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She brought a smile to his face as a door opened in his heart, one he’d thought he’d never unlock.He took a few slow steps toward her, wishing he hadn’t eaten so much tzatziki sauce on his falafel.That much garlic should never be on a man’s breath as he leaned in for a kiss.
The fried falafel bites had been amazing, especially with half tzatziki and half creamy mustard sauce.
He couldn’t believe the air conditioner in the beach cottage had gone out, as he hadn’t had any problems in that property in months.When he’d told Bea that, she’d simply hooked him with one lifted eyebrow and asked for the chicken gyro wrap.
Even eating was more fun with Bea, and he’d been less frustrated about the issues at the property than he’d have otherwise been.She soothed some unknown wound inside him, and he really wanted to ask her to come back to the island after she went to Austin to help her daughter.
“Look!”Bea yelled, and he did as she said.The phoenix soared and swooped, but what Grant saw was the joy on her face.He wished her father could see her like this, and he wished he could erase the past thirty-five years of Bea’s anxiety over kite-flying.
Bea’s eyes met his, and a flash of panic in them.“I don’t know how to get it down.”
“Start reeling it in,” he said easily.“Wind it up, and as it comes out of the current, it’ll float down.”
She didn’t make a move to do that.“I can’t wind it up with one hand.”She shuffled her bare feet in the sand.“Help me.”Before he could protest, Bea shoved one of the lines of string into his hand, the handle a plastic blue grip that he almost dropped as an electric shock leaped from her fingers to his.
With another hand free, she coiled the line around the plastic handle she held.Grant’s eyes went back to the kite as he started to do the same, hoping to match the speed at which Bea moved.Only moments later, the fabric flapped furiously, the same way Grant’s heartbeat did.The kite quieted then, swooping gently as it lost the help of the wind.
It hit the sand only a few seconds later, about ten paces from where they stood.Grant smiled at it and then Bea.“No tangled lines.No running after the kite.You didn’t even get lifted up off your feet and blown out to sea.”
With delight etched into every line on her face, she beamed at him and laughed.They continued winding up the string, each of them inching closer to the phoenix.“Did you have fun?”he asked.
“So much fun,” she said, barely flicking him a glance.“I’m going to be out here every afternoon, flying this kite.”
He finished with his line and handed the bundle of string wrapped around the handle.She met his eyes, and in the next moment, very much like how she’d burst into tears on Monday night, she threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly.“Thank you, Grant,” she whispered, her warm breath drifting across the bare skin on his neck.
“You did it,” he said, holding her in his arms.He wished he had a birds-eye view of the beach right now and could see himself with this woman.Could see the bigger picture and what next Wednesday looked like, and the Wednesday after that.
She pulled away; her hands wrapped around the back of his neck.Joy exuded from her eyes, her smile, the very pores of her skin.“What are we going to do now?”
“Whatever you want,” Grant said easily.He swayed with her, the feel of her hip movement against his palms making him the luckiest man in the world in that moment.“The house’ll be hot, and we haven’t been to your new place yet.”
“Let’s go to the new place,” she said.“Then maybe you can help me make a list for tomorrow, and—”
“We’re going together, right?”He bent his head down as he brought her body closer to his.“I’m not just making you a list for tomorrow.We’re spending the day together.”
She searched his face.“Can you spend the whole day with me, looking at historical sites?”
“Sure,” he said easily.He’d give up sleep to be with this woman, and he could answer email any time of day or night.He could confirm reservations at ten o’clock tonight or four-thirty in the morning.“So I’ll make you a list of places I think you’ll like, and you can choose what you’re most interested in.”
“I heard there are cannons here.”
“There were,” he said.“The steam cannon.We can go see the remains of it.”
She tucked herself closer to his chest.“I read online that it’s on private property.”
“The Port Royal Plantation,” he said.“I know someone who works there.I can text him.”
“You have a guy for everything, don’t you?”She beamed up at him again, her face much closer than it had been while she’d been flying the kite.
“I’ve lived here for a long time,” he said, grinning back at her.He swallowed back the words, the ones which would ask her if she might want to live here too.It was far too early for such questions, even if he felt like he knew Bea well enough to kiss her.
“All right.”Bea stepped out of his arms.“I need to see where I’m sleeping tonight.”
“Let’s go,” he said, his nerves swelling as he got reminded that he had one cottage without air conditioning and the place he had for Bea to sleep that night stood a stone’s throw from where he lived.What would she think of that?
He was about to find out.
