Page 120 of Knot Your Sunshine
I crack one eye open to look at her. She's sprawled elegantly with designer sunglasses perched perfectly on her nose.
"Neither can I." I stretch, feeling my spine pop in three places. "But apparently checking emails at two in the morning while managing forty-one franchises is—"
"Forty-one?" Elena sits bolt upright, sunglasses sliding down. "Last time we talked it was thirty-something."
"That's what happens when you hire Naomi Quinn full-time. She's like a legal ninja the way she cuts through red tape." I can't help the smile spreading across my face. "Phoenix opened last week. Dallas next month. Miami in the fall. Plus I still run the original Lakeview location. Wouldn't trust anyone else with Grandma's legacy, you know?"
"How's is she doing, by the way?" Elena asks.
"More than okay. Ever since she picked up the scissors again a few months ago, she’s been demanding to help. I managed to bargain her down to once a week, but it was tough. She has no intention of stopping, especially now she can justify it as ‘lightening the load for her salon-tycoon granddaughter.'” I grin. “But honestly, the clients adore having her."
"Reminds me of my mom." Elena laughs. "Our Hawaii adventure basically reawakened her wild side. She and Julian are attached at the hip now. They were visiting last week and I caught them making out in my kitchen. MY kitchen. I had to spray them with water like cats."
"Oh my god, stop!" I'm laughing so hard my abs hurt. "That's amazing though, I'm so happy for her."
“Yeah, she really deserves it,” Elena says with a serene smile, sinking back into her lounger. "Like we do, taking this mid-year holiday."
I nod with a smile and close my eyes again, letting the warmth soak into my skin as I savor this perfect sense of inner balance.
A few yards away, Josh's voice rises over the waves. "The structural integrity is completely compromised if you don't pack the sand properly!"
"That's what I'm saying!" Cole's agreement is immediate. "The foundation is—"
CRASH.
James stands over the ruins of their sandcastle, bucket still in hand, grinning like a kid who just knocked over blocks. "Oops."
"JAMES!" Josh and Cole shout in unison.
"What? It was lopsided. Now we can either cry about it or start over and do it right." James's logic is met with twin glares.
Dorian doesn't even look up from his tablet in the shade. "Children," he mutters, though his lips twitch.
Elena watches them with fond exasperation. "Alphas."
"Men," I correct, and we both dissolve into giggles.
Keanu chooses that moment to jog past, doing lunges in the sand.
I shield my eyes from the sun. "Keanu, what are you doing?"
"Getting warmed up for the jet skis!" He nearly loses his balance on a particularly ambitious lunge. "Can't have subpar form on the water, Sunshine."
Noa appears behind me, and I feel cool sunscreen drip onto my shoulders before his hands start working it in. His thumbs find knots I didn't know I had, then deliberately trace over each of my three bonding bites. Stars of pleasure burst behind my eyelids at his touch on those sensitive spots, and I can't suppress the soft moan that escapes. Through our bond, I feel the sudden spike of my alphas' arousal, and it draws a soft purr from my chest.
Elena snorts. "Get a room."
"We have a whole resort." Noa's voice rumbles low, hands still working magic on me.
Heat floods my cheeks that has nothing to do with the sun.
I sit enjoying the pampering for a moment. Then, eventually, Noa leaves to grab the jetski keys. Josh returns to explaining the physics of sand compression to James, who's building his own castle while nodding along, pretending to listen (Josh is too absorbed in his lecture to pick up on it). Cole just watches the whole scene unfold, mouth slightly open, eyes wide.
"I know I've said this before," Elena says after a moment, her voice soft as she watches them. "But I'm so proud of you, Mia. You built your empireandfound love."
My throat tightens unexpectedly. "I—I did get some help."
Josh must feel my gaze because he looks up, abandoning his explanation. A private smile crosses his face, and my stomach flips like I'm still that girl who met him at the airport six months ago, convinced she was just taking a business trip.
