Summer Temptation (Hot in the Hamptons Book 2) Read Free Page B

raising her glass. “Of course I will. I have the two best maids-of-honor ever who will make sure I do.”
    “You know it,” Kelsey said.
    “Of course,” I agreed, watching my friend, wondering what was going on in that head of hers.
    After that we sat around for a while talking about what we’d been doing since graduation. I gave them updates on dad and grandpa. Storme filled us in on some new wedding plans, and Kelsey talked about possibly going to Europe for graduate school and the lifeguard she’d met earlier that day.
    All too soon Storme insisted on showing me to my room, which had a private bathroom attached, so we could get changed for a pool party I had no desire to go to.

Nick
     
    W hen had I gotten so old? When was the last time I’d walked on the beach? I missed the feel of sand between my toes, so I kicked off my flip flops and carried them. I missed the smell of the ocean and the sound of waves crashing into the shore, so I took a moment to enjoy the beauty of the sun setting over the water. As much as I hadn’t wanted to come tonight, the bonfire up ahead, the music, and the laughter had me feeling a bit nostalgic for the summers of my youth, when my life revolved around lifeguarding and pretty girls in tiny bikinis.
    Two years of eighty hour work weeks as an analyst on Wall Street, and at the age of twenty-four I felt closer to forty. Forget fun. At present, my social life consisted of networking with business associates, always looking to get noticed, always fighting for that promotion, and not much else.
    For the past year, my downtime, what little I had, had all been spent with grandma and granddad, doing the things my parents should have been doing, only they’d chosen North Carolina over Long Island. To escape the New York winters, they’d said initially. Now they stayed down there year round.
    “Nick! My man! How’s it going?”
    “Jake.” I held out my pasty white hand to shake my old friend’s sunbaked, golden brown one.
    Nothing escaped Jake. He held up my hand, squinting at the imagined glare from my skin. “That office job is killing you,” he said. “Sucking the color of life right out of you.”
    No argument there. “I’ll be sticking around for a few days.” Not by choice, more like for lack of anything better to do while I updated my resumé and got in touch with a few headhunters to get my job search going. “Should have my color back in no time.”
    At the thought of kicking around the beach, doing some swimming and bikini watching, my spirits lifted. “Where you hiding the beer?” Despite the restriction on alcohol, I knew the big red plastic cups everyone had were not filled with soda.
    Jake pointed to an Italian ice pushcart. “Keg’s in there.”
    I smiled. “Like old times.”
    “You know it.” Jake held out his fist and I bumped it with mine. “Now get yourself a nice cold drink, shake off that New York City grime, and let’s have us some fun.”
    Just what I needed.
    It didn’t take long to find Leigh. All I had to do was look in the direction most of the men around me kept looking, and there she was with her two friends. Each one dressed in a similar, colorful beach cover-up that left one shoulder and their long, slender legs bare. Each one was as pretty as the next: a blond, a brunette, and a light-brownish-redhead, one for each preference.
    If only the light-brownish-redhead didn’t think I was a total ass.
    Leigh separated from her friends and walked toward a large plastic trash barrel over by a set of wooden stairs. She looked around as if trying to see if her friends were watching. They weren’t, but I was, and I saw her dump the contents of her big red plastic cup into the barrel, take a bottle of water from her string backpack, and pour its contents into the cup before tossing away the container.
    Interesting.
    Apparently seeing Leigh on her own, vulnerable prey separated from the herd, a big guy, more bulk than brawn, staggered in her