FOR THE NEXT FOUR WEEKS of my summer, happy I was. Actually, joyfully, blissfully, glowing was a better description of my mood. The pressure of husbands and marriage was over and I could bask in my time at the cove for what it was—the last chance to have fun with my friends and love with my boyfriends before college, commitments, and the real world crashed in.
Zion, Mila, Kelli, Owen, Hazel and I formed a tight group. Kelli was slowly falling for Lukas, and by the sloppy grins he threw her over breakfast, he was plunging just as hard. Hazel kept sneaking away with Andres and thought we didn’t know about it, but their smiles were no less toothy when they saw each other.
The rest of us weren’t worried about marriage, so we spent our days swimming, playing volleyball, watching movies, and enjoying everything the island had to offer. One night, we went to a bar to listen to an island band play and stayed up dancing until early morning.
As for my boys, I could talk, calling Lukas sloppy in love, but I wasn’t much better. Nathan and I ate dinner on my balcony almost every night, talking about the lives we’d have when we were free.
Preston’s need to be careful of his mom and soon-to-be fiancée didn’t slow us down as much as I thought. We easily skirted her sleep routine at night, and during the day, he surprised me by whisking me somewhere private. Having sex in the ocean is tricky with waves knocking you about, but we got the hang of it.
As for the Ice Prince Carter Knight, starting over with the boy I once shared everything with was its own minefield to navigate. We knew too much about each other. The buttons to press. The embarrassing stories to whip out when the other needed to be taken down a notch. Some days we made the nuclear fallout of my breakup with Nathan seem as harmless as a baby splashing in a kiddie pool. But then there were other days—
I burrowed into Carter’s side, throwing my arm around him and weaving my leg between his. The four of us laid out on the beach watching Owen teach Zion how to surf.
Carter poked my side. “Who’s the crusty-ass barnacle now?”
I poked him right back. “Don’t get yourself beat up so early in the day.”
He cracked up, once again proving he simply liked being on the wrong side of my tongue. If he didn’t want my affection, I’d be dumped in the sea along with Zion.
“I can’t snuggle with my Preston or my Nathan with everyone watching, so you have to give me my fix.”
“We’re going to do plenty of snuggling in the next hour,” Preston spoke up. “Count it down.”
My lower belly clenched. The man was a beast in bed and had been opening my mind to new sexual horizons for the last two months. He had a full-length mirror in his villa bedroom too.
“Does that make me your stand-in?” Carter asked.
“No, of course not. I indulge my snuggle time with you too. This is all I’m allowed until we discuss that ex-friends-with-benefits package.”
His brow shot up his forehead. “Any discussion of that kind takes place after I’m wooed and subdued. All the stuff I did to seduce you before was when we were heading toward being newlywed enemies. If you want the real thing out of me, it’s your turn.”
Pushing him down, I placed my hands on his chest and rested my chin on top of them. “First of all, what part of the start of summer was you seducing me?”
“We had our second date that night in the water.”
“The night we were surrounded by skinny-dippers?”
“The first was our breakfast date,” he continued.
“The one where I swore to take you down.”
“And the teaser was our speed-date when we first kissed.”
I hummed. “If all of that counts, we can call the clowns foreplay.”
He shuddered. “Don’t bring up the clowns.”
“You two are so ridiculous.”
The muttered sentence swung our heads around. Nathan gave us both a look.
“You’ve been dancing around it for weeks. Preston and I had an easier time making up with Belle and she punched him dead in his face, and swore she’d throw my cheating ass in front of a truck if she ever saw me again.”
“We get your history is a tangled, complicated mess,” Preston said, swinging our heads the other way. “But just fuck already.”
My face lit on fire.
“Damn, guys,” Carter said. “Aren’t you her boyfriends? Shouldn’t you be having an entirely different reaction?”
Nathan scoffed. “If we were going to get possessive about you and Belle, it would have happened a long time ago and this”—he pointed at us cuddled on the blanket—“wouldn’t be going down so smoothly.”
“Besides,” Preston piped up. “It’s suddenly freaking obvious now how Carter Knight became the ice prince. You fell for Belle years before any of us came along and she got away. As her fellow victims, we know something like that cuts you deep and permanent. You’ll never get over her, and we’re your boys. We can’t condemn you to misery.”
“It’s you, man,” Nathan said. “If Asher rolled up and tried to sling his shot, he’d get his ass beat into the sand despite that stuff we said about being willing to share.”
“But not you,” Preston agreed. “I told Belle we were three guys connected to her by fate. It makes sense that it’d be the four of us.”
I smiled at him. “Did you guys rehearse that?”
“Yep. Had to be said. You two needed a push.”
“Apparently that’s my fault and I need to up my seduction.” I flashed Carter a smirk. “If we go out on the boat and I toss you overboard, is that tantamount to an I love you?”
“Do you love me?” he asked, throwing my smirk back at me.
“Sorry, but in this love story, you don’t get it that easily.”
“Belle! Nathan!”
Zion and Owen waved from the water.
“You guys know how to surf,” Zion said. “Why are you sitting there? Come join us.”
I got up and dragged Carter and Preston with me. “You too. It’s time you learned how to surf.”
“Babe, we were named the kings of Blackburn Academy,” Preston said. “What will it do to our reps to be seen wiping out on a flimsy piece of foam?”
“Won’t look too good.” I blew him a kiss. “Good thing high school is over.”
I led them out into the waves, and if I held on to both their hands longer than needed, Carter didn’t pull away.
PRESTON
“Never thought I’d get tired of parties.”
I hauled a jacket out of the closet and tossed it at Nathan. The three of us were in my room, kicking back and lining up clothes for the party coming the next night.
He snatched it out of the air. “A black and white party to go with the glamour party, to top the Hollywood party. Everyone is copying each other at this point.”
“Better than the Queen of Hearts party knock-offs,” Carter said. “A Snow White and a Peter Pan theme before they accepted they couldn’t pass them off as anything other than a children’s birthday party on our budget. Queen of Hearts did it right.”
“Belle and her team killed it,” I agreed.