Isabel Sharpe – Half-Hitched (страница 8)
“Wait, seriously? Through the woods? The path is treacherous and it’s pitch-black. I’ve come here all my life and even I wouldn’t do it.”
“I have cat eyes.”
“Joe…” She hung back, still trying for the flashlight, until he tugged her impatiently forward.
“Just lift your feet so you don’t trip. You’ll be fine.”
“Okay. But if you kill me I’m suing.” She followed him a few more steps, getting braver as it became apparent he was navigating nicely. “So…what about Carrie?”
“Nice girl. What do you want to know?”
“I don’t know.” Her voice came out too high and she had to relax her throat to get it back to normal. “Do you like her?”
He snorted impatiently. “No, I talked to her all night because she repulsed me.”
“Okay, okay. Never mind.” Sarah’s giggle felt forced. What was wrong with her, she was so self-absorbed she couldn’t even be happy for her best friend? “I’m glad for you. I hope something comes of it. You deserve someone wonderful.”
“I think so, too.” He pulled her up unerringly through the trees, finding the path past the blueberry patch and up to the house, supporting her when she stumbled. It was actually kind of mysterious and cool.
“I don’t know what I’d do without you, Joe.”
He chuckled and opened the back door for her to go inside. “I hope you never have to find out.”
She kissed his cheek and crossed through the living room toward the bedroom she shared with Addie, noticing how much calmer and lighter she felt, how much more clear and slow-moving her brain was. Joe was good for her. He always had been. Knew her inside out, tolerated her worst faults and adored her strengths. What more could a woman want?
Macho alpha sizzle. Daring, adventure, challenge.
Sarah sighed and used the hall bathroom, then climbed into bed, careful not to disturb Addie.
Sometimes she thought she must be the most shallow person alive. But if she was deep-down wired to be attracted to guys like Derek, Ethan and Kevin instead of guys like Joe, there wasn’t a single damn thing she could do about it.
ADDIE WAS CONFUSED. Standing on the cliff in front of the Bossons’ house, drinking champagne punch, keeping an eye out for Kevin’s arrival, she was in a thorough state of turmoil. And since confusion didn’t visit her very often, thank goodness, she could safely say that she didn’t like it. At all. Most of the time her emotional life was, if not under control, then at least comprehensible. She was single or she was in a relationship. She was friends with someone or she wasn’t. She had a crush on a guy or she didn’t.
She’d come to this island with a head full of Kevin. Her past with him, the promise of intimate time with him this weekend, and the vaguest whisper of possibility that they could continue some relationship into the future—Philadelphia wasn’t that far from New York City after all. Over a decade of mooning and fantasy about to come true.
And then she met Derek.
Her love of the simple and the clear—statistics and probabilities and interpretable data—did not prepare her for a man who, during their first-ever meeting unsettled her to the point of blathering, who wanted to watch the sunset alone with her, and who, in a low, dreamy voice, as much as said he wanted to kiss her. Frankly, for a few seconds—okay, many seconds—she’d wanted him to kiss her more than she’d wanted to go on breathing.
Even if Sarah’s story about Derek wasn’t one-hundred percent accurate, as Derek claimed, he was still a girl-in-every-port guy in his mid-thirties, while Kevin, at thirtyone, had already been totally committed to one woman in a marriage, faithful until divorce did them part.
Shouldn’t that clear everything up? A rational conclusion drawn from the available information, leading to a sensible low-risk recommendation for future action. Derek was a womanizer. Kevin was a sweetheart. Only an idiot would still dream about Derek. Or do something completely foolish like keep peeking over at him on a kayak trip earlier that afternoon. She’d interrupted perfectly wonderful chances to stare into the water, spot orange and purple starfish, waving seaweed that looked nearly floral, blue mussels and splotchy pink growths on underwater reefs by looking up every three seconds to keep track of where he was and with whom. Worse, she’d caught him several times in the act of looking over at her, too.
For a while he’d paddled alongside her kayak, and they’d chatted easily about his extensive travels and her not-so-extensive ones. About movies and books and favorite foods. Through it all, he’d shown no signs of anything more than friendly interest, and then he’d quite naturally steered his kayak over to chat with someone else.
Well, of course, right? He was here to get to know Paul’s friends, too. Plus the guy had put himself out there with her last night and she’d stomped him flat, why
And why couldn’t she stop wanting him to?
Greedy Addie, wanting her hunk and to eat him, too.
She giggled at her own thought and nearly spit out the sip of punch she’d just taken. The group was assembled after quick-as-possible showers to save the water supply, enjoying a predinner drink or two.
The group minus Paul. Paul was not on the island because Paul had gone to the mainland to pick up
Addie was as light as the champagne, as bubbly as the…champagne, as fizzy as the…um, well…champagne. And clearly not big on similes.
Paul had been gone over an hour, which meant any minute he’d be back. Addie had come down by the cliff here, hoping to catch the first glance of
Or she could get a head start and do it
Closing her eyes, she inhaled deeply, fighting a sudden deep desire to be home organizing Great-Aunt Grace’s papers. So easy. So uncomplicated. This paper goes in this pile. That goes in that one.
“Hello, Addie.”
She started at the sound of Derek’s voice, luckily not standing close enough to the edge to pitch over. She immediately had to put the brakes on a fantasy of Derek saving her from certain death by hauling her back into his arms.
Then she made a fatal error. She turned to look at him.
He was breathtaking. A touch more sun on his cheeks made the contrast even sexier between golden skin and his white shirt, and made his vivid eyes practically jump out of his face.
No, no,
“Enjoying the view?”
“I am.” She put on a casual smile—ho-hum, nice to see you—and concentrated on the view, which she’d just been pretending to look at before. Yes, it was lovely. A sailboat was cruising in toward the bay, sails crisp white in the sunshine. A lobsterman was hauling traps just beyond the next island, his white and green boat bobbing gently in the waves. Breezes ruffled her hair; the air was sweet enough to drink. Why hadn’t she been enjoying this all along? “I don’t think I’d ever get tired of this view. The sea is always changing, the light, the birds, the boats…”
Derek chuckled. “Well, Ms. Manhattan. You’re describing the view I see pretty much every day. Maybe you need to give that life a try.”
She snorted, having to suppress yet another picture, this one of herself sunbathing on the deck of his yacht. “Do they pay full-time salary and benefits for someone to project the odds of running aground or sinking?”
“Um…” He tapped a finger on his very sexy lips as if trying to remember. “Not really, no. But I have an onboard bookkeeping position opening up in a few weeks. Are you interested?”
“Don’t think so, but thanks.” Addie made another serious mistake. She smiled at him. Then he smiled at her, and it was as if the scene around them wrapped itself up neatly and disappeared, the way backgrounds did sometimes in cartoons, leaving the two of them alone in nothingness.
Worse than how she’d felt the night before when she’d had to force herself to watch one of the most magnificent sunsets she’d ever seen. All she’d wanted to do was gaze into those cinnamon-brown eyes and drool.
An upswell of voices by the house made her turn to see what was happening.
Kevin was happening. Somehow she’d missed being first to see the boat, hadn’t heard it, either, and now he was right here, standing on the front porch, being hugged by Ellen, two or three others crowding around for their turns, grinning that old familiar straight-toothed grin that could still knock her for a loop.
And just like that, as if she’d been released from a sorcerer’s spell, Addie was able to move again, to walk away from The awesome but evil power that was Derek, and into the pure heavenly light of Kevin.
“Ad-