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I bite back a grin and pretend I’m not spying on her.
Karma hits me a split second later.
Shit!
Smoke thickens in the air. The steaks on the grill need turning. I was so distracted watching Delphine, I forgot I was supposed to turn them over. I grab the tongs and do just that, flipping them onto their other side.
Luckily, I caught it in time. They’ll still come out medium rare.
I’m doing that a lot more often these days. Getting lost in the moment. Lost inDelphine. In this private escape we’ve carved out for ourselves.
“Meow.”
I glance down. Pepa’s stopped next to my ankle, staring up at me like I’m her fucking daddy.
I might as well be.
Salt and Pepa have basically become my pets too. It’s gotten to a point where I understand what their little meows and swishes of their tails mean.
Right now, for instance, she’s thirsty.
I check on the steaks one last time before jogging inside the beach house. On my way, I can’t help myself. I drop a kiss on Delphine’s lips.
We’re spending another evening dining on the deck. She likes watching the sunset, and I like watching her watch the sunset. It’s the last decent weekend Montbec Island will be having before the colder weather comes in.
Before we return to the real world and stop playing house.
That’s what this is—playing house. A glimpse at what our future could be like.
The past two weeks have been nothing but Delphine and I enjoying each other. Truly uninterrupted for the first time in our lives.
I’m…happy.
It’s a foreign feeling that seems like it’s not supposed to be mine. Yet, there’s no other word to describe this break from reality. No one who knows me would believe it if I told them.
Salvatore Mancino, happy.
I set fresh water bowls out for Salt and Pepa and look up when I sense another presence.
Delphine hovers in the doorway leading onto the deck. She’s smiling, an amused glint in her brown, sunlit eyes.
“You should adopt them,” she says as I meet her by the door. She slides her hands up my chest and I walk her backward through the doorway, looking over her head at the steaks.
“I’ll adopt them the day we get a dog.”
Her nose wrinkles. “Don’t start something you can’t finish, Jon. I will bring a puppy home so fast.”
“That’s the last thing we need. A race to bring home a puppy. We’re too competitive. We’ll both wind up bringing one home, trying to be the first.”
“So two puppies. I’m not seeing the problem.”
“You say that now. Wait ’til they’re chewing on the shoes you love so much.”
I taste her lips and squeeze her hips, indulging myself for an extra second or two, before forcing myself back to the grill.
It starts drizzling in the coming minutes. The sky darkens a stormier shade and the tide picks up, crashing against the shore. Delphine checks the weather app on her phone and confirms the forecast for the evening has changed—the good weather promised this weekend has migrated. We’ll be getting plenty of rain.
Fortunately, we’ve finished grilling by the time it really comes down.
