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Suddenly, big, warm fingers brushed my chin. As my vision cleared, I saw JD had stepped right up to me and was gently but firmly pushing my hair back and holding it out of the way. I’ll never forget the look in his eyes: he was mad, like he was giving nature itself a stern dressing down. No. Stop that. I’m looking at her, dammit.
He kept his hand there as the wind died away, the edge of his thumb against my cheek. Waves of excitement were rippling out from my core, breaking like waves when they hit my skin. I knew I was probably blushing but, for once, I didn’t care. I was locked onto those soulful blue eyes, just falling upwards into them. There was so much experience there, like he’d traveled everywhere, done everything, seen things he’d always remember and some he wished he could forget. And that authority, that certainty that made me feel so safe.
He gazed down at me and God, the need in his eyes… His hand tensed and his whole palm kissed my cheek. It felt so good, so right, that it took everything I had not to nestle into it.
Then his eyes narrowed and I caught a glimpse of that terrible pain. His hand dropped from my face. For a second, the delicious, comforting warmth of him lingered on my cheek…then it shrank down to nothing and disappeared. I followed his hand as it swung down to his side and saw something I’d missed before. A line around his ring finger where the skin had been worn smooth.
He’d been married, once. Is that what left him in so much pain? Had some woman broken his heart the way my ex had broken mine?
And then my dad emerged from the crowd and looked curiously between us. “You two getting along?”
8
JD
I turned to Russ McBride and tried to make my face like rock.
Like I hadn’t spent the whole speech thinking about his daughter’s soft, pale breasts.
Like I hadn’t fallen into those big gray eyes and blurted out a whole bunch of stuff that had shocked me…because it was true.
Like I hadn’t been seconds from doing something crazy when the guilt had suddenly caught up with me and made me pull back.
“Yeah,” I told Russ. “Yeah, we’re doing good.”
I’m good at hiding my feelings. I’ve had a lot of practice since I rejoined the world to lead Stormfinch. But I was no match for Russ. He was a pro at reading people and he was her father. He smirked and I felt myself flush.
Russ grinned and slapped me on the shoulder. “Alright, then. Let’s get out on the water.” He turned to Paige and Cody. “Sure you don’t want to come?”
Cody shook his head. “Nah, you know I get seasick, gramps.”
“I’ll take him home,” Paige told Lorna. “You go have fun.” I didn’t miss the look she threw my way.
“Miles?” asked Russ.
Miles pushed his sunglasses up his nose. “Next time. I’m still a bit fragile from the stomach bug.”
Russ studied his son for a moment, looking worried, then nodded. “More food for us. Let’s go!”
He put his hand on my shoulder and steered me towards the dock, Lorna falling in behind us. I could feel her eyes on the back of my head. She’d be wondering why I pulled away. What the hell was I going to say to her? That now I’d seen her again, this didn’t feel like just a dumb crush? That she looked goddamn amazing in that dress, with the vee neckline revealing the upper slopes of those magnificent breasts? That I found her shyness utterly adorable, and it made me feel even more protective?
What’s going on? She’d blindsided me, that’s what it was. My defenses were down. I’d always figured that if I was going to be attracted to someone again, it would be an outdoorsy, horse-riding, Texas girl like Jillian. Not a shy, curvy New Yorker. The two were different in every way. Except...
Except she was brave, like Jillian. And caring. And the way she protected her son...
The feelings rose again...and with them, the guilt, crashing through me in heavy waves.
We’d only taken three steps when Russ’s phone rang. He listened, then sighed. “No, don’t call a tow truck, that’ll take forever. We’ll deal with it.” He turned to Lorna and me. “We’ve got to go on a mercy mission before we go sailing,” he told us. “Could do with your muscles, big fella.”
I nodded, curious. Russ led us around the edge of the marina. Directly behind it was a huge construction site. “This is another of our projects,” he told me. “Hudson Tower.” He nodded at Lorna and beamed with fatherly pride, while Lorna flushed. “My daughter designed it. Her first full-on skyscraper. Sort of...passing the baton, you know?”
I craned my head back and looked up at the skeletal skyscraper. Even without its internal walls or windows, it was utterly awe-inspiring, towering over the other buildings. I shook my head in wonder. And it had been designed by this shy, awkward woman standing beside me. Her mind just worked in a whole different way, one I’d never understand: she lived up there, somewhere, in the clouds her building seemed to touch, imagining buildings out of thin air, while people like me stomped around on the ground. I shook my head slowly, genuinely amazed. And fascinated. And just a little sad.
