Sandcastle Beach (Matchmaker Bay #3) - Jenny Holiday Page 0,104

had thought at the time he would probably pay for that decision this morning, when she woke up and things were weird because he’d basically facilitated a cuddle.

“Is someone at the door?” she asked, all adorable confusion. “Did we fall asleep?”

“Yes to both questions,” he whispered. “That’s probably Jake.” As they’d learned, Jake had a key to the building and didn’t see anything wrong with letting himself in and trying to break down Law’s apartment door. “Maybe we should just—”

Come clean, he’d been going to say, but she shot off the sofa, said, “I’ll hide in your bedroom,” and ran down the hall.

Right. She was right.

He peeked at the time as he went to the door. Nine.

“What?” he said, opening the door a crack to reveal both Jake and Sawyer.

“Maya didn’t come home last night. Eve and I were worried about her,” Sawyer said, his eyes twinkling in a way that did not telegraph worry.

“She’s fine.”

Sawyer widened his eyes comically. “She is? How do you know?”

“I just do.”

“You want to go for a boat ride?” Sawyer asked. “We”—he motioned to Jake—“were talking about how we never get out on the lake anymore.”

“Okay.” This was good. If he left the premises, Maya would be able to sneak out. He had no doubt he was in for a serious bro intervention, but that would be the case regardless. And he could take it, especially if it prevented Maya from being embarrassed by being caught here. He grabbed his keys, wallet, and phone, and stuffed his feet into shoes. After firing off a quick text to Maya—It’s Sawyer and Jake. I’m leaving with them to get them off the scent—he was out the door.

They didn’t jump down his throat right away. Maybe they were waiting for him to navigate the boat out of the marina and down the stretch of river they had to traverse to get into the lake. Once he’d done that and they were still silent, he figured they were waiting until they were farther out on the open water—until he literally could not escape—before going in for the kill.

Except they didn’t. They just started talking about how nice the weather was. Or Sawyer did. Jake, as was his way, made vague noises of agreement.

It was driving Law batty. Finally, unable to take any more, he said, “Okay, okay. Maya was with me last night.”

They both swung around to look at him. He cut the engine. “It’s not what you think. We’re just sleeping together.”

“Hmm, that sounds awfully familiar, doesn’t it, Jake?” Sawyer said.

“It does.”

“I know it sounds the same as you guys, but it’s not the same,” Law said.

“How is it not the same?” Sawyer asked.

“You and Eve were palling around, taking Clara to university when you got together.” He turned to Jake. “And you. You and Nora were practically making each other friendship bracelets.” He tapped his chest. “I, on the other hand, don’t like Maya.”

“Right,” Sawyer said. “You skipped that part.”

“What does that mean?”

“At the risk of sounding like a twelve-year-old, you don’t like Maya; you love her.”

“I do not. Gross.”

“Now who sounds like a twelve-year-old?” Jake asked.

“We have this thing where we watch soccer late at night,” Law said.

“Yeah, and you’ve been doing that for months, I hear,” Sawyer said.

“When I came over last winter early in the morning on New Year’s Eve, he had someone up there,” Jake remarked mildly.

“Yeah,” Law said. “You totally busted me when you came over to get a pizza for Nora, who was holed up at your place.”

Jake held up his hands like So what? And really, Law didn’t have any kind of moral-equivalency argument, given that Nora was now Jake’s wife. “My point is, Maya and I are both night owls because of our jobs. We’re basically forced to spend time together.”

“Except that’s not right at all,” Sawyer said. “You’re up there watching soccer all night voluntarily. That’s your apartment. What is she doing? Breaking down the door and handcuffing herself to you?”

“Of course not. Anyway, it really was just soccer for months.” He did hear how crazy that sounded. “It’s only recently that we…”

“Caught feelings?” Sawyer said cheerfully. “Because honestly, I think we’re all looking at all those years of you guys sniping at each other with new eyes.”

“Listen. This is a matter of proximity.” That sounded wrong, though. “Convenience.” That sounded really wrong. But okay, those weren’t the right words. He was bad at vocabulary when it came to Maya, as evidenced by his inability to articulate