Page 32 of Colton's Last Resort

Allison and Alexis, too, had helped. Their girls’ nights had increased in frequency. As Laura slid aside the long glass door leading onto her patio, she thought of all the evenings she and the girls had spent talking, laughing and commiserating.

She closed the door so Sebastian would stay in. Unknotting her robe, she slid it off. The pool beyond the deck chairs and firepit was heated. She cast off a shiver at the cool kiss of winter’s chill, setting the robe on the back of a chair. When she’d moved from her suite at L Building, she’d asked the bungalow’s designer to include a starting block next to the pool. She stepped onto the platform and hooked her toes over the edge. Folding, she gripped the edge of the block with her fingers. She counted off, imagined the starting bell and sprang forward, streamlined from fingers to toes.

No sooner had she hit the water than she started swimming. She flutter kicked, rotating to one side as her arm swept over her head, digging into the water, before she repeated the motions on the other side. The freestyle strokes took her to the end of the pool and back before she flipped over and started backstroking. She did a lap down and back this way before she flipped again and crossed the pool by butterflying. Finally, she finished with the breaststroke.

She’d done the relay so many times, she knew how many repetitions of each stroke it took to get from one end of the pool to the other. She knew, down to the inch, how much space she needed between herself and the wall to flip and change direction. When she finished, she gripped the edge of the pool, catching her breath.

Her time was slower today. Hooking her arms over the lip, she tilted her head to one side to let the water drip from her ear. Maybe it was the sleepless nights. Maybe her thoughts were weighing her down. She wanted nothing more than to cast them off. She no longer wanted to dwell on her father or Quentin Randolph.

Boosting herself over the edge, she sat with her feet dangling in the water, letting the cold prickle across the wet skin around her one-piece bathing suit. She watched her legs circle under the surface and contemplated another relay to drown the voices in her head.

She heard Sebastian scratching at the glass door. Her coffee would be done, and she would need to eat, shower and complete her hair and makeup routine before her morning meeting.

She toweled off, then draped the robe over her shoulders as she went inside. The house felt warm. She sat before the glass door with Sebastian at her side, watching the colors of breaking day stain the sky over silhouettes of peaks, enjoying the ritual of her first cup of coffee.

As she washed and dried her mug, she heard the knock at her front door. She set it on the drying rack and sidestepped Sebastian so she wouldn’t tread on his tail and upset him.

Joshua normally didn’t show up for another hour. She snatched open the door regardless.

Dressed in a leather jacket and blue jeans that looked like a flawless fit, Noah Steele brooded behind a pair of dark sunglasses.

He stared at the parting of her robe and the black bathing suit with cutouts above each hip. His frown deepened. “You always answer the door like this?”

She drew the robe around her, belting it tight. “You’re early.”

“Yeah, well,” he rumbled, removing the sunglasses. “I figured the sooner you and I figure out how to do...whatever the hell it is we’re doing...the better.”

“Come in,” she said, stepping back to admit him. As he moved inside her bungalow, she dragged a hand through her wet hair. “I’m sorry I’m not dressed. If you give me a moment, I can—”

“No need for formality,” he said. He stared at her in the low morning light from the windows. “Seeing the princess of Mariposa at the start of the day without makeup or any of the polish...” His mouth shifted into a side-cocked half smile. “It’s a trip.”

She looked away quickly. “There’s coffee, if you’d like some.”

Sebastian jumped onto the counter, eyeing the newcomer. Noah eyed him in return. “Who’s this?”

“This is Sebastian,” she said, dragging her fingers through the fur over his spine.

“You’re a cat person.”

“Yes,” she said. “What about you?”

“I don’t have pets.”

“Oh,” she said. She tried to contemplate coming home after a long day with no creature there to greet her.

He looked around, cataloging her everyday surroundings. “It’s too neat.”

She glanced around at her living space. There wasn’t much out of place other than the throw blanket she had used the night before on the couch and the hardback she had left face down on the coffee table. “I have someone who cleans for me once a week.”

“Must be nice.”

She fought the inclination to sigh over his presumptive tone. “If you don’t want coffee, we should get started.”

“It’s why I’m here.”

She sat on the sofa. Because her legs were bare and the robe reached midthigh, she twitched the throw blanket into place over them as he sat on the other end. She curled her legs up on the sofa beside her to disguise the move. “I thought about it a lot last night. I think, if people ask, we should put our relationship at six months.”

“Why six?” he asked.

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