Last Name - Dr. Rebecca Sharp Page 0,30

the good news is you have an extra paddle if you need one,” I teased as I rose up, biting my lower lip to stop full-fledged laughter from spilling out.

I shouldn’t be teasing.

I shouldn’t be acknowledging the attraction between us—it was only going to make what needed to be done that much harder.

And I shouldn’t have let myself get distracted because as soon as the words came out, irony bit me in the butt as my own paddle rolled toward the edge of my board.

“No!” I exclaimed, pulling one of my hands free to make a grab for it and sending all the progress I’d made down the tube—and into the lake.

By bending, my feet pushing back against the board sending it out from behind me and catapulting me right into the very hot, hard torso that belonged to the husband I needed to not touch.

His grunt accompanied my squeal as he managed to latch his arms around me but wasn’t able to counter the shift in weight enough to stop up from toppling off the other side of his board, his back breaking our fall against the cool water.

“James, I’ve been—” All this occurred just as Lynn was pulling her board next to James and it was his splash into the water after me that cut her off.

I sputtered as my head bobbed to the surface, large warm hands cupping the sides of my face and holding me above the slight turbulence our fall had caused.

“Are you okay?” he demanded, wiping the water and my matted hair back from my face.

“Yeah.” I sniffed, water dripping from my nose. “Told you it was a bad idea.”

“Oh, God, James, are you alright?” Lynn chimed in, one hand fanning in front of her sizeable chest that was hardly contained by her bikini—as though drawing attention to her tits was going to make this situation better. Thankfully, she was kept back a comfortable distance since our unmanned boards still floated around us. “What were you thinking, Carla?” she snapped at me, purposely getting my name wrong. “You could’ve hurt someone. You clearly shouldn’t be—”

“Lynn,” James snapped with a tone reminiscent of how he’d dealt with the man who’d manhandled me at the casino. “We’re fine and we don’t need your help.”

I stared at him. He wasn’t cruel, but his tone was still firm and to the point. And with the hard look in his eyes and the drawn expression on his face, it was clear he wanted her gone.

“James—”

“Lynn! Over here!”

We turned to see Suzanne waving for her friend to come to her.

“You’re being summoned,” James added for good measure.

I caught the subtle shudder as he turned his back to her and retrained his focus on me—as though it made him sick to look at her for too long. I let my eyes drift between them once more and wondered just how much of the story was beneath the tip of the iceberg that Suz had revealed to me… because it seemed like there was a mountain of hate he housed for his ex.

“I don’t think I can get back on the board,” I admitted quietly.

“We’re not going to,” he replied, a flash of a smile returning the man I knew. “I’m going to unstrap your ankle leash and then we’re going to swim in.”

A minute later, I was separated from the plank of death and we moved slowly toward the shore—ignoring Lynn completely as we passed by her. But I had a feeling that though I was safe from the board, it was no longer the most dangerous thing to me in the water.

“Everything okay, James?”

I peered up from where I was securing the boards on the beach to see my mom walking over.

“Yeah.” Glancing around, my teeth clenched. Carrie had disappeared. “Dammit,” I mumbled under my breath, knowing she’d call an Uber and leave before we had a chance to talk.

“She grabbed her bag and headed for the bathrooms not even a minute ago,” my mom told me with a knowing look in her eye.

“Thanks,” I told her, dropping a kiss on the side of her head before I jogged off in the direction of the woman determined to avoid me—and everything between us.

My wife had yet to learn I didn’t give up easily on the things I wanted.

“Carrie?”

She jumped with a small squeal—a hand crashing against her heaving chest as she glared at me. “You scared the crap out of me.”

“Well, you were the one who disappeared off the beach,”