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all can ride with me and Leo.”
    “Beach towels,” Sophie said weakly.
    “I’ll get them!” Lacey piped up, racing from the room.

S ophie scanned the living room. “Will I need my purse? I could hide it somewhere…”
    Lacey ran up, clutching so many towels she could scarcely see over them. Jonah relieved her of them and nodded toward the door.
    Jonah said, “Mom. Put it in the car. Lock the car. Let’s go.” Taller than his mom, Jonah was a lanky boy not yet comfortable with his height—boy, did Trevor remember those days.
    Leo buckled himself into his car seat in the backseat of Trevor’s Passat. All their stuff was in the rear hatch, except for a bunch of books, snacks, and car toys. Trevor swept them onto the floor to let Lacey and Jonah squeeze into the backseat. Sophie sat in the passenger seat, snapping her seat belt immediately.
    Trevor shot her a look. “I’m not going to speed. I’ve got a child in the car.”
    “Of course. Sorry. I—sorry.”
    In the rearview mirror, Trevor saw Jonah roll his eyes.
    It took only five minutes to make the drive to Surfside Beach. By the time Trevor pulled the car into the parking lot, he found a lot of empty spaces. People were trudging up the path from the beach, lugging baskets and beach chairs, their skin fluorescent from a day in the sun.
    “No lifeguard on duty, dude,” one guy told them as the group headed down toward the ocean.
    Trevor nodded and gestured thanks. Leo held on tight to Trevor’s hand and his eyes were all over the place, checking out Jonah and Lacey and the view at the bottom of the dune where the beach stretched to the end of the world and the blue waves rolled in.
    “Look, Mommy!” Lacey shot ahead of the group toward the water.
    “Don’t go in the ocean! There’s no lifeguard!” Sophie shouted. When her daughter paid no attention to her, she pleaded, “Jonah.”
    The long-limbed teen covered the ground easily. He took his sister’s hand, bent down, and spoke to her. She kicked off her flip-flops and rolled up her pink flowered trousers.
    “Your son’s a good guy,” Trevor told Sophie.
    “He is,” Sophie agreed. Glancing up at Trevor, she asked softly, “Do you think a boy can be too good?”
    Trevor looked away, tilting his head as if he were reflecting on her question. In fact, he was dealing with the electricity that zapped him when their eyes met. So much was going on inside that woman’s head and he was a man who loved complications. Still, that had gotten him into trouble with Tallulah.
    “I mean, Jonah has friends and everything. He’s not weird or odd, I’m not saying that. It’s, well, I don’t know how to explain it—he’s been acting different lately.” Sophie shook her head, laughing at herself. “I must sound a bit demented, sharing intimate details with a stranger like this. But you’re a man. You might have some insight.”
    “Maybe just a little,” joked Trevor, before saying, “It’s hard to be a teenage boy.” He mentally kicked himself for such a lame statement.
    “I’m sure you’re right.” Sophie ran off to join her children.
    Trevor tore his attention away from the way her butt looked in her jeans and knelt down next to his son. “Let’s take your sandals off and we can wade in the water.” Seeing fear flash across his son’s face, he added, “I won’t let go of you, I promise.”
    The sun was still high in the sky; they were only a few days past the longest day of the year. The sand beneath Trevor’s bare feet was soft and hot from the day’s sun. Warm water frothed up around his ankles. Plenty of people still populated the long stretch of beach, dozing facedown on beach towels or reading or lounging in beach chairs, sipping bright-colored drinks in plastic glasses. Tallulah would have loved this, Trevor thought cynically. She would have put on her skimpiest bikini and sauntered along the water’s edge, allowing everyone to get a good look at her in all her voluptuous