“And maybe I can bury you in it,” she said, glancing over at her sister-in-law.

Avery grinned. “Love you, sister.”

“Love you.”

“Now why don’t you go build a sand castle with your daughter and your boyfriend?”

“’Cause I’m probably not invited. They’ve been talking about this mermaid castle for, like, a month,” she said as Benji started to stack buckets upon buckets. “Plus, I’m sure he’s mad at me.”

“Probably,” Avery said simply. Lucy glared over at her and she shrugged. “I was agreeing!”

“Mom, come on!” Angie yelled, waving her arms wildly at her.

Benji looked over at her too, his naughty eyes drinking in her figure. Her body was hot in an instant, but she wasn’t sure what to do. He was probably mad, but even when they were mad, they still wanted each other. “Yeah, come on, babe. Come build with us. You can sunbathe later.”

“Go,” Avery urged.

“Yeah, Mom, come on!”

She hesitated, but then something in Benji’s eyes told her to get up and come on. He was acting normal. He didn’t want it to seem weird for Angie, like he had always promised, and that kind of hurt. Was he going to break up with her?

Jeez, what a mess she had caused.

Angie cheered as she came over, dropping into the sand to help. As they got started, she decided they would figure this all out later.

Right now, she was going to make a sand castle with the two people she loved most.

As Lucy took in the overextravagant castle they had built, Angie was bouncing with excitement. It honestly looked like a bad version of a superawesome sand sculpture, but it didn’t matter that half of it was falling and that no mermaid would choose it as her castle, because Angie was beaming.

“It’s perfect.”

“It is,” Benji agreed, rubbing her back. Looking over at Lucy, he smiled. “What do you think, Mom?”

Why did that make her tear up? Crap. “It’s beautiful,” she croaked out and he smiled as Angie giggled.

“Let’s go swimming!”

“Angie, it’s too cold right now,” Lucy warned. “That water is ice. Maybe tomorrow when it’s a little warmer.”

She looked to Benji but he shook his head. “I don’t like cold water.”

She pouted and he laughed, picking her up to hug her tight. “How about this? You go change, and then we’ll all go to dinner at that supercool Chuck E. Cheese I saw?”

“Sweet Lord in heaven,” Lucy muttered, but Angie was all for it.

“Yeah! Avery and Ashlyn too, right?”

“Of course,” he said and she grinned as Avery smiled.

“Yes!” Angie said before he put her on her feet and she ran off to the house.

Avery stood slowly, picking up Ashlyn. “I’m going to go and change and keep Angie occupied since I’m sure you two need to talk about things that aren’t my business.”

Benji chuckled as Lucy glared, looking away as her face warmed. When his hand came into hers, she looked at their hands before looking up at him. “Let’s walk,” he said, and she bit into her lip to keep a sob in as she nodded. The surf was running up on their toes as they walked, the sun shining. This was what she wanted. She wanted to be with Benji on the beach—but not with the stupid stress Rick had caused. It was eating her alive, and she couldn’t bring herself to unload on him like she wanted.

It wasn’t fair.

“I missed you,” he whispered, leaning down to her to kiss her cheek.

She tried to smile but it didn’t work well as she leaned into him. “I missed you too.”

He led her down the private beach that Jace and Avery’s house sat on. Lucy’s toes sank into the sand as they walked in silence. She wasn’t sure what to say. Sorry? Would that even cover it? What else could she say but the truth? But how could she tell him that Rick was planning on running his name through the mud with a lie? A video. A disgusting, sad video of her sweet daughter that Angie had told her on the plane Rick had forced her to do. She had texted her dad that this morning, but he hadn’t gotten back to her. Which was odd. She didn’t talk to him often, but when she did, he usually got back to her quickly.

When Benji suddenly stopped, Lucy looked back at him, turning to face him as he took his glasses off, tucking them in his pocket. “I talked to your dad.”

Oh. Well, there was the reason she hadn’t heard from him. Looking at her, Benji shook his head as his eyes bored into hers, disappointment flooding his eyes. She sucked in a deep breath and nodded. “So you know what’s going on, then?”

“Yeah. Lucy, why didn’t you just tell me?” She looked away, but he brought her face back up, his hands cupping her chin. “Don’t hide from me. You’ve done that enough. Tell me what you’re thinking. What made you run like that?”

Her lips trembled as she shook her head, the tears welling up in her eyes. “I knew you’d tell me we can beat him together. That it didn’t matter what he did, that you wouldn’t leave me. I can’t do that to you, Benji. I love you too much.”

“Damn straight,” he said, his own eyes filling with tears. “And I love you for wanting to protect me. But leaving me, taking away your and Angie’s love, that won’t make it better. It will make it worse, because I don’t care about my name if I don’t have you two. I’m nothing without you two.”