Disclaimer: I don't own anything except for the things you don't recognize! Song credit to We The Kings

I hadn't planned on posting this so soon, but I figured I'd give you guys a nice long chapter to hold you over while I go through a writer's block. Feedback is definitely appreciated. Thanks again for those who have reviewed.

"Time stops as we move closer,

The sun drops into the water.

Now I am falling into summer love."

Summer Love

"I'm happy with your progress, Sadie, but I think there's one thing you have to do before you can truly move on."

I looked up from my hands and into Hunter's eyes. He was yet again perched in the easy chair in his office, his hands free of a note pad and pen. We had just finished another round of imaginal exposure and our time together was drawing to a close.

"What's that?" I asked.

"You need to confront your Father."

"No."

"Sadie, it's-"

"Listen; he didn't leave us an address, phone number or anything. He doesn't want us in his life and we're just fine without him. I don't need to confront him to be fine, Hunter."

He sighed and gave me what I had learned to be his signature therapist sigh, the one that said I wasn't doing exactly what he thought I should be doing. I ignored him and grabbed my purse from the floor before I stood up.

"I'll see you later."

He nodded and watched as I walked out of his office. In the waiting area Hunter's receptionist was sitting with Grace on her lap staring at the cartoon that was playing on her computer. I smiled and watched the two of them for a minute before I made my presence known by clearing my throat.

"Yet again I had no problem with her at all; she's a sweet one." Mrs. Daniels smiled as she handed Grace over to me.

The sun was out when we pulled into the driveway of Paul's house. The sun wasn't the only thing out though. Paul was in the yard shirtless painting the front porch railings. Oh my gosh. I knew his body was impressive, but I had never seen him without a shirt on. It was the stuff of every woman's dreams; the kind of guy that they put on the front of cheesy romance novels. Sweat was glistening off of him and holy shit was that an eight pack?!

"Are you going to stand there all day and stare at me or go inside and get the beach stuff?" Paul smirked as he walked towards where I stood dumbly with Grace in hand.

I snapped myself from my fantasy land and rolled my eyes at him, "You aren't that impressive."

"Liar." He chuckled and grabbed Grace's carrier from me. "Come on, get your swimsuit on and grab the beach stuff; we can't let this sun go to waste."

When we reached the beach it was apparent that no one was willing to let the rare summer sun go to waste. I found us a spot in the sand and spread out the blanket before Paul, with Grace in his arms, sat down.

"Here put some sun screen on her." I instructed as I handed him the bottle of lotion.

I was already working on putting my own on; I had learned my lesson after I burned my shoulders the last time at the beach. Fair skin was not something to be messed with. I was almost done putting on my lotion when Paul grabbed my bottle from me and squirted some in his hands as Grace crawled towards the bucket of toys.

"Here, let me get your back."

"Make sure you get the back of my arms." I said as I turned my back to him.

I had never had a man put sunscreen on me before; it had always been either my sister or my Mom. But this was different; his hands were large and warm and felt absolutely delightful on my back. I knew I was enjoying it more than I should, but when he started to massage my shoulders I about moaned in ecstasy.

"What are you doing?"

"You have a huge knot in your shoulders." He answered easily. "Just relax; I'll have it out of there in no time."

As if I was going to make him stop! His hands were amazing, and I could feel the tension from the last few weeks just melt away. As he worked on my back I tried to pay attention to Grace as she started flinging sand around, making sure she wasn't going to stick any of it in her mouth.

"Paul, I think you're going to have to start rubbing my back regularly." I sighed once he finished.

"No problem." He smiled. "Let's go in the water."

Paul didn't give me a chance to object. As soon as the words were out of his mouth he grabbed my hand and pulled me up. Then he scooped Grace up and ran towards the water, dragging me behind him. The two of them were laughing, but I was not. As soon as we hit the water a huge wave knocked me down, completely submerging me while the two of them remained above the water without salt water in their eyes.

I came up sputtering and glared daggers at man standing before me holding Grace.

"You jerk! You knew that was going to happen and you let go of my hand!"

He laughed, "You looked like you needed to be cooled down."

"If you weren't holding the baby I would so tackle you right now."

"I'd like to see you try." He winked.

Since I couldn't be as violent as I wanted to be I settled for splashing him and in the process splashed Grace as well. She only smiled and clapped her hands together happily causing Paul and I to smile like idiots at the sight of her happiness. I quickly splashed the two of them again and watched as the process repeated itself again.

