“Well, if there is already one in my vag, why build one?”
Avery glared back at her. “Because we don’t want your stinky, angry one.”
She almost laughed, but she didn’t want to give Avery the satisfaction as she went over to Angie, sitting down to help her. When Angie looked to Avery, her little face sad, Lucy felt like shit as she asked, “Do you know where Benji is?”
“No, honey, sorry,” Avery said. But then Angie stood, her face changing as she waved her hands above her head.
“There he is!” she screamed, running past Avery and toward the house. Lucy turned, and she wasn’t sure why she was so surprised, but there he was.
Benji.
Angie jumped toward him and he caught her midair, kissing her hard on the cheek as she hugged him tightly. How did he find them? What was she going to do?
But, oh, thank God he was here.
Lucy looked back to Avery, shocked. But Avery must have thought her look was accusatory because she shook her head. “I promise I did not tell him.”
“Benji! Where have you been? I missed you soooooooooooo much,” Angie stressed, her body wrapped around him like a koala. “I thought I was going to have to make this castle by myself, and I was so mad you weren’t here. Where were you?”
“Sorry, sunshine, little miscommunication. But come on, let’s make this castle,” he said, carrying her toward them. He looked gorgeous. No shirt, his muscles rippling and bunching as he walked in a pair of swim shorts. He had a hat on and a pair of sunglasses, a careless grin on his face, like he was supposed to be there.
And he was.
If Lucy hadn’t told him not to come.
Even with the sunglasses, though, she felt his gaze on her as he stopped beside her, bending down while still holding Angie to press his lips to hers. Closing her eyes, she almost cried at the feel of his lips before he pulled back, looking deep into her eyes. “Hey, sweetheart.”
Breathless, she swallowed hard. “Hey, I thought you weren’t coming.”
He smiled. “Yeah, your mom said to tell you she loves me more.”
That stunned her for maybe three seconds before she glared. That Autumn Moore! As much as she wanted to be mad at her mom, she couldn’t be. She wanted Benji there. She was just too damned proud to admit it.
She watched as he carried Angie to the sand mound she had made. He put her on her feet before looking back at Lucy. “Nice suit.”
His lips curved and she fought a grin as she covered her chest with her arms. She was wearing a suit he had picked out for this trip, and while it pleased her that he liked it, she still wasn’t sure what to do. He was acting as if everything was fine, but what did that mean? Did he know what was going on?
“Hey, Benji,” Avery said as she stood, dusting sand off herself but he stopped her.
“You don’t want to build?”
She laughed. “I was the standin till you showed up,” she said with a grin before patting his back. “It’s good to see you.”
“You too.”
Lucy watched as Benji bent down, getting to work with Angie as Avery came back to sit down. Leaning back in her chair, she said, “Maybe he can clean the sand out of your vag.”
“And maybe I can bury you in it,” she said, glancing over at her sister-in-law.
Avery grinned. “Love you, sister.”
“Love you.”
“Now why don’t you go build a sand castle with your daughter and your boyfriend?”
“’Cause I’m probably not invited. They’ve been talking about this mermaid castle for, like, a month,” she said as Benji started to stack buckets upon buckets. “Plus, I’m sure he’s mad at me.”
“Probably,” Avery said simply. Lucy glared over at her and she shrugged. “I was agreeing!”
“Mom, come on!” Angie yelled, waving her arms wildly at her.
Benji looked over at her too, his naughty eyes drinking in her figure. Her body was hot in an instant, but she wasn’t sure what to do. He was probably mad, but even when they were mad, they still wanted each other. “Yeah, come on, babe. Come build with us. You can sunbathe later.”
“Go,” Avery urged.
“Yeah, Mom, come on!”
She hesitated, but then something in Benji’s eyes told her to get up and come on. He was acting normal. He didn’t want it to seem weird for Angie, like he had always promised, and that kind of hurt. Was he going to break up with her?
Jeez, what a mess she had caused.
Angie cheered as she came over, dropping into the sand to help. As they got started, she decided they would figure this all out later.
Right now, she was going to make a sand castle with the two people she loved most.
As Lucy took in the overextravagant castle they had built, Angie was bouncing with excitement. It honestly looked like a bad version of a superawesome sand sculpture, but it didn’t matter that half of it was falling and that no mermaid would choose it as her castle, because Angie was beaming.
“It’s perfect.”
“It is,” Benji agreed, rubbing her back. Looking over at Lucy, he smiled. “What do you think, Mom?”
Why did that make her tear up? Crap. “It’s beautiful,” she croaked out and he smiled as Angie giggled.