Light came shining in to blind me and I grunted, flopping over onto my belly. Automatically, I flung out an arm, seeking the woman my still-asleep brain expected to find next to me.

Wait. The bed wasn’t mine. If it was mine, no sunshine would be waking me unless it was two or three in the afternoon, and even then, the light would be filtered and somewhat muted.

Ergo, the fact that the sun was blinding me despite my closed eyes meant only one thing—the bed wasn’t mine. That meant at some point last night, I’d hooked up...

Camry—

Jolting upright, I looked around, ridiculously alert despite what felt like an ungodly early hour.

The alarm clock on the table next to the bed confirmed it. Seven thirty-two. What the fuck?

And this wasn’t my bed.

What the fuck?

But I was wrong. I hadn’t hooked up with anybody. I’d been in enough hotel rooms to know when I was in another, though this one was much nicer than any of the ones I’d been in over the past few years. How had I managed that?

Right, one of my old mates from back home had booked the penthouse here for his honeymoon, but two days before the wedding, he’d caught his fiancée in bed...with her maid of honor. He’d offered me the place as long as I promised to sign a couple posters for his niece and nephew.

The rest of yesterday came back to me. I’d checked in last night. Alone. I hadn’t gotten drunk either. My brain was just a mess.

“A few more hours sleep would have been nice,” I muttered as I threw my legs over the side of the bed.

But I knew my body better than to try to get more sleep. It would be a wasted effort.

After hitting the bathroom, I grabbed the exercise mat I kept with me when I traveled and unrolled it. After my accident, my physical therapist had been adamant. If I didn’t stretch and spend about fifteen minutes doing yoga every day, the knee tightened up like a rusty socket and I was in agony for hours, maybe days after. I’d learned that the hard way during that first year after I’d gotten out of the hospital.

Once I’d gotten sober, I’d started up again, then added things like weight-lifting, cardio, whatever I needed to do to keep in shape. But I always started with stretching.

It was mindless enough, letting me think about what I had to do that day as I went through the motions. My morning involved a couple of meetings, including an unscheduled one for this afternoon, but it was more a personal matter than anything else.

Sweat was flowing by the time I switched to more weight-bearing exercises, electing to go with that instead of seeking out the gym at the hotel. I’d caught enough looks last night to know people had seen my face splattered on smartphones, computer monitors, and TVs, and not all of them were merely curious.

“How the Mighty Have Fallen”

That had been one of the headlines.

If I ever met the asshole who wrote that one, I’d suggest he kiss my fallen ass.

Irritated all over again, I pushed myself harder doing push-ups, shoving up and smacking my hands together before catching my weight on my palms. I hit forty before my right shoulder was aching too much to continue.

After a few seconds of panting, I rolled over onto my back and started on my abs workout.

I didn’t let up until I felt like I might puke.

Fallen, my ass.

* * *

“Damn.”

The surf shop that Kaleb had told me wasn’t much was tucked into a niche of a shopping strip along the beach, but it wasn’t the grungy dive he’d made me think it would be.

The windows gleamed, and a variety of boards stood there, along with a fair selection of suits. There were ones for everybody, too, not just for the beach bunnies, or some bum prowling around looking to score. Of course, there were plenty of those things too, the boards and suits made for show and sex. I supposed they paid the bills just as much as the others.

As I got closer, somebody came outside, calling out a thanks back over her shoulder. She had a board tucked under one arm and as she continued on out, I saw the delighted, confident smile on her face.

It made me think about the time when I’d looked like that – young and thinking I was going to take on the world. And for a while I had. For a while, the world had been all but mine. I was still three years away from thirty, but there were days – like today – when I felt far older than twenty-seven.

As I moved forward, my knee twinged, a reminder of my brutal workout that morning, and the accident that had ended everything. The world was no longer mine for the taking, and if I tried to get a board, swim out, and grab a wave or two for old time’s sake with Kaleb, my leg might buckle on me.

I’d pushed it too hard and I knew it.

But I wasn’t here to surf. I just wanted to see my friend. That was all well and good, right?

I took a slow breath of salty air and let it flood my mind with all the memories of summers at the beach, just me, Kaleb...and Camry. Shit. I shook my head, put a smile on my face, and went inside.

Kaleb was leaning over the counter, flipping through a catalog with a short, cute blonde. The blonde was watching him raptly, more focused on him than the catalog, but Kaleb seemed totally unaware. No surprise there. He’d always been a bit clueless about his appeal off-stage, and I was sure marriage had just made him more oblivious.

