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“Aren’t you a newlywed for a year?” Bea asked.
“Maybe when you’re twenty,” Cass joked. She let out of peal of laughter. “Which I so am not.”
Lauren had never been married, and she let her mind wander as Cass drove her over to Blake’s house. The trip only took a few minutes, and she said, “Thanks for coming with me, guys. Thanks for lunch too, Cass.”
“It was so fun,” her friend said, and Lauren got out of the car. She walked toward Blake’s front door, taking in the perfectness of his house too. His SUV sat in the driveway, so she wasn’t surprised to find him opening the door as she put her foot on the top step.
“Hey, pretty girl,” he said.
“I put in an offer on the house.” She held up her phone. “Do you want to see the pictures?”
“I looked at the listing, but absolutely I want to see them again.” He grinned and motioned for her to follow him into the house. “I also texted you about five minutes ago, asking if you’d be stopping by here or going back to the house, but you didn’t answer.”
“Sorry,” she said. “I didn’t get it.” Her phone chimed just then, and she glanced at it to see his name flash up at the top. “There it is.”
“I was hoping,” he said, and he hadn’t stopped moving yet, so he’d gone all the way into his kitchen. He opened the oven and pulled out a tray with a couple of round, aluminum containers. “I got those Mediterranean bowls you were talking about.”
“You’re kidding.” Her stomach growled as if on cue, and he grinned at her.
“Cold toppings in the fridge. They’ve been here for five minutes, so super fresh.”
She moved into his side as he took off the oven mitts. She leaned into him, took a big lungful of his cologne, the masculine scent of his skin, and his pure goodness. “I want to eat with you.”
“Mm, good.” He leaned down and kissed her, and Lauren wanted to do a lot more than just eat with him. He didn’t linger long, as the timer on the oven went off, and he broke their kiss to silence it. Then he busied himself with getting out the cold toppings, and he put together their Mediterranean rice bowls and served her at the kitchen table.
“Blake,” she said. “There’s another offer on the house. Either way, I’m going to call a realtor in Texas and list my house tomorrow. I’m going to move here.” She stirred in her pickled vegetables and took more green goddess dressing. A smile formed on her face. “And I’m really excited about that.”
“Me too,” he said. “Absolutely me too.”
Lauren could just see her picture-perfect life in that cottage, but as their conversation continued with talk about his day, and her job, and the upcoming Beach Day expectations, she couldn’t help wondering what she was doing.
He lived here. He had three bedrooms and a son. If they ended up being serious—really serious—and getting married, they surely wouldn’t live in the house she’d just fallen in love with.
But maybe falling in love with a beautiful man is more important, she thought. She had no idea how to rationalize with it or argue with it, so she simply let it sit there in her brain and circle.
For now.
* * *
The following day,Lauren paced in the enormous kitchen at Cass’s house. Harrison hadn’t gotten home from work yet, but Cass had been entertaining her and Joy that afternoon. Evening was almost upon them, and Lauren threw a nervous look to the clock on the double oven.
“Why haven’t I heard yet?” she asked. “Ty said twenty-four hours, and it’s been twenty-three and a half.”
Joy had a date with Chester in an hour, and once Harrison came home, Cass would need to be ready to go too. They had a dinner appointment at a fancy place in Charleston that Cass just loved, which left Lauren alone tonight.
Blake had gone to Carter’s Cove to get his son, and they had plans to get hot dogs there before catching the last ferry back to the mainland. Then they had to drive around to Hilton Head again, and Lauren had planned an evening with pizza, popcorn, and pineapple sherbet in the big house three doors down.
Put on her favorite movie, surround herself with her favorite things, and celebrate—if only she had something to celebrate.
“He’ll call,” Joy said. “Give him a minute. Maybe he’s working that magic.”
That only made Lauren worry more, and she threw Cass a nervous look. Her friend wasn’t even watching her, and Lauren’s frustration skyrocketed.
It took another fifteen minutes of pacing—and two more questions of when she’d hear—before her phone rang and Ty’s nam sat there.
Lauren swallowed and brushed her loose hair back. She hadn’t worked that day and having nothing to do certainly didn’t help her anxiety. “Hey,” she said as casually as she could.
“Lauren,” Ty said, his usual jovial self. A pause came through the line, and she held her breath, not daring to even breathe into it. “You got it!” he yelled.
