Chapter Fourteen Dominic
Chapter Fourteen
Dominic
I told you the dock would be finished before the parade,” Dominic said as he walked Amanda out onto her finished boat dock on Friday night before the Heart Lake Boat Parade the next day. His thumb was still wrapped in a large bandage and occasionally throbbed, but he ignored it.
Amanda walked to the end and twirled before turning back to him with a big smile. “I don’t know how to thank you. You and Jack did so much work on this.”
“I mean, Jack was an advisor at best,” Dominic clarified with a joking laugh. “He’s nearing his seventies, you know. I did all the manual labor.”
She pretended to give him a fake bow. “Oh, I’m soooo sorry. Let me just bask in your manly, masculine carpentry abilities.”
The banter between them had always been easy, and he was glad that they could at least fall back into that after everything that had happened the other night. He’d been worried that their night together on the couch would make things awkward, but it seemed like she was game to just pretend none of it had happened.
He couldn’t really argue with that approach, either. He wasn’t going to push it between them anymore. Instead, he was going to write it off as some emotional exploration he had to figure out on his own post-divorce. An attempt at a rebound, maybe. An awkward play at dating again after years of being off the market. Because that’s probably all it was.
He laughed. “I’m getting a lot better, I swear. I helped Jack with his boat for tomorrow. It’s going to blow the other boats away. We’re definitely going to win.”
“The first year, Tanner’s boat won,” Amanda said, reminiscing on the event. She actually did love it, even if it was a lot of work. Next year, she’d definitely be bringing on other people to help, though. “He did a whole lovebirds theme with Nola, and it was so grotesquely romantic that everyone voted for it. Honestly, the entire thing was a ploy for their self-esteem as a couple. More for Instagram than anything else, in my opinion.”
Dominic tried not to laugh, but he was immediately unsuccessful. “Wait, so who won last year?”
Amanda’s face turned to a scowl. “Blake.”
“Who’s that?” he asked, despite seeing the aversion in her expression.
“I actually started the Heart Lake Boat Parade with Blake,” Amanda clarified as they walked out to the edge of the dock and looked out onto the lake. “And he did it with me for a couple years, but this year, he quit.”
“Shit.” Dominic frowned. “Does that mean you’re on your own planning it?”
“Yep,” she replied. “It also means that he’s a fucking asshole.”
Dominic lifted his brows as he took that in. “Why’s he an asshole? It sounds like a big undertaking. Was he not up to the task?”
She shook her head. “It’s not that it’s a big undertaking—I mean, don’t get me wrong, it is. It’s a huge undertaking, and the fact that I’ve done it completely free three times in a row seems like crazy talk. But it’s that I said I wasn’t going to date him—that’s why he quit. I really hurt his feelings, apparently.”
“I mean, okay, his feelings got hurt… but is that on you? He said he wasn’t going to continue sponsoring an event with you just because you weren’t going to date him. That sounds like a him problem, and frankly, kind of an asshole move.” Dominic kicked his foot against one of the railings on the dock, testing out the structure. It held up well, and he was proud of how he and Jack had put it together. “Definitely doesn’t sound like it’s your fault.”
“I wish more people thought that way,” she replied. “I told him there wasn’t a future between us several times, but I guess he thought he could just wait out my no until it was a yes.”
“That’s shitty.” Dominic was no stranger to the message men got that persistence was key to romance, but that was an old-school thought he wasn’t about. If a woman said no, he was going to believe she meant it. Period.
Amanda sighed. “Blake is not a bad guy, I swear. I’m just pissed about the timing. I wish I’d gotten more notice on the parade so I could have brought more help in.”
Dominic had no interest in letting this Blake guy off the hook that easily, the heat already turning up higher in his gut. “Tomorrow’s Boat Parade is 100 percent going to be because of all the work and planning you put into it, and that’s something to be proud of. Screw him. Tomorrow is about you.”
“And a bunch of boats,” she joked, clearly trying to lighten the mood or change the topic of conversation. That seemed to be her standard for any conversation that began to touch on something real.
“Sure,” he agreed. “But if you need me to have a conversation with Blake, just say the word. I’ll put him in his place.”
“I don’t need you to protect me, Dom,” Amanda said, her voice a little quieter suddenly. Her stance physically softened in front of him, but there was something in her expression that made him feel antsy. “I don’t need anyone, least of all some handsome neighbor who just randomly moved into my life and turned everything upside down.”
The anxiety itching across his skin was only spreading at the way she was looking at him right now. He wasn’t expecting any of this conversation from her, and he didn’t want to say anything to ruin it. A stillness fell between them as he digested what she’d said. She didn’t move, and he didn’t, either. Until he felt like he couldn’t stay still a moment longer.
Dominic walked closer to her, reaching out to touch her forearm with his uninjured hand. He traced his fingers down her arm toward her wrist but stopped before holding her actual hand. “Amanda, there is something here between us.”
He wanted her to acknowledge it, to walk out onto the ledge with him and be willing to bare her soul.
