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either chosen a table or Erika would have sat next to her.
    Ash’s hard thigh pressed into hers. His warm masculine scent seemed to surround her. And had his shoulders always been so wide? At one point, he leaned back and threw his arm casually along the back of the booth, making her feel cornered. Whenever she shifted away from him, he seemed to expand and take over the available space so that they were always touching.
    At the end of the meal, Ariadne noticed that the waitress had accidently combined the bill for her breakfast and Asher’s. She calculated her portion of the bill and opened her purse to pay her half. Ash’s hand covered hers. “I’ve got you. You’re my wife.”
    “Oh, God,” Erika groaned from the other side of the table. She shoved at Ted’s shoulder. “Let me out. I have to go to the restroom.” Ted stood to let Erika out of the corner of the booth.
    “Maybe I should go with her,” Ariadne said after a second.
    Ash slid out so that she could get out. “Sure. If we’re not here when you get back, meet us at the car.”
    She pushed into the women’s bathroom and glanced around. Erika had her hands braced on the sink. She stared at her reflection. “Erika, are you all right?”
    “This was just too sudden, you know? I just need a little time to adjust.”
    Even knowing about Erika’s crush, Ariadne couldn’t have imagined this strong of a reaction. She was a happily married woman. Wasn’t she? “Erika, what is going on here? Everything is okay between you and Ted, right?”
    “What? Yeah, of course. We’re even thinking about starting a family.”
    Ariadne frowned. “Then I don’t understand. This is a…” She glanced under the doors of the bathroom stalls to make sure that they were alone. They were. “This isn’t a real marriage. Why are you acting like it’s going to be permanent? You know I wouldn’t do that to you.”
    Erika pressed her lips together. Shaking her head, she sighed. “I’m sorry, Ari. You’re right. I’m being silly.” She washed her hands. “Come on. Let’s go. I want to work on my tan.”
    “Mine is fine as it is,” Ari replied with a smile. “I’ll keep you company under the shade of an umbrella.”
     
    ***
     
    “Why not me, Ash?”
    He looked up from his survey of the sun setting on the water. Erika stood over him in a tiny flesh colored bikini that made her look naked. Ash had just returned from a quick swim. He’d thought the girls were in the kitchen baking muffins. “What?” he asked, not understanding her question. He stood so that he didn’t have to look up at her and so that he would have a better vantage point to watch Ted swimming back to shore.
    “Why didn’t you ever want me?”
    He whipped his head around to stare at her. He hoped she was kidding, but he could see the sincerity in her pretty brown eyes. Damn , he’d thought she’d gotten over that school girl crush shit. “You know your brother would have killed me if I so much as looked at you.” Erika was pretty and attractive in a bubbly way. He wasn’t blind. He’d taken a single glance at her legs one day by their family pool and Chad had warned him that he’d knock his teeth down his throat if he tried anything with his sister. Asher had a real fondness for his teeth and there were plenty of other pretty girls without older brothers that he could pursue.
    “Then why not when we were away at college? Chad wasn’t around to stop you.”
    He turned his attention back to the water, willing Ted to come back in quicker. “Would you really have wanted me to notice you?” He ran a hand through his hair so that it stopped dripping in his face. It was time for a haircut. “You and I are friends. You know how I was then. I didn’t do lasting relationships. Trust me, you’d hate me now.” He pointed out at the water. “Besides I was still friends with Chad. And then there was Ted. He was head over heels about you. I couldn’t offer you that.” And he wouldn’t