hi and I look forward to our next poker game. Not strip. Probably.”
“I hate you,” Julian said, meaning exactly the opposite. The call ended, and his hearing settled into something a bit more subtle as he laid back onto the sand and let all of his feelings gently simmer. It was all just too little and too much swirling together and ready to explode like one of those supernovas Will probably loved. It felt too powerful, and too raw, and he wasn’t entirely sure he’d survive it in one piece.
Closing his eyes, he let himself drift, and he came to when he felt the sand near him start to shift. For a moment—just a single beat of his heart—he thought it was Will. His lips softened, but before they stretched into a smile, he opened his eyes and saw the last person he wanted to join him settling down a foot away.
“Am I interrupting? Is this like a new morning meditation thing?” Bryce looked sleep-rumpled and exhausted with dark circles under his eyes and slightly chapped lips. He was still in pajama bottoms and a t-shirt, and Julian could see goosebumps in his freshly tanned skin.
“What do you want?”
“That’s not a nice way to greet the bride.”
Julian snorted and turned his face back up toward the sky. “You used up all your bride cards during our wedding.”
“Are you jealous?”
Julian let himself smile this time, and he knew it didn’t look kind. “Of Ashton? We were together for three endless years. I think I’m okay passing the burden.”
There was a long pause, then Julian flinched away when he felt long fingers brush through his hair. “Are you afraid of me?”
Julian scrambled to sit, and he shuffled another foot away. “No, but you don’t get to…what the fuck are you doing, Bryce?”
He watched as his ex’s face fell just a little. “I miss you.”
Julian closed his eyes. He’d warned Will about this—and Ilan. He’d warned himself. He knew Bryce would do anything and everything to pull all the attention back onto himself, and he was damn tired. “You don’t miss me. You married me, met my cousin who was richer, then you cheated and left. You don’t regret it, you’re just angry that I’m not pining.”
When he looked at Bryce again, there was finally something in his eyes—a low, smoldering anger. “That’s a bit narcissistic, don’t you think?”
Julian shrugged, knowing Bryce was trying to bait him, to toy with what he thought was a fragile ego. “It is what it is. I’m here to keep the peace with my mother…”
“Nothing new there,” Bryce muttered.
“…and to remind my new boyfriend why we’re never, ever including family in our future.”
Bryce’s jaw went hard. “He seems…nice.”
Julian felt the corner of his lip twitch up. “Does he? Have you talked to him?”
Bryce rose, his expression softening into something like a threat. “Not yet, but I will. I definitely want to get to know this man of yours a little better.”
Julian might have taken the threat seriously once. He might have worried, because Bryce was good looking, even if he was a bit vapid and a lot cruel. People tended to like him for that reason—the broken man who just needed a tender, loving hand. Julian had been that person once. But he knew Will wouldn’t fall for it, and not just because he was being paid for his loyalty.
He was a good person. Whatever his circumstances were, whatever his future would be like, he was genuinely good, and Bryce had no weapon against that.
“Have a good day,” Julian called as Bryce walked off, and when he saw his ex flash him a middle finger, he laughed.
By the time Julian found the courage to head back to the cottage, Will was gone. He checked his phone, but there were no messages waiting, and no note, so he rushed through dressing and made his way to breakfast where only a few of his family lingered.
It was always like this—the attempt to keep everyone in line and cohesive, but by the second day people were lost in day-drinking and over-spending at the little beach boutique shops. He didn’t really mind that there wasn’t an audience, but his stomach sank when he saw his mother stirring cream into her coffee.
“If you’re looking for your friend…”
“Boyfriend,” Julian corrected absently as he came to a stop by her side.
“…Corinne borrowed him for a few hours. Bryce set up a morning stand up paddle board yoga class down at the intracoastal docks and