She swallowed hard and shook her head, and in the process, she pushed him physically off of her and took several steps to the side. “I am not someone you would date, Dominic.”
“What?” He frowned, a little confused at the abruptness of her sentence. And frankly, also a little offended, though he wasn’t exactly sure what she meant. “Why would you say that?”
“I’m not someone you would date,” she repeated.
Dominic was so honestly taken aback by the entire line of thinking that he didn’t know what to say. “Okay.”
That wasn’t the right thing to say, but that was all he said.
The flash of hurt across her face and the extra step she took away from him told him that everything about his response had been wrong… but how else was he supposed to respond? What was the answer to that? She was making things clear, and he didn’t know what he wanted from her, but I won’t date you felt pretty damn clear.
At least, he thought it felt clear. Is that what she’d said?
But the next moment, Amanda completely changed course and stepped closer to him on the dock until she was directly pressed against him. Chest to chest, he felt his entire body freeze. He didn’t know whether to put his arms around her and hug her to him—like he wanted to—or to stay perfectly still and not even breathe.
“Amanda?” he whispered her name like a question because he had no idea what the answer was.
Except he knew that he wanted her closer.
She was so, so close already, but he wanted more. That felt like the wrong answer, too. He didn’t know which way was up right now, his heart felt like it was pounding in his chest, and there was that smell of lavender again from the other night. Everything about this woman was floral, and he didn’t want to move away.
“Dominic,” she replied in a breathy manner that felt like an answer but only created more questions for him.
Her chest was already against his, but she pushed up on her tiptoes until her mouth was also at the same level as his.
He could feel the anxiety taking over in his chest and his previously fast-beating heart was now exploding through his rib cage. It was quite likely she could hear it at this point.
“Amanda, I don’t know if this is a good idea…” His words were barely a whisper, and he wasn’t even sure she could hear him over the racing of his heart.
But her lips pressed against his anyway, and it was everything he hadn’t known he’d wanted. Except he did want it, and he did know it.
Amanda’s lips were soft and slow, and when she had first held them against his, he’d been hesitant to respond, but when he did finally kick into gear, they became voracious. She kissed him like she hadn’t been kissed before, and his arms wrapped around her waist and pulled her against him like he hadn’t held anyone this close before.
There was something hesitant and explorative and intentional about her all at the same time. Dominic didn’t know how to navigate it and felt it better to stay on the safe side and let her lead. When her hand slid up the back of his neck and pulled him closer to her, he was hungry for more and pressed his lips against hers harder.
She gasped slightly at the merger, and when his hand wrapped around the small of her back, she shuddered gently—but he still felt it, and it set him on fire.
“Dominic,” she breathed in the smallest of gasps as he held her close. “This is… this is amazing.”
She sounded almost… surprised?
His confidence surged at her words, and he saw an entire future mapping out between them. Screw the job in Secaucus. Screw his eyesight and possible eventual blindness. Screw everything that told him he wasn’t dateable or someone who couldn’t be desired after a divorce and a game-ending injury. Here was a woman he felt nothing but deep adoration and affection for telling him that he was worth it… he was lovable. He wanted to believe her. He wanted to believe her kiss.
But then she kept talking. “But we need to stop.”
He pulled away, an abrupt stop that felt like his heart ripping in half. “What?”
“We need to stop,” she repeated, this time stepping back from him on the dock. She pushed her hand against his chest to separate them, but her breath was fast and heaving as she did so.
He didn’t want to say she’d been the one to start everything, and he was just along for what felt like a tortuous ride. But… it felt exactly like that.
And the ending of the ride? Even more tortuous.
“Amanda…” he tried to find the words, but nothing came.
“I have a date tomorrow,” she reminded him, now turning around and beginning to pace back and forth. “Raad is expecting me before the parade. I have to see that through.”
“But then why did you kiss me? And why is that relevant right now? You’ve never even met this Raad guy before.”
“I just… I can’t do this,” Amanda continued, and it felt like she was on some sort of spiral because everything she was saying felt more for her sake than for his. She was still pacing back and forth, and he wanted to grab her and keep her still for half a second. But his brain was running on a hamster wheel just the same.
“I can’t, Dominic,” she continued.
“But hang on a second, I didn’t…” He tried to make sense of what he was thinking, but he honestly mostly felt frustration and a little bit of betrayal. “I didn’t ask you for anything. This feels like total whiplash. I didn’t mean…”
She visibly swallowed, and there was nothing about her expression that was letting him off the hook. Her face said he’d been involved in every step of things, and he knew that was true.
“Amanda…” He tried to intervene, but she was already heading toward the shore like the flight risk he’d begun to realize she was.
“It’s a beautiful dock, Dominic,” she said, not hearing him at all. “You and Jack did an amazing job. I’ll see you tomorrow at the Heart Lake Boat Parade.”
He nodded his head. “I’ll be on the Jack-O’-Lantern .”
“I’ll see you there,” she said, her back already turned to him as she literally ran away from whatever could have been between them.