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In her fantasy, if a relationship developed with Ryan, what would it be like to be a stepmother to his daughter? Grace. A photo of the older child, he’d said she was four, showed a somber little girl with her father’s complexion and light green, haunting eyes.
“She looks exactly like me except for the green eyes. They’re Caroline’s.”
Her mother had died when she was an infant, and now her grandparents were trying to keep her father away from her. Wasn’t that what Ryan had said? They wanted permanent custody.
Uncertainty shattered away and in its place, determination. Even if she didn’t end up with a romantic relationship with Ryan, she was his friend. He’d called her hisbest friend. She would do whatever she could to see to it that the little girl, Grace, was reunited with her father.
***
The movie theater was one of those with recliners and food servers. Their seats were at the top, with no one behind them. On the climb up he’d taken her hand unexpectedly.
“This is nice and private,” she said, grinning at him.
“If the movie is boring, we can make out.”
“Gotcha. I don’t think it’s going to be boring though.” The reviews had called itbreathtaking.
“Right,” he replied, chuckling. “My loss.”
They ordered snacks and soda. During the trailers, he reached over with his hand behind her back and pulled her halfway so he could kiss her. It was a hungry, passionate kiss, taking her breath away, like the one at Barnacle Ben’s had. Music interrupted the kiss and he winked before releasing her.
“We can always leave,” he said, grinning.
“Nah, let’s suffer.”
After the movie, which was action packed and far from boring, they picked up pizza and went back to her house on the beach.
“I’m not ready to say goodnight,” he said, pushing the pizza box out of reach. “Come here.”
She willingly went to him, wondering what he would do. Pulling her onto his lap, he kissed her again, his hand going right to her breast, and she wondered if the uptick in his breathing rate was due to his approval. With hands on her waist, he maneuvered her around until his erection pressed against the space between her legs. Ryan wasn’t shy.
“I’m tired of being your friend,” he said. “I’m ready to move this up a notch. What about you?”
“Will you spend the night?” she asked, sealing the deal.
No time was wasted getting into bed. She hadn’t been with anyone else since Jake died, and that was well over a year, almost a year and a half. If he’d been with another woman since Caroline, he wasn’t talking. They fell asleep after midnight but woke up and did it again a few hours later.
She got up to use the bathroom afterwards, the smell of salt spray, moonlight, and the sound of the waves crashing on the beach streaming in through her bedroom window defining exactly where they were in time and space.
Watching Ryan breathing, she couldn’t help comparing him to the only other man she’d known: Jake. Jake never lazed around after sex, getting up and dressing and out the door. Taking off would have had to change once they were married because that would be his bed. She’d never know. Now Ryan was sleeping, his arm under his head, totally vulnerable and at her mercy with the covers off. Reaching down for the sheet, she pulled it up over his body.
“I forgot how soothing the sound of the water is,” he murmured.
“It is nice, isn’t it?” Still naked, she climbed in next to him, getting under the sheet, and he slid his arms around her.
“I wish we could stay just like this,” he said, nuzzling her neck. “Like kids. Pizza and sex with the sound of the surf.”
“Not a care in the world.”
“I’m sorry my life is so complicated,” he said.
“I decided this afternoon that I want to take the journey with you, if the invitation still stands.”
He got up on his elbow and looked at her, brushing her hair out of her eyes. “You do?”
“Yes. That day that I saw you on the street, when I invited you to sit at my table for lunch and brought you back to my place, I probably knew then that we would be together at least as friends. At least for part of the time.”
“I guess that’s all we can plan for when we’re doing one day at a time.”
