But she smiled because she had Lakeside. She had an office on site. She had her father beside her and a project that could define the next phase of her career.
And she had, apparently, Connor McCarthy. Standing at the counter with that gold-tipped hair and a broken wrist and an unsettling ability to make her lose her train of thought.
Purely practical, she told herself, stepping away to the comfort and safety of a spreadsheet.This is purely practical.
Once Kate and Vivien came back with tales of a sweet civil service, Eli felt like the whole day got even sunnier.
After dashing upstairs to chat with her daughter, Kate returned to the crowded kitchen. She leaned against the counter with a glass of water she hadn’t touched and laughed at something Peter said while Eli surreptitiously enjoyed the mere sight of her.
Deep mahogany hair hung loose around her shoulders, soft as she moved. The sun picked up auburn strands, and her bangs brushed glasses that she miraculously hadn’t misplaced. She looked beautiful and tired and…like she was trying to seem fine but really wasn’t.
They’d spoken for a few minutes when she got back, hugging and holding hands to reconnect. She told him about the courthouse wedding and he filled her in on Lakeside. But people were everywhere and their conversations were surface-level.
Still, his instinct told him something wasn’t right in her world—and his instinct also told him to fix it. Unless…hewas the problem.
Had she changed her mind? Had she run off to Cornell to think through this relationship and decided…it was a no-go?
He sure hoped not, but the Summer House in high prep for a dinner was not the place to press her on it, especially with the air of celebration sparking everywhere.
After a month of phone calls that felt too short and texts that couldn’t carry the weight of what he wanted to say, he realized he’d missed Kate in a way that startled him.
After losing his wife, Eli Lawson had spent fifteen years learning how to be alone and he’d gotten good at it. Maybe too good.
Then Kate Wylie walked into his life and the aloneness stopped making sense. As a teenager and young man, he spent the seven years their families vacationed together in Destin with a debilitating crush on the more glamorous Wylie twin. But as an adult, Tessa held no allure for him.
Kate, however, had blown him away from the day she showed up at this house and mistook him for a gardener.
She caught his eye across the kitchen and gave him a small smile. He tipped his head toward the deck. She nodded once, reading the silent question.
Of course. They needed to walk. It was their date of choice, their ending to every day. They’d always done their best talking on the beach and this afternoon, they’d pick up where they left off.
He hoped.
“Hey, Mer,” he said, touching his daughter’s shoulder as she typed furiously on her laptop. “I’m going to take a walk. You good?”
Meredith didn’t look up. “Never better, Dad. I’m building a preliminary project timeline and a list of what we need in the office.”
He smiled. His girl was in her element, and watching her light up over Lakeside was one of the best moments he’d had in a long time.
“You can start on Monday,” he said. “We’re celebrating tonight.”
“This is me celebrating,” she said, which sounded so much like something Melissa would have said that it caught him off guard for a second.
He squeezed her shoulder and headed for the sliders, where Kate was waiting, having slipped out ahead of him.
The late afternoon sun sat low over the Gulf, turning the water that incredible shade of turquoise that postcards couldn’t capture. The boardwalk was warm under Eli’s bare feet as they crossed the dune, the sounds of the house fading behind them.
Kate walked beside him, her sandals dangling from one hand. She’d changed into shorts that showed off her long and very pale legs. They stepped off the boardwalk, dropped her sandals, and together sank their toes into the soft white sand.
She let out a sigh, but for a few steps, neither of them spoke.
That alone made him think something was up.
They fell into step, their arms close but not touching, and made their way down to the waterline. The surf was gentle, barely lapping at the packed sand, and a few pelicans drifted overhead in that lazy formation that always amazed Eli, but then he remembered who created them.
Everything God did amazed him.
He let the quiet settle a little longer, then glanced at her. “You seem distracted.”
