The machine had been making a noise for a week. Payton told Delano it was fine. Payton told Roper it was fine. Then he put a whole tray of ice in it and the noise stopped being a noise and became a wet crunch, and something that had been coffee went across the counter and down the front of his shirt.

he said, before anyone had asked.

Roper did not look up from the barstool.

Payton got the towel. The towel did nothing. The island wore most of it.

He heard the car on the gravel before Delano did — a door, then Jemma’s voice over the music, then the music cutting out — and he straightened up out of habit, towel over one shoulder, still straightening when you came through the screen door behind her with a bag in your hand.

He had heard about the friend. Nobody had warned him about the friend.

So he did what he does, which is look, and keep looking, and let you see him doing it. Wet shirt, hair in his eyes, the entire kitchen in pieces behind him, and absolutely no shame anywhere on his face.

he said, when Jemma told the three of them to behave.

Jemma pointed at him.

That was fair, and he gave her that one, and he did not stop looking.

Delano had already started on the bags. Roper had already gone back to his beer. Payton put the towel down, went to the hook by the door for the boat keys, and decided that the summer had just been rescued.