When Morning Comes Around (Summer Lake Silver #13)

Chapter Twenty-One

“Would you stop hovering, go and get dressed, and leave me in peace?”

Sadie scowled at her dad. “I’m not hovering. I’m trying to make sure that you’re going to be alright while I’m out.”

He scowled back at her. “I’m going to be a whole lot better after you leave than I am right now. I’m tired of it, honey bun. I want to watch my shows and have some peace. You know I love you, but I think it’s time you find yourself a place of your own.”

She took a step back. She knew he was right. He was almost back to his usual self. If she was hovering, it was because she felt guilty about leaving him home alone while she went out for the evening. Maybe the night – that was what she felt guilty about. Dom had picked up the keys to the house today, and she couldn’t help hoping that after their evening at The Boathouse with everyone, he might take her home with him.

Her dad reached out and gripped her arm. “I’m not going to kick you out, don’t look so stricken. But if you’re staying here because you think I need you, think again.”

She leaned down to kiss his cheek. “I know you don’t need me anymore, Dad. I’m sticking around because I love you and because … because …”

He chuckled. “Want me to say it for you?”

“Say what?”

“That you’re staying here because you’re too chicken to move right in with Dom.”

Her eyes widened. “What do you know about that?”

He tapped the side of his nose. “I know more than you think I do about most things. I think you should shack right up with him,” he said with a chuckle. “But if you think it’s too soon. If you need space for yourself. Time to become your own woman after Dale, then you do that. I’ll pay your rent if I can have my home back to myself.”

She raised her eyebrows. “You want me out that badly?”

He lifted a shoulder.

“What about Savannah?”

He shrugged again. “She’s different. She comes and goes and does her own thing. And she needs a place to stay where she’s not by herself. I asked her to stay with me after my fall because that house share deal she was in was bad news. I don’t reckon she’ll want to be here much longer anyway.”

“No?”

“No. I reckon young Jakey’s working his way up to asking her out.”

“That doesn’t mean that…”

He chuckled. “Maybe not, but if you want to make a wager, I’ll be happy to take your money when she moves in with him.”

Sadie had to laugh. “You’ve got us all figured out, haven’t you?”

“I like to think so.”

She held his gaze. She was tempted to tell him about the guest house at Dom’s new place, but she didn’t think he’d go for it. Besides, it wasn’t her place to invite him to live there. Dom had suggested it, but that didn’t mean she should ask. It wasn’t likely that her dad would move anyway.

He picked up the TV remote. “I’m going to put my shows on. You should go and get dressed. Come and let me see you before you go out.”

“I will. Can I get you anything before I go take a shower?”

“Nope.” Just as she reached the door, he added, “But you can do me a favor and text me if you’re not coming back tonight.”

She felt the heat in her cheeks as she turned back to him. He laughed. “You’ll always be my little girl, but you’re far from a kid. I’m asking that if you’re going to spend the night with Dom, will you send me a text and let me know. I don’t want to be worrying about you. If you text me, I’ll know you’re safe.”

“That I haven’t broken down on the side of the road again?”

“Because you’re with Dom.”

She swallowed.

“He’s a good ‘un, and we both know it.” With that he turned the TV on and took out his dentures.

She took her time in the shower and spent far too long getting dressed and doing her makeup. It was only a night at The Boathouse. But no matter how much she tried to tell herself that, she wasn’t buying it. It was her first big night out with Dom. She swallowed, and maybe her first night with him. She grinned at herself in the mirror. It was about time!

She was glad that he hadn’t wanted to rush things. She and Dale hadn’t been physical in a long time – it’d been so long that she couldn’t even put a number on it. She knew it was years and not months, though. But even so, it hadn’t been all that long since they were still together. She made a face. That hadn’t worried Dale – he’d been screwing Adrienne before Sadie had even made it to the airport.

She came back to the moment when the doorbell rang. She checked herself in the mirror one last time before running downstairs.

