She’s clearly math brilliant, so that’s a shock. “What happened that you had to drop out?”

Her gaze flicks up to mine before dropping again. “My, uh … grandmother passed away, and we ran into some financial difficulties that made college tuition a problem.”

I think about the time I followed her around the grocery store and how she’d been price matching everything in her cart, about the way she’d wrangled the repair bill down and avoided insurance, how she drove a beater and her sister drove a nice car. “What about loans?”

“We were left with some debt; it took a while to sort it all out. Anyway, eventually Marley and I took real estate courses and here we are.” She smiles, but she looks sad.

“Is this the grandmother who was friends with the people who owned the Mission Mansion?”

She nods. “We spent most of our summer with her. I miss her, a lot. She was an incredible woman.”

I grab her ankles and pull her across the couch into my lap. “So are you.” Skimming the hollow under her eyes with gentle fingertips, I expect the almost-tears there to fall, but they don’t.

She shakes her head. “I’m really not.”

“Stop being disagreeable.”

She laughs, her eyes warming. “Says the most antagonistic man on the planet.”

“That’s a little extreme, don’t you think?”

“At least in this zip code, then.” She runs her fingers through my hair and down the sides of my neck. Goose bumps rise along my skin, a visceral reaction to the way her touch affects me. “Do you know what we should do?” she asks softly.

“What’s that?”

She reaches over my shoulder and grabs the unopened box of condoms and pats my stomach. “We should work off some calories before we feed your six-pack dessert.”

“Good idea. It’s my best asset. We need to keep it that way.”

“I don’t know if it’s your best asset.” She skims my lips with her fingertip. “If we’re talking physical assets, I’d say this mouth is a winner, and then of course there’s one below the waist that’s pretty amazing.”

“I have a great idea.” I slide forward to the edge of the couch.

“What’s that?”

“Let’s take this to the bedroom and we can do a thorough examination of each other’s assets.”

I wrap her legs around my waist and carry her to the bedroom. We eat dessert for breakfast.

* * *

Despite her assurance that she can get home fine on her own, I drop Rian off at her place the next morning. Well, it’s close to noon, but I have all afternoon to deal with work. Trip is annoyed that he’s been relegated to the back seat. He’s currently resting his chin on Rian’s shoulder. If she minds, she doesn’t say anything. She woke with Trip between us. He was not impressed when I kicked him out so we could have sex without an audience.

“Am I sitting in your spot? I’ll be gone soon and you can have our man all to yourself again.”

I like that she refers to me as “our man.” Purposely or accidentally, either way I’m a fan.

I drop her off at a small, quaint duplex in a decent neighborhood. It’s a mix of renovated homes and older ones in need of work.

“Well, this is me.” She fidgets a little, maybe unsure of herself.

I push Trip’s head out of the way so I can kiss her. “I want to see you later this week. What days are you free?”

She laughs against my lips. “You realize the way you say that makes it sound very unquestion-like.”

“There’s a what in there, which makes it a question.”

“But you phrase it like an order.”

“It’s not intentional. I want to see you, and I want to know what days you’re free so we can coordinate a date. A real one. Where I take you out for dinner at a restaurant, and then I drive you home. At the end you invite me up, and I spend the night in your bed.”

“I only have a double.”

“That’s fine. I like cuddling with you, and you can’t escape in a double like you can in a king.”

“What about Trip? How will he manage without you?”

“He’ll deal for one night. Or I can take you back to the Franklin bungalow if that’s better. Whatever works for you. I’ll make it happen.”

“What about Thursday night, then?”

“That seems like forever.”

“It’s three days from now.”

“Exactly. Practically forever, but I’ll take what I can get with you.”

I lean in for a kiss that ends with me hard and Rian breathless. She’s a glassy-eyed, slightly uncoordinated mess as she makes her way to her door. I wait until she’s inside before I head to my brother’s. I have to deal with him at some point, and I need to get some real work done today since I slacked yesterday. It was totally worth it, though.

I drive back to the beach in a good mood and park at the Franklin bungalow. If Lawson’s being a pain in my ass, I might stay here tonight. Besides, the sheets will still smell like Rian, which is a bonus.

Trip gives me one of his Ewok barks, tongue lolling as I grab his leash and we stroll down the beach to my brother’s place. He’s out on the deck, taking pictures of Amalie Dolls playing tennis on a fake court.

He’s stretched out on the deck, clicking away on his camera. “Sleeping with the enemy, huh?”

“Rian isn’t the enemy.”

“I still think she and her evil twin are shady.”

“Because they took an opportunity when they saw it? Isn’t that what you did when you visited the granddaughter down the beach and got the details on the Franklin house? Isn’t that what I’m doing with Muriel when I drop by and water her flowers and clean her pool?”

“Not the same.”

“Totally the same. I think it was a mistake to fire them.”

He gives me an incredulous look. “Of course you think that since you’re sleeping with one of them. You’d think you’d be using that to get insider information.”

I drop into one of the lounge chairs. “Why are you so pissed about this? It’s not like we have time to start another renovation.”

He snaps a few more pictures and then sits up. “I heard a rumor that the owners of the Mission Mansion are thinking about selling, so the more property we own on this stretch of beach, the better.”

That gets my attention. “Where’d you hear that?”

“Does it matter?” He motions to the dolls. “You want out and so do I. If we keep doing what we’re doing, it could be a possibility.”

“How is the Mission Mansion going up for sale going to do that for us?”

“If someone fixes it up, it increases our property value. We buy low and sell high, bank the profit and watch our money grow. I know you don’t want to go back to Manhattan at the end of the summer. So you need to keep your head in the game and your eye on the prize, which doesn’t happen to be located between your girlfriend’s thighs.”

“Business is business with Rian.”

“Is it?”

“She can buy a house to flip, Lawson. We don’t need every single one of them.”

“I know that, but I think you need to keep in mind that her interests are her top priority, and remember what yours are.”

I guess that’s the real question, because I don’t think my priorities are quite the same as Lawson’s. I don’t want to spend my life hating what I do, but I also don’t want to put myself in a position where I’m scrambling financially, or giving up what I love to make a buck.