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She shook her head, deflecting a stab of both guilt and sorrow. “I took out another ad in the paper and have been posting to a bunch of local lost-and-found boards, but so far nothing.”
“I’m sorry.” His forehead creased. “I’ll check in again with some animal rescue organizations in the area.”
“Thanks, Max.”
“Let me know if there’s anything else I can do.” He told them to enjoy the rest of their lunch and headed back to his table.
“Nice fellow,” Ray offered.
Grace nodded, glancing toward Max. Though he was strikingly handsome, he didn’t inspire the same kind of zinging pleasure she felt every time she looked at Lincoln Atwood.
No man had, really. Which was just one reason she’d reached the age of twenty-eight without having had either a one-night stand or a serious relationship. A few dabbles somewhere in the middle of those extremes had led to…exactly nothing.
But as she approached thirty, she increasingly wantedsomething. Not everything—she wasn’t greedy. She didn’t long for love and everlasting happiness. She just wanted to finally enjoy the full force of physical attraction and intimacy.
Though she’d always been relatively secure with the decisions that had resulted in her lack of experience, the older she got, the more she’d started feeling like an outlier. As the years passed and her college friends dated, hooked up, fell in love, and got married, Grace had always been the woman on the outside looking in.
Now that she was settled in her career and things were stable with her father, she wanted to be on theinside. She’d been ready for a long time, but no man had ever been appealing enough to make her want to take that final leap.
She watched Max as he stopped to talk to Grant, the tavern owner. Even though Grace didn’t get all tingly around Max, he was more than justappealing. Maybe she should consider testing the waters with him.
Except he was such a fixture in Bliss Cove, and everyone would know if she fumbled her way into an attempt to date him. Then what if, by some chance, it actually worked and they started up with each other? If things went bad, it could be a whole big thing, and her students would have a field day gossiping about it, and then she’d also have to find a new veterinarian for Viola.
No. Dreamy as Max was, the potential forawkwardwas far too great.
After she and her father quibbled over who would pay the bill, and she gave in like she always did, they walked down Starfish Avenue toward the beach. She took a deep breath of salty, cold air.
As a girl who’d grown up in landlocked farmland, Grace had been delighted when she’d been accepted to Skyline College right on the outskirts of Bliss Cove. Her father and grandmother had been four hours away, and until college, she’d never been away from either of them for longer than a week at summer camp. But the vast, sparkling ocean with its rocky coastline, not to mention the energy and fun of being on a college campus, had eased her homesickness.
However, she still remembered what it had felt like tomisshome. Though her father had been in Bliss Cove for over six months, he’d owned Berry Farms for thirty years. He couldn’t happily launch into a new life without an adjustment period—and it wasn’t up to Grace to dictate how long that period should be.
She nudged his arm with her elbow. “Sure you don’t want a cotton candy?”
He scowled. “Don’t like the stuff.”
“Yeah, that’s why you always bought an extra cone at the county fair. Must’ve been a real struggle to eat it.”
He gave a rusty laugh, which made Grace smile. Ray had never been one for a lot of laughter, so his infrequent grins and chuckles had always felt like little gifts.
“Grace?”
Her heart jumped. She knew that voice—deep and silvery, like dusk the instant before the last drop of sun falls into the horizon. At the moment, the voice was also slightly breathless.
She turned. Everything inside her went soft and hot at the same time.
Lincoln was jogging toward them, dressed in track pants and a performance T-shirt, his hair rumpled from the ocean wind and his face flushed with exertion. He pulled out his earbuds and came to a stop near them. His breathing was rapid, and his shirt clung to his muscular torso in sweat-damp areas.
God.Did the man evernotlook incredible? Grace told herself that when he was working on a book, he probably slouched around the house, unwashed and unshaven in old sweatpants and a stained T-shirt.
Which he would then pull off to take a shower, where he’d stand under the hot spray and work a soapy lather over his powerful chest and abdomen and straight down to—
“Lincoln!” Her voice came out so loud and cheerful it hurt her own ears. “Um…fancy meeting you here.”
“You too.” He ran the back of his arm over his forehead and glanced at Ray.
Okay, she hadjustintroduced her father to the town’s hottest bachelor without even a twinge of nervousness. She could conduct the same protocol with Lincoln.
“Lincoln, this is my father, Ray Berry. Dad, Lincoln is the author I told you about who’s going to be teaching my class with me.”
