“There’s breakfast in there,” Seth said. “Some coffee, too.”

I was so nervous that eating was the last thing on my mind.

Sean, seeming to sense that something was wrong, cocked his head to the side as he regarded me.

“You OK?” he asked. “Didn’t sleep well or something?”

I pursed my lips hard for a moment, trying to think of where to begin. Finally, it all tumbled out.

“OK, I’m so, so, so sorry that I slept in this morning. I havenoidea what happened. I’ve been using the monitor to wake up and for some reason it was gone, but it’s still my fault. I should’ve set my phone as a backup. I screwed up bad, and if you guys want to fire me, I totally get it.”

Silence fell over us, the lawnmower on the other side of the house turning off, no sound in the air but the waves in the distance and Bobby splashing around happily.

Finally, after several agonizing moments, Sam closed his laptop and took off his sunglasses.

“Wait, Sean? Did you send her the text?”

“What text?”

“The one telling her what was going on.”

A thoughtful expression formed on Sean’s handsome face. He glanced up and over a little bit.

“Oh shit. No, I didn’t.”

“Are you serious?” Seth asked.

“Sorry! I know I was supposed to send it, but Bobby got up right away and he wanted to play dinosaurs and… I guess I got a little distracted.”

“The whole idea was to give her a relaxing morning,” Seth said. “Look at the poor woman, does shelookrelaxed?”

Sean turned his attention to me. “Uh, not even a little bit.”

Sam set his laptop aside and sat up. “Why don’t you tell her what’s going on instead of making her stand there in fear for her damn job, Sean?”

“Alright, alright.” Sean sighed. “OK, so the guys and I were talking this morning before Bobby got up, and we thought it’d be nice to give you a few hours to yourself. You know, to relax.”

“Figured you’d need it,” Seth added with a sly smile. “Especially after the kind of night we had.”

Even as nervous as I was, the mention of last night caused my pussy to clench with excitement. The fact that all the guys were shirtless didn’t hurt matters any.

“So,” Sean went on, “I came in and took your monitor, and it’s in my room right now. After that, I was supposed to send you a text to let you know what was going on so you didn’t freak out when you woke up. As you can see that plan went a little awry.”

I closed my eyes for a moment to give myself a second to process everything.

“So… I’m not in trouble?”

“Not at all,” Seth said. “In fact, I was going to ask if you wanted to join us for a swim.”

My heart rate was gradually slowing down. Still, I was having a hard time finding the words.

“Maybe later. I want to get caught up on some emails.”

“Sure. You can take over for lunch then,” Sam added.

“Lunch is fine. Happy to do it.”

“Good,” Sean said. “Go throw something on and join us. And get some coffee and breakfast if you’re in the mood. And, uh, sorry about making you worry.”