Chapter 10

Ash watched as Leo took in her and Burke standing together—not uncommon. Maybe she’d never come to his company barbecue before, but this year things were different.

He realized she was holding hands when he was about ten paces away, and all of his features darkened. She felt something inside her boiling too, and she narrowed her eyes at him.

“Hey,” he said as he approached and then stopped. “What’s going on here?” At least he wasn’t interested in beating around the bush.

“Nothing,” Ash said. “Where’d Genevieve go with the kids?” Ash loved her nephew and her niece, and they loved her too.

“Brooklyn had to go to the bathroom, so Gen took them both in so we could eat afterward.”

“Yeah, we’re just waiting too,” Burke said. “The line’ll die down soon enough.”

“You’re holding her hand.”

“She is standing right here,” Ash said, stepping forward. “And it’s none of your business who I date, Leo.”

His eyebrows stretched toward the sky. “Date?”

“I can’t believe you told him to stay away from me.”

“You were sixteen. He was too old for you.” Leo didn’t apologize for much, and Ash honestly wasn’t expecting him to do so now.

“I’m definitely old enough to make my own decisions now,” she said. “So you don’t get to say anything.”

Leo looked like he might argue, but Theo called, “Daddy, come eat!” and he turned in the direction of his five-year-old son.

He turned back to Ash, his dark eyes softening. He looked so much like their father that Ash felt like she could have him back sometimes. “I’ll check on Mom tonight,” he said. “We won’t be able to stay all night with the kids anyway.” He glanced at Burke and back at Ash. “Then you two can stay here. We’ll come back for the fireworks.”

“Thank you, Leo,” Ash said, her anger and frustration with her brother draining away.

Burke relaxed with every step Leo took away from them, and Ash did too. But when he leaned down, his lips practically touching her ear, she tensed again. “You didn’t say we were engaged?”

The question in his tone made her turn toward him, and their faces were now only inches apart. She gazed into those oceanic eyes and let herself dive into them. “Shoot. I forgot about the engagement.”

“He probably won’t say anything to my dad,” Burke said. “It’s Genevieve who works for us.”

Ash nodded, her eyes falling to Burke’s mouth. She wondered what it would be like to truly be kissed by him. Have him actually kiss her instead of just holding his lips against hers. The temperature in the garden rose by a dozen degrees, and he leaned a bit closer to her.

She cleared her throat. “Not happening in front of all your employees,” she murmured, and the man backed up.

“Right.” He gave himself a little shake and tugged on her hand as he started walking toward the buffet line. “Well, if I can’t kiss you, the second-best thing would be to eat. I’m starving.”

Ash laughed, because surely, he couldn’t be that hungry. He’d eaten a whole order of lobster fritters by himself only a few hours ago. But he loaded his plate with three Hawaiian sweet buns, two scoops of Kalua pork, and more baked beans than he could possibly eat.

Ash basked in the sound of people laughing and talking, the scent of delicious meat and bread and tropical fruits, and the feel of the man beside her. This was definitely the best Fourth of July she’d had in her whole life, and as the games started, she found a chair near a tree to just watch, Burke’s hand in hers.

An hour later, Ash sat only a few inches off the sand. She’d come out to the beach with Theo and Brooklyn and helped them build a sandcastle while their parents got a few minutes of relaxation time.

Burke said, “If you do that, it’ll get too wet and collapse.”

Theo looked at him, said nothing, and dug the moat the way he wanted. He ran down to the shore and filled the bucket with water while Ash braided Brooklyn’s hair. “It’s going to fall,” she whispered to the little girl.

Theirs wasn’t the only sandcastle on the private beach, but it was definitely the best. Burke had clearly spent a lot of time constructing castles, and Theo had been enamored with him from the very first bucketful of sand.

Theo came back up the beach slower than he’d gone down it, the weight of the water in the bucket obvious. He tipped it into the moat, and everything seemed like it was going to be okay.

He grinned at Burke, who laughed from where he lay on his side. “Good job, buddy.”

