Page 47 of Patio Lanterns

He heard footsteps and a set of paws trodding down the stairs.

“Oh, hey guys, I didn’t know you were both here.”

Rick turned toward Robin’s voice, nearly losing his balance when he caught sight of her in an eye-popping blue bikini top and cutoff shorts. The scanty bits of cloth barely covered her breasts, making what little she wore even more titillating than if she’d come down the stairs completely nude. And now, he was visualizing that too.

She wiggled her fingers at him and he caught the naughty glint in her eye. This wicked woman loved to test his resolve, but this level of teasing was downright diabolical.

Aidan turned and let out a wolf whistle. “Jesus, Robbie. You look fire.”

She dropped the sack of mail from the store onto the dining room table. “Where is everyone?” she asked sweetly.

“Lark and Nova went down to the water. Dove is… well, I’m not sure,” Aidan said, “I haven’t seen her since I got here.”

“Well, I think me and Mutt will go sit on the deck and read some smut,” she said, waving a book in her hand. “Ha ha, isn’t that funny? Reading smut with Mutt.”

She opened the fridge door, staring inside for a moment before moving to the counter. Standing behind Rick, she reached around to swipe a pear from the fruit bowl directly in front of him, pressing her tits into his back. If she was trying to make him lose his cool, it was working.

She giggled. “Oop, pardon my reach.”

The moment the screen door slammed behind her, Aidan and Rick exchanged a quizzical look. Aidan let out a low whistle. “Wow, some girl, hmm?”

Rick took a second to respond, wrestling between acting as if he’d hardly noticed Robin in the room and acknowledging her presence with a little friendly guy talk. While reluctant to discuss the finer points of Robin’s body with anyone, let alone his own son, Rick also realized it was his chance to show Aidan he could be one of the boys. “Quite the eyeful.”

Aidan laughed. “And boy, does she know it too.”

They each went back to concentrating on the work at hand until Aidan went and brought Robin up again. “She used to have a thing for me, you know,” he said. “Poor kid had it pretty bad too. One time, she wrote me this love letter…”

“Love letter?” Rick questioned.

“Yeah, she wrote all this spicy stuff, so it was pretty infamous when it blew up. It might’ve actually been pretty hot if it hadn’t come from Lark’s kid sister.”

“What do you mean it blew up?”

“I guess I’d accidentally left it lying around, and someone found and read it. Probably Mom. Anyway, it got back to Robbie’s parents, and she got grounded big time. It was a total embarrassment.”

Rick could only guess how devastating it must’ve been for Robin. One doesn’t just brush off a personal violation of privacy like that. He then wondered if her crush on Aidan had merely been a fleeting infatuation or if it ran deeper than either of them was letting on.

“You know, I think I might ask her out,” Aidan said out of the blue.

Rick’s head jerked. “What?”

“You said yourself we’d make a cute couple,” he said. “She’s still a hoot to be around, and let’s face it, you’d have to be blind not to see she’s all woman now.”

Rick grumbled silently, trying to keep his shit together without looking like he had to. “On second thought, I’m not so sure that’s a good idea. I mean, you wouldn’t want to jeopardize your friendship with Lark by dating her sister.”

“Nah, Lark is cool. She’s been talking Robbie up to me for weeks, and you saw yourself last night how she was trying to get us together. Trust me, she wouldn’t be mad about it.”

Rick did not like where this was headed, and making it worse, that he’d been complicit in planting the idea in Aidan’s head. “Well, I suppose you could always ask and see what she says.”

“See what who says about what?” Lark asked from behind them. She swayed from side to side, rocking a sleeping Nova on her shoulder. Rick figured splash time was a bust.

At that moment, Robin bounced back inside the cottage with Mutt who went straight for his water dish. “Hoo, it’s warm out there. Forgot the sunscreen,” she tittered, as all eyes fell on her. “What’s going on? What are we talking about?”

“Nothing important,” Rick assured her.

“Actually,” Aidan said, “I was just saying that you and me ought to grab a beer tonight.”

“Tonight?” Robin caught Rick’s eye, then quickly looked away. “Oh, you know, I’d really love to, but I already have plans.”

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