Lacey could not remember a night so hot since moving into the keeper’s house, and in spite of the sunblock she’d worn while sitting on the dunes with Olivia, her skin felt tender and sore and she could not get comfortable in bed. She heard a door creak open in the hallway and tried to pinpoint the direction the sound had come from. Mackenzie’s room?

She got out of bed and opened her own door. In the light from the small lamp they kept burning in the hallway, she could see Mackenzie heading for the stairs.

“Are you all right?” Lacey asked her.

“I can’t sleep,” Mackenzie said. “It’s too hot.” She had on plaid boxer-style shorts and a cropped tank top, tight across her barely-there breasts. Her hair was tousled, probably from tossing and turning in bed, and some of it was plastered to her forehead with perspiration. She looked like a skinny little kid who didn’t quite know what to do with herself.

“I have an idea,” Lacey said, whispering. She didn’t want to wake up the others if they had managed to fall asleep. “Let’s put on our bathing suits and go for a swim.”

“In the dark?” Mackenzie looked dubious. “You’re kidding.”

“Ssh.” Lacey pressed a finger to her lips. “No, I’m not kidding. Wouldn’t it feel great?”

“Maybe.” Mackenzie still did not look convinced. “But I don’t want to go in deep.” Other than playing with Rani where the waves washed onto the shore, Mackenzie had not gone into the ocean once since arriving in Kiss River.

“Well, we’ll just go in up to our knees, then,” Lacey said. “Come on. It’ll feel so good.”

Mackenzie nodded. “All right.”

“Let’s get into our bathing suits,” Lacey said.

“Okay,” Mackenzie said, turning toward her room. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

Lacey returned to her own room, pulled on her green one-piece bathing suit, took two beach towels from her closet, and met Mackenzie in the hallway. They tiptoed down the stairs, but once they’d reached the first story, it became clear that they were not the only members of the house awake in the middle of the night: the light was on in the sunroom.

“It looks like Bobby’s still working,” Lacey said. She knew he’d spent the afternoon photographing the finished belt buckle before mailing it to the woman who had commissioned the piece.

“Let’s ask him to go with us,” Mackenzie said.

They walked into the sunroom, where Bobby was working on a drawing for his next piece of scrimshaw. He looked up from the table.

“Looks like you guys can’t sleep, either,” he said.

“We’re going swimming,” Mackenzie announced. “Want to come?”

“That sounds like a damn good idea.” Bobby leaned back in his chair. He rubbed his eyes as he turned out the halogen lamp on the worktable. “I’ll change and join you out there.”

The night was still and breathless when Lacey and Mackenzie stepped onto the porch. “Ssh,” Lacey said as they started walking toward the beach. “Let’s not wake up Wolf.” When Lacey had walked past the dog’s kennel that morning, Wolf had literally jumped onto the chain-link fencing, hanging there for a minute, all four paws somehow clutching the wire mesh. She’d stopped, frozen in her tracks, afraid he was going to actually climb over the fence to get at her. The thought of him barking and snarling at her in the darkness, when she couldn’t see well enough to know that he was safe inside the enclosure, was not reassuring.

Passing the lighthouse, she could see that the ocean was as calm as the sound tonight, as if the heat had sapped its energy as well as theirs, and the quarter-moon was reflected intact in the water. There was no rush of waves to the shore, but instead, the sea gently lapped against the sand. If Mackenzie was ever to get up the courage to go into the ocean, tonight should be the night.

“Look at this, Mackenzie,” she said, dropping their towels to the sand. “Have you ever seen it more beautiful?”

“It is pretty cool-looking,” Mackenzie admitted as she headed for the shallow water. She marched around in a circle, kicking up sprays of seawater with her feet. “Oh, this feels so good!” she said.

Lacey walked past her until she was in the water up to her thighs. She turned around to look at Mackenzie. “Let’s go in deeper,” she said. “It’s so calm.”

Mackenzie sat down on the wet sand, letting the water lap at her legs. “I’m all right here,” she said. “And you’ve got your back to the ocean. You’re not supposed to do that.”

“That’s true,” Lacey said. “But there are practically no waves tonight, so I don’t think it’s a problem.”

She spotted Bobby walking toward the beach, shirtless, dressed in baggy shorts and carrying a towel. He looked good, and she was so pleased to have him joining them that it scared her.

“How did you like the dunes today?” she asked Mackenzie, struggling to return her attention to the girl. Mackenzie’s mood had improved considerably after the visit to Jockey’s Ridge.

