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Oddly, he didn’t feel rushed to break that silence. Just being in her presence felt nice—almost natural. He forced himself to say something, in case she felt uncomfortable, although she didn’t appear to, the way she was smiling up at him.
    “I guess that means we’re staying, but really, if you’d rather we didn’t—”
    “No. I’d rather you did. Stay.” Bella seemed quieter than she’d been the previous evening, and Caden didn’t know how to read that, either. A gust of wind swept off the ocean and whipped her hair across her cheek. She shook her head to clear it away. It flew right back again.
    Without thinking, he stepped closer and tucked the wayward lock behind her ear.
    Bella’s eyes narrowed, as if she were uncomfortable. “That means we’re married, you know.”
    She said it with such a serious face that for a second he worried he’d crossed a line in the sand. What the hell was he thinking?
    Oh hell, just go with it. “Cool. I’ve never been married before.”
    Bella slid a confused glance at Evan, who was making himself right at home with the others.
    “Evan’s mom and I were never married,” he explained. Why was he nervous talking about Evan? That was new, too.
    “Oh,” Bella said.
    He was sure she was waiting for an explanation, but he’d found that when he shared the story of how he and Evan came to be a family, women got weird, like he was a lost puppy who needed taking care of. He didn’t need that shit. He loved his life with Evan, and he’d never regretted his decision to leave school to take care of him.
    “So, you sure you don’t mind if we hang out for a while?”
    “The more the merrier, as long as you don’t mind hanging out with a bunch of women. It’s pretty chilly. Do you want to go sit by the fire?”
    He’d much rather wrap his arms around her. Short of that, sitting by a fire with Bella sounded just fine. “Sure.”
    At the fire, Jenna threw Caden a blanket. “Here, you and Bella can sit on it.”
    He almost made a joke about being already married and checked himself before the words left his lips. He didn’t need to freak out Evan, although from the looks of things, he was feeling pretty damn comfortable. He had his hand buried in a bag of marshmallows.
    Caden glanced at the others. “I hope we’re not intruding.” He held a hand out to the brunette that had stuck her head out of the cottage window. “I don’t think we met last night. I’m Caden Grant. And this is my son, Evan.”
    “I’m Leanna.” She shook his hand. “Evan already introduced himself.”
    He was glad to hear that.
    The skinny blonde waved to him. “I’m Amy. Want a glass of wine? Oh, and, Evan, we have Sprite if you’d like, too.”
    “No, thanks. I have to drive,” Caden answered. The cop in him cataloged that all four of them were drinking.
    “That’s why we take a cab to the bonfires. They’ll pick us up at eleven. Like our personal chauffer,” Amy explained.
    “Good to know.” Responsible . He liked that. Caden and Evan hadn’t been to a bonfire on the beach, and it wasn’t something Caden would have instigated on his own. He was glad for the opportunity not just to see Bella again, but for Evan to be exposed to something new.
    Amy handed a plastic cup of wine to Bella, then dug through the cooler and handed a can of Sprite to Evan.
    Caden sat beside Bella on the small blanket, hyperaware of their close proximity. Bella’s hair swept across her face again.
    “Does anyone have a ponytail holder?” she asked.
    “No, sorry,” Amy said.
    The others shook their heads.
    “I’m going to the flea market tomorrow and buying three boxes of them. One for my beach bag, one for my car, and one for at home. That way I’m never without,” Bella said. “Anyone want to go with me?”
    “The Wellfleet Flea Market?” Evan asked.
    “Yeah. Do you want to go?” Bella was asking Evan but looking at Caden with a glimmer of hope in her eyes.
    “Ev?” Please say you want to