Chapter 10 #2
Relieved that he didn’t seem mad with her for letting things get so far and then pulling the plug, Grace leaned her forehead against his chest. “It’s not that I don’t want to. I hope you know that.”
His arms came around her, and his fingers combed through her hair in a gesture almost as seductive as his kisses. “It’s okay, Grace. If you’re not ready, you’re not ready.”
“We hardly know each other.”
“And yet there’s an undeniable sizzle.”
“Yes.”
“You might not believe this, but I’ve never experienced a sizzle quite like ours.”
“Really?”
He kissed the top of her head and used a finger on her chin to compel her to look up at him. “Really,” he said, punctuating the word with a soft kiss. “Let’s go get some dinner. What do you say?”
He was so sweet and considerate that she wanted to take it all back and tell him she was ready to get naked with him. Instead, she turned her back to him and pointed to her zipper. With his lips teasing her neck from behind, he raised the zipper and had her about to beg by the time he was done.
“That’s not fair,” she said.
“Sorry.” His chuckle gave him away as anything but sorry.
“Give me a minute to repair the damage.” She ducked into the bathroom, closed the door and was shocked by what she saw in the mirror—swollen lips, smeared lipstick and glassy eyes.
“So this is what passion looks like,” she whispered as she wiped off the lipstick and reapplied it the way Stephanie had taught her. Studying her reflection, she took cleansing breaths to calm her racing heart and out-of-control hormones.
Maybe by the time they had dinner and got to know each other a little better, she’d be more comfortable getting naked with him.
He seemed to want her as much as she wanted him.
He’d made it clear he wasn’t interested in a relationship, and with the huge challenge she was about to undertake with the pharmacy, it wasn’t a good time for her to get involved, either.
So who would be harmed by a weekend fling? No one, she decided as she blotted her lips and ran a brush through her hair. “After dinner,” she whispered. “We’ll try this again.”
After parting with Stephanie, who was eager to get back to Grant, Laura took a leisurely walk through town, window-shopping and enjoying the salt air. As soon as the sun began to dip toward the horizon, the warmth of the day was replaced by a September chill that had Laura wishing for a sweater.
On the far end of the town, the Sand & Surf Hotel beckoned her home.
A riot of gables and craggy corners illuminated by the setting sun, the hotel’s shingled exterior was in need of a good pressure washing, which was just one of many items on her extensive to-do list. Thinking about the renovation and redecoration project had helped to preserve her sanity as she’d gone through the torture of ripping apart the life she’d planned to lead with her philandering husband.
For the first time since her bridesmaids had broken the news about finding her new husband’s dating profile alive and well online, Laura felt like she could breathe again.
Thank God she didn’t have to go back to the mainland any time soon to face well-meaning friends and family members who looked at her with such pity.
Instead, she could throw herself into creating a whole new life here on the island in a place where she and her unborn child could put down roots and make some friends.
The afternoon she’d spent with Stephanie and Grace had gone a long way toward restoring her spirits.
Her new friends hadn’t been witnesses to her epic disaster, and while they knew she was nursing deep wounds, they didn’t look at her with pity or sympathy or hover around her as if she might shatter at any moment the way her friends at home did.
Laura took a deep breath of the fragrant sea air and watched a pair of gulls dive into the surf in search of dinner.
She’d done the right thing moving here. No matter how things worked out at the hotel, being on the island had always felt right to her.
Being anywhere other than Providence would be an improvement, but being here in the home of her heart went a long way toward soothing the still-festering wound on her soul.
Taking the stairs to the hotel, she wondered if Owen was around. As she had the thought, her heart did a funny thudding thing that she attributed to the exercise. What else could it be? Her key gave her fits again, but when she wiggled it the way Owen had shown her, it finally gave way.
Once inside, she was drawn to the music coming from the sitting room Owen used whenever he was on the island. His grandparents, who owned the hotel, made sure a suite was always clean and ready for him even as the rest of the hotel fell into disrepair.
Laura followed the music and found him sitting on a rail-back chair he’d dragged in from the dining room, facing the breathtaking view of the ocean at sunset.
His broad shoulders were bent over the guitar, and his mop of dirty-blond hair was in the usual disarray.
One of these days, she would probably indulge the ever-present desire to reach up and straighten it with her fingers.
That thought led to another of those mysterious thuds from her heart.
Resting her hand over the misbehaving organ, she knew she really ought to take it easy. She had the baby to consider.
Hesitant to disturb Owen, she stood in the doorway, mesmerized by his deep voice. She recognized the song, “Please Come to Boston,” about a musician hoping to convince his love to join him on the road as she tried to lure him home to her.
Caught up in the melody and the lyrics about the man from Tennessee, she almost didn’t hear her cell phone ring. Before it could bother Owen, she withdrew it from her pocket and stepped into the lobby to take the call without checking the caller ID.
“Hello?”