Page 33 of It's a Love Story

Clem: What does that actually mean?

Me: Okay, he’s hot. And not the worst

CHAPTER 15

THEKITCHENISSURPRISINGLYQUIETWHENWEGETback to the house. Reenie and Cormack are sitting outside, and I race to the shower. I showered after my run, but then biked and sweated and rinsed with salt water and rolled in sand and rinsed and sweated again. I am sodden and dried and sodden again on repeat, and there is sand in the creases of my ears. When I am out of the shower, I am cleaner than I have ever been before. I look at my reflection, naked, and I have the sense that a layer has been removed. I’ve had a spa day by accident.

I dress in luxuriously clean jeans and a white top that makes the tiny new freckles on my cheeks pop, and I return to the bedroom, where Dan is dangerously shirtless again. I grip the doorknob and look for a spot over his shoulder to rest my gaze. He grabs clothes from his bag and I just stand there.

“I’m going to shower too,” he says.

“Yes.” It’s a word I cannot stop saying.

“So tonight, I sort of forgot, my brothers are all going out for dinner. It’s a thing we do when I come home, and Aidan planned it for tonight.” He’s cradling a pair of khaki shorts and a faded blue button-down in his arms, and the cotton of the shirt is resting against his chest.

“Could you put your shirt on?” I ask.

“I’m about to take a shower.”

“I know, but I just . . .” I look down at his feet, also bare. “You’re so naked, I’m not following what you’re saying. You’re going somewhere?”

He smiles and pulls his shirt on, buttoning just one button. “Better?” The blue of the shirt and the smile both do something to his eyes. No, not really better.

“Thank you.”

He’s still smiling. “So we do this brothers’ dinner.”

“Oh, got it. Yes. That’s totally fine. I was thinking about biking back to town, maybe grabbing something at the diner. Maybe I’ll catch Jack getting ice cream.” Not being with Dan tonight is probably for the best. I need to get back on task, and that’s going to be a lot easier when I’m not standing here watching him bite his bottom lip the way he is right now.

He takes a step toward me, and now we’re both in the doorway. “Will you come? The wives don’t come, so it would just be you. But the food is good, and I could use a little backup.”

“You want me as backup?”

“Yeah, I couldn’t have taken those kids today without you.” He smiles again. “Aren’t we trying to be a team?”

“Yes,” I say again.

*

NELLIE’S CRAB SHACKis on the beach just outside of Oak Shore. From the road it looks like it could be a small bait shop, a door with two windows on either side and a shingled roof. But the back opens up to tables on the sand under thatched umbrellas. I kick off my sandals before I even realize I’ve done it.

We sit at a round table that would have been fine for six smaller people, or even the five of them without me. As it is, we are wedged in tight. They insist on giving me the seat with the best ocean view. I take it and wiggle my toes in the still warm sand. Dan sits next to me and kicks off his flipflops too. He has rolled up his sleeves since we left the house, and his forearms rest on the table, dwarfing mine. The waitress greets us with “Danny’s home!” and brings two pitchers of beer we didn’t order.

“Against all odds,” Connor says and shoots Dan a look.

She starts to hand us wooden menus, and Brian raises a hand to stop her. “Do we need menus?” he asks us. “Softshell crab and fries? Chopped salad and cornbread?”

Everyone agrees on the order, and Aidan pours us each a beer. “Before you all get drunk and disorderly, can we talk about the party?”

Dan leans back in his seat and takes a long sip of his beer.

Aidan says, “Paula wants us all there by five to help set up. People are coming at six. And it’s like a hundred people— I don’t think anyone said no.”

Brian says, “Marla picked all the food, I think. Connor did the toast and Finn picked a song.”

Dan lets out a breath and shakes his head.

“You have to,” Brian says.

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