The sound of the water turning off caught both their attentions. “Larry suggested we wait until you both emerged, but I thought I’d catch you before you returned to the house.”

“Oh?”

“Looks like Mom has invited a few people over tonight for a preparty dinner. I wanted to warn Walt.”

“You’re staying in the guesthouse, right?”

“We are.”

“Then why don’t we join you there before going to the main house, and you can warn Walt then.”

Brenda nodded. “Sounds good. It’s nice meeting you, Dakota.”

Walt held her hand as they walked to the guesthouse. The path along the lake was edged in stone, but clear of view from the main house.

“Brenda looks a lot like your mom.”

“Don’t hold that against her,” Walt said.

“Your mom is beautiful. Cold . . . but beautiful.”

Walt didn’t seem convinced. “I warned you.”

He had . . . many times.

They reached the guesthouse and the door opened before they could knock.

Unlike with his father, Walt gave a genuine hug to his brother-in-law and held his sister in an extended hug. “I’ve missed you.”

Dakota watched the exchange and marveled at the contrast between the couple. Larry was nearly an inch shorter than Brenda, and at least twenty pounds overweight. The match was so unlikely Dakota thought she might be misreading things. That was until Walt introduced Larry as Brenda’s husband.

The two of them stood by each other’s side and Larry’s hand fell to Brenda’s hip.

“I brought an old friend,” Larry said as he left his wife’s side and moved to the kitchen.

Dakota watched as Larry removed a bottle of Crown Royal and pulled two glasses from the cupboard.

“Dear God, don’t leave me out of that!” Dakota called from the living room.

Larry lifted a brow, and grabbed an extra glass.

“Wine, hon?” Larry asked.

“Is the pope Catholic?”

Dakota laughed and Brenda cringed. “Oh, shit, you’re not Catholic . . . I mean, it’s OK if you are . . .”

“I’m not. It’s OK . . . funny.”

“Our parents have that effect on both of us.” Walt took one of the glasses filled with two fingers of whiskey and handed it to Dakota. His eyes caught hers and he winked.

Her body heated even before she tipped back the glass and let the liquor warm her throat.

“Not that I’m ungrateful,” Walt started, “but why are we having predinner drinks here?”

Brenda wore a summer dress, casual and elegant, her sandy blonde hair shoved up in a messy bun that looked sloppy but Dakota knew better.

Brenda tucked her feet under her when she sat on a sofa and sipped her wine. “Mom invited the Phelps . . . all of them, for dinner.”

From Walt’s long gulp, she knew the information wasn’t what he wanted to hear. “Lily?”

Brenda squeezed both eyes together with a nod.

“Who’s Lily?” Dakota asked.

“I took her to junior formal,” Walt told her. “As in high school.”

“Mom’s trying to help rekindle an old flame,” Brenda said with a laugh.

“Formal was a favor . . . not a flame,” Walt said. He sat on the arm of the chair beside Dakota.

“Does Lily have a thing for you?”

“God, I hope not!”

Brenda laughed. Her husband chuckled alongside her. “Lily still lives at home with her parents, moved back after college.”

Walt leaned back, played with Dakota’s hair. “Anyone else coming that I need to know about?”

“I know a few people who said they’d come, but I don’t know everyone who RSVP’d.”

Dakota listened while Brenda spouted off several names, some of which resulted in groans from Walt’s lips. “It’s so much easier in California where I don’t know anyone.”

Brenda gave him a playful shove. “You know me.”

“Not what I meant. I can’t believe Mom invited the Vanderkamps. I never even liked Jean.”

“Doesn’t mean she didn’t have a thing for you.” Brenda glanced Dakota’s way. “I hope you know what you’re getting into.”

“I’ve been warned. Walt told me his mother was trying to set him up before we boarded the plane.”

“Oh, good.”

Dakota turned to Walt, placed her hand on his thigh. “Shall I tell all these women how wonderful you are about pulling poor defenseless women into frigid water?”

His genuine smile melted inside of her. “You pushed me.”

“You pulled me . . . and you were going to toss me in.”

“I pretended to toss you in.”

She caught her lip between her teeth. “Then I’ll tell them about your tastes in dive bars.”

His scowl had an ounce of mischief. “Guilty. But some of the women Brenda just mentioned would be turned on by the dive bar idea.”

Dakota doubted that. “Perhaps I need to loan them my stun gun.”

Walt rubbed his arm, the mischief in his scowl moved south.

Dakota laughed. “Serves you right for sneaking up on me.”

“Stun gun?” Larry asked.

“Dakota zapped me with a stun gun.”

Brenda gasped.

Dakota waved her off, finished her drink. “Oh, he lived. Besides, he snuck up on me in the dark parking lot of said dive bar. A place I don’t think I’ll be returning to, by the way.”