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Ignoring the sentiment and the weird clutch in her chest, she settled lower, resting her head on the inflated edge of the ring. Her eyes closed. Alec’s hand kept her from drifting away and she allowed her fingers to rest in his, for the first time in his presence her nerves almost settling.
“This is nice,” she heard herself say.
“Agreed,” he said. “You know what else is nice? La Casa Blanca. The Mexican place around the corner from Carol’s Coffee. We should meet there for California burritos next week.”
Lilly tensed. “We’re not going to do that,” she said. His hand tightened as she tried to pull her fingers free of his. “After we leave the resort, we’re never going to see each other again.”
“You can’t imagine you’re going to be all alone for the rest of your life, Lilly.”
But she had imagined that! Oh, there would be Audra and Audra’s husband someday and Audra’s kids after that, a family of sorts—a family who would never be totally hers, but that would be enough. “Alec—”
“What’s it going to take for you to fall in love?” he asked.
The question hit her with the power of a rogue wave. Instantly, she felt like a swimmer on the verge of drowning, her heart thrashing and her lungs ready to burst. She couldn’t put voice to her panic. There would be no falling. Definitely there would be no falling.
Because that led to crashing. Shattering. Sticky residue dripping down a wall. Shards of glass strewn across the floor.
This is how Durands love.
Alec’s voice lowered, but she could still hear it over the thundering of her pulse in her ears. “You know what I think? I think, deep down, you know exactly what it’s going to take.”
Anxiety knotted in her belly. “I don’t…there isn’t…”
He talked over her babble. “And sooner than later, Lilly Durand, you’ll trust me enough to tell me what it is you truly need—or maybe I’ll just figure it out for myself.”
Her throat seized as she tried to force words through it. Why was he saying these things? This had to stop. This had to stop now.
Suddenly Alec’s attention jerked away from her. His head craned in the direction of new sounds.
Raised voices, coming from the direction of where those landlubbers of the anniversary party had elected to stay in their poolside lounge chairs.
Lilly glanced that way too, taking in raucous tones and hair a belligerent shade of red not found in nature. Aunt Mariellen, she thought, on another flood of panic.
“Christ,” Alec muttered. “I don’t see my dad. I better go rescue my mom. You stay here.” He twisted out of his float and then vaulted from the pool in a single powerful move.
As he hurried off, Lilly tipped from her own device, then rushed through the water toward the steps, only to halt as she realized that it wasn’t her aunt who was talking in an over-loud voice to Miranda Thatcher, but someone Lilly didn’t recognize. A stranger.
Though massively relieved, she stayed on the move, snatching up her sarong, donning her flip-flops, grabbing an oversized beach towel from the stack on a nearby table, then making for the nearest exit. It would be best to get away from Alec and his strange and alarming turn of conversation. What’s it going to take for you to fall in love?
Cringing all over again at the question, she ducked her head and rushed around a corner, only to plow into a tall masculine body.
His big hands circled her arms, steadied her. “Hey, you okay?”
She looked up, taking in the finely honed features of Kane Hathaway. He smiled at her with all the smooth confidence of a man who knew how he affected the female half of the population.
“Lilly, right?” he said. “Remember me? Alec’s second cousin?”
“Right. Hi.”
“What’s going on?” he asked, studying her face. “You look like you have something big on your mind.”
“Misgivings are smart,” she blurted out.
His response was prompt. “I completely agree.”
“Because you have to be careful.”
“I always am,” he said, smiling again, another blinding flash of I-have-it-all-figured-out-don’t-you-worry.