When she opened the door, the sight of Dom took her breath away.

“Wow!” She fanned her hand in front of her face.

He chuckled. “I think that’s my line. You look fantastic.”

She shook her head. “I did my best. But you …” She let her gaze travel over him. He was wearing a dark brown leather jacket over a black shirt, and he looked good enough to eat. When he leaned down to kiss her, she noticed that he smelled fabulous, too.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him again, going for more than the peck that he’d offered.

“Let him come say hello and goodbye so that you can be on your way,” her dad called from the living room.

Dom winked at her as she stepped back and led him to the living room.

“Hey, Harvey. How’s it going?”

“I’m doing great. Go on, you don’t need to hang around here being polite. Go and enjoy your evening.”

“We’re on our way in a second. I just wanted to deliver these.” He set a bag on the end table and her dad raised his eyebrows. “Jake got some more of that treacle toffee – he sent you half.”

“He’s a good lad.”

“He is.”

Her dad smiled at her. “You look beautiful, honey bun.”

“Thanks, Dad.” Sadie went to kiss his cheek. “At the risk of annoying you, I have to ask – do you need anything before we go?”

“As a matter of fact, I do.”

“What can I …?”

“You can go in the kitchen and occupy yourself with something while I have a word with your man.”

She looked at Dom, and he nodded. “I wanted to talk to Harvey for a minute, too.”

“Then I guess I’ll excuse myself to the kitchen while the menfolk talk, like a good little woman.”

Dom opened his mouth to speak, but her dad beat him to it. “You know it’s not like that. Don’t go making Dom feel bad – you know you won’t make me feel bad.”

“Sorry.” She went and kissed his cheek and touched Dom’s arm before she left the room, closing the door behind her. She didn’t mind. How could she? She was living in her dad’s house like she had when she was a teenager – why should she expect him to treat her boyfriend any differently than he had back then? It wasn’t as though Dom would mind, she knew that.

~ ~ ~

There weren’t any empty spaces in the square at the resort when they arrived. Dom circled twice, hoping that someone might pull out and leave, but they didn’t.

Sadie pointed to a side street. “If we park down there, we can cut across the beach and go in the back way.”

“Yeah? I didn’t realize that.”

She shrugged happily. “I grew up here, remember?”

He found a space near the top of the steps that led down to the beach. When they got out of his SUV, he looked her over. “We can walk around, if you prefer?”

She was already slipping off her shoes. “Why would we do that, when there’s a lovely beach down there that I haven’t seen in a while?”

He chuckled. “When you put it that way, there’s no reason at all. I didn’t know if you’d want to walk on the beach in your heels.”

She held her shoes up with a smile. “I don’t, but that’s easily fixed.”

She set out down the steps, and he followed. He took her hand as they walked across the sand. She was in good spirits tonight – then again, it seemed as though she almost always was. Nothing got her down.

She squeezed his hand as they walked. “Are you okay?” She gave him a puzzled smile. “Would you rather have walked back up the street? Are you prissy about getting sand in your shoes?”

“No, it’s not a problem.” He drew her closer and slung his arm around her shoulders. “If you want to know the truth, Polly would never have walked along the beach like this.”

Her smile faded, and he felt bad. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to bring her up at the beginning of our night out.”

“You have nothing to be sorry for. You should bring her up whenever you want to. If you’d like to talk about her, I’d like to hear whatever you have to say.”

He shook his head. “Maybe there’ll be a time when it feels right to tell you more about her. Tonight isn’t that time. I guess, if anything, what I meant was…”

He sucked in a deep breath. Not so long ago, he would’ve felt disloyal to Polly even thinking it. Now, the need to explain himself to Sadie overrode that.

“… You’re more easy-going than she was, and I like it.”

She bit down on her bottom lip but didn’t say anything.

He hugged her closer to his side. “It’s okay. I’m paying you a compliment.”

