Page 34 of One Touch

The protective thought consumed me, and I wanted to sayfuck thisand drive straight back to Outtatowner just to tell her to cover her damn legs.

I scrubbed a hand over the stubble on my face.What the hell is wrong with me?

I was quietly torturing myself with thoughts of my little brother’s ex-girlfriend. A girlfriend he’d never seemed to care all that much about, but the wounded look on her face whenever his name came up unsettled me.

I had already crossed a line with her—several, in fact—and I didn’t need any more guilt riding my ass. I pulled up Declan’s number and fired off a text, asking if he’d be free for dinner. I hoped seeing him would reaffirm the fact I needed to stay far, far away from Kate.

When he confirmed, I sent him the time and location, grabbed the punch list from my desk, and headed out to the Madison Street office space. If I buried myself in work, I wouldn’t have time to think about small coastal towns and the irresistible women who lived there.

TWELVE

KATE

“Naked? Likenakednaked?”Annie’s wide eyes looked up from the novel she was reading as we stretched out on the beach.

“Topless? In panties?” I grimaced and peeked out from behind my sunglasses, trying to gauge her reaction to the bomb I’d just dropped. It had been three days since my alcohol-fueled boldness had me straddling Beckett Miller and practically begging him to make a move.

Three days since he’d humiliated me and then disappeared.

“I thought you hated him?” Annie couldn’t hide the doubt that creeped into her voice.

“I mean, I did. Ido.”

“Mm-hmm.”

I peeked over at Annie and scrunched my face. “Is it totally terrible of me that I think it’s kind of hot?”

Annie shrugged. “Nothing’s hotter than something that’s forbidden.”

“I guess. That has to be it, right? I mean ... nothing could ever happen. He’s Declan’sbrother. And don’t get me started on the epic freak-out Duke would have ...”

“You know, he totally scared off that clingy guy at the bar the other night.” Annie flipped another page of her novel.

“What?”

She grinned. “Oh yeah, Lee told me all about it. Apparently the guy told Beckett that he’d asked the bartender to make your drink extra strong to loosen you up.” Annie made air quotes aroundloosen you up, and my stomach soured. “Beckett gave some bro-code Bat-Signal for Lee to intervene, and he wasnothappy about it.”

My mind stumbled over the information.

Beckett intervened? Protected me?It was like my brain couldn’t compute the new information. My insides were a jumble of nerves and energy. I couldn’t think about him another second without wanting to scream.

Instead, I diverted attention from my current garbage fire of a love life and looked over at Annie. “Are you ever going to tell Lee that it was you?”

Annie’s eyes were fierce. “Kate ...”

I raised both my hands in the air. “What? I was just asking.”

“It was a really long time ago.”

“Yeah, but don’t you think he deserves to know?”

“After the accident, those letters were all he had left of her. I couldn’t take that from him.”

I put my hand on Annie’s arm. “Look, it’s not my secret to tell, but for the record I think you should tell him. He deserves to know.”

Her eyes fixed on the book in her hand and she turned the page. Clearly she was avoiding the uncomfortable conversation as much as I was avoiding having to talk about Beckett.

“So what are you going to do about Beckett?”

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