Chapter Fourteen
Bea opened her laptop and stared out through the window at the garden while she waited for it to boot up.
The poor thing was probably wondering why she’d neglected it for so long.
This was the first time she’d opened it since they arrived.
She let out a breath. She needed to stop thinking of it that way—as though they had arrived.
Yes, Blane had come with her and was still here with her, and she was enjoying every moment of his company, but that didn’t make them a we.
She had moved here. He had not. And as much as she kept pushing the thought away, the day would come in the not-too-distant future when he would have to leave again.
She pushed the thought away now. It was Saturday morning, and on Saturday mornings, she checked what client work she had coming up for the week.
Fortunately, she only had a few clients she still worked with, but there was still that niggling obligation to check in with them.
Of course, she hadn’t done it last Saturday, but she’d warned them in advance that she wouldn’t be available.
She hadn’t told them she’d be spending three days at a country music concert, but still.
She smiled when her gaze landed on the potted geraniums in the corner of the courtyard.
She and Blane had gone back to the garden center yesterday, and while she’d been talking with one of the assistants, he’d wandered off.
She’d assumed he was bored and couldn’t have been more surprised when he came back carrying the geraniums.
In his gruff and rather sweet way, he’d explained that he liked them and they were the only flowers he knew the name of, so he wanted her to have some for her garden.
And of course, when they got home, she’d found the absolute best spot for them, right there in the corner where they’d catch the first of the morning sun.
It didn’t hurt that she could see them from here whenever she sat at the table either.
When her laptop finally blinked to life, she opened her email and sighed.
She should have started earlier. Blane had set out on his run a while ago, but she’d spent the last half hour watering the plants before she came inside.
She checked her watch. He’d no doubt be back soon, but as tempting as it was, she wasn’t going to close the laptop again when he arrived.
He’d said he’d go straight upstairs to shower anyway, and she really did need to see if any of her clients needed anything from her.
She’d just opened the first email when she saw him come jogging up the lane. He was quite a sight. She made herself look back at her work.
When he came into the kitchen a few minutes later, he rested one hand on her shoulder and planted a kiss on top of her head. “You okay, darlin’? Don’t mean to disturb you. Just wanted to say hi before I head upstairs.”
“You can disturb me anytime you like.”
He chuckled. “Might need to remind you that you said that sometime.”
She slapped his thigh, not hating the idea at all. But then he narrowed his eyes, and she followed his gaze to the screen of her laptop.
“Shit. Sorry. Didn’t mean to be nosy. Shouldn’t be looking.”
“That’s fine. It’s only work, like I said.”
“Yeah, you said.” He was still looking at the screen. “Still don’t get it.”
She shrugged. “They’re people I’ve worked for for a long time now. It’s only freelance. It doesn’t take too much of my time.”
He nodded, then frowned at the email. “Who’s Beatrice?”
She laughed. “I am, of course.”
He looked at her for a moment, then back at the name on the screen before turning to her again. “You’re Bea.”
She nodded. And something about the simple certainty with which he said it made her smile. To the people whose lives she’d helped organize for years, she was still Beatrice. To Blane, she was Bea.
~ ~ ~
Blane straightened up, feeling pretty dumb. Of course she was Bea, but seeing her full name there on the screen like that had hit him wrong. To him, she was Bea. But seeing Beatrice, and seeing her working, somehow pierced the little bubble he’d been living in.
She wasn’t just the woman from the concert, the woman who’d arrived here at her new home in Crete, the woman he was enjoying getting to know.
She had a whole life, a history, friends, family, clients he knew nothing about.
And that wasn’t a problem. Obviously, she had a life.
What landed hard when it hit him wasn’t that he didn’t know more about her, but that there was so much more to know, and he wouldn’t be around long enough to learn it all.
“I’ll head up and take that shower. Let you work.”
“I won’t be long now.”
“Take your time.” He dropped another kiss on the top of her head. “I’m not going anywhere.” As he went upstairs, he didn’t let himself anywhere near the thought that, soon enough, that wouldn’t be true.
