Chapter 7
Seven
“Check out that big smile,” Jenny said after Erin stashed her phone in the back pocket of her jeans and resumed chopping red peppers for Jenny’s veggie tray.
“What big smile?”
“The one that stretched across your face when you heard from your sexy pilot.”
“He’s not my sexy pilot,” Erin said, beginning to feel uncomfortable with Jenny’s certainty that something would come of her friendship with Slim.
“Is he or is he not a sexy pilot?”
“He is.”
“Is he or is he not shacking up with you over the holidays?”
“Have you always been this much of an ass pain, or did it start when you were happily married?”
“She’s much more of a pain since she got married,” Alex said as he came into the room, grinning at his wife.
“Listen to him,” Jenny said, scoffing. “I’m the best wife he’s ever had.”
“You know it, baby.” He hooked his arm around her from behind and kissed her neck until she giggled like a schoolgirl.
Erin was taken by surprise when her heart began to ache.
By now, she ought to be used to seeing Jenny in love with someone else.
But until she’d come to the island over the summer, Alex had existed in the abstract for her, the new guy Jenny was seeing.
Now he was a flesh-and-blood man who was obviously crazy about Jenny. Toby’s Jenny…
“Er?”
Erin looked up from the pulverized peppers to realize Jenny had been talking to her. “Sorry, I was spacing.”
Jenny sent her a dirty smile.
She thought Erin was thinking about Slim.
That was for the best. The last thing Erin would ever want to do was crap on the happiness Jenny had waited so long to find.
Toby, who’d been madly in love with Jenny, would tell Erin to get over herself and get on board, especially while she was a guest in Jenny and Alex’s beautiful new home.
Paul and Hope came in a few minutes later with Hope’s son, Ethan, who was full of pre-Christmas excitement.
“I set you up with the Xbox in the bedroom,” Alex said to Ethan.
“Nice!”
“One hour and then it’s bedtime,” Hope called after her son.
“Mac and Maddie’s kids are sick, so they’re out tonight,” Jenny said. “But they invited everyone to their house on the twenty-sixth.”
“Sure, sounds fun,” Hope said.
“You guys never quit with the partying,” Erin said.
“That’s all there is to do around here this time of year,” Hope said.
“Need me to give you some pointers for passing the time, bro?” Alex asked, a cocky grin making his eyes gleam with mischief.
“Oh, sorry, honey,” Hope said, wincing. “I tossed him a softball, didn’t I?”
“And he hit it right out of the park.” Paul smiled at Hope and put his arm around her. “You should know better by now.”
“I really should.”
“Alex’s dirty mind and mouth are the thing of legend,” Jenny said for Erin’s edification.
“You love my dirty mind, and you positively adore my dirty mouth.”
Jenny stuffed a roll in his mouth, making everyone laugh hysterically.
“I love you so much, Jenny.” Paul wiped laughter tears from his eyes. “So, so much.”
“You love that I manage him for you,” Jenny said to her brother-in-law.
“Yes, I do.”
“Manage me, my ass,” Alex said around a mouthful of bread.
“Your ass is one of the best parts of you,” Jenny said to groans.
Jared and Lizzie James arrived with another man Erin hadn’t met before.
They introduced him as Jared’s brother, Quinn.
Like Jared, he was blond, but unlike his brother, Quinn didn’t smile easily and was polite but quiet.
Lizzie more than compensated, telling them how Quinn had come to see the building she and Jared had bought to house a health care facility for the island’s elderly.
“What do you think of our fair island so far, Quinn?” Paul asked over cocktails.
“It’s, um, small.”
“You live in New York City,” Lizzie said. “Anything would seem small to you after that.”
“There’s small and then there’s Gansett small,” Quinn said with a small grin.
Watching their back-and-forth, Erin could see how hard Lizzie was trying to convince her brother-in-law to embrace her project.
She wanted him to be the staff physician at the new facility.
While Quinn resembled his older brother in looks, he had none of Jared’s easygoing charm or wit. Quinn was more buttoned down, somber.
Though intrigued by the James family dynamic as talk turned to holiday plans, Erin found herself watching the door, waiting and anticipating.
Any minute now. God, she was like a silly teenage girl waiting for her boyfriend to arrive.
Could she be any more ridiculous? Except, that was how she felt.
Her skin prickled with awareness of him, and he hadn’t even arrived yet.
Knowing he was on his way had her heart beating faster.
