Page 51 of Hunter

“It’s not! Not at all.” I hold out my hand, glad when he takes it. “It’s wonderful. Your vision is amazing, Hunter. I can see it all.” …right down to the lucky bitch who’s going to share it with you.

“Yeah?”

He squeezes my hand, but turns to grin at his concrete slab, a slight smile playing on his face as he imagines the wonderful life he’s going to build there.

“Yeah,” I whisper, feeling emotional. “It’s going to be great.”

It occurs to me that any onlooker watching us might see a young couple holding hands, standing side by side, imagining their dream house together, excited for the future they’re going to share.

How very wrong they’d be.

I have no place in that dream.

I untangle my fingers from his.

“I promised McKenna we’d have time to catch up,” I tell him. “We should probably head back.”

“Sure,” he says, nodding his head. As he stares at me, his eyes darken. “The faster you two catch up, the faster we get back to the boat, and I get you in my bed.”

My belly flutters with anticipation as we turn away from the site of Hunter’s future home, but my head and my heart are in conflict as we walk quietly back to the campground.

***

“Tell me everything!” McKenna demands.

She’s forbidden Tanner to interrupt us for the next hour. We’re sitting in the middle of her bed, facing each other with criss-crossed legs and a giant bowl of popcorn between us.

“What do you want to know?”

“Start with Hunter. What’s going on?”

“What do you mean?”

“Don’t be coy, Iz. There’s a weird vibe between you two.”

“How so?”

“At the table, you were practically finishing each other’s sentences. But then, when Gran assumed you two were a couple, you both got red and denied it and got super cagey.”

“That’s because we’renota couple.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure.”

“But you’re fucking him, Iz.” She holds up her hands. “Before you try to deny it, remember that I can read you like a book. Iknowyou.”

“Then you also know I don’t have to be in a serious relationship with someone to fuck them, Ken.”

“True enough, and you know I don’t judge. But…he’s my husband’s brother.”

“I know.”

“And—let me be clear: he never said a bad word about you to me—but I know you hurt him when you called it quits last summer. I don’t love it that you hurt him. I care about him.”

“I care about him, too.”

“Do you?”