I peek up at Bobby. “Instead of waiting for me to arrive, maybe you should whisk me away from this shindig.”

Bobby laughs. “Shindig?”

“I thought I should use a word appropriate for how you’re dressed.”

His eyes twinkle. “You don’t like it?”

My brows hitch up. “Oh, I definitely like. We need to clean you up more often. Very sexy. Very hot in that suit.”

“Sexy enough that you might want to slip away now and find somewhere to be alone?”

I can feel my eyes grow sparkly and I lean into him. “I’d love it, but I think we should wait until the party really gets going so no one notices us cutting out. I don’t want Mom getting all butt-hurt today.”

He takes my hand. “Then come on. I’m going to eat. You’re going to eat. We’re going to sit through the toasts. Dance. And the second the happy couple takes off, we’re going somewhere so I can get out of this suit.”

I hold my lower lip between my teeth, gnawing on it a few times. “Out of the suit, huh? I kind of like you in it.”

“You’ll like it better when it’s off,” he whispers, his lips close to my ear. “It’s been a week, Kaley.”

I pout. “Not my fault. And I hated being on lockdown.”

He kisses my nose. “Then don’t get grounded again.”

“We’re at Grandpa Jack’s. I’m on temporary parole.” I grin salaciously. “And I know just the place to go when we slip out of here.”

“Oh, thank you.” His body shudders against me.

Laughing, I take his hand and cut through the people toward the buffet.

Eight hours later, the reception is raging. Mom and Alan are still at the party which makes it pretty much no bueno to disappear.

I sway on the dance floor, clutched against Bobby, our bodies barely moving, and we’re both beyond ready to be out of here.

Jeez, why aren’t the newlyweds out of here?

“If we don’t find someplace private soon,” Bobby whispers, “I’m going to explode.”

I giggle. “Me, too.”

I rapidly scan the room. “Follow me. No one important is by the exit. We’re busting out of here.”

He grins, very happy, and I flush and grab his hand. Once we’re outside, we both start to laugh.

“Grandpa Jack has a pool house.”

“I knew there was something I liked about Jack.”

In a few seconds we’re alone, kneeling on the bed, rapidly undressing each other. His hands run down my hips, then my legs, closing around my ankles and giving me a tug until I’m flat on my back.

He puts on a condom, covers me with his body and presses his mouth over mind as he sinks himself deep inside me. I convulse as he pumps into me, gloriously wet between my thighs even though we fast-forwarded past foreplay and went directly to fucking.

Seeing Bobby nude and ready; yep, that was enough to get me on fire before he even touched me.

“Bobby…ah…ah..,” I cry as he sinks into me faster and faster.

I wrap my legs around his hips and he scoops my butt from the bed, up and into his hard thrusts. I’m close, so close, and I can tell by the tension across his back and the twitching of his arms that he is, too.

“Open your eyes, Kaley. Watch what you do to me.”

My lids flutter wide.

That’s it.

I come apart, staring at him, jaw tense as he spills into me. He collapses down on me and we’re both laughing. He turns us until we’re on our backs.

He kisses my forehead. “We could have done that hours ago. We would have been back at the party before anyone noticed us gone.”

I kiss his chest.

He groans. “I don’t want to go back to the ’Sades tonight without you.”

I lean up and stare down at him. “It’s so stupid that I have to stay here with the rest of the kids while Mom and Alan are off on their honeymoon. I should be able to be home alone if I want to.”

He brushes the hair back from my face. “We’ll figure something out. Another week without seeing you. Nope, not doing it.”

My eyes widen. “Ask Grandpa Jack if you can stay. He’d probably love it. You can surf with him.”

He sighs, running a hand through his hair. “I already did. About an hour into the reception. The answer was hell no.”

*  *  *

An hour later, we slip quietly back into the tent. My face falls. Mom and Alan are gone. I missed it.

For some reason my glowing mood deserts me.

“Do you want to stay at the party?” Bobby asks. “It doesn’t look like it’s winding down anytime soon.”

I shake my head. “No, can we go walk on the beach for a while before you have to leave?”

“Sure. Whatever you want.” He smiles. “And I’m not leaving until Jack throws me out.”

I make a small laugh and he drapes his arm around my shoulders. We turn and head for the steps built into the cliffs.

Bobby pauses at the top, staring down at the beach. “I think this is a bust, Kaley. I’m pretty sure that’s security at the bottom blocking access to shoreline.”

“Yep, put them there myself, just to keep you two out of trouble,” teases a voice from behind me.

I whirl to see Grandpa Jack sitting on a chaise.

I roll my eyes. “Very funny, Poppy.”

He grins. “I’m getting old. I need help. Something tells me I’m definitely going to have to be on my game this week.”

I flush, but Bobby laughs.

Jack’s magnificent eyes gleam. He points at the lounger next to him. “Come sit with your grandfather and talk for a while. I didn’t get two moments alone with you in there, Kaley.”

I stop Bobby with a hand on his arm. “Whatever you do, don’t go for a walk alone with him,” I whisper fiercely into his ear.

Bobby frowns, amused. “Why? I like Jack.”

“Don’t do it.” I give him a wide-eyed, intense stare before we step back from the cliffs.

We settle on the vacant chair beside Jack, me in the V of Bobby’s legs, leaning back into his chest with his arms around me.

“It was pretty cool that you were able to become a licensed justice of the peace so you could marry them,” Bobby says.

Jack smiles. “You kids aren’t the only ones who know how to make the most of the Internet.” And then his gaze shifts to me. “You can find just about anything online these days.”

My body covers in prickles.

Oh crap, why does it feels like Jack knows about my blog, my websites and my Kaley’s World videos? Even Bobby doesn’t know about Kaley’s World and I fully intend to keep it that way.

“You doing OK, baby girl?”

“Sure, Poppy. Why wouldn’t I be?”

Jack shakes his head in that I’m not buying it way he has.

“Your mom marrying again. Not exactly a small life change for you. It would be understandable if you weren’t doing completely well with this.”

He says it so quietly that I almost miss it and then it shoots through my body at once, what he’s saying beyond the words, and how he’s trying to be there for me without betraying my mother.

“You forget, I’ve lived with Alan before. This change is a repeat.”

Jack’s blue eyes meet mine directly. “Nothing in life is a repeat. Not this moment. Not the next. You don’t have to pretend it’s nothing to you if it is.”

“I’m not pretending anything,” I exclaim, irritation slipping into my voice.

Jack nods, his lips scrunched up together, his chin moving out just a touch in that way he sometimes has with me that I know means he wants to say more and won’t.

Jack stares at the ocean. “Even with the best map, Kaley, you’ll still find unexpected roads. I have. Your mom has. Alan has, and you and Bobby won’t be any different. The trick is to travel the ones you should and avoid the ones that will hurt you. But sometimes you can’t tell the difference, you go too far down a road, and end up lost and not knowing how to turn around. No matter how hard we all try to pick the right road, we all at times go the wrong way.”

I study him trying to figure out where he’s going with this and why now.

“Are you saying that’s what my mother did?” I ask. “Picked a wrong road and doesn’t know how to turn around? It looks to me like she just did a giant U-turn today.”