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The smile bloomed fast and furious, a single thought echoing around in my brain. I like Kenna Ryan.
“You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do, sunshine. We can just toss it back if you prefer.”
Harley threw his line in the water and sidled up to Kenna’s other side. I sent him a glare, but he ignored me on purpose. He nudged her with his elbow, his stupid eyebrows wagging. “Hey, Kenna. You into boys from Tennessee?”
Kenna laughed. “Why are you asking, Harley?”
My idiot best friend shrugged his shoulders. “Just curious. If you are, I wouldn’t mind taking you out to dinner. You know, just showing you around to the nicer parts of Sunshine Key.”
Now I was pissed. I stepped around Kenna and wedged myself between the two of them. “Ignore him. I can take you to all the fancy restaurants if that’s what you want.”
Harley snorted behind me. Kenna pressed her lips together and put a hand on her hip, nearly dropping the fishing pole until she rested the end of it against her hip.
“Are you kidding me right now? I will not be used as some sort of whose-dick-is-bigger ploy between you and your best friend, Dec Boggs.” She took that hand off her hip and shoved me backwards, crashing me into Harley.
Kenna spun on her bare feet and marched to the other side of the boat with a huff. Harley and I had to duck to prevent us from being decapitated by her swinging line. I looked over at Harley. He’d rolled his lips in to keep from laughing.
I had the same trouble. A confident Kenna was something to behold. She definitely wasn’t the same angry, broken woman she’d been when she first got here. I had a feeling I was just starting to get a glimpse at the real Kenna Ryan, and I was hooked.
Chastised, I headed for the back of the boat to get my own fishing rod, but leaned into Kenna’s ear before I passed her. “Sorry about that.” I straightened, but then shot over my shoulder, “And mine’s definitely bigger.”
Chapter Thirteen
Kenna
The man had gotten under my skin from day one. If he wasn’t being all quiet and sultry with those whiskey-brown eyes hiding under a baseball cap, he was flashing those rare smiles that stole my very breath and flirting shamelessly with me. There wasn’t a single version of Dec that didn’t crawl up under my skin and make me itch with something I couldn’t define.
And that pissed me off.
There was silence in the truck as Dec dropped me off at home, pulling into my driveway so I wouldn’t have to traipse across the two houses like he did. He got out of the truck while I waited patiently, opening my door and gripping my hand tightly in his as I climbed down. Even the touch of his rough calluses had me quivering in a way I’d never felt before. Justin never had calluses. Justin never made my knees wobble either. Not that I was comparing the two. Dec was just my neighbor and business partner.
He followed a step behind me the whole way to my door, waiting until I’d pulled, turned, and then shoved the door open. A waft of icy air drifted over my skin, reminding me I was likely burned even though I’d applied sunscreen and stayed in the shade most of the day. I turned, eyeing Dec as he hovered on my porch, hands on his hips. Contrary to his mood on the boat, he was frowning, clearly troubled.
“Is something wrong?” I asked. Maybe his good mood only extended to Harley, his best friend, and I’d just been a brief part of it today.
Dec finally met my gaze before stepping closer, his hands dropping to his sides. “I just wanted—I wanted to apologize.”
I tilted my head. It was rare to see Dec uncertain about anything. “Apologize for what?”
He rubbed the back of his neck, his bulging bicep straining against his T-shirt. He pulled off his hat, ran his fingers through his hair and stuffed the cap back on his head. “I wanted to apologize for getting between you and Harley. Back on the boat.”
I frowned, not quite sure what he meant. “What?”
Dec got even closer, dipping his head so we could lock eyes even from beneath the bill of his hat. “If you want to flirt with Harley, I’ll keep my nose out of it.”
My mouth dropped open. “I don’t want to flirt with Harley!”
The muscle of his jaw twitched. “Sure about that, sunshine?”
I shook my head, snapping my mouth closed. “Listen, I’m not sure I even remember what flirting is, but I’m fairly certain that’s not what’s going on with me and Harley. He’s nice to me, that’s all. Maybe you just don’t know what being nice looks like.”
“I know what being nice is,” he snapped.
“No, you don’t!” I snapped right back, thinking of how he’d treated me when I first came to Sunshine Key.
“I do too.” He was practically shouting now. “It’s telling you how nice you look in those shorts today. Or how your face lights up when you talk about the boat club’s financials. Or the determination in which you’re taking on this house and everything else Maeve left you with. That’s being nice!”
I drilled my finger right into the middle of his chest. “You’ve never said those things.”
