Page 87 of Beautiful Place By the Sea

My heart flutters in my chest, and I lose the ability to speak for a moment. “Well,” I respond finally, not breaking his gaze, “I’ve been fortunate to have a family that never gave up on me.”

He inclines his head. “If it goes well, do you want to be my date to her wedding?”

I’m so surprised, a sharp laugh escapes my throat. “Is this all some sort of excuse to show me off to extraneous relatives?”

One corner of his mouth tips up, and he bends to kiss my shoulder. “It wasn’t, but now that you mention it, that would be quite the bonus.”

I nudge him playfully with my side. “If you decide you want to work things out with your mom, I would happily be your date to her wedding.”

Oliver presses his lips to mine then, tasting of raspberry jam and possibility. I let myself fall back onto the rumpled sheets beneath him as he leans over me, taking my breath away and making me wish with my whole heart that this summer never had to end.

twenty-four

Iwake up curled against Oliver’s chest on Saturday morning. We both have to work today, and I’d set an alarm for 9, but my eyelids flutter open when the lights flick back on at 6:45 instead.

Taking in his rumpled hair, his powerful shoulders just visible above my blanket, and the peaceful expression on his face, I actually sigh out loud. I could definitely get used to this.

Oliver stirs next to me when I roll over to turn off my alarm. “I’m sorry,” I whisper. “You can go back to sleep.”

“But you’re here,” he says against my cheek. “I don’t want to go back to sleep.”

“I’ll still be here if you’re sleeping,” I giggle.

“But I can’t see you if I’m sleeping.” He smiles, then pulls me to him more tightly.

If you’d told me three weeks ago that my summer beach vacation was going to involve all these squishy feelings with an irredeemably hot bookstore clerk, I’d have laughed in your face.

That goes double for the quasi-reconciliation that’s happening with my mother, the maybe-fighting with Laurel, and the scandalous secrets Eleanor was apparently keeping for most of her life. Whatever they were.

But at least the chaos and unpredictability that’s plagued me for the last year has started heading in a better direction. I mean, it’s still chaos. But my heart doesn’t feel like it’s shattered into a million little pieces today, and the respite is refreshing.

Plus, I’m sure I’ll reconcile with Laurel at some point, so I’m not too worried. And besides, awful as it sounds, whatever’s happening with Oliver more than makes up for sparring with my cousin. In terms of my emotional well-being, that is.

It doesn’t escape my attention that Oliver’s still shirtless, or that I’m not wearing any pants. I press a row of kisses to his chest, warm beneath the ancient coverlet. Our legs tangle together as he adjusts so we’re more fully aligned. Everywhere I’m soft and accommodating, he’s hard and enticing. I thank the gods of romance that we don’t have to be at work for several hours.

“Last night was extremely enjoyable,” he says against my neck, where he’s started kissing me in an increasingly fervent way.

I raise an amused brow. “The understatement of the century, perhaps?”

He snickers. “Perhaps.”

His roving hands are battling with my sympathetic nervous system, goading my breaths to come shallower, faster.

“It would be a shame for that to be a one-time occurrence,” I manage as his tongue finds my nipple again.

“I’m solutions-oriented, remember?”

Seeing him grin up at me with his mouth around my breast is, frankly, more than I can take. “Oh, yeah?” My hands slip under the waistband of his pants, where he’s more than ready for me.

“Extremely,” he assures me, moving down the bed to spread my thighs, to tease me with his tongue.

“Oliver,” I moan, digging my fingers into his hair.

“Mmm?”

“I like this solution.”

His laugh is deep in his chest, and it’s only a matter of moments before I’m jumping out of bed and raiding Laurel’s stash of prophylactics again. Then I run back and throw myself under the covers beside him, giggling and grinning and behaving like a much younger, more effervescent version of myself who I quite frankly thought was lost forever.