“Awesome,” Mackenzie admitted.

“How’s the water?” Bobby called. He was sloshing through the ankle-deep pool of salt water surrounding the lighthouse. Mackenzie remained seated, but she twisted her spine to be able to look at him.

“Awesome!” she repeated.

“I’ve had baths in water colder than this.” Bobby had reached the shore where Mackenzie was sitting. He tapped the top of her head. “Come on, Mack,” he said, walking past her. “Let’s really get wet.”

He was headed toward Lacey, grinning his cockeyed grin. Oh, God. She had seen him in at least five different T-shirts, but she had never seen him bare chested before—at least, not since she was fourteen. He was slender, but his pectoral muscles were well-defined, and the line of hair running from his navel to where it disappeared beneath his shorts set up a longing in her. She wanted to run her finger down that trail of hair. She wanted to slip her hand beneath the waistband of his shorts. She’d fought those feelings this past year. Fought them hard every time she saw a man who might have the ability to elicit them. Now they were bubbling up inside of her like steam. He’s your test, she reminded herself, but even as that thought entered her mind, she knew this was one test she was going to fail.

“Well, I don’t know about the two of you, but I’m going to cool off,” he said, then he dove into the water behind Lacey. Surfacing, he turned to look back at the two of them. “It’s beautiful out here,” he said. “Come on, you guys.”

Lacey looked at Mackenzie. “You willing?” she asked.

Mackenzie shook her head, getting to her feet. “I’m, like, totally cooled off now,” she said. “I’m going back to bed.”

“Are you sure?” Lacey asked, and Mackenzie nodded. Lacey turned to wave to Bobby, who was now treading the deeper water a distance behind her. “I’m going to walk Mackenzie up to the house,” she called.

“You come back, all right?” Bobby asked, and even in the faint moonlight, she could see the crooked grin.

She walked Mackenzie toward the house. Wolf heard them, and let out a few barks that she hoped would not awaken Clay or Gina or Rani. At the back door they used their towels to wipe sand from their feet.

“You don’t have to come in with me,” Mackenzie said.

“I need to use the bathroom before I go back out,” Lacey said, but it was a lie. Her heart was pounding hard against her rib cage as she walked up the stairs next to Mackenzie. At the door to her room, she put her arm around the girl and kissed her temple. “Good night, honey,” she whispered. “Hope you can sleep now.”

In her room, Lacey shut the door behind her and leaned against it, eyes closed. What are you doing? she asked herself. What the hell are you doing?

She could not let herself think too much for too long. Opening her eyes, she walked over to her closet and pulled down a small overnight case from the top shelf. Inside the case, she found what she was looking for: a box of condoms. Her fingers shook as she pulled one from the box. It was too dark to see the expiration date, and it had been a year since she’d touched this box, but right now, she didn’t give a damn if it had expired or not. She wrapped the condom in her towel and left her bedroom.

On the beach, she dropped the towel on the sand, and walked into the water. Bobby was floating on his back, but he stood up in waist-deep water as she neared him. She was walking so quickly that she left a wake behind her, and as if he knew what she had in mind, he took a step toward her, opening his arms, reaching for her, pulling her against him.

“God.” He breathed into her hair, and she felt his hand against the back of her head. “You look so sexy in that bathing suit.”

Drawing her head away from him, she let herself look directly into his eyes for what seemed like the first time since his arrival, letting herself feel the temptation she’d been running from for the past few weeks. He ran his fingertip over her lower lip, and she turned her head slightly to let his finger slip into her mouth. It tasted like salt, and all she could think about was having him touch her body with that salty finger, having him run it over her nipples and slip it deep inside her. He drew his finger from between her lips and tilted his head to kiss her. The kiss reached someplace deep in her belly, and it flowered there into something huge and hungry, making her groan. She hung on to him to keep from being swept away by the gentle current as they kissed again, and she felt her body shaking as if she was cold.

He rubbed his hands up and down her arms. “Goose bumps,” he said. “Are you chilly?”

She shook her head. “I’m anything but chilly,” she said. They gazed at each other, and she saw the desire in his eyes. She lowered her hand from his shoulder, running the back of her fingers down his body, from his breastbone to the place where that line of hair disappeared beneath his shorts, and she heard him suck in his breath. Moving his hands to her hips, he pulled her gently against him so that she could feel his erection.

