“I asked Zoe to watch River during the race,” Lily says as she walks up. “Is that okay?”
“Yeah, Zoe’s a good kid. She’s helped me out when I was in a bind before. Where are they?”
Lily points to the swings where Zoe is pushing River. River has her head thrown back, laughing and having a great time. “Give me a second, okay?” I ask Layne.
“Sure. Go see your daughter,” she encourages me.
River jumps out of the swing when she sees me approach and flies into my arms. I twirl her around before repeatedly kissing her sweet little face. “I’ve missed you, baby girl. Have you been good for Aunt Lily?”
“Daddy,” she admonishes me. “You asked me that this morning.”
“You’re so right,” I admit as I put her down.
She runs back to the swing and resumes her activity. The protective father in me can’t walk away from my daughter without reiterating the dangers of being around the water to both River and Zoe. I can’t even bear to think what I’d do if anything bad happened to my little girl.
“I promise I’ll take good care of her, Mr. Sharp. She won’t get out of my sight even for a second.” Zoe’s promise is earnest, but there’s no hiding the fear in her expression. Not fear of me, but of authority figures in general, thanks to her parents.
“I know you won’t, Zoe. You’re very good with her.” She gives me a smile in return and her face lights up from just that small amount of praise. “I’m going to get back over there with Layne. We’re doing the race together. You two had better root for us,” I insist as I turn to walk back toward my crew.
Justin, Lily, and Layne are still in the crowd of people right where I left them, but they’re not looking in my direction at first. Justin is busy talking and happens to glance over Lily’s head in mid-conversation and sees me approaching. Through the people milling about, I catch glimpses of his arm sliding off Lily’s waist and back to his side. He’s trying to be nonchalant about it but he’s completely busted in the act.
“Justin—” I start to lay into him, but the announcer interrupts me, calling us to the starting line.
“Let’s go get a good raft,” Layne suggests enthusiastically. Not obvious at all.
“Did you just say ‘a good raft’?”
“Yes, of course. We don’t want one that’s leaking air or anything.” She speaks slowly, as if I have trouble understanding plain English.
“Let’s go, Justin. It’s time to win this race,” Lily announces quickly.
As they walk away, I cut my eyes to Layne. “Think you’re slick, don’t you?”
She lifts up on her toes and kisses me. Even with my eyes closed and her lips on mine, I feel a thousand eyes on us. “Let’s go win this thing.”
“Damn straight, slick.” I then add, “Don’t think I haven’t noticed you took your T-shirt off, too. Every male here between two and two hundred has noticed, too.”
“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were jealous.”
“Jealous? Nah. Protective? You bet.”
I grab my shirt behind my neck, yank it over my head, and drop it on top of Layne’s bag. Her playful expression instantly changes to pure lust when her eyes land on my bare chest. Fuck, I love how she looks at me.
“Keep looking at me like that and we really will give the town something to talk about.” I threaten and lift one eyebrow in challenge.
“Move it before you get us both arrested, troublemaker,” she grumbles with a knowing smile. “All these women are lusting after you. No self-respecting New York girl would allow that.”
Good to know she’s not jealous either.
When we reach the water’s edge, Layne stops and her jaw drops open. She slowly trains her eyes up and down the bank, taking in the multitude of brightly colored inner tubes floating in the roped off waiting area. She looks at all the people standing around waiting to rush to a tube, then back at the water again.
“What’s wrong, babe?” I goad her.
“This isn’t how I pictured it would be. I thought we’d be in one tube together. Like a two-man float. Not two separate floats tied together with a flimsy string.”
“Are you afraid you’ll lose me?” I tease.
“Not at all,” she replies with her chin lifted in defiance.
The buzzer sounds and the hordes of couples rush the water, grabbing the first set of floats they can get and jumping on top of them to be the first across the finish line. I grab our linked set with one hand and pull Layne into my side with the other. “I’ll hold it for you so you can sit down first.”
“No.” She shakes her head. “We’ll never win that way. Look at all the people sitting with their asses in the water—they have no control. We need to keep our feet in the water and kick!”
My girl has a competitive streak. It’s kind of turning me on.