“Brooklyn, Theo, it’s time to go.” Gen came through the gate that led into the Hideaway gardens, but neither of her children went over to her.

“Mom, I’m not done with the castle.” Theo poured some more water into the moat he’d dug, and sand started caving away on the side.

“Watch out,” Burke said, and Theo started packing more sand onto the weakened part.

“Now,” Gen said. “We have to go visit Grandma, and then we’ll come back for the fireworks.”

At that moment, the scent of popcorn met Ash’s nose, and she turned to see Stacey and Fisher bringing out huge bowls of the stuff. Her stomach growled though she’d eaten plenty for dinner.

Still, that had been a few hours ago, and there wouldn’t be dinner tonight—unless she could get Burke to go around the curve in the bay to the taco stand that had sprung up next to the shaved ice place.

“I want popcorn,” Brooklyn said in quite the whiny voice.

“We’ll take some on the way out.” Gen lifted Brooklyn off Ash’s lap. “Thanks, Ash. Will you save us a spot for the fireworks?”

“Of course.”

“See, Aunty Ashy is going to save us a spot. We’ll just be gone for a couple of hours.” Gen flashed a smile at Brooklyn and then Ash. “Go see if Daddy will get you some popcorn.” She turned to Theo. “Come on, bud.”

He furiously put more sand on the side of the castle, but the water had done its damage, as Burke had said it would.

“Theo,” Gen warned, and he finally stood, his hands coated in wet sand.

“Fine,” he said. “It’s going to fall anyway.”

“I’ll fix it up for us,” Burke said. “Okay?”

“Okay,” Theo said, and he ran over to Leo too. Gen looked back and forth between Ash and Burke, her mind clearly spinning.

“You two are cute together. I’m not sure what Leo’s problem is.”

“He prefers handsome,” Ash said, throwing a smile in Burke’s direction. “But thanks. I kinda like him.”

Burke just gazed at her with this look of wonder on his face that she couldn’t quite decipher. Gen turned to go, adding, “I’ll keep the engagement on the down-low.”

Before Ash could respond, her sister-in-law left. Burke looked at her and they started laughing together. He came over and positioned a beach chair beside her.

“Before you sit down, could you get me some popcorn?” She looked up at him, and though she wore sunglasses, she felt sure he could see her puppy dog eyes. “Please? I love popcorn. Cheese and caramel and plain. With extra salt if they have it on the table.”

Burke blinked at her. “Popcorn. Cheese and caramel and plain. With extra salt.” He saluted and walked away, leaving Ash to wonder if she should tell him that popcorn was her love language.

Bring her some of that, and he might as well take her heart too.

In the end, she accepted her very favorite snack and kept her mouth shut as the sun sank lower and lower in the sky.

When dusk settled, they folded up their chairs and stacked them against the low wall separating the garden from the beach. Burke got two blankets from the stack and spread them out side-by-side before lying back on one.

He rested his weight on his elbows and forearms and gazed up at the sky. Ash perched on the blanket beside him, her legs crisscrossed in front of her. She wanted to cuddle into him, but it wasn’t quite dark enough yet and she didn’t want to put on a show for anyone.

“My dad loved the stars,” she said, training her gaze into the heavens too.

“I can see why,” he said. “The moon is beautiful tonight.”

She glanced at him, finding him beautiful tonight. She couldn’t believe she was there with him and that this was real.

Not all of it. Of course, the rational side of her was ever-present, correcting her whenever she allowed herself to get a little too wrapped up in her fantasies.

The engagement wasn’t real, and she had no guarantees the relationship would even last.

Then what?

It doesn’t matter, she told herself. She wanted to enjoy her time with Burke, not second-guess everything he did. He’d said he had feelings for her. Sure, they might be new, but they were there. She could see them in his eyes, feel it in his touch as his fingers drifted across hers and then held on.

“Come lay by me,” he said, his voice on the outer edge of a whisper.