Letting go of him, she smiled as she lowered the straps of her bathing suit. He watched as she lowered herself into the water up to her shoulders, and as she slipped out of the suit, she felt the cool water against the heat of her body. She released her grasp on the suit, letting the sea carry it away, not caring if she lost it, and stood up again. Bobby let out his breath, reaching up with one hand to touch her breast. Shutting her eyes, she felt him circle the areola with the tip of his finger, over and over again, teasing her, before he leaned over to draw her nipple into his mouth.

She slipped her fingers under the waistband of his bathing suit. “Give me more,” she said. She used the buoyancy of the water to wrap her legs around him, pressing her body hard against his erection.

“Jesus, Lacey.” He cupped his hands beneath her thighs, helping to hold her up, and she felt his fingers inching toward that place she was longing for him to touch. Not here, though. Not right now.

“I have a condom on the beach,” she said, and she leaned her head back to watch his expression turn from lustful to amused.

“You conniving little hussy,” he said, grinning.

The word hurt; she couldn’t help it. Maybe because it felt too close to the truth. “Don’t call me that, okay?” she asked him. She knew he was only teasing her, but that word had been used to describe her more times than she cared to remember.

He must have heard the pain in her voice, because a worried crease appeared between his eyebrows.

“I’m sorry,” he said. He let go of her thighs, and she lowered her feet to the sand.

“It’s all right.” She smiled at him and took his hand. “Let’s go.”

They had made love on the beach twelve years earlier, but it might as well have been a lifetime ago. Lacey lay in his arms afterward, in the darkness, her legs twisted around his, her head on his chest and her heart heavy with shame. She was crying, very quietly, so that Bobby wouldn’t know. Crying for the confused fourteen-year-old she’d once been. Had that night with him been the start of everything? The beginning of her downfall? That little girl had had no idea what she was doing or why she was doing it. All she knew was that she needed to be held. And Bobby had barely held her at all back then, just used her and left her. And even though he was holding her now, it wasn’t enough to erase the pain she felt inside. She was still that little girl, she thought. She might be a better sexual partner than she had been back then, but she still had no idea what she was doing or why.

“Are you all right?” he asked her.

She did not want to have to explain what was moving her to tears, so she made her voice strong as she answered him. “I’m fine,” she said.

A moment passed before he spoke again. “No, you’re not,” he said, rubbing her back.

She shut her eyes. All she wanted was to be inside the keeper’s house, upstairs in her bed, asleep. She wanted to walk away from him, like she had from all the others, and yet she knew it would not be so easy this time.

“Come on,” he said, gently giving her shoulders a squeeze. “Spill it.”

She breathed in the scent of the sea from his skin. “Too hard,” she said, her voice so muffled she doubted he could hear her. “It’s too hard for me to explain.”

“Is it Rick?”

“No,” she said quickly. “No. Rick and I don’t have that kind of relationship. At least, not yet.”

“What is it then?”

She could feel him stroking her hair, playing with it. “It’s my mother,” she said, and his hand suddenly stopped moving.

“I don’t get it,” he said.

Lacey licked her lips. “A year ago, I found out that my mother had been unfaithful to my father.”

“With Tom,” Bobby said.

“Yes, with Tom,” she said, “but with many, many, many other men as well.” She lifted her head to look at him. “Tom doesn’t know any of this,” she said. “Please don’t say—”

He pressed his fingers to her lips. “I won’t,” he said. “How did you find this out about your mother?”

“My father told me. He hadn’t known about it, either, until Mary Poor, the old lighthouse keeper who used to live here, told him.”

“How on earth did she know?”

“Because this is where my mother brought her lovers,” Lacey said. “She and Mary had some sort of…I don’t know. Some deal or something. Mary would let my mother bring men here. She cheated on my father over and over and over again. She was…she was a slut. There’s no other word for it. That’s why I can’t get that victim’s impact statement written. Every time I try to write about how terrible it was that my family lost a wife and mother, I think about what a lying, cheating, two-faced tramp she was.” She winced as the words left her mouth. They felt blasphemous.

“Why didn’t she ask your father for a divorce if she wanted to be with other men?”

“You’re being logical, and my mother was anything but,” she said. “She was an incredibly complicated person. I always knew she was complicated, but until a year ago, I had no idea how much. She loved my dad. I believe she truly did, with all her heart. But something drove her to have all these other guys.” She squeezed her eyes closed more tightly. “And the scary thing is,” she said, “I seem to have inherited the…the slut gene.”

