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Big time.

She gasped when Aspen caught Kit and threw her over her shoulder like she weighed nothing without breaking stride, and choked on a laugh as she watched Aspen veer toward the water. “Oh, Kit’s fucking dead.”

“Do it, Aspen!” Zann yelled, and then she cackled when Aspen launched into the air before flopping into an incoming roller, submerging herself and Kit completely. “Oh my god, that’s amazing. I wish I’d gotten it on film.”

Lydia bit her lip and pulled Zann’s hands from beneath her shirt. When Zann hummed against her ear in a way that begged, Why?, she said, “I’m not against this, but not when our friends are, like, right the fuck there.”

Zann hummed and kissed her cheek. “Yeah, that’s fair.”

Down the beach, Kit popped out of the water with a roar and jumped on Aspen, dunking her again before she’d really had a chance to even take a breath.

Lydia shivered at the feeling of Zann’s lips dragging a kiss to her ear, and her eyes snapped shut when Zann whispered, “But if we were alone?”

Lydia sucked in a sharp breath as her stomach clenched at the idea. “Maybe,” she exhaled, desire rippling through her as she imagined how easy it’d be for Zann to slip a hand in her sweats and touch her. “If we were alone.”

“Fuck,” Zann groaned. She pressed a heavy kiss to the side of Lydia’s throat. “I’m gonna start looking for some place I can rent or something so I can strip you bare on the beach and get on my knees for you.”

“I…” Lydia whimpered as her knees turned to water at the mental image Zann had just painted for her. “I am not against that idea.”

“Yeah?” Zann rasped.

“You are fucking dead, Kit!” Aspen bellowed as she trudged out of the ocean after Kit, who was cackling and scampering down the beach with the renewed vigor of a woman who knew she would be very, very dead if she were caught.

Lydia huffed a laugh as Kit began zigzagging in an attempt to evade Aspen, and covered Zann’s hands on her waist as she sank back into her. “As long as there is zero chance of anyone seeing, you can do whatever you want to me, whenever you want.”

“I’m gonna remember that,” Zann promised.

Lydia licked her lips and smiled as she turned to kiss Zann properly. “I hope you do.”

Even though she’d told Imani the day before that she anticipated them needing to start the whole picture-taking process around one, Zann wasn’t terribly surprised when her phone rang a little after eleven thirty, and she saw Yasmine’s name on the screen.

She smiled as she hit the speaker button and answered, “Hey, lady. You guys close?” She’d dropped them a pin for the location of her original lodging for the week yesterday afternoon so they would know where to go, and then texted them a picture of where she’d hidden the cottage’s key when she and Lydia were on their way back from the beach.

“We’re here, actually,” Yasmine answered. “Swanky place.”

“Right?” Zann set the camera she’d been puttering around with to distract her from the fact that Lydia had already left to begin her wedding prep with Eve and the rest of the bridesmaids. “It’s been a really nice week.”

“Yeah, that’s what I heard,” Yasmine drawled.

Zann huffed a laugh at the playful suggestion in Yasmine’s voice. “Oh, fuck off.”

“Love you, too,” Yasmine sniggered. “Anyway, we figured it’d be best for us to get up here early to scout it all out with you in case you have shit to do with Aspen before we need to start shooting.”

“Yeah, we can totally do that. Lemme put on some shoes, and I’ll come grab ya.”

“Sounds good. See you in a few,” Yasmine promised before disconnecting.

Zann sighed and shoved her phone in the back pocket of her jeans. She loved her friends, but she could do without the teasing. Lydia would be flying back to New York in less than twenty-four hours, and while she’d been able to forget about that while they’d been together, the quiet that had fallen once Lydia had left to meet Eve had been a painfully stark reminder that their time together was rapidly coming to a close.

She just had to trust that being three thousand some-odd miles apart wouldn’t make this magic they’d found fizzle out, but it was easier said than done. And while she knew that it was unrealistic for either of them to pull an Eve and just drop their entire goddamn lives to U-Haul, like, right away, but as her gaze landed on the Lynn Turner paperback Lydia had been reading earlier, she was tempted.

Really, really tempted.

“Shit, this is insane,” she muttered, rolling her eyes at herself. She’d never been prone to drama, and she sure as shit wasn’t going to start now. “We’ll be good. She has her work. I have mine. And we’ll find a way to make it work.”

And, well, the fact that she was telling herself that out-fucking-loud was probably not a good sign for her not descending into dramatics.

But, really, who could blame her? Lydia was smart, and funny, and sexy as hell, and she’d be a fool not to worry a little about what their future might hold. Right?