AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Everything carried the hint of char, which actually made her mouth water, and she said yes to everything, even the red beans and rice which looked slightly watery.She got a separate plate for her apple-peach cobbler, asked for a double scoop of vanilla ice cream, and joined Grant at the table.
The now-familiar sense of uncertainty, of doing something she’d not done before—or something she hadn’t done in a very long time—of that young excitement filled her.She glanced at him, and said, “Thanks for inviting me to this.I don’t normally come to things like this.”
“No?”He picked up a crawfish, the bright red color telling her it had been cooked.A big bowl sat nearby, and he twisted the tail from the body and peeled off the shell.
“No,” she said.“My ex-husband didn’t like to eat outside.He’d be horrified.”She giggled, and Grant chuckled with her.
“My ex-wife would live outside if she could,” he said.“In fact, when we were first married, we may or may not have lived in a tent in the woods for a week or two while we waited to get into our apartment.”
Bea turned fully toward him, pure horror moving through her.“You’re joking.”
That trademark chuckle came from him as he shook his head.He popped the whole crawfish tail—now peeled—in his mouth.“Nope.”
“I…I’m not even sure I’ve ever been camping.”
“You didn’t take the kids?”
“My brother did,” she said.“Every now and then.The boys participated in the Boy Scouts, and they had leaders that took them to do those things.”Bea needed a lesson on how to eat the food on her plate, and she picked up a crawfish too.“I’ve never had one of these.Help me.”
Grant picked up one from his plate and started instructing her how to twist, peel, and eat the tail.“Then, if you’re feeling adventurous, you can suck the head.”He put the body of the crawfish up to his mouth and gave it a good pull in.He grinned, probably at the terror on her face, and added, “It’s juicy.Try it.”
Bea didn’t want to try it, but she figured she could add it to her love list and cross it off if she did.Plus, Joy would be so proud of her for trying a new-to-her food, and eating it the way the locals did.
So she lifted the head to her mouth and sucked, definitely getting some crawfishy juice.It shot straight to the back of her throat, which made her choke and cough.Grant burst out laughing, and Bea did too.That complicated everything, and tears sprang to her eyes as she tried to clear her airway while laughing, coughing, and choking on crawfish juice all at the same time.
Grant pounded her heartily on the back and someone set down a big glass of water in front of her.Once she calmed, she met Grant’s eyes, the sparkle and gravitational pull between them even stronger than before.
“So no to the head,” Grant said, grinning from ear to ear.
“Yeah,” Bea agreed, wishing she’d been brave enough to lean into him and kiss him right then.Instead, she looked back at her pile of crawfish and other Southern delicacies.“I’ll stick to the tails.”
An hour later, Bea threw back the last swallow of her first—and only—glass of wine.Grant had been nursing a single bottle of beer since they’d finished dinner, and she liked that he didn’t seem to be a big drinker.
Warmth and wooziness wafted through her, and Bea swayed to the sound of music coming from the opposite side of the bonfire from where she stood.They’d given up their chairs to others who’d arrived after them to eat dinner, and they’d sat side-by-side on a couple of stump-seats for a while.
Grant knew everyone on the island it seemed, and Bea had met a steady parade of people.She’d smiled and chatted, something she was very good at doing from her previous life.The one before she’d come to Hilton Head to begin living her love list.
“You’re dancing alone,” Grant said, and he tossed his bottle in the oversized, outdoor trashcan.He took her into his arms as she moved her body right, and she melted into his embrace easily.
He smelled like freedom and fun, smoke and plenty of smolder.She wasn’t sure how she’d caught his attention, as she hadn’t felt beautiful or desirable for so long.But the way Grant looked at her… It wasn’t a trick of the dancing fire, or the wine she’d consumed.
He said nothing, but friendship and acceptance radiated from him, seeping into her and once again making her feel safe and cherished in a way she’d only felt with her friends this year.
Perhaps it was that sense of safety that tipped her forward.Perhaps it was the wine.Perhaps it was the fact that they danced in uneven sand, barefoot, with pure romanticism surrounding them in the form of the beach and the bonfire.
No matter what it was, Bea reached up and trailed her fingertips along Grant’s jawline, which held that beautiful beard.“I really like you, Grant,” she whispered, and as he lowered his head toward hers, she let her eyes drift closed despite the screaming warning her brain sent through her body in pulses.
Grant took his sweet Southern time, but his lips finally touched hers, igniting a passion inside her that she’d thought had long grown ice cold.
She sucked in a breath through her nose, moved her other hand to his face, and urged him to kiss her like he meant it, like he liked her too, like he didn’t want her to leave Hilton Head for longer than it took to visit her children in Texas.
And he did just that.
As Bea kissed him back, she had no idea who she’d become.She wasn’t a woman who danced barefoot on the beach this late at night.She only drank during her Thursday Night Supper Club, and she’d never dreamed she’d ever find another man who would light her up like this.
In fact, with every stroke of Grant’s mouth against hers, she was quite sure she’d never felt so alive and so vibrant, even with her husband, even when they’d first started dating.
Grant bent his head further, breaking the kiss and leaving her wanting more.They breathed in together, and he pulled away enough to look at her.She gazed back at him, unembarrassed about kissing him.She probably had crawfish breath, but he hadn’t seemed to mind.
He reached up, removing his hand from her lower back and leaving that spot on her body cold.She didn’t have a lot of hair to move, but he brushed his fingers through her longer bangs, the emotion in his eyes as strong as that raging through Bea’s whole body.
“Will you come back to Hilton Head after you go to Austin?”he whispered, and Bea didn’t hesitate to nod.
“I’ll think about it,” she said, and Grant only smiled briefly before kissing her again.She wasn’t sure why she couldn’t just commit, but she did need more time to think.And kiss Grant.Yes, kissing Grant was definitely working for her right now.
