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“No maybe about it. Life’s too short to live in doubt. And to go without. That’s a nice little poem to live by.”
Georgie laughed. “Yeah, I think you might be right.” She felt a little bit easier after that. More settled. She would talk to Ryan about it. Simple. She ignored the little flutter in her belly at the idea as she transferred the first batch of potatoes out of the pan.
* * *
Georgie felt the flutter of nerves in her belly as she put her lipstick on at the bathroom mirror. She chastised herself. There was really no reason to be nervous. It was just a…date. It was a date. She’d deliberately asked him out on a date. It changed the dynamic between them in a way that made Georgie feel a little anxious. She’d almost talked herself into the idea that they were just friends that kissed. And groped. A lot. Ryan had made it clear that he wanted to go further, but he’d respected Georgie’s boundary around that. She never felt pressured to do more with him than she was comfortable with. Her problem now was that she was pretty sure she wanted to do more. But she couldn’t smother her insecurities. Couldn’t smother the fear that he’d be turned off, or that she would be crippled by self-consciousness when the time came. She trusted him with every fiber of her being. She knew she could talk to him about how she was feeling and what she was afraid of. It was still nerve-wracking, though.
Georgie came out of the bathroom just as Ryan was stepping up onto her deck. Her heart squeezed and her breath caught at the sight of him. She smiled through the glass, grabbed her bag, and went to the door. He looked ridiculously handsome in a blue shirt, that pulled enticingly across his chest, and stone-colored trousers.
His eyes roved over her, from head to toe. “You look lovely.”
Georgie cleared her throat. Was it hot in her little cabin all of a sudden? “Thank you.” She wore black dress pants and a red, cashmere sweater. “So do you.” With her hand on his chest, she stood on tiptoe to brush a kiss across his lips. “Let’s go,” she said before the kiss had a chance to get out of control. She could easily stand there and kiss him all night, but that would hardly help her do what she needed to do.
The cold air was biting when they stepped outside and walked up the track to the carpark. Georgie was grateful when Ryan turned the heater up high when he started the car. “Where are we off to, mo chroi?”
“I’ve made a reservation at Gypsy Point. Juniper said the lodge there is amazing and that you should get the steak.”
“Sounds great.” Ryan put the address in the satellite navigation system and steered the car down the steep road, away from the lighthouse. When they’d reached the main road out of Blessed Inlet, he reached over and took Georgie’s hand in his, linking his fingers with hers and stroking the back of her hand with his thumb. This was one of the things Georgie liked most about him. He gave her this easy, undemanding affection.
Gypsy Point Lodge sat on the bank of the Blessed Inlet River. Floor to ceiling glass offered a view of the river and the slowly setting sun. “Juniper was right. This is lovely,” Georgie said as the waitress showed them to their table.
“It is. You hungry?”
“I’m always hungry these days,” Georgie replied with a smile. It was quite something to have an appetite. To be able to look at food with anticipation. To enjoy it. To not have it be a chore that had to be endured. “Bruschetta to start?”
“That sounds grand.”
Georgie’s stomach rumbled as the smiling waitress read through the specials menu before taking their orders, steak for Ryan and risotto for Georgie. She lit the candle in the middle of the table before moving off. After the waitress had gone, Georgie leaned back in her chair and gazed at Ryan. “So tell me something.”
“What’s that?”
“Who’s your favorite sibling?”
“Maura.”
Georgie laughed. “You didn’t even hesitate.”
“No, I owe that girl my life.”
“How so?”
“Because when I was nine and she was ten, I ate all the shortbread biscuits our mother had cooked for Sunday afternoon tea. Now, our Maura was mad at me because I wouldn’t go with her to the arcade that afternoon. When Mam found the biscuits were missing, she went off like a box of frogs. There was Maura’s chance to get back at me, since she caught me with one in my hand as I was running out the back door. But she didn’t. She told Mam that she’d seen the cats in the jar, but by the time she got to them, all the biscuits were gone.”
“Why did she do that?”
Ryan shrugged, his eyes dancing. “She said later it was so she’d have one over me. Of course I went to the arcade with her whenever she asked, after that. And to this day I can’t eat shortbread.”
Georgie giggled. “I can just picture you. I bet you were a cheeky kid.”
“I sure was that.”
“Tell me another story.”
Georgie smiled as Ryan told her about a family road trip through Spain. The van had broken down and all eight of them had slept in it overnight. His siblings had been dirty on him because as the youngest, he’d been chosen to curl in with their mother in the front seat. He went quiet after that and Georgie’s smile faded. This was the sort of moment when they’d swap family memories. But hers weren’t great. “How about you tell me your best childhood memory?”
Ryan knew exactly what was going on in her head. She searched her mind for a moment, then her smile grew. “I was very straight, as a kid. Always toed the line. Not like Brandon. I was always terrified for him, but he couldn’t have cared less. One day, he convinced me to wag school with him. We were in year three, so we must have been about eight years old. I had some money from watering the neighbor’s plants while she was away. So Bran convinced me to pretend to walk to school, then instead, we went to the local supermarket and spent twenty dollars on chocolate and chips. Then Bran took me to his secret hideout and we ate the whole bag of junk food. God, I felt so sick afterwards.” Georgie smiled at the memory.
“Where was his secret hideout?”
