“Look, my boss short-staffed the clinic today and lied about it. He also canceled a pro bono contract with a local shelter and lied about it. My kid went behind my back to try to go surfing with a guy who’s probably old enough to buy beer and lied about it,” he said, sounding bone tired. “I can’t take any more lies, white or door-slamming levels.”
“I listened in on your argument and I’m sorry.” That was a hard truth. “I was emptying the trunk when I heard that she’s going to NYU.”
“That’s still up in the air.” He looked up at the sky as if asking for divine intervention. “On a scale of ‘silent treatment for a week’ to ‘finishing high school in New York with her mom,’ how bad did I blow it?”
“Kind of like walking through a balloon factory dressed as a porcupine.”
“Before you go there,” he warned, twisting off the bottle caps and handing her a beer, “just remember, you’ll have two of them.”
“Take that back.”
“Can’t.” He tapped her bottle with his, then took a long pull. “So, prepare yourself now. Soak up these moments, because it only gets harder.”
“Said the man who didn’t raise multiples. If it gets harder, I might rent them out to the high school as birth control.”
He laughed, but the lines around his eyes didn’t crinkle.
“I’m sorry about your boss,” she said.
“Me too. I had to reroute eight foster pups to county services. In order to get them added to the shelter’s already overflowing calendar, I had to agree to take on sixteen volunteer hours.”
She reached out and brushed her hand against his, their knuckles barely touching. “I wish I could help you somehow.”
“You can,” he said and a thrill took flight in her chest. “How about you help me polish off these beers on my back deck?”
Spending time with him would be anything but a hardship, but . . . “Is that such a good idea?”
“Probably not.”
She sighed. “I just pulled my girls out of their old school, away from their friends. This probably isn’t the right time for me to be making bad decisions.”
“Then let’s make a good decision. You, me, those beers, and nothing more than two friends throwing back a few.”
“Now who’s lying?” she said and he chuckled—a real,you can make my daykind of chuckle that always made her chest go warm and fluttery. “Lead the way, friend.”
She followed him through his garage and out the back, taking a seat next to him on his deck steps. They sat side by side, drinking beer and quietly watching the waves kiss the shoreline as the sun faded into the horizon. That golden hour right before sunset had always been her favorite time of day.
“This whole thing about surf lessons has me thinking,” he said, his gaze still on the water. “The offer still stands.”
She looked at him. “You made that offer when we were teenagers.”
“Back then, I made it because I’d do anything to get my hands on you, especially in that barely-there white bathing suit.”
Full-body tingles exploded. “And now?”
He slid her a sexy, heated sidelong look. “Do you still have that bathing suit?”
“I don’t even remember what suit you’re talking about.”
His gaze finally met hers and,whoa baby,it nearly made her panties wet. “I can describe it for you . . . in great detail.”
She swallowed. “Even if I had it, I doubt it would fit.”
His gaze slid down her body and back. “Is that a challenge?”
She didn’t know how to handle that curveball. Over the past month, he’d gone from stone cold to lukewarm with a few heat bubbles added to the mix. Now, he was at a solid ten on the seduction scale—and she didn’t know how she felt about that. Her body knew, but her mind was warning that she should step away and remember there was no room in her life for a man.
Even a sexy,make her heart skip a beatman whom she might or might not have had a sex dream about last night—and the night before.
