“Play!” Hadley ran across the yard with Cosmos on her heels.
Harper nudged her red sunglasses to the bridge of her nose and said, “I want to have five little girls just like her.” She stood up to hug Daphne, looking cute in a pair of cutoffs and a brightly colored batik top. A thin braid hung down the left side of her long blond hair. “You look radiant, Daph. I don’t know what you’re doing differently, but keep it up.”
“Thanks.” I’m on the hot-sex-every-night regimen. Daphne sat down and all eyes locked on her. She glared at Chloe and said, “You promised you wouldn’t tell.”
“Don’t look at me,” Chloe said. “I’m not the one who just kissed Jock out in the open.”
“You guys saw that?” Daphne asked.
They all nodded, talking over each other with approving grins.
“Looks like I’ve missed too many breakfasts,” Harper said. “When did you and Jock become an item? How come nobody told me?”
“We didn’t know,” Tegan said. “But it explains why he’s suddenly found his muse.”
“How long have you two been doing the dirty?” Emery asked, making Daphne’s cheeks burn. “Dean saw Jock climbing the back steps to your bedroom last night at around eleven. I knew something was going on.”
“Dean saw him?” Daphne asked. “His smirk makes much more sense now.”
Emery laughed. “Don’t worry. He’s happy for you guys. He said you’ve been all moony-eyed around the office since we caught you two playing Scrabble, which I still think was a cover-up for a hot-and-heavy make-out sesh.”
“It was not,” Daphne said with a giggle.
“It’s been killing me holding it in,” Chloe said exasperatedly.
“You knew about them?” Desiree asked.
Chloe popped a blueberry into her mouth and said, “Daph sent me an SOS text on Sunday with an eggplant and a peach emoji.”
Emery and Tegan gasped.
“No!” Tegan covered her mouth. “I had no idea Jock was so dirty.”
“Thanks, Chloe,” Daphne said sarcastically. “I didn’t know a peach meant butt.” She lowered her voice and said, “I thought it was like, a lady peach.”
Everyone cracked up, except Daphne and Desiree.
“You should have seen me when I got the text,” Chloe said, trying to catch her breath between laughs. “I was like, What? You let him do that to you already? You are a dirty girl.”
Daphne covered her face.
“I’m so confused,” Desiree said. “A peach means a butt? I don’t unders…” Her eyes widened, and then she gasped, her cheeks pinking up. “Oh my goodness. Oh no! You guys, I texted Violet the other day and said that Rick ate my peach pie, and I used the emoji for peach! No wonder she responded with the shocked emoji and flames.”
They all laughed hysterically.
“That’s worse than me,” Daphne said as she put food on her and Hadley’s plates.
“But Daphne did send Chloe the eggplant, and we all know what that means,” Harper said. “Our sweet Daphne is getting a little mattress action.”
“Stop,” Daphne whispered. But she couldn’t help adding, “There’s nothing little about the action I’m getting,” earning more uproarious laughter.
“I want to know everything,” Tegan said. “I told you he was worth being patient.”
Daphne kept an eye on Hadley playing in the grass with Cosmos across the yard while she filled her friends in about all things Jock related. Much to her friends’ disappointment, she didn’t spill the dirty details of their incredibly hot love life, but she did tell them about their outings and the romantic things he’d said and done. “I’ve never been happier. I know it’s been years since I’ve even kissed a man. But kissing Jock is heavenly. It’s even better than the erotic, sensual kisses in our romance novels. I could kiss him for days.”
“There’s nothing quite as nice as a man who knows how to use his mouth,” Emery said with a wink.
“I know it’s fast, and he still has a way to go with Hadley, but it just feels so right.”
Chloe scoffed. “Fast? You and Jock started making eyes at each other a year ago, and I bet if he didn’t have issues with kids, you two would have gotten together then.”
“Agreed,” Tegan said.
Daphne thought back to Gavin’s birthday party, and she knew in her heart they were right. She was beginning to think they were written in the stars.
