Sunset Thunder by Shannyn Leah

her cell phone. Violet could have screamed.
    “Missy could have dropped him off,” Parker was saying, making more excuses for her to climb out of the vehicle. “Come on Mom, please,” he added, sounding like the sweet boy she’d raised. 
    Violet’s head dropped to her soaked towel covering her bathing suit. Two minutes. Two minutes would have been all it took to change.  
    It wasn’t just a little jaunt around the house. Once they made it around the wide estate, the backyard was a maze of flower gardens between thick green paths of grass leading all the way to the dock on Crystal Lake. The boat didn’t come into sight until they rounded the tree’s lining the edge of the property. Boat? Again, the word didn’t describe the machine. Yacht. Huge yacht was a better definition.  
    Reluctantly, thinking up a dozen excuses her children wouldn’t listen to, Violet followed Parker and Sophia onto the dock. Ryder immediately caught her attention, like a sparkling jewel in the midst of tarnished metals. He pulled open the glass doors at the front of the boat, and like she was watching a slow motion movie, he emerged, shirtless. Violet’s eyes traveled from his hair blowing in the breeze, down his solid torso, shellacked in lotion. Her imagination dipped even further past the board shorts riding low on his waist.
    Drool. Delicious. Yummy. The exact thoughts of her dreams all week. came to mind. Violet! 
    No Joel anywhere.
    Violet considered abandoning her kids at the edge of the dock and running back to the safety of her vehicle, but they weren’t Ryder’s responsibility.
    With each stride against the wooden dock, taking her closer to Ryder, Violet contemplated how she’d ended up here, wearing only a bathing suit and hiding behind a damp towel and sunglasses. Parker and Sophia. Her children got her every time. Their needs had always come before her own.
    Hurry the hell up Joel.
     
     

Chapter Seven
    RYDER SPOTTED MOVEMENT as he opened the doors of the cockpit and stepped onto the bow. Expecting to see Joel and his kids, he was surprised to find Violet following behind an anxious Parker and Sophia. To add to the surprise, a beige towel was wrapped around Violet and what appeared to be a bathing suit peeking out from underneath. Or a bikini... keep the mind guessing .
    Ryder’s grin widened. What was she doing here? And why was she dressed like she was boarding with the kids? He liked that idea, momentarily. Then he scolded himself for letting it pass into his head. He didn’t need an ice queen aboard his boat. No thanks . He didn’t have room in his life to deal with the hot and cold temperatures of this woman.
    Ryder walked back through the cockpit and to the rear of the boat. He stopped at the stairs to the swimming platform and called out to Parker and Sophia, as they walked down the dock toward him.
    “Is my dad here yet?” Parker barked. Literally barked, like a pissed off teenager, instead of the seven year -old he was. Ryder remembered this kid only last year, looking up at him and Joel like they were kings of the water. This year, Parker just snarled and barked out every word. 
    Ryder shook his head. “Not yet. I thought you two were coming with him.”
    Parker didn’t wait for an invitation and boarded the swimming platform, climbing the left stairs onto the boat and tossing his bag on the floor. “He called and said he was late and told us to meet him here,” Parker said.
    Ryder hadn’t gotten a call. He touched the pocket of his shorts, but his phone wasn’t there.
    Where’s my phone? Did I miss a message?
    Parker pulled an iPad out of his bag and walked past Ryder heading for the lounge. Ryder snatched the iPad and was prepared for the glare Parker sent him.
    Tough shit kid. You are on a boat, in the sun, find something else to do.
    When Ryder was his age, they didn’t even have computers yet.
    “You know the rules Parker. No electronics on the boat. Go find a life jacket that fits from