“Yeah, but I don’t want a compliment at Polly’s expense.”

A rush of warmth filled his chest. “And that right there is what makes it okay. You’d never try to take anything away from her memory.”

She shook her head adamantly. “No, I wouldn’t. I can’t say that I know how you feel, but I respect it.”

He cleared his throat. “Thanks. Just let me explain myself, and then we can drop it. You asked if I was prissy about getting sand in my shoes. Polly was prissy about a lot of things. It was just who she was. Mostly it didn’t bother me, but sometimes it did. Just like some things about me bothered her.” He smiled. “I’m sure you’ll discover things about me that bother you, too.”

She smiled. “I want to disagree with you, but I’m not going to. This is real life. That’s how it goes.”

“Yeah. We’ll no doubt discover our little niggles, but I guess the whole point of this was me wanting to say that I love how easy-going you are.”

“Thanks. I love how open you are. I love that you tell me what you’re thinking. I love that you listen when I tell you what I’m thinking. I love that you can be kind of bossy, but only because you’re looking out for me.”

He leaned in to drop a kiss on her lips. Every time she repeated the words I love , his heart had beat a little faster. In his imagination he could hear the word you coming after them. They were three words that he wanted to say to her. The time wasn’t right yet, but he didn’t think he’d be able to hold them in for much longer. For now, he chose three different words. “I always will.”

When they reached the steps that led up to the deck, Sadie sat down and wiped the sand off the bottom of her feet. She put her shoes back on and looked up at him with a smile.

“Are you ready for this?”

“I am, are you?”

“I’m looking forward to it. I’m looking forward to seeing my old friends and hopefully making a bunch of new ones.”

He smiled. “You’re not nervous, then?”

“Nervous? What about?”

“I guess I don’t know how you feel about social situations.” He gave her a wry smile. “This is the first time we’ve been out with the gang like this.”

She laughed. “True. I was thinking that myself when Terry and Nina suggested that we should come out tonight. You don’t know what to expect of me, do you?”

“No. Like I said, I didn’t know if you’d be nervous.”

“Far from it. I should probably tell you that the girls are looking forward to me coming since I used to be the life and soul of the party.”

He grinned. “Yeah?”

“Yeah, don’t look so surprised.”

“I am surprised, but in a good way.”

She raised her eyebrows. “You expected me to be a wallflower?”

He laughed. “No, I just didn’t know how you’d feel.”

She got to her feet. “Then we should get in there and see how this thing goes.” She looked back over her shoulder at him as he followed her up the steps. “You’re not a wallflower, are you?”

He laughed and swatted her ass. “Far from it. I was planning to be on my best behavior tonight, though.”

When they reached the top of the steps, she pouted at him. “That doesn’t sound like any fun.”

He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and started pushing his way through the crowd toward the bar. Not that he needed to do any pushing – people tended to get out of his way.

He grinned when Sadie looked up at him with a smirk. “What?”

She laughed. “It looks like people got the memo about the big man convention – people clear a path for you.” She jerked her chin to where Cal and Manny were standing with Terry and Nina. “And no one is standing too close to them, either.”

He had to laugh. “Cal just needs to scowl, and everybody scatters.”

“Everybody except Terry.”

“Yeah, she may be the only person he’s afraid of.”

The others turned to greet them as they approached. Sadie launched right into a conversation with Nina and Terry. He’d gotten to know the other two women a little bit since he moved here, it made sense to him that the three of them were friends.

He caught her elbow and cocked an eyebrow. “What do you want to drink?”

“I… Oh, look! There’s Damon and Jo.”

He turned and smiled when he saw them coming in through the door. “I told you they’d be here.”

“I’m going to go and grab us a couple of tables,” said Cal.

Terry slipped her arm through Sadie’s. “Come and sit down, and we can catch up a bit before it gets too loud.”

