Chapter Twenty-Six
Twenty-Six
THEY’D KISSED EACH OTHER brEATHLESS, explored each other’s bodies with both sweetness and desperation, made each other laugh, and slowly started to peel back the layers of who they were.
So why, then, did tonight feel like their first date?
Grayson stood on Bernie’s porch and knocked on the door, the sweet fragrance from the clutch of flowers he held tickling his nose.
Charlie opened the door. Her hair fell in soft waves around her shoulders, one of which was bare except for a thin strap. That one little hint of skin, a shoulder—not even anything salacious—made his mouth water. He held the flowers out to her, his heart stuttering at the smile she gave.
“Twice in one day?” She pulled them to her nose and breathed them in. “I love them. Thank you.”
Bernie appeared behind her and waved at Gray. They’d had a great afternoon and evening out on the boat.
“You’re brightening up our cabin almost as much as Charlie,” he said from behind his niece. “Let me take those for you, dear. Do you need a jacket?”
Charlie turned, handed him the flowers, and kissed his cheek. “I’ll be fine. Thank you.”
They said good night and Grayson took her hand as they walked toward the dock. It was dark, making the stars shine brighter, and he felt a sense of urgency to be closer to her in this minute, with the sweet air, still warm and thick, wrapping around them.
He stopped, turned into her, and tipped her head back with his hands on her cheeks.
“What is it?” she whispered when he stared down at her.
“It’s you. You look amazing and I know the night is just starting, but I want to kiss you now, under the starlight, because it feels like magic and so do you.”
Where had the words come from? He’d never been overly poetic or romantic but she brought a softness out in him that no one else ever had. Maybe knowing it was fleeting gave him a freedom he hadn’t felt before.
Charlie’s hands came to his forearms and, as much as she could, she gripped them. “I’d say you nailed the romance portion of the evening.”
He grinned his way into the kiss, taking it slow and deep until she was moving against him restlessly. When he lifted his head, she kept her eyes closed and made a little humming sound.
“Speaking of magic,” she whispered, making it impossible not to kiss her again.
He wouldn’t say he got it out of his system, but the kisses would tide him over, for now.
Taking her hand again, they walked to the boat.
After helping her in and getting her set up with blankets just in case she got cold, he pointed them in the direction of Tourist Lane, which was on the far end of Smile, tucked away like the treasure that it was.
Gray liked driving the boat. It gave him a sense of peace, a chance to be in his own head in a good way.
He’d sorted a lot of his life struggles behind the wheel of his boat.
But he knew, especially with Charlie at his side, he wouldn’t be able to figure out what to do with his growing feelings for this woman.
Tourist Lane came into view and even over the sound of the engine and wind, he heard Charlie’s gasp.
Gray smiled. He loved it here. Pulling up to the dock, he parked and watched her take it in from her seat as he cut the engine.
“It’s adorable! Like a fairy-tale village.”
Trying to see it with fresh eyes, he looked over to where the dock led to an inclined ramp that opened into the walkway.
Lights were strung along the streets between the lampposts.
During the holidays, they hung decorations on them—candy canes, mistletoe, trees, and angels.
The houseboats to the right were a literal rainbow of colors that never failed to make people smile.
He pointed toward them. “Levi’s parents live in one a couple of rows back.”
“I would love to see inside of one, but I don’t know how I’d feel about living there permanently.”
Grayson turned and grinned down at her. “Levi was staying there for a bit when he first came home and couldn’t hack it. Kept getting the spins.”
She laughed. “That sounds about right. I’d be the same.”
Lowering his face closer to hers, he pressed a whisper-light kiss on her cheek. “Trust me?”
Her gaze snapped up to his. “I do.”
They didn’t truly know each other so the fact that she said it so quickly felt important. She felt important.
“Turn around,” he whispered, gratified to see her gaze flash with heat and more than a bit of interest.
She turned slowly, holding his gaze as long as possible.
Grayson stepped into her until the only space between them was clothing.
His hands went to her hips and squeezed.
He brushed his lips against her neck, felt her shudder before he lifted his mouth to her ear.
Her breathing was next door to ragged so he took his time, held them suspended in the moment.
“I’m going to lift you onto the dock, okay?”
She nodded, making his lips brush against her lobe. “Grayson.”
Bending his knees, he held her tight and boosted her up to the dock. She stayed turned away from him until he pulled himself up behind her, then she turned into him and kissed him until his own breathing sounded like he’d run a hard mile.
When he pulled back, she did that adorable thing where her eyes stayed closed, like she was trying to absorb the moment, memorize it.
When her lids fluttered open, she had a dreamy kind of smile on her lips. “You’re very good at the romance thing.”