“Remember at my wedding how he kept looking at Daphne?” Harper said. “I thought for sure he was going to ask you to dance.”
“I don’t know about that, but I know I was looking at him that night. He’s always hot, but in that suit? Whew…” Daphne fanned her face. “That man makes me tingle all over. Not only that, but he’s been helping me put Hadley to bed, which is huge in and of itself, given his trouble with kids.” She lowered her voice and said, “But I never knew that could be an aphrodisiac. Seeing his feelings for my daughter grow makes me fall even harder for him. I even went out and bought sexy lingerie yesterday before I picked up Hadley.”
“Damn, girl,” Chloe said. “You didn’t tell me about the lingerie.”
“It was a last-minute decision. I feel so much more for him than I ever did for Tim. What does that say about me? Something bad?”
“It says you have good taste,” Emery said.
“You were a teenager when you met Tim, right? You were too young to know the difference between infatuation and something deeper,” Desiree said reassuringly. “And now you’re a mother, and we both know that motherhood changes everything.”
“I definitely view things differently now,” Daphne agreed.
“Let’s not forget that Tim was an ass,” Chloe chimed in. “He was also in his early twenties. He wasn’t a man, like Jock.”
“And Jock hasn’t lived an easy life,” Tegan pointed out. “There’s no comparison even to most guys his own age.”
“I guess that’s true,” Daphne said. “There’s so much to think about, and when we’re together, I really don’t want to think at all. But we’re trying to do right by Hadley, so while we’re together every night, Jock leaves before she gets up in the morning. But I hate that. Last night we set an alarm for four a.m. so we could sleep in each other’s arms for part of the night. It was wonderful to be able to fall asleep after…you know…and not feel rushed. I’m not saying I would have him stay until morning because it’s too soon for Hadley, but I want him to so badly. I haven’t been in a relationship for so long, I’m not sure what’s normal and what’s not. Is it weird that I wish he could stay over even though I know he can’t?”
The girls exchanged knowing glances and said “No” in unison.
“That’s just one of the ways I knew Dean was the man for me. I wanted to be with him all the time,” Emery said.
“Same with me and Justin,” Chloe said.
Tegan waved her hand. “Me and Jett, too.”
“You know it was like that for me and Gavin,” Harper chimed in. “Heck, I still miss most of our breakfasts because we don’t want to get out of bed.”
“It was like that for me and Rick, too,” Desiree said. “But as a mom, I understand your worry, Daphne.”
Daphne pushed to her feet to intercept Hadley on her way to the table and said, “I’m pretty sure he feels the same.” She thought about how it had taken them nearly twenty minutes to finally say goodbye in the wee hours of the morning and how Jock had gazed into her eyes and said, How can I miss you when I haven’t even left yet? She scooped her giggling daughter into her arms and said, “Actually, I know he feels the same, but as I said, I’ve got a chickadee to think about.”
“I’m chickadee,” Hadley said.
“Yes, you are.” And I wouldn’t want it any other way.
AFTER HIS RUN, Jock spent the morning being led down a literary path he was still trying to understand. The story he’d started writing over the weekend had been about a serial killer stalking women in a small Southern town. The villain t
ortured his victims for weeks in the cellar of an old mansion, keeping the women caged, in various states of despair. But over the next few days, as Jock had honed in on crafting his characters’ personalities and backstories, he started feeling protective of the heroine. Every time he tried to give the villain an opening, he found himself devising ways in which the heroine avoided capture, which made the story’s progression next to impossible. But the words kept flowing, and though they weren’t leading in the direction he’d anticipated, he was building an impressive world with complex characters facing real-life problems, and he was loving it. Something inside him had definitely changed. He found himself giving more depth and story to the detective who was tracking the villain rather than the villain himself. Making the detective keener, giving him more resources and unexpected emotions. He’d tried to force the darkness onto the page, but it was like swimming against a riptide.
