start over. By myself, without all her bullshit.”
My brows draw together as I lean forward, placing my forearms on my knees, my beer bottle hanging between my fingers.
“I wish that too. That I could get lost,” Liam agrees, sitting back and patting her hip, so she’ll stand.
She doesn’t move. Instead, she pulls her legs up into his lap and rubs a hand over his chest. “We are lost. When we’re together, it’s like all the other bullshit doesn’t exist. Just like always.”
He rocks forward and winks at her. “Thanks, Van.” He picks her up as he stands, then places her back to the ground.
“What would you do or be if you could be someone new?”
Her question is thrown over the fire as Liam walks over to me and exchanges his empty beer bottle for a full one.
“Truth?” he questions, looking back to her.
“Always,” I answer, watching her wrap herself back up in the blanket.
He shrugs his shoulders and grins. “I’d paint.”
“Really!”
Her excitement has us both laughing. I clink bottles with Liam and tip mine back, finishing it before adding, “He’s not bad. Not great yet either. But definite potential.”
Liam tips an invisible hat and sits down next to me, looking out at the water. Donovan stands and shuffles over to our side, wrapped in a towel and blanket, planting her ass on the arm of my chair. “You guys are too far away.”
Liam and I grin at each other right as I pull her back onto my lap. She squeals but leans into me, snuggling into my chest. Her brightly painted toes land on the arm of Liam’s chair, and he takes the edge of her blanket and tucks it around them, so she’ll be warm.
“What would you be or do?” I question down to her.
“Hmmm. I’d be emancipated.”
Liam laughs, but I don’t join in. “That’s not a real answer. Who would you be?”
“I’m still trying to figure that out,” she answers thoughtfully before taking another sip of her beer.
I pull her in closer to me, rubbing a hand up and down her arm. “Was it both of them? Or just your mom that made the last five years shit?”
“Both. I don’t know. Maybe me. My father barely spoke to me, and I was a burden for my mother. I was lucky to hear from either of them, even on my birthdays. I will give it to my mom—she at least texted until I was fifteen, but then I was a ghost to everyone. Miles Kennedy had a company to run. And Lillian Kennedy had to fuck her way through Spain, drinking champagne and throwing lavish parties all the while looking for someone to make her feel again.”
“Damn. So it was nannies and butlers for you? Like us. That sucks, Van. I was always so jealous that your parents seemed to have it together.”
I feel her sigh against my chest.
“I wish it was like that, Liam. It was more hands-off. But I don’t want to talk about it because it’s a downer, and I came to party.”
She doesn’t have time to keep the sorrow in her eyes because Liam jumps to attention. “We need shots. That’s the answer. It’s back to shore for us, beautiful.”
I nod and pat her leg, so she pushes up to the arm of the chair, saying, “I’ll pour. You guys drink.”
“That might be a worse idea,” I laugh as Liam pulls up the end of a thick black rope with a sailor’s knot at the end.
“Bad ideas seem to be tonight’s trend.”
I grab the heavy rope in my right arm, taking point, and yell to the night sky, “Let’s get this.” Liam growls and flexes a muscle at Donovan.
“You’re both nuts.”
But her laughter drops off the side of a cliff the minute we start pulling. We made this system one summer as a workout to increase our back and arm strength. We’d float and row the deck out, then pull it back until our arms wouldn’t work anymore. It wasn’t intended for putting on a show, but Donovan seems to be enjoying herself.
“Who’s the perv now?” I grunt out, every muscle in my back rippling and flexing as I pull one hand over the other.
“Me.” She grins and lets her eyes roam over our bodies. “It’s like watching gladiators in real life.”
The yells off in the distance get louder and louder as Liam and I work in tandem, dragging the dock with our brute strength, grunting and gripping the rope with ferocity. Whistles and claps