Chapter 5
The house was still and silent when they returned. Rob had made a valiant effort to brush the sand off his body before entering the house, but Jack had been unconcerned and dragged him inside. “We’ve got a cleaning service,” he had said. “We track in way too much sand to deal with it otherwise.”
Still, Rob had been careful as he’d made his way up the stairs to the bathroom. Jack had instructed him to grab a towel from the hall linen closet and help himself to whatever toiletries were out. Jack had foregone the shower for himself. Instead, he had filled a reusable metal bottle with iced tea from the fridge and headed back out to the beach.
“Gotta check in with Aaron and Kayla,” he’d explained. “Get the scoop on any dirt we missed while we were out. Alex is on the third floor wh
