Barefoot Bay: Castle in the Sand (Kindle Worlds Novella) Read Free Page B

Tell me about your sad romance?”
    “There was no romance! She’s a family friend. Or was. We’d met up for a run, and then we were supposed to go out to dinner. I know it looks bad…”
    Waving him off, she looked away. “No kidding.”
    “Not my best moment, surely.”
    “It’s none of my business what you do with the women you date.”
    His posture went rigid before he answered. “There was nothing going on. Astrid…”
    “ Lady Astrid? The woman you were supposed to marry? Her? And why would she risk the wrath of your family to sell some photos of your behind?”
    “Well, it seems the need for money outweighed all of that. I didn’t know her father had disowned her. My bum became a rather nice payday.”
    For a split second, Josie thought about much she loved Tony’s body, how it felt under her hands, fired every nerve, clouding her thinking. “It’s a fine royal bum. I’m sure it fetched a pretty penny.”
    Crap.
    The comment—a result of the way he addled her brain—horrified her, because for once in her life she wanted to be aloof and sophisticated. Instead, she predicted weeks of saying the stupidest things.
    Dammit all to hell.
    “Thank you,” he said quietly, his deep voice swirling around her like a magic spell. “I seem to remember I was quite fond of yours.”
    That’s when Josie made the mistake of looking up. He was so damned handsome; over six feet tall, broad shouldered and fit, it hurt to look at him. Tony’s blond hair fell across his brow and his blue eyes sparked with life. When he smiled…like he was doing now…he was devastating. Josie’s heart hammered in her chest, an out-of-control thumpthumpthump that told her she needed to get away from him. Now.
    “I’m going to take a swim, I’ll see you later.” She spun on her heel and took a step into the surf.
    “You don’t swim in your pool?”
    “Sometimes. But if I want to swim more than a mile, I prefer open water.”
    “A mile? Oh. Well. Be careful, then.”
    “Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing, and I don’t take stupid chances. At least not like I used to.”
    “Josie…”
    She didn’t hear anything else he had to say once her head went under the water.
     
    She had told the guys to figure out dinner, which meant they were going out because Nick never cooked. They’d decided to head into Naples to a restaurant at the Ritz-Carlton. Unlike most of the very upscale eateries at the hotel, the one they’d chosen was casual with a dining deck right on the water. Buying her dinner at a nice restaurant was the least they could do, considering the bombshell the two of them had dropped on her today.
    On the way to the restaurant, Josie settled herself in the back seat of Nick’s car and focused her attention on the drive, not on the man in the front passenger seat. Josie had no idea why Tony would agree to come to Mimosa. He had to know she wouldn’t want to see him. Tony Granville was many things, but stupid wasn’t among them.
    “You all right back there, Jojo?” She saw her brother check her in the rear view mirror like she was a little kid.
    “I’m fine, thank you,” she responded formally. The last thing Josie wanted to do was act like a recalcitrant teenager. Even if snark would be an extremely effective weapon, she had to resist, because the last thing she needed was Nick acting like her parent.
    The scenery was always beautiful going over the causeway from Mimosa to Naples, and she kept her eyes trained on the boats and the way the light bounced off the water. Sometimes she missed her crazy life in New York, but the serenity she’d found on the pretty little island had been her savior at a dark time in her life.
    Broken hearted and confused, Josie had brought her battered spirit to her grandparents’ old house and started healing. She found a job, made friends, and proceeded to reconstruct her life. Her move to Florida was about so much more than breaking up with Tony. It was about recovering from