Chapter 22 #2
Katie laughed in agreement. “My grandmother used to remind the hotel staff that the late-season visitors paid the same price and deserved the same service. She used to stress out when the college kids would leave in mid-August for school. She’d put us to work cleaning rooms and doing laundry.”
“That sounds like fun.”
“It was,” Katie said wistfully. “We’d do anything she asked of us. She was—and is—our hero. She got us out of hell for two months every year. She could’ve asked us to walk barefoot over fire, and we would’ve done it for her.”
“Why didn’t any of you ever tell her what was going on at home?” Shane asked.
“Because he told us to keep our mouths shut or else. ‘What goes on in our home is our business and no one else’s,’ he would say.” Katie shrugged. “We were terrified of him.”
“I hate that you had to live like that for so long. No one should have to grow up that way.”
“I hate it, too, but it wasn’t all bad. He deployed a lot, so we got breaks from the insanity.
And we had each other, so no one felt completely alone with it.
Except for maybe Owen. Thank God for him.
He ran interference for all of us at great personal expense.
” She looked up at him. “Did you know he received an appointment to West Point?”
“No,” Shane said, seeming astounded to hear that. “I can’t picture him in the military, though.”
“Well, my dad could. He pushed him so hard.”
“So why didn’t he go?”
“He refused to leave the rest of us, which led to a huge fight between them. For once, Owen prevailed and knocked the general out cold.”
“Wow.”
She could almost see Shane wondering what it would be like to punch his father unconscious.
“That must’ve been vindicating.”
“It was until my father had him charged with assault.”
“Seriously?”
“Yep. He pressed charges and saw to it that Owen spent a few nights in jail to ‘teach him a lesson about respecting his elders.’ At first they charged him with felony assault, but that didn’t stick.
He ended up with a misdemeanor on his record, but the incident was enough to make West Point change its mind.
That only further infuriated my father, and of course it was all Owen’s fault.
” Katie shook her head, sickened by the memories of those dark days.
“Owen is such an amazing guy,” Shane said. “To have been through all that and still be so kind and loving toward Laura and Holden.”
“It took a really long time for him to get to a place where the relationship he has with Laura was possible. But no one, except for maybe my mom, deserves to be happy more than he does. We’re all so thankful he has Laura and that she makes him so happy.”
“You deserve to be happy, too, you know.”
“Not like he does.”
“Sure you do. You lived through hell and survived just like he did. Maybe he fought more of the battles, but judging from how often he speaks of you and Julia, in particular, you propped him up through it all.”
“He talks about us?”
“All the time—all of you, but you two in particular.”
“That’s nice to hear. We love him unreasonably.”
“I’d venture to guess he loves you just as much.”
“Sometimes it feels like our childhood was so long ago it didn’t really happen, like it was a bad movie we saw once or something. And other times it feels like it happened five minutes ago, and any second he’s going to reappear out of the woodwork like the bogeyman.”
“That’s not going to happen. You know that, don’t you?”
“I’m working on convincing myself.” She realized all at once that while they talked they’d walked out to waist-deep water. “Well, aren’t you the clever one, getting me to talk about my painful past as you lured me into the deep.”
“You make me sound so devious.”
“Are you?”
“Not usually.” Without releasing her hand, he dropped into the water, letting it wash over his head. He stayed under long enough that Katie worried about him.
She tugged on his hand, and he squeezed hers. Then she felt him between her legs and let out a squeak of surprise when he lifted her onto his shoulders. Katie fisted handfuls of his hair as she tried to keep from falling off. “That was devious!”
He spun her around, making her laugh hysterically.
“Stop! I’m going to puke.”
“We can’t have that.” He dropped suddenly again, taking her down with him this time.
She resurfaced, sputtering from the mouthful of water she’d swallowed. Before she could express her displeasure, he’d lifted her again, this time into his arms as he remained largely under the water. “That was mean.”
“You have brothers. How does that count as mean?”
“You make a good point. I’ve been the victim of dirtier tricks.”
“And you’re not stressing out about being in the water.”
Which had been his goal, she realized as she returned his smile. “Also true. Thank you for that.”
He tightened his hold on her. “Very much my pleasure. Speaking of my pleasure, you could kiss me if you wanted to.”
Katie wanted to. She really, really wanted to.
So she linked her arms around his neck and pressed her lips to his.
At first, she wondered if he was going to respond, but then she got that he was waiting to see what she would do.
So she started by stroking his bottom lip with her tongue before withdrawing it and then doing it again.
Only the tight squeeze of his hands on her arm and leg indicated that her efforts were yielding results, so she did it again and again, until his mouth opened and he groaned in response.
Feeling victorious, Katie smiled against his lips.
“You’re quite pleased with yourself, aren’t you?”
“Not bad, since I hadn’t kissed anyone until recently.”
“Not bad at all. How about you do it again? They say practice makes perfect.”
“I need lots and lots of practice.”
“I’m more than happy to help you catch up.”
Katie laughed as she kissed him—until he shifted her so she straddled his lap. Her laughter turned into a moan as he pressed his erection between her legs and cupped her breasts under the water. Remembering where they were and that anyone could see them, she turned away from the kiss.
“What’s wrong?”
“Not out here.”
“We’re just kissing.”
“Someone might see.”
“So?”
“I’m not ready for that yet.”
“Yet. Does that imply that someday you might be?”
She gauged the teasing glint in his eye. “You’ll have to wait and see.”
“Is underwater touching allowed?”
“I suppose that’s okay.”
“Mmm,” he said as he nuzzled her neck and cupped her breasts, running his thumbs over her tight nipples.
“Hey! You untied my top!”
“You said touching was allowed.”
“I didn’t say naked touching was allowed.”
“An important distinction. It’s not my fault I wasn’t given all the information.”
“You really are a scoundrel, aren’t you?”
“No one has ever called me that before,” he said with a chuckle. He put his arms around her, bringing her breasts in tight against his chest.
As they floated in the water, waves rolled gently toward the shore and the sun dipped closer to the horizon. Far off in the distance, she noticed what looked like lights strung across the water. “What is that?”
Shane turned to see what she meant. “The Newport Bridge.”
“Oh, I couldn’t tell.”
“Have you been there? To Newport?”
“Nope.”
“All the times you came here, you never went there?”
“My grandparents had seven kids underfoot. It was a big deal to go out for ice cream. They bought a ten-passenger van just so they could drive us around when we were here. We didn’t make it to Newport.”
“I’ll take you if you want to go.”
“I’d love to go.”
“Tomorrow?”
“Don’t you have to work?”
“I can take a day off.”
“You really want to go to Newport tomorrow?”
“What I really want is to spend a full day with you, so yes, I really want to go to Newport tomorrow.”
She smiled at his sweetness. “Okay. That sounds like fun.”
“It’s a lot of walking, though. Do you feel up for that with your foot?”
“It’s a lot better than it was. I’ll be okay. But the more pressing question is will I be back for girls’ night out?”
“I can make that happen. But now we have to go clean up for dinner with your mom and Charlie.”
Katie tightened her legs around his hips. “I’m sort of wishing now that we hadn’t made those plans.”
“Why’s that?”
She rubbed against him suggestively. “No reason.”
Laughing, he moved his hands down to cup her bottom. “You know what the best news of all is?”
“What?”
He pressed his erection against her. “He comes back any time I need him. So while we might have to let him go to waste this time, after dinner… Watch out.”
Katie shuddered from the promise of pleasure she heard in his voice. Now that she knew what to expect, how was she supposed to get through dinner without every thought focused on what would happen when they got home?