At first he’d thought he was just so into Daphne, she’d infiltrated his every thought. But while that was true, those feelings weren’t hindering his writing. She’d coaxed the writer in him out from the darkness by making him feel again, and those feelings were making his writing stronger, his story deeper and more meaningful. She and Hadley brought beauty into his life, and after living through enough horror and pain for three lifetimes, he didn’t want to inflict torture on anyone, not even on fictional characters. He didn’t even want to think dark thoughts. Not when he had someone so full of sunshine and positivity to share his life with.
He pulled into the resort with lunch, excited to see Daphne, and was shocked to see his sister’s bright-yellow Jeep with the Happy End gift shop sign on the door parked out front. He’d given Jules a hard time about naming her shop Happy End because he didn’t like the jokes it spurred from guys. But while Jules was the most effervescent woman he knew, she was also one of the most stubborn, and she had insisted it made perfect sense since her shop was located at the end of Main Street.
He grabbed the lunch bag and headed up to the office wondering what she was doing there. He heard Jules talking as he climbed the steps to the porch.
“I understand that you normally don’t give out the cottage numbers of guests, but I’m his sister. Can’t you make an exception just this once?”
“I wish I could,” Daphne said sweetly. “But you’d be surprised how many people have used the sister or brother line. Can’t you just call him? Let him know you’re here?”
“If you knew my brother, you wouldn’t ask that. He’s as reclusive as they come, and he’d just claim to be busy. Although…” Her tone lightened and she said, “He is handsome and single. I bet you could bring him out of his shell—”
Jock pulled open the screen door before Jules could pimp him out, and both women looked over. Daphne appeared amused, smiling brightly, and Jules looked like she’d just walked off a college campus, in shorts and an embroidered tank top. Her hair hung in loose golden-brown waves down her back, with the top layer in a ponytail in the middle of her head. That water fountain had been her signature look since she was a little girl, and it made her look about nineteen instead of twenty-five.
“Jack!” Jules launched her petite, energetic self into his arms.
“Hi, Jules.” He winked to Daphne as he embraced his sister. “What are you doing here?”
“I had to pick up a few things from a local artist for my shop, and I thought I’d stop by to see your new digs and take you to lunch.” Jules waved at Daphne and said, “But this charming woman, who just might be single, runs a tight ship.” She whispered the part about being single.
“Her name is Daphne,” he said, not buying her reason for the visit.
“Well, Daphne wouldn’t give me your cottage number.”
“I’m sorry,” Daphne said. “It’s company policy. Jock and I are friends. I wouldn’t try to keep you from seeing him.”
Jules’s eyes sparked with curiosity. “How good of a friend are you? Because I could really use some help convincing him to come to our grandmother’s birthday party the weekend after next.”
“Jules,” Jock warned. “I knew there was a reason for your visit.”
Jules threw her hands up. “Of course there’s a reason. If you weren’t so stubborn, I could be here for a fun visit. But it takes an act of God to get you home, and Grandma might not have many birthdays left.” She sniffled, and tears sprang to her eyes, as if he would buy that she might cry. “Do you have any idea how hard it is for the rest of us to not see you? I miss you, Jackie.”
Daphne’s expression softened, and she gave him a pleading look.
“Don’t buy into her performance, Daph.” He put the lunch bag on Daphne’s desk and said, “Jules was named Best Actress in high school.”
Jules bounced on her toes. “I was! That was pretty believable, wasn’t it, Daphne?”
“I thought so,” Daphne agreed. “I thought your tears were real.”
Jock shook his head. “We’ve taken up enough of Daphne’s time.”
“Wait. Daphne, are you single?” Jules grabbed Jock’s arm and said, “Because beneath his stubbornness, my brother is an amazing guy, and he’s very single.”
“I’m not single, Jules.” Jock pulled his arm free and reached for Daphne’s hand, earning a blush.
“You two are a couple? Yay!” Jules clapped her hands. “No wonder you didn’t take my call that night. You can bring her to the party! You’d love it, Daphne. We all pitch in to help set up at the winery, and then we play touch football, a Steele-family tradition. Everyone goes all out and dresses up for the party, and all of our closest friends, and my grandmother’s Bra Brigade, come for a fancy dinner and dancing.”