It didn’t take him long to shower and change, and as he made his way back down the stairs, he was still trying to unravel just how he’d come to feel so at home with her so fast. For years, he hadn’t really had a home of his own, not as such.
Since he and the guys had set up the company, they’d built what was effectively a compound, with a big training space and living quarters for the teams. The guys had rooms in the main buildings, while he, Cash, and Mav had their own apartments.
His was private, comfortable, and he had everything he needed, but he’d never really thought of it as a home.
He ran a hand over the railing as he went, automatically checking the repair he’d made the other day. Downstairs, he could see Bea through the window, working with her plants. It was easy to see that she already felt at home here; the strange thing was that he did too.
He’d never thought of himself as the domestic type, because he wasn’t, and yet in the few days he’d been here, he’d enjoyed not only fixing things around the house and helping Bea settle in, but the actual being here.
He pursed his lips as he thought about it.
He was relaxed. He was enjoying himself, even when they weren’t doing much of anything.
He headed outside to ask Bea what she wanted to do with the afternoon. She’d talked about wanting to move some of the big terracotta pots, and he figured he could help her with those and whatever else she wanted to do in the garden.
The way she smiled when she saw him coming tugged at something in his chest. He loved the way she did that, the way she always seemed genuinely pleased to see him, even when they’d only been apart for a few minutes.
He curled his arms around her waist and held her close, loving the feel of her soft body against him.
“What you doing, darlin’?”
She shivered and slapped halfheartedly at his arm, making him laugh.
“Don’t tell me you don’t like me calling you that. We both know you love it.”
She laughed. “I’d never say such a thing. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t take it out on you.”
He cocked an eyebrow.
“I shouldn’t slap you because I react to it,” she explained.
“You don’t need to apologize for that. I enjoy it.” He enjoyed the slide of her body against his as she reached up and planted a kiss on his lips.
“I do too. I enjoy everything about being with you, Blane. But it hit me while I was working—we should go out.”
He frowned before he could stop himself, then quickly set his features back into a neutral expression. If she wanted to go out, he wasn’t going to put a damper on it just because he was enjoying all this domesticity.
“Where do you want to go?”
“I thought perhaps we could take a drive down to Plakias. There’s a beach down there and lots of little restaurants.”
He nodded slowly. It didn’t sound like anything he’d go out of his way for, but she must want to do it or she wouldn’t have brought it up.
“Okay, then. You want to go now, or…?”
The way she looked over at the plants made him think she’d rather stay here and carry on with what she was doing, but he must have been reading her wrong because she turned back to him with a bright smile.
“Yes, let’s go now. It’s a beautiful day. Not warm enough for swimming, but perhaps we can take our shoes off and walk in the water.”
“Sure, if that’s what you want to do.”
“I think we should give it a go. There’s so much you haven’t seen.”
He really wasn’t worried about seeing anything other than what he already had.
Seeing Bea here in her new home, getting settled in, was everything as far as he was concerned.
But he didn’t need to be a selfish bastard about it.
She was building a new life here, and she didn’t need to stay cooped up at the house all the time just because he was happy there.
“I’ll grab the keys, then.”
He leaned in to kiss her, and what started out as nothing more than a touch of their lips soon turned into something deeper.
He held her closer, loving the way she kissed him back.
There was no shyness in it. She was open and eager, and it seemed she became more so with each day that passed, just like she did in the bedroom.
When he finally lifted his head, her cheeks were flushed, and she fanned herself with one hand.
He chuckled. “Didn’t mean to distract us. Come on, let’s get going.”
He might not have intended to distract them, but if they hung around here much longer, there was a good chance the afternoon would take them upstairs instead of out to the beach.
Once they were on their way, it struck him that he’d gotten used to the little SUV.
He’d finally managed to get the seat far enough back that he was comfortable, and he had to admit that it was a good fit for the narrow, steep, winding roads around the village.
Even when they reached the main road that led south toward the beaches, it had enough power when he needed it.
“Did you get finished with your work?” he asked, realizing for the first time that he probably should have checked before they left.
“I did. There isn’t much on this week.”
“What exactly is it that you do again?”