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What feels like an eternity passes before her hands clasp the back of my neck and she crushes her mouth to mine. She kisses me like nobody else ever has, leaving me wanting more long after she pulls away, breathless.

“So, I guess you really did miss me then,” I say, my voice unexpectedly hoarse.

A slow blush creeps across her cheeks. “Shut up,” she says sheepishly. “You missed me too.”

“I did,” I agree. “And I have a surprise for you.”

“You do?” She pulls back a little, her arms still draped around my neck.

“Yeah. There’s space on the boat tomorrow morning for you and Harper.” I lay a quick kiss on her forehead. “Promise not to feed you to a shark this time.”

She laughs softly, a suspicious smirk twisting one corner of her mouth. “Oh, I see. So you want to fake-date me in front of your employees now?”

“No.” I shake my head, my smile faltering, remembering that we haven’t defined our relationship yet. I know what I want, and I think she may know it too, but in case the message isn’t clear, I decide to lay it all out for her. I’ve never been more serious as the next words leave my mouth. “I want to real-date you. In front of everyone. All the time.”

Chapter 33

MACKENZIE

“You really like him, don’t you?”

Harper asks me the one question I’m too scared to answer out loud and it has me almost squirming on the bench seat at the back of the boat.

We’re about halfway to the reef, watching as Dylan answers questions that a couple of middle-aged women are asking him about his experiences in the water.

We both snicker at his use of overexaggerated hand actions. We can’t hear a word of what he’s saying over the boat’s motor, but from the wide-eyed expression on the women’s faces, I can only imagine he’s talking about sharks.

“I don’t know,” I answer, which is an outright lie.

I like him way more than I care to admit.

Harper rolls her eyes at me, seeing through the lie, then her eyes soften. “They’re not all bad.”

I turn away, my eyes scanning the turquoise ocean before I bring them back to hers. “You sure?” I ask. “Because none of the other men in my life have ever shown me otherwise.”

“What about Henley?”

“Yeah, I guess.” I shrug. “Henley’s like a unicorn though. A total mythical creature.”

She laughs. “Maybe Dylan is too.”

“Where has all of this sudden positivity come from? I thought you’d sworn off men forever after Noah’s dad walked out of your lives. All men are assholes remember?”

She shrugs. “They aren’t though, are they?”

She nods toward Dylan who is now obediently smiling for a photo with one of the women. Once her friend takes the picture, they swap places and we both fight to stifle our giggles.

“I guess not,” I reply.

“I have to believe in happy endings, I guess,” Harper says. “I choose to believe there are good men out there and that one of them will find me one day.”

“I hope you’re right,” I tell her, then glancing back at Dylan I add, “What if I can’t trust him?”

“Something tells me you already know that you can.” She follows my line of sight back to Dylan and the two women. “Those women are totally checking out your boyfriend’s abs, by the way. They couldn’t be more obvious if they tried.”

I watch the women and sure enough their eyes are trailing their way downward to where Dylan’s wetsuit is rolled down at the waist and I can’t help but laugh.

“You’re so lucky!” Harper says as she playfully backhands my knee.

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