“Too much,” Ellis said. “The place could be nice, you know? It’s a gorgeous old house, but the furniture’s really ratty, and the house itself could use a lot of maintenance. I’ve had to really keep after Mr. Culpepper to take care of stuff like the stove and a leaking faucet. And don’t even ask about the flea situation.” She shuddered and held out an ankle. “Look—it looks like I’ve had the measles.”

Ty considered her ankle. It was a pretty ankle. Ellis had nice ankles, and good legs, and the outfit she was wearing—a tight-fitting tank top and some kinda girly boxer shorts with ridiculous cupcakes printed all over them—was an excellent look for her. It didn’t hurt that she was obviously braless, another look Ty was highly in favor of.

She caught him taking in more than her ankles, and quickly tucked her feet primly under her chair, all the while blushing furiously.

“Mind if I ask you something?” Ty said quickly, hoping she’d forgive his ogling.

“Depends on what it is.”

“What is it about women? I mean, the three of you are scattered all over the place—but you still take the trouble to rent a house and spend a whole month together. What’s up with that? I mean, I have buddies, old friends, but I can’t imagine any of us spending a weekend away together, let alone a month.”

Ellis shrugged. “Why wouldn’t we want to spend time together? These are my best friends in the whole world. We’ve been through a lot together. You know, all that teenage drama, and then college, and family stuff. Dorie’s parents had a nasty divorce when we were in middle school, and then I lost my dad a few years ago, and both Julia’s parents are dead now. And don’t get me started on the men stuff.”

She hesitated, and then plunged ahead. “I don’t know if I could have gotten through my divorce if it weren’t for Dorie and Julia. It was an awful time for me, but they were totally there for me. Julia took the train down from a magazine shoot she’d been doing in New York and actually moved in with me for two weeks. I was a pathetic mess. I eventually took a leave of absence from work, but Julia refused to let me wallow in my misery. She made me eat, get my hair cut and colored, and go back to work. And Dorie—she’s a schoolteacher, so she couldn’t just drop everything, but she called me every night and every morning, for months, just to see how I was doing.”

Ty raised an eyebrow. “You’re divorced?”

She blushed again. She really was good at it, too.

“It was a long time ago. I got married right out of college. I was young and dumb. It lasted all of three months. Crazy, huh?”

“What happened?”

Ellis gave it some thought. “We worked at the same bank. He was different from the guys I’d dated back home. He was the same age as me, but he seemed older, you know, very sure of himself, and he gave me this big rush. I didn’t really know him. He didn’t really know me. I guess I was in love with the idea of being in love with him. And then, after the big wedding, when we were actually living together, away from our families and friends and everybody, it turned out he wasn’t such a nice guy. In fact, it turned out he was a total shit.”

Ty frowned. “What, he hit you or something?”

“Nothing as dramatic as that,” Ellis said. “One night at dinner, he just announced the ‘marriage thing’ wasn’t working, and that he’d discovered he didn’t actually love me.”

“That must have sucked.”

She turned and leveled a gaze at him. “Why am I telling you all of this? I never, ever talk about my divorce, except to the girls. And here I am, spilling my guts to you.”

“And you don’t even like me,” Ty said helpfully.

“You didn’t make a very good first impression,” she reminded him.

“Hey!” he protested. “I didn’t know you were spying on me. You could have let me know you were standing there or something, you know.”

“Do you always parade around in your drawers and pee in public?” Ellis asked. “What if somebody else had seen you? Like a child? You could get arrested for public indecency.”

“It was early. Nobody ever gets to that part of the beach that time of day. And anyway, somebody would really have to work at seeing me from the beach, what with the dunes and the sea oats and everything.”

“We see you from that part of the beach,” she said pointedly.

“And I haven’t hardly walked out on the deck in my boxers at all lately, either,” Ty said. “Anyway, can I help it if you and your gorgeous friends choose to run around in your skimpy bathing suits right outside my deck? I mean, it would be un-American if I didn’t appreciate the natural beauty right there on the beach.”

“Humph,” she humphed. But the corners of her lips twitched slightly. She concluded that up close like this, Ty Bazemore wasn’t nearly as repulsive. In fact, he was alarmingly attractive, with his rumpled hair and cleft chin. She’d always been a sucker for a cleft chin.

“I’ll just bet you do enjoy looking at Dorie and Julia,” she said lightly. “I mean, Julia’s a model, and as for Dorie, well, no matter what she does to try to hide it, she’s always had the kind of looks that draws men like flies.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, they’re okay,” he said. “Especially the curvy little redhead. But actually, since you mention it, you’re pretty killer in a bathing suit yourself, Ellis Sullivan. Especially that black one-piece.”

She gaped at him, blushing furiously.

He grinned innocently. “Hey, don’t look at me like that. It’s a simple observation. A compliment. No need to call the vice squad.”

This conversation was taking a decidedly personal turn, Ellis decided. She fought the urge to cut and run. Ty Bazemore had just told her he liked her black bathing suit. She should stay and flirt. She remembered how to flirt, didn’t she?

In the meantime, he was still looking at her, lazily taking in those stupid cupcake boxers and her flimsy tanktop. Panic set in again. She yawned widely and stood to go.

“Bedtime,” she said. “Well, good night.”

“So soon?” he said, standing up lazily. “What’s your hurry?”

“No hurry,” she said lightly, starting back up the boardwalk towards the house. “It’s been a long day and I’m tired, that’s all.”

“I scared you with that compliment, didn’t I?” he called. “Funny, you didn’t strike me as a wussy.”

That stopped her in her tracks. Wussy? Who was he calling a wussy?

She marched right back to the deck, stopping when she was inches away from him. “You take that back,” she said, her fists clenched. “I killed a rattlesnake in my backyard with a shovel when I was ten. My daddy was standing right there but he was terrified of snakes. He barfed when he saw what I’d done. I was the only girl at our neighborhood pool who would backward dive off the high dive. I was the quarterback on my college coed flag-football team, and I broke my nose and played the next day anyway. I am not a wussy.”

It was all true—all except for the high-dive part. But he didn’t know that.

“You’re scared of me though,” Ty said, looking her right in the eyes.

“Am not.”

“Prove it.”

Her eyes narrowed. “How?”

“Like this,” he said, pulling her towards him and sliding his arms around her waist. His mouth was an inch from hers, her eyes half closed. “You’re afraid to kiss me,” he taunted, his lips barely grazing hers.

“Am not,” she said, her breath catching as she said it.

“Prove it.”

She sighed impatiently, wrapped her arms around his neck, tilted her face to his and kissed him softly. Her lips were full and warm with promise. Gently, he pulled her closer, gathering the soft fabric of her shorts into his hands. With his tongue, he teased her lips apart. She melted into his chest. For a moment. And then, without warning, she wriggled out of his arms.

“Told ya I wasn’t a wussy,” she said, and then Ellis Sullivan, flying cupcake boxers and all, was scampering up the walkway in the bright moonlight. He slowly followed, pausing to take a last look at the water, and when he got to the deck of his own place, he looked over at Ebbtide, just in time to see the next-to-last light in the house blink off.