“Hey.”

Kaleb looked up slowly and he was already smiling. “I’ll be a son of a bitch,” he said.

“You always were,” I replied cheerfully.

He whooped and leaped over the counter, clearing the distance between us. I met him in the middle, and we hugged each other like we hadn’t seen each other in years. It hadn’t been that long, but it sure as hell felt like it.

I pushed back first. “Look at you, all married and everything. What’s that like?”

“Better than I could ever explain.”

And judging by the way his eyes lit up, I couldn’t do anything but believe him. I ignored the sharp twist in my chest and looked around. “Where’s the lady foolish enough to marry you? Does she work here?”

“Hell, no.” He rolled his eyes. “She’s this brainiac type. Graduated top of her class at Columbia. She works at a new clinic that specializes in people with drug addictions.” His eyes tightened a bit at the corners, something that made me wonder what I was missing, but I didn’t ask. We had plenty of other things to catch up on.

“So this place is all yours.”

“Well, I’ve got employees.” He shrugged easily and gestured behind him. The blonde stood there, her cheeks flushed pink. “This is Mickie. She’s going to UCLA to be a nurse midwife. Surfing is only her second love, the cheater.”

“Not everybody is as devoted as you.” I clapped him on the shoulder before looking at Mickie and nodding.

She blushed even brighter red. “Hi.” Immediately, she dropped her eyes and started gathering up the catalogs. “I’m…um…I’ll go put in that order, Kaleb.”

“Sure thing.” He didn’t even look back, just gestured at me. “Come on. Let me show you around.”

Part of me was a little nervous and it wasn’t until we were alone in his office that I realized why.

I was worried—no, not worried. Scared. I was scared shitless that Camry had told him about us. It didn’t make sense, really. She was an adult. I was an adult. We had a mutual attraction which we’d satisfied, then we’d moved on. Nothing Kaleb himself hadn’t done before he’d met his wife.

Maybe Camry’s moved on, but you? You’re sitting here wanting her and worrying her brother will figure it out—or that he already has…

“You okay?”

At Kaleb’s words, I jerked my head. “What? Yeah.” I waved a hand. “Tired. Traveling means I have to wake up earlier, and the job has turned me into a night owl, you know?”

“Hell, do I ever. It’s one thing I don’t miss.” He paused, then his eyes darkened as he added, “One of many.”

“So you don’t miss women grabbing at your arse and trying to get a good look at your cock while they are at it?” Flashing him a grin, I kicked back and braced a foot on the edge of his battered metal desk, my posture mimicking his.

His teeth flashed white in a grin. “Who would have thought that a man would get irked at the idea of a woman wanting to see his cock?”

“It’s always nice to ask permission.” I agreed. “So…what’s your wife like?”

He blinked. “Smooth change of subject. Something up with those ass grabbers and cock peekers?”

“Did I say that?” Shit. I’d forgotten how well he could read me. “I’m just curious. I couldn’t make the wedding, you know. Sorry about that.”

“You had to work.” He grimaced. “I know how the job goes. We could have planned it farther out, but…” He hitched up a shoulder.

“Baby makes three. Weird, thinking about you being a dad.”

“It is weird.” His smile, his voice, everything about him softened. “But it’s great. I wouldn’t change it for anything.”

“Tell me about it—about Piety, the baby.” I was suddenly starving to know more, to hear about this new life outside what we’d both known. Outside of what we’d talked about having when we were younger.

“I’ve got a better idea.” Kaleb kicked his feet off the desk and reached for a pen.

I watched as he scrawled an address down on a sticky note. “You come over Sunday. You’re here at least a week, right? Come Sunday. Meet them. Meet the baby, my wife. We do a family thing every Sunday. Camry comes, too.”

Again, that minute tightening around his eyes.

Does he know…fuck...

But he couldn’t. If he had, he’d have said something. Probably with a fist to my face.

“Come eat with us,” he said, holding out the bright pink note. “You can meet the baby and Piety. See Camry again. She talked about you a lot, you know. She’d like to see you again, I bet.”

Lust punched me in the stomach.

I’d like to see her again, too.

But I didn’t say that. If she hadn’t told her brother, I wasn’t going to be the one to share that particular bit of information with him. In fact, it’d be smart to turn him down, say I was too busy. Anything else would be risking him figuring it out.

I gave him a brittle smile. “Sure. That would be great.”