Page 29 of Changing Tides

“Work actually,” I reply.

“Fantastic. Is Amiya with you?” Anson says.

“No, she’s in Atlanta, but she’s coming to stay with us for two weeks in July.”

He even remembers my friend’s name. Brownie points for Anson.

He looks back to Sabel, who is standing on the deck between Sebby and Sebastian, and explains, “We met Avie and her friend in Hawaii.” He asks me, “What was it, like, six, seven years ago?”

“Five,” I answer.

Sabel brings her eyes to me. “Really?”

I nod. “I would have said something, but when I met Sebastian the other day, I wasn’t quite sure if he was the same Sebastian.”

That sounded lame, even to me.

My gaze flutters up to him, and he is still staring at me.

“Your hair is lighter and longer,” is all he says.

I reach up and run my fingers through the strands that are flying around in the breeze. “Is it?”

“Yeah, and you’re …” He doesn’t finish the thought aloud as his eyes skim down my body.

“You’re different too,” I point out.

And he is. His shoulders are broader, and his face is harder somehow. Less carefree maybe. A smattering of dark hair covers his square jaw. It ages him, but I like it.

Like a fine wine.

The mature, sexy, rugged look. It suits him.

“Isn’t this an interesting development?” Sabel declares as she looks at Sebby.

“Downright kismet,” he agrees.

“Come on, Mommy,” Leia calls.

I reluctantly walk up the pier, and Sebby helps me onto the deck.

I follow Leia over to a cooler at the back of the boat, and she opens the lid.

Inside is a largemouth bass.

“Wow, you caught that?” I ask.

“Bastian caught it, and I helped him reel it in,” she says as she leans over the edge.

“That’s amazing, baby. I’m proud of you.”

“He’s gonna get me a rod my size and teach me how to do it all by myself,” she informs me.

I look over my shoulder to Sebastian, who is watching us from the front of the boat.

“He is, huh?”

“Yeah, he promised.”

---