Sadie shot Dom an apologetic smile as Terry swept her away. He pushed his way to the bar, knowing that Damon would follow him, and he’d be able to get their drinks, too.

“Hey, sugar!”

He had to laugh when Kenzie came over. She rested her elbows on the bar, and her chin on her hands. “It’s been a while.”

“It has, how’ve you been?”

She laughed her raucous laugh. “I’m good, I’m always good. How have you been? That’s the question. I hear good things about Sadie.”

“Things are good.”

“Glad to hear it. What are you drinking? I’ll have to interrogate you next time. We’re slammed right now. And here comes Damon, I love seeing the two of you together.”

Damon grinned at him as he joined him. “You good?”

“Yeah, you?”

“Yep.”

Kenzie laughed out loud. “Men of few words. I love it. Do you and Jo want the usual, Damon?”

“Please, Kenz.”

“And you? The usual for you, and what’s Sadie drinking?”

She hadn’t answered when he asked what she wanted, but he smiled and told Kenzie, “Bailey’s.”

~ ~ ~

When Dom arrived at the table with their drinks, Sadie patted the seat beside her even as she kept listening to Terry who was telling them about her daughter, Elle, and her granddaughter, Skye.

He set her drink on the table and leaned in close. “You okay?”

She nodded happily. “This is great. Are you good?” Her smile faded. “Are you going to sit there or how does it work?”

“I’ll sit with you, if you’re good with that?”

“Please.”

He gave her a puzzled look as he sat down. “What’s up? You were all happy but then …”

She glanced around and leaned in closer so that no one else would hear her. “I was all excited for you to come sit with me, but then I wondered if maybe all the guys sat together.”

He cocked an eyebrow. “And you wouldn’t like that?”

She sucked in a deep breath. “I’m supposed to be honest about what I want, right?”

He held her gaze as he nodded.

“Then I’ll say it. The thought of you sitting with the guys while I chat with the girls made me sad. I mean, I know that’s the way it works sometimes, but I came out tonight to be with you .”

He took her hand under the table. “And until you tell me that you want some space, I’ll be right here with you. I don’t want to crowd you.” He glanced at the other women. “I don’t want to intrude on your girl talk …”

Sadie ducked her head when Terry called. “You’ve got no worries there, Dominic. We want you in on the girl talk. You might as well listen so that you can set us straight since we’re going to be talking about you.”

Sadie gave him an apologetic look, but he laughed.

“I thought you might.”

“We’ve been waiting patiently, but until Sadie you were always on the periphery. Doing your own thing.”

Sadie watched his face, hoping that he was okay with it. It seemed that she needn’t have worried. He gave as good as he got.

A few more people came to join them, and soon there was quite a crowd around the table. Russ arrived with his lady, Ria. And there were a few more couples, whom Dom said he’d introduce her to properly later. For now, they made do with waving across the table and shouting hellos.

It had been a long time since she’d had a night out with a bunch of friends, and Sadie loved it. She loved the dynamic of the group. The big man convention was definitely a part of it – there were some very large, very attractive looking men around the table. By themselves they might have seemed a little scary, but each of them had an obvious soft spot for the woman he was with. The women were great. She’d known Nina and Terry all her life, and that helped. But the others, too. She was looking forward to getting to know Jo better. And Russ’s lady, Ria, was lovely. She seemed a little different from the others, more refined somehow, but she was warm and friendly, and she had a keen sense of humor.

By the time they’d eaten, and the table had been cleared, Sadie felt right at home. Dom had surprised her. He was more outgoing than she’d expected. From what she understood, he was the most recent arrival at the lake. He didn’t work with the other guys – most of them seemed to work together. He hadn’t known any of them before he moved here, and yet he joked around with them as if he’d known them forever.

He joked with the women too, and she liked that. She didn’t understand why at first, but it hit her as she watched him chatting with Jo, who was sitting across the table from them. It had been a long time since she and Dale went out with friends – they didn’t really have any. But when they went to dinners at the Chamber in town, or events like that, Dale hung out at the bar with the men. He didn’t generally talk to the women – and when he did, it was obvious that he was leering at them.