Her face felt warm, and she was probably flushed, giving away her secrets to the room full of friends.
Eager for a moment alone to get ahold of herself before he got there, she went into the kitchen for a glass of ice water.
Naturally, Jenny followed her and insisted on getting the water for her.
Erin took a sip, the cold liquid soothing her parched throat.
“You going to be all right?” Jenny asked in a teasing tone.
“I don’t know. I’m all wound up inside over him, and I shouldn’t be. He’s here for a short visit, and then he’s going back to Florida for the rest of the winter. What can possibly come of it?”
“Erin… Really? You’re honestly asking that? You’re not indentured to the island and the lighthouse. You could go with him.”
“I don’t know. Nothing has been decided.”
“You should go and see what happens. What do you have to lose? If it doesn’t work out, you can come back here for the summer.”
“I have everything to lose. I can’t… I don’t know if I’m ready for what this could be.”
Jenny left her perch by the sink and crossed the room to where Erin leaned against the counter.
She put her hands on Erin’s shoulders, forcing her to make eye contact.
“I’ve been right where you are. When Alex and his ghastly lawn mower came roaring into my life, I wasn’t in any way prepared to contend with him and all the things he wanted from me.
In fact, neither was he with everything that was going on with his mom.
But look at what we would’ve missed if we hadn’t found the courage to take a chance. ”
Oh God, Erin thought, I’m going to cry. She blinked furiously to keep the tears contained.
Jenny hugged her. “It’s so frightening to risk more than we can afford to lose. I get that. I get it better than anyone else ever could. But Toby would want us to be happy, Er. I have to believe that, or I wouldn’t be able to get through the day.”
Clinging to Jenny and her wisdom, Erin nodded.
“If I can do it, so can you.”
Erin laughed and drew back from the woman who’d become her touchstone after they lost Toby. “I never would’ve survived without you.”
“Ditto. But we can do better than survive. We can thrive. And someday, after we’re done here, we’ll see him again. I want him to be proud of me when that day comes.”
“So do I.” Erin took a deep breath, trying to pull herself together. “I admire you more than anyone. I hope you know that.”
“The feeling is definitely mutual. And… I think your guy is here.”
Erin was on the verge of reminding Jenny that he wasn’t her guy when Slim came into the kitchen and made a liar out of her.
Her heart nearly leapt from her chest at the sight of his handsome, smiling face as well as the windblown hair and the rugged leather jacket he wore.
He was like a fantasy come to life, and his dark eyes drank her in.
“Is that Alex calling me?” Jenny asked, scooting from the kitchen to give them a moment alone.
“She’s nothing if not subtle,” he said.
“Always has been her strong suit.”
He came over to her, making her entire body go haywire in reaction to his nearness. What. The. Hell.
Unsure of what he expected, she looked up at him, trying to anticipate his next move. But when he merely hugged her, she sagged against him, breathing in the bewitching scent of man and leather and soap.
“Missed you,” he whispered, close enough to her ear to set off another series of unprecedented responses that converged in an insistent throb of desire between her legs.
Dear God. What was it about this man? How did he reduce her to a quivering pile of want simply by walking into a room and hugging her?
When she came up for air, she realized her arms were inside his coat and wrapped around his waist. If this was how she reacted when he was gone for a few hours, how would she feel when he left again to resume his winter life in Florida?
She didn’t want to think about that, especially not while he was standing right in front of her, sizing her up with those sexy dark eyes that saw her a little too well for her liking.
“Did you miss me?”
“Did you go somewhere?”
His eyes glimmered with amusement, his smile transforming his face from handsome to ridiculously sexy. “You hurt me with your nonchalance.”
“Yes, I missed you. Feel better now?”
“I’ve never felt better in my life.”
“Never?” she asked, relying on humor to hide her emotional reaction to his heartfelt words.
“Not that I can recall.”
With his fingers on her chin, he tipped her face up for a soft, sweet kiss that left her dizzy and dying for more.
“To be continued,” he said, releasing her.
It was too much and not enough at the same time. How was that possible? All he had to do was walk into the room to put her on full alert. Her nipples were tight, her belly quivering, her palms sweaty, and the tingle between her legs had become a full-blown throb from one simple hug and kiss.
Nothing about him was simple, especially the way she reacted to him. If he could turn her on so completely with nothing more than a hug and a kiss, what would happen later when they were alone again at the lighthouse? She needed a fan to cool her face and a stiff drink to calm her nerves.