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Chapter
Nine
Grant didn’t likeputting distance between him and Bea, emotionally or physically.His fingers practically ached to cradle hers again.But he would not be part of someone’s list of things to do while they visited the island.He’d dealt with thousands of tourists in his life, and he mentally berated himself for holding Bea’s hand at all.
She wasn’t a permanent resident of the island, and she definitely had no intention of becoming one.She’d told him where she was going after this, and it sounded like she’d be gone for a couple of weeks at least.That put her away from her home in Texas for almost a month, and she wouldn’t want to come back here.
He wasn’t going to ask her to come back here.He wasnot, though the idea still percolated in his mind the way his strong coffee did in the morning.He once again reminded himself that he’d known the woman for barely over twenty-four hours, and while he’d been known to fall in love quickly in the past, it was with foods or pets.Not a woman.
Bea didn’t immediately laugh or brush off whatever a love list was, and he disliked the silence between them more than the absence of her hand in his.He suddenly wanted to leave the beach cottage.Even a drive over to the kite shop should slice through this new tension.
“It’s just a list I made for myself,” she finally said, her voice barely louder than his heartbeat.“When Nort left and filed for divorce, I started thinking about my life.Really thinking, you know?”
He detected the earnestness in her tone and turned to give her his full attention.“Yeah, I think I’ve had a moment or two like that in my life.”
“I had fourteen months,” she said, her eyes firing hope and anxiety at him.“I put things on the list I wanted to do.Things I wanted to see.Things that seem easy, but for me, they’re not.”
“What’s one of those?”he asked.
“Cut my hair,” she said, reaching up to touch it.Alarm registered in her expression for a moment, and then it fled.“I’ve always had long hair.Always.That’s what Nort liked, and I wanted something different.Iwas different, and I needed something…different.”
Grant nodded, though he didn’t truly understand.His ex-wife hadn’t changed anything but her address after they’d gotten divorced.“I like the short hair,” he said.“For what it’s worth.”He liked that she could sweep it up or leave it down, and that every day would be different and yet amazing.He liked the way it revealed the slender, kissable quality of her neck and ears.
He’d given up trying to push away the thoughts he had about kissing Bea.They just came back anyway, and he’d been entertaining them for a couple of hours until his daughter had called.And see?Back, just like that.
“Thank you,” she murmured.
“Is the kite part of your love list?”
“Yes,” she said.“I’ve always been a little bit afraid of kites.My father worried us kids—I have a sister and a brother—to death.Well, me at least.”She studied her hands, one of them running her fingertips along the other.“I was terrified I wouldn’t be able to control it, and it would go crashing into the power lines.Then I’d be electrocuted.Or it would get away from me, and I’d have to chase it through miles and miles of fields.”She looked at him then, a hint of laughter back in her face.“And then I’d be lost, because we both know about my directional challenges now.”
He returned her smile and tugged her hand back over to his.
“I worried I wouldn’t be able to get the kite in the air, because Daddy had such strict rules for how we had to do it.Then I feared it would tangle with my brother’s string if I stood too close, that I’d crash it to the ground and break it.All of those things would upset someone, and it became easier just not to go when my daddy took us kids out to fly kites.”She shook her head and hummed, a faraway look in her eyes that told him she could see herself as a child, afraid of her daddy and of flying kites.
“Yeah, I have a lot of anxieties around kites, and I put on my list to fly one I don’t think I can control.”
Grant liked listening to her talk, and he wanted to get her the biggest, most beautiful kite in the shop and let her fly it.Then she’d see she was capable of anything.Then maybe she’d see herself the way he did.Strong, sexy, sincere.
“I think that’s great,” he said.“Let’s go get you a kite.”He stood and dusted off his shorts before offering his hand to help her up.“Can I come with you to fly it?I won’t get upset if you crash it or tangle up the strings.”
She grinned up at him, definitely the most attractive woman he’d ever met, and his pulse yammered at him to make sure she knew he wanted her to come back to Hilton Head after she planned her daughter’s wedding.
It’s not possible, his brain argued, but his heart would not be swayed.
“I’d love it if you came with me,” she said.“That way, if I do have to chase the kite for a couple of miles, you can help me find my way back.”She giggled, put her hand in his, and joined him in a stand.
Committed to spending the whole day with her, a blip of panic moved through Grant.He’d have to stay up late to get his emails answered and the contracts out, but as Bea ran inside to pack her bag, he told himself, “She’s worth it.Don’t blow this by saying too much, too soon.Just enjoy yourself.”
He hoped he could do all of the above, because he’d really like to see if this relationship could become something more permanent even if Bea wasn’t on the island to stay…yet.
“You’ve got it,”he called, his head tilted back as he watched the huge, phoenix-shaped kite fly through the air.The flaming red color stood out against the perfectly blue sky, and Grant switched his gaze to the woman who’d done the same thing in his life.
She’d stepped into it, full of color and laughter and showing him how very bland his life had become.How very gray.How very uninteresting.When one saw the blue sky every single day, though it was glorious and beautiful, it became…plain.He’d taken the sky for granted, the same way he’d just been going through the motions in his life
Then came Bea, and everything was new and wonderful again.Simply getting up meant he might be able to talk to Bea.Every notification his phone bleeped could be her texting.It had almost killed him to swipe her call off instead of answering it, even for Shelby.
He watched Bea as she backed up, pulling on each string in her hands.The bird swooped overhead; Grant knew because of the way the canvas-nylon blend of material whipped in the wind.And the way Bea laughed, her eyes glued to the kite in the sky.