He laughed, and she could hardly blame him. “I don’t think that’s possible,” he said.

She lifted her head to look at him. “I know it sounds ludicrous,” she said, “but Bobby, I was repeating the pattern and I didn’t even know that she’d been like that.”

“What do you mean, you were repeating the pattern?”

She sat up and reached for her beach towel, wrapping it around her shoulders in spite of the fact that she was still very warm. She had a sudden need to cover herself from his eyes. “Until a year ago, I had one lover after another with no steady relationship,” she said. “I avoided anyone who wanted to get closer. I avoided anything deep. It was so bad that my family was worried about me and I know some people—maybe a lot of people—talked about me. After I found out about my mother last summer, I made a pact with myself that I’d stop.”

“Did you see a counselor?” He was looking at her, but seemed to know better than to touch her.

“Yes.”

“Did she say you were a sex addict?”

“She said I didn’t fit the criteria.”

“Were you able to stop?” He was asking a lot of questions, but she thought she owed him the answers.

“Yes,” she said. “Until tonight.”

He smiled at her. “I contend that tonight is different, though,” he said. “Or am I just kidding myself?”

She shook her head. “I’m sorry, Bobby,” she said. “I just don’t know. All I know is that I wanted you to make love to me. But it’s not as simple as it was with all the other guys, because you’re Mackenzie’s father. I have too many other feelings for you. They complicate things.”

“That’s the way it’s supposed to be, Lace,” he said, reaching up to run his hand down her arm. “It’s not supposed to be just about sex.”

“You’re the type I’ve always been drawn to,” she said. “The wild sort of guy. I can spot a bad boy across a room.”

“I’m really not a bad boy,” he said. “Maybe once upon a time, but not now. And I’m not interested in only having sex with you.”

She sighed and dropped her head, feeling defeated. “I think I need to revisit my therapist,” she said.

“Not a bad idea.”

Resting her cheek on her knees, she studied his face. The whites of his eyes looked luminous in the darkness. “Do you think I’m a sex addict?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” he said. “Are you into porn?”

“Ugh. No. Not at all.”

“Are you preoccupied with sexual fantasies?”

She shook her head, amazed she was sitting here, having this conversation with him.

“Do you always feel as bad after sex as you’re feeling right now?” There was a small, sad smile on his lips.

“I didn’t used to,” she said. “But tonight I feel…disappointed in myself. Weak.”

With a sigh, Bobby sat up and looked out to sea. There was a light in the distance, a ship out there, traveling through the dark night. “I don’t think you’re the classic sex addict,” he said, turning to look at her. “But I do think you have some things to work out.”

She nodded. “That’s why I’ve been hanging around with Rick. I’m not at all attracted to him.”

Bobby laughed. “You’re beautiful,” he said, “but I’m afraid one of your beautiful screws is loose.”

She nodded. “I know,” she admitted. “But it’s like…” She watched the light make its way slowly along the horizon as she struggled to gather her thoughts. “It’s like you’re the equivalent of my mother’s lovers, and Rick is the equivalent of my father.”

He said nothing, and she knew she had spoken too freely. She’d hurt him.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “That sounded awful.”

“It’s okay,” he said.

“I’m afraid of you,” she admitted. “I mean, I’m afraid of how I feel around you. Of losing control, like I did tonight. I’m not afraid of Rick.”

“He seems very safe.” Bobby acknowledged the truth.

“I think he could be good for me,” she said.

“You make him sound like cod liver oil,” he said, “and when’s the last time you had a swig of that stuff?”

“Bobby, I’m really sorry,” she said again. “I feel like I used you tonight. Like I took advantage of you.”

He smiled at that, then sobered. “I was going to invite you to take advantage of me any time you like, but after all you just told me, I know that’s not what you need to hear.”

He stood up, and she turned away as he pulled on his shorts. She looked toward the dark shoreline, wondering what had become of her own bathing suit.

“Come on.” He held his hand out to her.

She got to her feet, rearranging the towel around herself before taking his hand and walking with him toward the house.

“Will we be okay?” she asked as they neared the porch. “You and me? I mean, we have to be able to get along all right, for Mackenzie’s sake.”

“Of course we’ll be okay, Lacey,” he said. “Though if you expect me to forget that tonight happened…” He shook his head. “I can’t do that.”

She nodded, knowing she could never ask that of him. She didn’t even want to, because despite the pain it had caused her, despite her shame and disappointment, she didn’t want to forget it, either.