Free Barefoot at Sunset (Barefoot Bay Timeless Book 1) by Roxanne St. Claire

from the right, her eyes on Mark. “Hello there, handsome.”
    Emma felt him subtly put pressure on her hand, and she gave him a quick we got this look.
    The woman strode closer and opened her arms, her expression expectant. She looked about his age, her hair blond and short, a pair of bright pink glasses on her nose. “Don’t tell me you don’t remember me, Mark Solomon.”
    If he didn’t, Emma couldn’t tell, as he smoothly got the woman to reveal her name, and introductions were made all around. Within minutes, a few others approached the group and it grew. After the tenth introduction, Emma lost track of the names and started to settle comfortably into her role as Mark’s fiancée.
    Law Monroe delivered drinks, a few flirts and jokes, and disappeared with a quick hug to Emma and a promise he’d see her during the week. In the group, conversation was light, easy, and fun…and not a single person mentioned Julia.
    But who would when Mark played the engaged man better than, well, the last man Emma had actually been engaged to? He touched her whenever she was near, a casual brush of her arm, an easy hand on her back, and once, the lightest finger to push a lock of hair over her shoulder when he made an introduction.
    Every move was possessive, sexy, subtle, dizzying. And fake. She had to remember that.
    For dinner, they took an outside table with two other couples and a single woman who introduced herself as Beth Endicott.
    “Endicott?” one of the men at the table said. “Like the development company?”
    She gave a smile and smoothed back a lock of butterscotch-blond hair. “Ray Endicott is my father.”
    “That man single-handedly put Pleasure Pointe on the map,” another person said.
    “Oh, I don’t know about that,” Beth said.
    “But your family owned most of the south end of Mimosa Key and sold thousands of residential parcels over the last forty years, right?”
    “He did.” She busied herself with her napkin.
    “Are you in the family business?” another woman at the table asked.
    “Not really,” Beth said absently, sipping wine as her attention veered from the conversation to someone or something across the lawn.
    Emma followed her gaze, where it landed on a man who was just coming into the party, his commanding good looks and height drawing more than a few eyes. Another one with a great body. Only, something about him looked more wiry and less gym-toned than Law Monroe. His hair was more pepper than salt, and his dark gaze was intense as he scanned the party, obviously looking for someone.
    “Oh, there’s Ken Cavanaugh,” Mark stood, spotting the same man. “Excuse me while I end his life slowly and with great pain.”
    “Why?” Beth asked, her eyes wide in surprise.
    “Because he was not supposed to let them sign me up to dance, which means he broke the bro code.”
    “Ken?” She shook her head. “That doesn’t sound like something he’d do. He’s a firefighter, you know.”
    “I do know, which means he has a guy’s back for his profession, and still he let mine get stabbed. I’ll make him miserable first, and then let him eat with us.”
    He left to walk over to Ken, and Emma could have sworn Beth Endicott sat up straighter and her blue eyes sparked at the idea of the firefighter joining them.
    “Oh, I know that guy,” another one of the men at their table said, taking a look at the new arrival. “Captain Cav. That’s what they call him at his station in Fort Myers.”
    His wife admired the view as well. “Oh yes, I was talking to him today at the meeting. Very nice guy. What do you want to know about him?”
    “Everything,” Beth said under her breath.
    The woman leaned closer, clasping her hands under her chin. “Well, I can tell you this. He is divorced, but very much single. And, he’s on the market.”
    “The market?” her husband asked with a small choke.
    “The market,” the woman confirmed. “In fact, he told me that the one thing he wants most in this