Page 75 of The Rules

“Dani,Dani?” Josh hefted hissurfboard onto the top of his Jeep, clicking it into the Thule rack, then reached for Dylan’s.

“As in the only one we know.”

“Bullshit.”

“I’d never get away with lying about that.” Dylan had waited until they’d gotten a good few hours of surfing in before broaching the subject. When he’d picked Josh up, he still had that stress line on his forehead, but Dylan knew the salt water would put him in a better mood.

It worked. Josh was surprised, but he didn’t seem pissed.

Josh squinted at the October sun glinting off of his Jeep. “Is this official, or are you two just screwing around?”

“Official, I guess.” Dylan went to the opposite side of the vehicle and helped with the straps. “I mean, we’re not just screwing around.”

“How’d this happen?”

“I don’t know. It just… did.” Dylan avoided Josh’s stare as he unzipped his wetsuit and pulled a fleece zip-up over the goosebumps that rushed his salty skin.

Josh did the same, throwing on a beat-up sweatshirt and hopping from foot to foot on the freezing sand until he could get his sneakers on.

They jumped in the cabin of the Jeep and Josh blasted the heat. “When?”

“First time? After your wedding.”

“This has been going on for five months?”

“Almost as long as your little secret baby.” He’d meant what he said about it not being a thing between them, but if Josh was going to bring it up…

Josh spun his baseball cap forward, pulling the brim down low. “It wasn’t a secret,” he muttered. “Cat just—it’s not the same thing.”

One could argue it wasn’t even close and Josh had way more to apologize for, but Dylan wasn’t in an arguing mood. “Maybe not,” he said. “It wasn’tofficialthen, it happened a few more times in between. But then—” he let out a long puff of air, watched it turn to mist. “She was still seeing other guys, and I realized I didn’t want her to.”

“Because you weren’t doing the same? This isn’t some irresponsible reaction to one of your slumps, is it? Cause that would be—”

Dylan put a hand up. “It’s not.”

“Okay.” Josh put the Jeep in gear and turned back to the road.

“I didn’t want her seeing other guys because I like her. She’s fun and easy to hang with, the sex is phenomenal. We just sort of grew into it.”

And maybe he wanted to grow too. Usually, when Dylan met women like Dani and Cat and their friends, he stepped aside, let the grown-ups like Josh do their thing. He’d spent his childhood having to be a man so young—taking care of his mother, looking out for his sister—that whenever he was expected to be one it felt stifling.

He didn’t want to be like that anymore. There had to be a balance.

“How did you know?” he asked. “With Cat, I mean.”

“I don’t know,” Josh said. He lifted a shoulder and took a beat, his brow furrowed. “When I met Cat, I guess something about her just felt like mine.”

That was how he felt, like Dani was his. Like none of those other guys had a right to her the way he did. He just wanted to live up to that right.

“You got any advice for me?” Dylan scratched at the back of his neck, his voice sounding unnaturally weak to his own ear.

Josh ran a hand through his wet hair, silently digesting the conversation as he was prone to do. Dylan caught himself holding his breath.

Finally, Josh nodded. “My advice is, if it scares you this much, it’s probably good for you. And also don’t be stupid.”

Dylan’s breath whooshed from his lungs, and he turned away to watch the beige and blue beach disappear from sight through the passenger window. For once, he actually had no intention of it.

“Oh my goodness! Look at you!” Emma hopped off of the stool at their usual high-top table by the window and rushed to fawn and squeal over Cat. It had been three weeks since their camping trip, and Dylan was right, the tight sweater and leggings she was wearing revealed a perfect little baby bump. The back of Dani’s throat burned. It was a good thing Cat had been forced into telling her secret because there was no way she was hiding that.

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