Page 42 of The Glass Dolphin

“This girl named Addie,” Ian said. “And I told you, Dad. I don’t like her.”

“I know,” Liam said dryly. “You went with her to get on Billie’s good side.”

Ian said nothing, and though Julia’s view of him was limited, she still caught the tightening of his jaw in the mirror.

“Ah-ha,” Liam said. “He doesn’t deny it.”

“It’s not a secret,” Ian said. “I know she likes me, too. I don’t get why she can’t go out with me now that I’ve gone out with Addie.”

“Girl code,” Julia said at the same time Liam said, “I don’t get it either.”

She looked at him, blinking. “You don’t get it? Of course you get it. It’s Girl Code. Addie is Billie’s best friend, and Addiedoeslike Ian.Of courseBillie can’t go out with him.” She glanced back to the mirror and then Liam. “Even if she wanted to.”

“Girl Code?” Liam asked.

“Why not?” Ian asked.

Julia couldn’t believe they didn’t know this. “The only way Billie will be able to go out with you, Ian, is if Addie says it’s okay. So you have to wait for Addie to stop liking you, and then Billie might—might—be able to go out with you.”

“That’s insane.” He shook his head and made a very careful turn to get onto the main highway that led around the island.

Liam blinked at her like she’d just revealed something no man had ever heard before. “There you go, son. Who knew?”

Ian muttered something, but Julia didn’t understand it. She did want to slide over a little and sink into her boyfriend’s side, but she settled for focusing out the window and letting him play with her fingers in the darkness down on the bench seat where they sat.

Only a few minutes later, Ian pulled into the parking lot at the bowling alley. “All right,” he said as he killed the engine and started to get out of the car. Julia had barely unbuckled her seat belt before her door opened.

Ian stood there, and he offered her his hand. She beamed up at him and put her hand in his. “Thank you, good sir.” She laughed as she stood, and Ian didn’t hold onto her hand the way his father would’ve.

Liam came around the back of the car in his rugged jeans and black leather boots. He wore a dark jacket over a dark blue T-shirt, and every cell in Julia’s body felt pulled toward him. He did take her hand, and then he said, “Okay, our goal tonight is to see if our combined scores can beat Ian’s.”

“That’s not fair,” his son protested, but Liam only laughed.

“I can’t remember the last time I went bowling,” Julia said, happiness flowing through her.

“See?” Liam said. “Trust me, son, you’re still going to win.”

In the bright lights of the bowling alley, with her hot boyfriend and his son, it was easy to forget about the politics swirling through Five Island Cove. It didn’t matter that Kristen and Jean didn’t have the title to the lighthouse.

There was just too much fried food, bright lights, loud music, and the way Liam interacted with his son when he got a strike, and then as he swung Julia around in his arms when she knocked down four pins that told her life could still be good, right alongside the bad.

ChapterSixteen

Eloise looked up as Aaron set a plate of eggs and toast down in front of her. “Thank you, baby.” She kept her face tilted back so he could kiss her. She held a pencil in one hand, her paper calendar open on the table beside her.

“Almost done?” he asked. He turned to go back into the kitchen, and El watched him for a few moments while his back was turned.

“Yeah,” she said as he twisted toward her, his eyebrows up. He wasn’t wearing his usual cop-black today. No uniform at all. Just jeans and a tee, and El still found him to be the sexiest man alive. “Your hair is getting long.” She set aside her pencil, the schedule for the next couple of weeks almost done. Having three full-time managers had helped so much, and El couldn’t believe she could still pay her bills and have profit, but she did. Month over month, she did.

Aaron sat at the table beside her. The girls were already off to school today, and he wasn’t going into the station, to that office that consumed him whole while he was there. El had learned so much from him about leaving work at work, and she glanced to the calendar.

She did bring home more menial, secretarial tasks like this, and she always did them outside of family time. She gave him a kind smile, the roots of it sown in love, and reached out to run her fingers along the tips of his hair, which was long. For a cop, at least.

“Do you want me to cut it this afternoon?” she asked. “After lunch and the movie?”

“Sure,” he said easily, like they weren’t going to an appointment that morning that could change both of their lives. They were, and they both knew it. Aaron just handled things like this better than Eloise.

“Are you nervous?” she asked.

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