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We sat tucked back from the mayhem, a ring of low-slung fabric folding chairs set up in a circle.
Raven’s booth was right next door. Hers was maybe a tenth of the size of Kane’s, though the girl was probably bringing in double of anyone else since she just had a way of charming the pants off anyone who came by.
Kane clapped me on the shoulder as he plopped into a chair, scratching his fingers through his perfectly trimmed brown beard. “What are you complaining about, brother? You’ve got a beer in your hand and this gorgeous scenery all around. What could be so bad?”
He waved a tatted hand around the park where thefestival had been set up in the fields. A slew of evergreens grew high, surrounding the park, steepled tips stabbing into the blazing blue sky.
A band played on a stage across the field, and a makeshift dance floor with lights strung between the trees had been set up below it. It was basically empty at this time of day except for a group of what looked to be eight-year-old girls doing cartwheels on it, but it was likely to be packed once the sun went down.
Behind us, the park rolled right up to the edge of the lake, and a ton of kids and families were playing on the beach.
The water glinted and sparkled with the rays of sunlight that slanted down, the rambling expanse dotted with ski boats that left white waves in their wake.
Beyond it the mountain range rose high.
It was gorgeous, but it was also hot as fuck, and it didn’t help things that I was still sweating from the unfortunate encounter that I’d stumbled into yesterday afternoon.
Skin sticky and slick at the memories of the way Charleigh had felt when I’d been pressed up against her in the breakroom.
At the way she’d smelled. At the way I’d almost been able to taste her.
Cinnamon and clove.
I swirled the tepid beer in my red Solo cup. Yeah, it was not close to cutting it.
I wanted something stronger. Whiskey on my tongue.
I’d been the dumb fuck who’d pushed up against her boundaries, wondering if she’d break, if she’d give, unable to resist her lure.
Shocked as hell to find her in the doctor’s office, thinking it was kismet or some kind of bullshit.
I should’ve been relieved that she’d shot me down because I had the sinking sense that one bite of her was not going to be enough.
No way to sate whatever the fuck was roiling inside me.
I wasn’t relieved, though.
I was irritated. Annoyed. Itching like a fiend.
“And it’s all for a good cause,” Kane added with a smug-ass grin, wearing jeans and a blue tee.
“Yeah, and we know what kind ofgood causethat’s going to be,” I grumbled.
My attention drifted to where Nolan had set up shop at the animal shelter’s booth that was on the other side of Kane’s tent. He was inside the short fences they’d put up to house a bunch of puppies that were up for adoption. Otto was keeping an eye on him as he romped and played, and the kid squealed every time one of the puppies jumped up and licked his face.
Nolan had already been over three times begging me to take one of them home.
Had no fuckin’ clue how I’d managed to resist.
Theo laughed at my expense. Dude was tall and lean, dark haired and cunning as fuck.
When we’d come here, he’d purchased the old motel on the far side of the lake near my house.
He’d named it The Sanctuary, and people came from all over to stay at the reclaimed motel that was hugged up close to the lake, though no one had any fuckin’ clue what its name really meant.
The only one of us who wasn’t here was Cash.
Surprise, fucking surprise.
