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He nodded. “Once my brothers and I began growing it became too small to hold us, but we had fun while it lasted.” The fond wistfulness in his tone touched her, reminding her again of the strong ties he had to his family. He seemed comfortable expressing the feelings he had for them. She never remembered her father voicing such telling thoughts about those he was related to.
He added, “Julianna even let us sleep up there sometimes, until the night we were roughhousing and Phillipe fell to the ground, breaking his arm. That was the end. She did allow me to sleep there alone after though, because I’d built it.”
Val couldn’t imagine her father allowing her to have a tree house but could imagine how much fun it must have been. “Thank you for bring me here.”
“You’re welcome. I’m drawing up plans for a much larger one on the property near my new house. I have a couple of trees I’m deciding between.”
“Really?”
“Every boy needs a tree house.”
“But you’re an adult now.”
He grinned. “True, but I’m never too old for adventures. We could have tea.”
She laughed. “Tea?”
“Sure, why not? Maybe, if your intended agrees, I can invite you both when it’s finished. Do you think he’d accept?”
“I believe he would. We often climbed the trees together, and he was always the one daring me to go higher. When my sister told on me, that was the end.”
“You’re always welcome to climb mine whenever you like.”
She sensed he was referencing more than an oak and she suddenly found it difficult to breathe. “We should probably get back to the house.”
“As you wish.”
She asked, “Are you having fun?”
“Fun?”
“At my expense?”
“Never,cheri, but I am enjoying imagining all the fun we’d have together were you free.”
Admittedly, the idea of having fun as an adult was foreign. Her father would find the idea disgraceful. “I’ve never associated having fun with anything but children.”
“Then we need to change that.”
“How?”
“I’d build us a tree house we could have tea in, use to escape the heat of the day in, and sleep together in at night.”
Val’s eyes closed as the seductive wake of his words washed over her.
“We’d catch frogs and fireflies. Take one of Raimond’s boats and sail to Cuba to have dinner with my cousins, and then walk along the beach in the moonlight.”
She met his dark eyes.
“Then I’d kiss you until sunrise....”
Trembling, she took in the intensity in his eyes. The air between them was as charged as an approaching summer storm. If he kissed her now, she’d be lost. “Please, don’t kiss me.”
“I won’t. Not unless you’re free to ask me to.”
She tried to convince herself that being attracted to him served no purpose, yet the urge to throw caution to the wind and walk that moonlit beach was strong.
“Come,cheri. Let’s get you back.” Placing a brief guiding hand on the small of her back, he gently steered her towards the path, and silently walked her to the house.
