Page 30 of Summer Ride

He laughed and then stopped in the middle of the pathway and kissed her. “Promise me something,” he said, running his hands up and down her arms and only then realizing it was a little chilly out. He’d lived in the area long enough that he could tell that it would probably rain in the middle of the night.

“What?” she asked, leaning into him.

“No matter how bored we get with one another in the future, we won’t add a third person into the mix,” he joked.

Instead of smiling, she frowned down at his chest for a moment and then said, “I don’t think I could ever be bored with you.”

He placed his fingertips under her chin and lifted her face to his.

“Let me be clear,” he said, searching her eyes. “I could live a thousand lifetimes and still find every moment with you a wonder and complete joy.”

She reached up on her toes and brushed her soft lips across his, melting his heart even further.

“This is a very sweet scene,” Scarlett broke in sarcastically. She was dressed in a classic rich green skirt with a low-cut blouse. Her hair was even done in an older style with little ringlets laying over her shoulders.

Then he remembered tonight’s dinner theme was a Very Royal Dinner. The Wildflowers always outdid themselves at these dinners.

He knew that one of them would be dressed as the queen, while the others all played the ladies in waiting. They would often switch roles. But never had they not gone full out for their guests.

Most of the guests didn’t dress up for the themed dinner nights, but everyone loved seeing the employees and owners go all out.

Smiling, he wrapped his arm around Kara’s shoulders. “It was until you interrupted,” he joked.

“I heard there was some excitement at the docks?” Scarlett said. She swayed slightly.

He dropped his hold on Kara and rushed forward to steady Scarlett. “You okay?”

“Yes.” She sighed and then shook her head as she held her hand over her stomach. “I must have eaten something that didn’t agree with me.”

Just then, Scarlett rushed over to the bushes and threw up while Kara held her long hair back.

Carter rushed inside the back kitchen door and quickly gathered a cold washcloth and a glass of ginger ale.

When he came back outside, Kara and Scarlett were sitting on a bench a few feet away.

“You’re pregnant, aren’t you?” Kara was asking.

Scarlett sighed and leaned back. “Yes, but we didn’t want to tell anyone until…” She glanced around and shrugged. “After what happened with Zoey last time…”

“Say no more.” Kara held up her hands for the washcloth and glass. Carter handed them both to her and then stood there.

They all knew the hell Scarlett’s sister, Zoey, had gone through the previous year after miscarrying her second child. She’d been accused of illegally aborting the wanted child, which had rippling effects on all of the friends and everyone in the camp.

Thanks to new state laws, Zoey, Lea, and even Damion, who had been there and witnessed the miscarriage, had all been called down to the police station to somehow prove that Zoey hadn’t done anything to harm the baby on purpose.

When rumors were spread by a reporter that the camp supplied illegal medications and abortion pills to their guests, the entire camp’s reputation had been on the line.

However, it was later found out that the reporter was the sister of the madwoman who had shot Damion. That incident had shaken a lot of camp employees to the core and had changed so much about how security was handled around the camp.

“Lea seems to think that my sickness will pass when I reach my second trimester.” She held a hand over her stomach. “Zoey wasn’t this sick with Paige.”

“You could be having a boy?” he suggested, earning him a glance.

Scarlett’s eyes brightened as she sipped the cold drink and wiped her face with the rag. “That would be wonderful. Zoey and Dylan have held off trying again, but we…” She shook her head and glanced around.

“Go on,” he suggested, sitting next to her. “You’re among friends,” he pointed out, and Scarlett chuckled.

“I’m only telling you two because I’m too tired to move and, well, I’ve been dying to tell someone outside of the Wildflowers.”