Chapter Thirty-Eight
Brian
The next few days blurred into a lazy routine.
Waking up with her snuggled next to me and the sound of the ocean waves started each day out perfectly. If we made it out of bed without fucking, then breakfast would end with her bent over the counter.
That wasn’t a complaint, by the way.
Our afternoons were spent on the beach. I usually fell asleep on my towel while she read her book next to me. I loved that all I had to do was reach over, and I could touch her.
We’d gone out for dinner one night and had gotten pizza delivered from the local pizza shop once. The rest of the evenings, we’d worked side by side in the kitchen, laughing and flirting. Teasing and touching.
It was domestic bliss.
And it scared me how easy I’d fallen into it.
We fought over the remote. I teased her about hogging the covers. She gave me grief about the loose cupboard hinge bothering me so much I had to go out to my truck to find a screwdriver and fix it.
Every laugh, every ordinary little thing, made it easier to believe this could be more than temporary.
By the fifth evening, the ice cream we’d bought at the grocery store had long been eaten, and I was craving something sweet as we cleaned up after dinner.
“Hey, you wanna go to the ice cream parlor Alan wanted to take us to the first night we got here?”
She wrapped her arms around my middle and looked up at me with a smirk. “Is my JFJ going through withdrawals?”
“Yes I am. So, you need to take me to the ice cream parlor STAT before I pass out from low blood sugar.”
She pursed her lips and shook her head.
“I’m pretty sure you’ll live if you don’t have ice cream. Trust me, I’m a professional.”
“Yeah, but do you really want to risk it?” I slid my hands under her t-shirt to caress the bare skin on her back. “Come on, you know a hot fudge sundae sounds really good right now.”
She let out a sigh, like going to get ice cream was a hardship. But I knew she was lying. Her vanilla pint had disappeared before my cookies and cream.
****
Jade
Swensen’s must be a popular place on the Cape because the line was out the door. Everyone there had to be on vacation time because no one seemed to mind the wait.
I certainly didn’t.
Not with Brian’s hand at my back, guiding me forward through the line while he talked low in my ear.
“You know the ice cream has to be good if the line is this long.”
“I was just thinking the same thing.”
“You have to get something other than vanilla, though.”
“No, I don’t.”
“I hope you brought your wallet, then. Because I’m not paying for vanilla.”
“You told me to leave my purse at the cottage!”
He shrugged. “Guess you’ll have to branch out, then.”
“Fine, I’ll get what you get.”
“Oh no. You can’t do that. That’s like Rule Number One when it comes to dating. You can’t order the same thing as your date.”
I pulled back to stare at him. “What? Why not? It’s not like we share our food.”
“Doesn’t matter. We can’t order the same thing. Ever.”
“That’s the stupidest rule I’ve ever heard. I guess it’s a good thing we won’t be dating when we get back to Haven Springs.”
Saying it out loud felt like someone had come in and put a wet blanket over our entire evening.
We were silent for a few minutes as we moved through the line. Finally, when we were three customers from the front, he murmured, “What if we did date when we got back home?”
I felt my blood rush to my toes.
Brian wanted to date me—in Haven Springs?
For a split second, my soul sang. The words I hadn’t let myself hope for came out quiet, almost cautious, like he wasn’t sure he should even ask.
God, I wanted to say yes. I wanted to nod like an idiot, throw my arms around his neck, and let myself believe this could turn into something more. I wanted to believe the way his hand settled on the small of my back meant I mattered to him.
But the same reasons I hadn’t been able to argue away still stood.
His family would never see me as the right kind of girl.
I could already picture the polite smiles and the unspoken disapproval, the way I’d always be the outsider at their table.
And no matter how I spun it, we both worked too much.
I’d already lived through being second place to a man’s ambition, and I wasn’t going through that again.
So even as my chest swelled at the thought of him wanting me, reality pressed in harder. Dating Brian O’Shaughnessy wasn’t some sweet, simple fantasy. It was a gamble with the kind of stakes I couldn’t afford—my heart, my pride, and maybe even my place in our town.
I could feel him looking at me, waiting for a response.
With a gentle smile, I touched his arm. “I don’t know what to say, Bri. We agreed this was just while we’re here, and now you’re trying to change the rules.”
His mouth parted like he was about to argue, his thumb brushed against my wrist in a way that told me he wasn’t ready to let it drop, but we were next in line to order.
He waited until I told the girl what I wanted: a single-scoop mint chip cone, then he told her, “A hot fudge sundae, no nuts, please.”
As we waited to get our ice cream, I nudged him with my shoulder. “You didn’t have to worry about me stealing your order. I would have never gotten a hot fudge sundae.”
“Never?” He seemed offended.
“No.”
“Oh, Sunshine. You gotta live a little.”
I had to admit, it did look good when the teenage girl behind the counter handed it to him.
He guided me outside to a little metal table with a view of the sunset, settling in so close our knees touched. He stole the first bite of my mint chip and grinned when I swatted at him.
“You’re terrible,” I said, laughing.
“Yep,” he murmured, leaning in to kiss the corner of my mouth, his lips cold from the ice cream.
I should’ve been embarrassed by the way we were wrapped up in each other, but I wasn’t. Not when he looked at me like that.
Maybe we really could date in Haven Springs?
My phone buzzed in my hand. A text from Lainey lit up the screen: Have you seen this?? followed by a link.
Without thinking, I tapped it—and immediately felt dizzy as I read the words.