep inside threatening to break free.
But then Sean looked away and cleared his throat. “I’m sure it will pass.”
* * *
Once the campsite was set up to Brody’s liking and he had his feast under way, everyone else donned their hiking shoes and sneakers and took off down the trail toward the swimming hole. About a mile in, the trail split. One way was an easy path directly down to the beach, and the other wound farther around the lake, following a steeper trail dead-ending at a rocky overhang protruding far enough over the water so swimmers could
jump in.
“It’s not that high,” Molly urged, practically bouncing on her toes, she was so excited to get there. “There’s a windy walkway on the side where you can leave your stuff and climb back up.” Her breath came out in an adorable rush. “Even Sean jumps off it, and you know what a chicken he is.”
Or not so adorable. He barked out a laugh, shaking his head.
“Once,” he countered, throwing his hands up with a laugh. “One time. I suggest that maybe we take the trail down to the beach and go in there.” And it hadn’t been because he was afraid to jump—he’d been afraid to watch Molly jump. Even years and dozens of jumps later, he still had to keep himself from trying to talk her out of it.
“Come on, you guys! Don’t be a bunch of babies,” she goaded. “It’s, like, fifteen feet up.”
Max stood behind Sarah, his hands resting on her shoulders. “Twenty-two feet, seven inches,” he clarified.
Sarah gave a firm shake of her head. “I’ll pass. But don’t let me stop you.”
Emily and Jase shared one of those looks where a whole conversation took place without words. And then Jase grinned, taking his wife’s hand as they started back toward the site. “You know, we’re kind of beat actually. You guys go. Have a good long swim, and we’ll see you back at the campground.”
Christ.
“Mmm-hmm, I think maybe a nap,” Emily added unnecessarily, because seriously, like everyone didn’t know what was going on.
Molly snorted quietly. “Subtle, guys.”
“Okay, so, Moll, you and I will take the high road, and Sarah and Max will take the low road,” Sean said.
They split up, hiking the last mile and a half separate from the group. Sean didn’t mind. It wasn’t like he’d been plotting to get Molly alone, but sometimes when it was just the two of them, he relaxed in ways he couldn’t when everyone else was there.
“This is it.” Molly stopped next to the sign for the overlook, kicking off her shoes while Sean did the same.
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