Funny, he hadn’t thought he was. His ex certainly never thought he was—one of her many complaints.
The times he’d tried to take charge, plan something special—a dinner, a trip, a picnic by the water, Lana took over or altered what he’d set in motion.
She said it was part of who she was, making it feel strange that she then used it as a fault against him.
Though he probably could have done more, tried harder, but he didn’t want to think about that.
“I guess you bring it out in me,” he said, kissing her again before taking her hand and pulling her toward the ramp and up to the walkway that led to the shops. Both sides of the lane had one- and two-level stores that housed eclectic shops and eateries.
“I love it here,” she said, looking from one side to the other.
“It’s grown so much. Used to just be a handful of older houseboats.
It’s really built up a lot in the last five years.
Lainey’s shop is at the end on the left, right before the path to the park.
Maybe we can visit it another day.” He bumped her hip with his.
“We can take the bikes and ride in from the other direction.”
She ignored him, making him laugh.
“I can teach you to ride a bike,” Gray said.
“I’m good. Not a lot of need for it. I get around just fine with Ubers and my feet.”
They passed a fish-and-chips stand, a small art gallery, a yoga studio, and a little coffee shop where Jillian, Presley, and Lainey went for their book club.
“Oh, tacos!” She pointed to the fairly new eatery on the right.
Gray glanced at her. “Not just tacos. Specialty tacos.”
Her brows scrunched along with her nose. “How special?”
The laugh rumbled up from his belly. “Let’s find out.”
“It’s my turn to treat you to dinner.”
“You don’t have to do that. I asked you out.”
Throwing her arms around his neck, she smiled, and it was so carefree, so different from the expressions he’d seen the first few days he knew her.
A weight had lifted from her and he wished he could keep the heaviness at bay, but since he didn’t even know what it was, he needed to focus on what he could control.
“You did. And I said yes. And now I’m saying it’s my treat.”
He nodded. “You’re the boss.”
She laughed. “Said nobody ever.”
After ordering Greek tacos—which had Greek-style chicken, seasoned tomatoes, feta, and red peppers—along with a couple of drinks, they sat at one of the high-top outdoor tables.
“You must have loved growing up here,” she said in between bites.
“In Smile? I did. It’s a great place. I get why some people felt isolated and wanted to leave—like Levi. He felt like his dreams couldn’t be attained if he stayed here. But even he came back. We all did, actually. Jilly, myself, and Beckett all went away for school but came home.”
She licked a dab of sour cream off her fingertip, distracting Gray, making him lose his train of thought.
“You came back in between graduating from university and getting married?”
That question had him refocusing. “I did. Lana actually came here as a teen in the summers. We reconnected when she came back for a girls’ trip about eight years ago. She never made any pretenses about wanting to live here. We moved to Chicago and I worked for her father.”
Charlie listened intently. “How did you like that?”
He shrugged, put the last bite of his taco in his mouth, and thought about his answer while he chewed.
“Honestly, at first it was great. It was a challenging and rewarding job. I was busy, I made incredible money, and Lana and I spent a lot of time together because she worked for him as well. But his opinion started trickling over from the workplace to our home life. At a certain point in your life, you need to stop justifying your choices with my dad says.”
Nodding, Charlie folded her hands in front of her on the table. “Parental approval and involvement is a huge factor in most relationships.”
“It wasn’t when we first got together, but she wanted more than I did, materially, at least. A bigger house, fancier car, more luxurious vacations. I wanted to start a family.”
Her eyes flashed with compassion. “Had you talked about that before you married?”
He nodded. “She changed her mind. We grew apart. Her father figured I’d be bitter and try to go after his money, so he went on offense, pulled everything out from under me like the worst magic trick ever.
By the time it was over, I had no wife, no home, no money, and no intention of ever walking down that path again. ”
“I think all of that is normal. But it’s not always a great idea to make lifelong declarations based on the worst moments in your life.”
He smiled as he reached for her hand across the small table.
“When Beckett fell for Presley and almost lost her because he was scared, I told him you can’t regret loving someone and that if there was a way to make things work, he needed to do it.
I realized then that I wasn’t mad at Lana anymore.
I was sad my marriage was over, that the life I’d planned for myself had been upended.
But I’m happier now than I ever imagined being. Than I ever was in Chicago.”
Her fingers squeezed his. “You have a really great outlook and as much as I hate that you were hurt, I feel like you’re exactly where you’re meant to be. You belong here and at the lodge.”
Grayson knew that all the way to his bones. And while he worried that he was more susceptible to falling for a woman—this woman—than he’d thought, he knew one thing for certain: He wanted to live out the rest of his life in Smile and never again would he give that up for anyone.