"Mama! Mama!"

I laughed and splashed her again. Paul finally decided it was time to retaliate and with his free hand splashed me right in the face. Luckily my eyes were closed and no salt water went in this time, but when I opened them both he and Grace were laughing at me.

"Oh, you two think you're so cute."

"Well, Grace is. I, on the other hand, am devastatingly handsome." Paul said smugly before he splashed me again.

"Dada!" Grace cried excitedly causing both Paul and I to turn to her in surprise.

She was looking at Paul, a smile on her face, and seemed to be waiting for some sort of response. Instead of splashing me or saying anything at all her smiled and kissed her on the cheek before he hugged her close to his body.

"Hey guys!" Cady called as she moved towards us in the water. "I see you're taking advantage of the sun."

"How did you drag Mom away from the wedding plans?" I asked after I spotted Mom sitting on a beach chair under a red and white striped beach umbrella.

"It was hard, but I managed. Speaking of Mom, she's volunteered to watch Grace for a while so you two can have a bit of free time."

"We're fine." Paul replied.

Cady sent me a look that I knew too well, "Mom actually kind of demanded to see her."

"She'll be fine, Paul. Besides once she's gone I can exact my revenge on you." I stated and watched as Paul handed Grace over to my sister.

She seemed to settle into Cady's arms easily and didn't make any fuss at all when she walked away from us and towards where Mom was waiting on the beach.

"Anywa-Ah!"

My plan to attack Paul totally flew out the window when he beat me to it, sending the two of us into an approaching wave. I was cursing and sputtering when I finally came up. Paul, the bastard, had already composed himself and was smirking at me.

"I told you I'd like to see you try." He chuckled.

I didn't even take the time to think it through before I pounced…and it turned out that I probably should have. If I had thought it through I would have realized that there was no way I could take down Paul unless I had the element of surprise on my side, and I definitely did not have that on my side this time. So instead of the two of us careening down into the ocean, he remained standing and held me against his chest after I made contact. I had no choice but to wrap my legs around his waist, which put the two of us in a very compromising position.

"You were supposed to fall."

"Well, I didn't." Paul grinned.

"Shut up and let me down…nicely!"

He did as told, but then proceeded to dunk me. I was only under for a second before he pulled me up and pulled me in close to his body as a huge wave crashed against the two of us. I was sure that if I had been standing on my own it would have knocked me over, but with Paul holding on to me I was just fine. But once the wave was past us he didn't let me go. I looked up at him curiously to see him looking down at me; his expression thoughtful.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Hunter was right."

"About what? He's been right about a lot of things."

"That there's passion between the two of us."

I scoffed a bit nervously, my heart accelerating inside my chest, "Don't be absurd; we just annoy each other."

"I don't know about that; I'm definitely not annoyed by you right now." He said a bit huskily as his face drew nearer to mine.

"Well, I'm annoyed with you." I said quickly, effectively stopping his advance. "If I had been the one dunking you in the water I'm sure you would feel the same."

"Maybe, maybe not." He grinned. "But I think we should at least test Hunter's theory. As a psychologist he would probably appreciate the fact that we were willing to test this variable."

"What are you talking about? Testing the variable?"

"Shut up, Sadie." He said before he closed the distance that was left between our lips. I was frozen in place at the first feel of his soft lips on mine, but after a few seconds I felt myself responding to the gentle pressure he was placing on my lips.

A few minutes later found the two of us making out in the Pacific Ocean. We probably would have stayed that way for a while if it wasn't for the huge wave that crashed into the two of us, sending us into the water. When the two of us finally resurfaced we looked at each other for a minute before he grabbed onto me again and pressed a quick kiss on my lips.

"Admit it; Hunter was right." Paul whispered against my lips.

"Fine, but we don't have to tell him that."

After another quick kiss the two of us walked out of the ocean and headed to where Cady and Mom sat on a blanket playing with Grace. Cady looked up as we approached and jumped up to stop us before we reached the blanket.

"Were you two just making out in the ocean or were my eyes deceiving me?" Cady grinned.

I blushed and looked down at my feet, but Paul was more than happy to answer in a smug tone, "That was us."

"Did Mom see?" I asked quietly.

"I don't think so."

I breathed a sigh of relief, "Thank God; I don't need to hear a lecture on public affection."

Cady nodded in understanding. Ever since Mom had become single she had made it a point to tell us how disgusting public affection was. To her hand holding was only slightly appropriate and I shuddered to think of how she would have laid into me on this. I'd seen her go off on Cady before for less than what I had just been doing.

