Last Resort (The Grayton Series Book 1) by Jill Sanders

and enjoyed the cool treat. He’d been eating at the small business for as long as he could remember, yet he didn’t even know who owned the place. He knew that if the hut had been along Cassey’s boardwalk, she would know the owners and their whole life stories, as well. He wondered exactly what that said about him as a person.
    “ This is incredible,” Cassey said, breaking his deep thoughts. He smiled over at her. “I’ve never had Italian ice before; it’s basically ice cream, right?”  
    He chuckled. “It’s actually closer to sorbet. He held up a spoonful of his favorite, pina colada. “Here, try this one.”
    He watched as she took his spoon into her mouth and closed her eyes. “Yum.” Her tongue darted out to lick her bottom lip. “That’s as good as the raspberry.”
    He smiled and nodded. “Calvin’s favorite was raspberry.”
    She smiled. “My sister, Marissa, loved pina colada. My brothers always had one favorite, orange.” She chuckled. “It’s funny, they could never agree on what to have for dinner, or to drink, but always agreed on orange sorbet.”
    “ I’d like to meet them sometime,” he blurted out before he knew what he was doing. He didn’t know what had caused him to say it and didn’t even know if he really did want to meet them. But the more time he spent with Cassey, the more time he wanted to spend with her.  
    He understood their arrangement, that it was just physical. He really wasn’t looking for a long-term relationship, especially one he already knew his father wouldn’t approve of. Not that he needed his father’s approval to date a woman. Hell, if he thought about it, he wanted a woman his folks didn’t approve of. But there was already so much his father was up in arms about. Most of it was his fault, some of it wasn’t, but he was sure his father would find a way to blame him for them anyway.
    He sighed and tried to focus on the now instead of the old arguments with his father.
    “ Where did you go?” she asked when he blinked and cleared his mind.  
    “ Hmm?” He tried to recover by taking another nibble of his sorbet.  
    She leaned on the counter and gave him an I’m-not-buying-it look. He was sure he could get out of explaining himself, but then he sighed again and caved.
    “ I had an argument with my father earlier. I was just thinking about how he always blames me for everything.”  
    “ I’m sure he doesn’t blame you for everything.”  
    He chuckled. “Do you always look at the bright side of things?”
    She shook her head. “No, but you must have had some wonderful times growing up.”
      “ I did. My brother was the best part. Calvin shielded me from most of my parents’ wrath. He’s the one that taught me how to throw a football, encouraged me to ask Tammy Lynn out in fifth grade, bought me my first box of condoms.” He smiled. “He also taught me how to drive and passed on his love of classic cars.” He took a drink from the water bottle he’d ordered. “If I think about it, all the great moments in my life happened because of my brother.”  
    “ I would have loved to have met him.” She’d leaned her face in her hands on the counter and was listening to him like in a daydream. “My brothers played a huge part in my great memories too.” She laughed, and sat up. “They taught me not to be gullible, to work hard for what you want, and to never back out of a fight.”  
    “ Okay, now you’re going to have to explain all those.” He chuckled.  
    She smiled as she finished the last bite of her Italian ice. “Okay, but let’s take this conversation to go.” He nodded and scooped up the last of his ice and shoved the whole spoonful into his mouth as she laughed.
     
     
    Cassey loved talking about her family. Not only were they her favorite people, but they were her favorite subject as well.
    As they walked along the beach, the cool salt wind hitting their faces, she told him story after story about how her