She glanced at Dom again. He couldn’t be more different from Dale.

She turned in her seat to look when the band started up. Her jaw dropped open when she saw Clay MacAdam on the stage.

Nina laughed. “Don’t tell me you didn’t know?”

She shook her head, still not quite believing. “Is that really who I think it is?”

“It is – the one and only Clay MacAdam. He’s lived here for years now. He and his lady, Marianne, usually eat with us, if he’s not singing with the band.”

“Wow! Just … wow!” She couldn’t help staring. Clay MacAdam was not only her very favorite singer, but he was a good-looking man, too. He was …

She jumped and let out a guilty laugh when Dom squeezed her thigh.

A small smile played on his lips as he cocked an eyebrow and asked. “Is there anything you want to tell me?”

She shook her head rapidly, unable to wipe the smile off her face. “No, just that I didn’t expect to see Clay MacAdam here!”

“Is that a problem?” he asked with a smirk.

“Far from it!”

He narrowed his eyes at her. “And why’s that?”

She laughed. “Because I love his music?”

“And?”

“Because maybe you’ll dance with me later?”

He surprised her when he nodded happily. “You like to dance?”

Terry’s laughter interrupted them. “Does she like to dance? You guys need to get out more. She loves to dance – or she always used to. And don’t worry, Sadie – he’s a real twinkle toes.”

Cal leaned in next to Terry and pretended to scowl at Dom. “Show me up, why don’t you?”

Dom chuckled. “Cal doesn’t dance,” he explained to her. “I’ve been Terry’s stand-in so that she doesn’t have to sit out with him.”

Sadie grinned at her old friend. “I’ll share him with you, if you like.”

Terry laughed. “Thanks, but I don’t mind giving him up now that he’s found a good home.”

It wasn’t long before Nina and Manny were out on the dance floor. It seemed that Manny was another one who liked to dance.

Terry rolled her eyes. “Manny’s from Colombia. He and Diego – you’ll meet Diego and Izzy soon enough – they love to dance.”

Cal got to his feet and offered Terry his hand. “Come on, let’s get you out there.”

Terry winked at Sadie. “I can usually get one dance out of him.”

She watched them go, and Damon and Jo got up and followed them. Dom clasped his hand around the back of her neck, and she rested her head against his shoulder.

“Do you want to dance?”

She nodded happily. “I do. Do you?”

He laughed. “I thought you’d never ask.”

He stuck close to her as they danced with their friends. He didn’t crowd her, but there was no doubt that he was right there – with her. A shiver ran down her spine as the words her man came into her mind. Was that what he was now?

When she turned to dance with him, he held her gaze and nodded his head as if knew what she was thinking and was answering the question.

When the music changed, and Clay launched into one of his ballads, Dom held his arms out to her and she stepped into them willingly.

He held her close as they swayed to the music, and she rested her head against his shoulder.

His breath tickled her ear as he asked, “Are you having a good time?”

“The best!”

His eyes seemed to twinkle as they looked down at her. “The best so far.”

She raised her eyebrows, and he held her closer, so close that they were touching from their knees to their chests – and there was no missing the way his erection pressed into her stomach.

“I don’t want this evening to end. Being here with you like this …” He lowered his head to brush his lips over hers. “I’m loving every second of it. When it ends, will you come home with me? Stay the night?”

All her breath caught in her chest; she’d been wondering – hoping, but …

He kissed her again. “That’s why your dad sent you into the kitchen – we both had the same question – would it be okay if you wanted to stay with me tonight.”

She closed her eyes and nodded as relief swept through her. “Then yes, I’d love to.”

He chuckled. “Have you done enough dancing yet?”

She laughed with him and reached for his hand. “I’m all danced out – take me home!”