"What is she a prude or something?" Paul asked.

"She's just bitter about her own love life; ignore her." Cady assured him before she led us to the blanket.

"Sadie Marie, what the hell did I just see you doing?"

* * *

Hunter and Paul were arguing when I arrived at the house the next morning. I was early and I had my Mom to thank for that. It was either arrive a half hour early here or be forced to hand write fifteen invitations for Cady's bridal shower. And since my Mom hated my penmanship it would have taken forever and all I would have had to show for it would've been a sore right hand.

As soon as I walked into the house I could hear their angry voices drifting out from the kitchen. The baby monitor was sitting on the side table in the hall and all I could hear where her coos; she could stay up there for a little while longer and be fine.

"You never answered my question the other day." Hunter stated.

"What question?"

"Whether or not you imprinted on Sadie!"

Alright, I was sick of them talking about me in reference to something I hadn't even ever heard of except from the two of them. So, I left behind my manners and marched into the kitchen. Paul was about to reply when the sound of my footsteps on the tile floor alerted them of my presence. They turned to look at me almost in unison and I folded my arms across my chest.

"What the hell is imprinting and why is my name involved with it?"

"You're early." Hunter stated.

"Thank you Captain Obvious." I rolled my eyes.

"Well, we have to tell her now." Paul sighed.

"What the hell is the answer anyway, Paul?" Hunter asked desperately.

Paul drew in a breath and ran a hand through his hair, "I didn't imprint on Sadie."

In the next few minutes that followed I witnessed a side of Hunter I had never seen before. He was really angry; the kind of angry that had his fists clenching and his jaw tightening. I'd seen Paul like this a few times, but it was definitely a different side of the psychologist I had come to know.

"Then what the hell are you doing messing with her emotions?!"

"I tried not to, but I've waited too long, Hunter. Who's to say I'll even imprint anyway? And what kind of love is forced love anyway? Isn't it better that I choose the person I love?"

"Whoa, why are we talking about love now? I just kissed the guy."

"Yeah, that's the problem." Hunter said before he turned his anger back on Paul.

"Okay, I want to know what all of this imprint stuff is now." I demanded hating that I almost had the urge to slam my foot down on the floor.

The two of them exchanged a look before they led me into the living room and sat me down on the couch. Hunter did the talking in his soothing therapist voice; the voice that made me trust him completely. Even though what he was telling me sounded like the biggest load of bull shit I had ever heard in my life I knew that Hunter had no reason to lie to me about it.

"So, Paul is a wolf but you're not?"

"Yup."

"But why?"

"Just didn't work that way." Hunter shrugged.

"So, what you're telling me is that Seth imprinted on my sister?"

The two of them nodded.

"So he was forced to love her?"

"It was more of a nudge into her direction; you know as well as we do that he truly loves her, Sadie." Hunter explained gently. "But you need to understand that it's not fair to you to become involved with Paul. I was wrong to push the two of you together, but I thought he had imprinted on you. You see…if you two were to embark on a relationship there would always be the chance that he could imprint on someone and then you would be left in the dust."

"Even if there is something between us we should ignore it?"

"No we shouldn't." Paul said fiercely as he dislodged Hunter from his position crouching in front of me. He then took my hands in his own and looked up into my eyes.

"No one has imprinted since Seth and there had been no new wolves in years. If I was going to imprint I would have done so already." Paul explained. "Hunter is right, but that doesn't mean that we have to ignore our feelings. But it's entirely up to you."

I nodded as I looked back and forth between the two of them. My head was spinning with all of this new information. There was no doubt in my mind whether that kiss yesterday had been true. It was the first time I had ever felt something like that. I didn't have much experience with men, but I had enough to know the difference between a kiss and a kiss.

"I think it's only fair to tell her about Sam and Leah." Hunter added.

Paul didn't look too happy about that but kept his mouth shut and let Hunter explain.

"Sam and Leah were in love with each other; they had been throughout most of high school, and they had plans to get married. But that all changed when Sam turned into a wolf and met Leah's cousin, Emily."

"And he imprinted on her." I finished already knowing that Emily was Sam's imprint.

Hunter nodded solemnly, "Leah was devastated and she has never really recovered."

Talk about a lot of information to process. Luckily I was saved from having to say something to the two of them by the sound of Grace's cries.

"Duty calls."