Free Barefoot Bay: Silhouettes on the Sand (Kindle Worlds Novella) by Chris Keniston

He paused and stretched at the waist, left then right. "Maybe, just maybe, I do envy Nate a little."
    "Ah." C.J. glanced at him sideways, squinting one eye.
    "Nate always played hard. The stereotypical party boy. Most eligible bachelor. Man-whore. Pick an adjective. He's been called them all. Yet he lived a life that most men dream of. He should have, by all rights, been the happiest guy around."
    "But he wasn't," C.J. stated rather than asked.
    "I don't know that deep down any of us are." The admission surprised him. He'd been thinking that more and more recently, but hearing his own voice say it out loud was startling. He'd convinced himself that running Ivory Glass was all the fulfillment he needed. Somewhere in the back of his mind he'd always known that “things” couldn't replace emotional stability. His mother had been a living, breathing example that money and power couldn't buy peace and happiness. And yet money and power seemed to be the only thing the women he'd dated had been truly interested in. Not till Mitch and Abi had Chase seen true love in action, and just one brother finding true love Chase could easily write off as a fluke. A once-in-a-blue-moon stroke of luck. Except now two of Chase’s brothers had hit the jackpot. Slippery odds.
    "I wish I could say you were being cynical." C.J. looked around. "I think we left the resort in the dust. If we're going to hoof it back, I need fuel."
    Chase scanned the street up the hill. "There's a wonderful little bistro not far from here that serves the best brioche—"
    "I have a better idea." Her eyes took on a bright sparkle, and she took off at a slow trot.
    Chase fell into step beside her. "Where are we going?"
    "There."
    She pointed toward the street in the distance, but, between the beach and the park ahead, no structure looked to be a restaurant. "I don't see anything."
    "That's because you're not looking."
    Of course he was looking. He strained his perfect 20/20 vision looking.
    At the concrete curb, she slowed her pace. "These trucks always have the best food."
    Truck? Sure enough, she walked right up to a large silver truck with a raised window cut out of the side. "You do realize those things are probably germ factories. Chez Moi is not far from here."
    "Nonsense. Closest thing to a mouthwatering greasy spoon. I've been taking a crash course in your world for almost two days. The least you can do is share a food-truck breakfast with me."
    And food poisoning. "Lead the way."
    He had no idea why anyone went jogging with money, but C.J. had a small plastic case on a string around her neck with cash, credit card, and driver’s license. Who the hell needed a driver’s license to run on the beach? But he couldn't fault her efficiency. She'd ordered him a breakfast burrito with the works. He wasn't even sure how much works could be in a breakfast wrap.
    While he held the two ginormous aluminum-clad bundles, C.J. paid the man for their breakfast and two OJs. Juggling the wraps and drinks, he shrugged. "Sorry I don't jog with cash." Or credit. With the Ivory name a mere signature at the best places in any town was enough to guarantee payment.
    "Fortunately I do." She took an orange juice from his hand and one wrapped burrito. "Come on. Breakfast will be more pleasant under one of the shade trees in the park."
    Curious to see what all was in his steroid-size breakfast, Chase resisted the temptation to peek under the foil and instead distracted himself by watching C.J.'s cute posterior strut across the street to the park.
    "Here's a good spot." C.J. plopped heavily onto the garden bench and immediately unwrapped one end of her breakfast.
    The large tree she picked looked the same to him as the three other large trees they'd passed en route to this location. "I thought the previous tree was a good spot."
    "That's because you haven't taken the time to really look around." Gripping the massive burrito in two hands, poised to take a bite, she looked up through her