She did, glad for the cover of darkness on this hot July night. She felt like she fit right against Burke’s chest, and she inhaled the scent of sunscreen and sweat from his skin, finding him sexy and safe.

She didn’t want to lose herself to too many moments, though. She’d felt this way inside the circle of Milo’s arms too, and he’d turned out to be one of her biggest mistakes. He had been different in private, but she should’ve known something was off about him when literally every single friend of hers didn’t like him.

But people liked Burke just fine, and Ash felt herself slipping a little bit more as someone set up a speaker system and started broadcasting in the Getaway Bay feed for the patriotic songs.

Burke traced an unknown pattern on her bare arm, making her shiver. “You cold?” he asked, his voice husky and making her feel melty inside.

“No,” she said, not wanting him to know the full effect he had on her. “Just thinking about more popcorn.”

He chuckled, his chest vibrating against her back. “You ate like a gallon of that stuff.”

“Probably two.” She laughed with him, seriously considering kissing him right here on this blanket, at his company party.

Then she heard, “Aunt Ash? Where are you?” in the cutest little girl voice possible.

She retreated from Burke, sat up, and said, “Over here, guys.”

There was still enough light for her brother and his family to pick their way through the blankets to the one she and Burke had saved for them.

Leo stopped on the edge of her blanket and extended something toward her. “Ice cream,” he said. “From Mom’s. She’s doing pretty good tonight. She said she’d sit on her back porch and watch the fireworks.”

A pang of guilt hit Ash. She should’ve gone up into the hills to her childhood home and sat on the back porch with her mother as the bright lights exploded in the sky. “Yeah? She looked like she’d eaten enough? I just put a lot of leftovers in the fridge from a couple of days ago.”

She hadn’t gone to see her mom last night, because of the dinner with Burke and his parents. She made a mental vow to go first thing in the morning and make sure her mom was okay.

“Yeah, she said she’d had plenty.” Leo stepped past her and Burke to the blanket where his family had settled.

Ash unwrapped her ice cream bar, the sweet chill of chocolate on her tongue welcome in this muggy night. “Want some?” she asked, holding it out to Burke, who’d also sat up.

“I’m okay.” He watched her eat it though; she could feel his eyes even through the thickening darkness.

She finished her treat and said, “I’m ready for this to start.”

His phone brightened for a moment, illuminating that handsome face, and he said, “It’s almost ten.”

Feeling brave and completely out of her element with her best friend, Ash inched closer to Burke until he put his arm around her. She leaned further into his body, wanting to hold onto this moment for a long, long time.

The song on the radio ended, and the broadcaster said, “It’s time to light up the Hawaiian sky,” and a new tune began to play.

Within seconds, red, white, and blue sparks exploded in the sky, causing a chorus of oohs and ahhs among the people on the beach.

Burke lay back down, this time flat on his back, and Ash snuggled into his side, one arm tucked under her and one slung over his chest. A smile pulled at the corners of her mouth, and she let it stay as long as it wanted.

Because though this day had started with worry and uncertainty, it was going to end in the most wonderful way.

The show went on and on, and Ash felt sure it would end soon. Burke shifted, and Ash lifted up to see his face. “Okay?”

He turned then, his broad back shielding her from Leo—and the fireworks. “I’m dying for the do-over,” he whispered, his lips trailing from her temple down her cheek. “What do you think?”

Oh, she wanted to kiss him under these fireworks, but she hesitated. It was dark, sure, but with every explosion, the sky lit up. Anyone could see them.

Ash decided she didn’t care. She wanted this to be her one moment for today, so she tilted her head in just the right way and caught the corner of his mouth with hers.

She aligned their lips, and she didn’t just hold hers against his. She kissed him, the fireworks now exploding in her stomach, her chest, her entire body.

Because this was a kiss—and it was so much better than the first. In fact, the passion Burke poured into it exceeded even her most wild fantasies.

She matched his movement, hoping he could feel her desire for him too, revealing how she felt about him and not caring.

He broke the connection, said, “Ash,” and promptly kissed her again.