“That sounds amazing, but what’s a Bra Brigade?” Daphne asked.
“You wouldn’t believe it if I told you. Let’s just say my grandmother and her friends have wilder sides than I do,” Jules said with a giggle. “I hope you’ll come. It’s an all-day affair…”
As his sister went on about the afternoon and the party, Jock whispered in Daphne’s ear, “I brought your favorite sandwich from the Sundial Café.”
“Were you two supposed to have lunch together?” Jules asked. He’d forgotten she had supersonic hearing. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to mess up your date.”
“It’s fine,” Daphne said. “You two should go have lunch and visit. I have loads of work to do for my book club anyway.”
“You’re in a book club? How fun. I’d love to hear about it.” Then Jules whispered, “At the party!”
“Daph, do you mind if I get her out of here and make up for our missed lunch tonight?”
“Of course not,” Daphne said.
“You guys are so cute together.” Jules hurried over to Daphne and said, “I’m a hugger.” She threw her arms around Daphne.
Jock kissed Daphne, and then he took Jules by the arm and said, “Let’s go, nosy.”
“It was nice to meet you,” Daphne said as Jock dragged Jules toward the door.
Jules looked over her shoulder and said, “Please work on him! You’d love our family, and I want to hear about your book club!”
Jock walked her down the steps to his SUV, and as he opened the passenger door, he said, “You can’t seriously think it would be a selling point to bring her around me and Archer, do you?”
“I like her. Why didn’t you tell me you had a girlfriend?”
“Do you really have to ask?” He went around to the driver’s side, and as they settled into their seats, he said, “And don’t go blabbing about me and Daphne to anyone back home, okay? I’m just starting to write again, and the last thing I need is to get a hundred phone calls about my private life.”
“You’re writing?” she asked as he drove out of the parking lot. “Look at you, getting your groove on in the bedroom and at the computer.”
He looked at her out of the corner of his eye and said, “Nice talk coming from my baby sister.”
“I’m happy for you, Jack. I worry about you closing yourself
off for all those years and then traveling to who knows where. You could have come home, you know.”
“I did come home, and for the record, I called you several times when I was traveling.” He tried to always keep in touch with her. She’d beaten cancer, but cancer was a fickle beast, and he would always worry about it coming back.
He drove down the main drag in Wellfleet, heading for the Flying Fish café, Jules’s favorite pizza and sandwich restaurant. It was tucked away on a side street, where they could sit outside and talk without having to deal with crowds.
“Stopping by Mom and Dad’s for twenty minutes after a wedding is hardly considered coming home,” she said. “I want to hear all about Daphne. She’s beautiful, and when you kissed her, she blushed. I haven’t seen a girl blush since high school. She must be really sweet.”
He parked and said, “She is, and she doesn’t need the nightmare of me and Archer thrust upon her, okay?”
Jules rolled her eyes as they climbed out. “Does she know about it?”
“Yes,” he said as they headed up to the deck. He ordered two iced teas from the window. They grabbed menus and their drinks and sat at a table beneath the umbrella of a large tree.
“She does? About the accident and everything?”
He nodded and stared at the menu.
“You really like her, don’t you?” Jules asked.
“Yes, very much.”
Jules put down her menu and drummed her fingers on the table. “Then tell me about her.”
“Jules, can we drop it? I don’t need to become the talk of the island.”
“I’m not a blabbermouth.” She sat back and crossed her arms, eyes narrowing.
He cocked a grin. “I seem to remember a number of times when you got me and Archer in trouble.”
“I was a little kid,” she countered.
He set his menu down and said, “I got a call from Levi and Joey, and one from Sutton last weekend. Any of that ring a bell?”
“That was different. I can’t do all the heavy lifting in the family.” She stirred her iced tea with her straw and said, “Come on, Jackie, please? I promise not to tell anyone.” She drew an X over her heart.
Tempted by Love: Jack Jock Steele (The Steeles at Silver Island Book 1) Page 21