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Mac had grown up in a loud, busy house filled with siblings ere alary of an attack at the hands of their father In some families, he was pretty sure that kind of environroup In the Draper house? Not so much It was every man for himself, and other than Becca, he wasn’t real close to any of his brothers or sisters

The Bad Boys had been his family—Cain, Jake, and Jesse

“They were tight Real tight,” Jake acknowledged “After Jesse died, I headed back to base and went to see Blake, who’d been brought back and was in a hospital there He’d been in a cohost of a smile lit up Jake’s face “She was fierce and broken and crazy”

Jake glanced at Mac “You think your faive yours a run for the money I think Blake was her anchor, and she went a little bit crazy when he decided to enlist, and when he was hurt…” Shadows crept into his eyes and Jake shuddered “We were both in a bad place and we got each other through”

Mac watched his friend closely “Were you guys…did you and Lily…” What the hell? He couldn’t even vocalize his thoughts because the idea of Jake and Lily together rubbed hio there

“Nah,” Jake answered quietly, with a shrug “One night things got a little out of hand, but we shut it down before it went too far It was nothing more than a combination of tequila, the fact that Blake had taken a turn for the worse, and well, I was convinced that I had screwed things up with Raine for good I hadn’t been hoet her but…”

“Glad you worked things out”

“Yeah,” Jake said with a slow sood”

Mac took a sip of his beer, eyes narrowed as Hubber moved in closer to Lily They stood around a bonfire near the water She’d doffed her sundress hours ago, and even though dusk was settling, it was still hot as hell God, the woman filled out a bikini like nobody’s business

His eyes got hung up somewhere between the toned, flat expanse of skin above the waistband of her botto breasts Her ponytail was long gone, and aves tuolden, and he had the urge to pull down that damn waistband, just to see if there was a tan line or not

“Why is she here?” he asked abruptly Hubber’s hands were still on her shoulders, and he didn’t like the fact that she see wrong?

Jake shrugged “She had no place else to be”

Mac finally dragged his eyes frole, but ould she want to settle in Crystal Lake? I’d think New York or LA would be more her speed”

“I guess you’d have to ask her that,” Jake said

Hubber leaned closer to Lily, his mouth next to her ear—she didn’tat them would think they were a couple