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He didn’t have feelings for her.
She didn’t have feelings for him.
He didn’t want a relationship.
She didn’t want a relationship. a. She’d almost married the wrong guy.
“Why Sandspit, British Columbia?” Sylvia asked.
“Two very good reasons,” Sean answered, and turned his attention to the reporter. “I wanted my mother to meet Lexie.” He pulled her closer against his side again. “No one would think to search for us there, and we needed some serious alone time. If you know what I mean.” She elbowed him and he took it further, squeezing her even tighter. “I needed to put a smile back on my baby’s face.”
“Did he?”
Once again, a warm flush rose up Lexie’s throat and heated her cheeks. To the casual observer, it might appear tender and loving. For Lexie, it reminded her of his warm breath on the side of her throat. His big hands on her breasts and her legs wrapped around his waist. They’d never really discussed that night at the Harbor Inn. She didn’t want to talk about it now. Nor did she want the little tingles gathering at her wrist, just above her pulse.
“Don’t be embarrassed,” he said into her hair. His breath warmed her scalp and sent more tingles down the side of her neck, just like that night they’d spent in the small Canadian hotel. “Making love is the best part of being in love. Isn’t that what you always say?”
Sort of. While she hadn’t included a section on suitable endearments, she had given him a list of answers to questions about love. She’d done the work for him and thought he’d find subsection five useful:
Part of love is taking the risk.
Love heals all wounds.
I saw her smile and I just knew.
Making love is one of the best parts of being in love.
She’d come up with a few more that she couldn’t recall at the moment. He had her flustered and nervous and unable to think beyond the memory of the night he’d spread scattering tingles and chased them with his mouth.
Sylvia turned her questions to Sean and the five years he’d lived in Pittsburgh before he’d “fallen in love with Lexie” and moved to Seattle. His thumb idly brushed her arm through her sweater as he answered.
She knew that he’d played hockey in Pittsburgh from a Google search of his name. Of course she knew that his mother lived in Sandspit, and she knew that he liked his vodka cold and sex hot. At the moment, he was a huge part of her life. She was hanging on by her fingernails. She was depending on him to help save her, yet she knew next to nothing about his life.
“Where do you see yourself in twenty years?” Sylvia asked Sean, pulling Lexie’s attention from the man against her side.
“Surrounded by six kids.”
“Six kids!” Lexie put a hand on her chest. “With me?”
He squeezed her tight against his side. “I can’t wait to get started.”
There it was again. The little pinch in her heart that confused truth and lies and made her remind herself that none of this was real. He was acting, and who knew he would be so good at it?
“Where do you see yourself?” the reporter asked Lexie.
Lexie couldn’t see that far ahead. There was so much she had to do in the present, she could hardly see past tomorrow. This newspaper article was just second on her list of missions she had to accomplish before she could even begin to think of the future. “Happy and still in love.” She held up her index and middle fingers. “Two kids. Maybe three. My business, Yum Yum’s Closet, a household name and a franchise of physical stores.” As long as she had a reporter in front of her she had to add, “I’m having an opening for my first store at the end of next month. I’ll send you an invitation.” She flashed the man beside her a smile. “Sean will be there. Who knows, we might have some surprising news by then.”
One brow lifted up his forehead. “Really?”
“What news?” Sylvia wanted to know.
The last time she’d gone after free publicity, it had backfired. She was more cautious this time. “I’ll call you first. I promise.”
“I’m going to hold you to that.”
Before Sylvia shut off her recorder, Lexie hurriedly added, “We’re asking people to bring a bag of dog food to the opening, which we will donate to our local animal shelters. March is
National Animal Poison Prevention Month, and we always donate a portion of that month’s profits to the ASPCA. Animal cruelty hurts everyone and must be stopped.”
