“You’re freaking out,” Celeste said, sweeping her shoes into the hallway behind her.
“What was the first clue?” Gwen asked, her panic sending shudders through her muscles.
“Well, you have tons of clothes here,” Celeste said. “And you always know exactly what to wear.” She shrugged and smiled. “And besides, it’s still super warm outside, and you’re going to another island, with your boyfriend, who is super hot. You should only have Daisy dukes and tanks and bikini tops as options.”
“I’m too old for Daisy dukes.”
“No, you are not,” Celeste said. “You just turned thirty, and I’ve seen way older women wear them.”
“Runners,” Gwen said, thinking of the extra weight she carried. It came from all the tasting in the kitchen she had to do. At least that was what she’d told herself when she hadn’t been able to shimmy into her favorite pair of skinny jeans last Valentine’s Day.
“The second clue was that I got home five minutes ago with dinner, and you didn’t come out to the kitchen.” Celeste picked up a stack of blouses and took them back to Gwen’s dresser. “You’re the fashion expert, sis, but seriously. No.”
Gwen sat down on the bed in the now-empty spot, a sigh leaking from her lips. “I’m nervous.”
“Good,” Celeste said. “It’s a good thing to be nervous.” She returned to the bed and sat down beside Gwen, nudging over a pile of bathing suits to do it. “What are you nervous about, specifically? You have two rooms, right?”
“Yes,” Gwen said. “And they connect. Jamey was very accommodating, and we’re on a high floor, with beach views.”
“And Teagan knows that you’re not going to sleep with him.”
“Right. We’ve talked about the accommodations. He says he’s happy about the arrangements.” There had been a lot of talking over the past ten days in preparation for the next ten days.
“So what are you nervous about? You get to spend time with him on a magical island, eat great food, and kiss him good-night before you get your alone time overlooking the beach.”
“You make it sound so effortless.” Gwen looked at Celeste. “What if I don’t like being with him for twelve hours a day? For ten days.”
“Then tell him that. You say, ‘hey, I want to do something on my own tomorrow. Let’s meet up for dinner, okay?’ and what’s he going to do? Say no?” Celeste reached over and tucked Gwen’s hair behind her ear, and Gwen could not imagine living in this house without her sister.
But Celeste had a serious boyfriend who was also a decade older than her, and Gwen would be shocked if she wasn’t the first to get engaged. All of the sisters had boyfriends now, but Gwen knew Olympia would come back from her trip to meet Chet’s family with a diamond too.
Alissa and Shawn were taking things a little slower. A little more casual. But they seemed very happy to be together, as did Gage and Sheryl.
“Do people do that?” Gwen asked. “Go on vacation together and then spend time apart?”
“Absolutely they do,” Celeste said. “Otherwise, there would be more deaths on vacation.” She grinned and giggled, and some of Gwen’s nervous energy evaporated. “Now come on,” her sister said. “I stopped for pizza like you said, and you like everything so hot.”
“I like hot food to be hot,” Gwen said, abandoning her clothing choices and following Celeste out of the room and down the hall to the kitchen. Celeste opened the pizza box to reveal a cheesy pepperoni pizza, and love swelled in her heart. “You don’t even like pepperoni pizza.”
“But you do, and I knew you’d be nervous.” Celeste opened a box of breadsticks, her eyes crinkling with happiness. “I got what I wanted.”
“Ooh, pure carbs,” Gwen said, reaching for a slice of pizza. No plate required, which was sometimes a relief after having to make every plate so beautiful for the guests at The Heartwood Inn. “Is Brad coming over tonight?”
“Yes, but he’s working on the outdoor wedding hall for a while.” Celeste dipped her breadstick in the marinara sauce and took a bite. A groan came from her mouth, and her eyes rolled back in her head. It really was a miracle what bread and garlic and marinara sauce could do for a woman.
Gwen took a bite of her cheesy pizza, her reaction quite similar to Celeste’s. Maybe this trip would be okay. Maybe she and Teagan really would have ten magical days where they fell in love and planned a future together.
Gwen tried to pull her head out of the clouds. After all, she’d been up in the stratosphere when it came to Teagan before, and she didn’t need to make that mistake again. He’d been stitching her heart back together minute by minute, event by event, conversation by conversation, but Gwen knew she wasn’t whole yet.
She and Celeste had finished eating and had cleaned up when someone knocked on the front door. She said, “Come on, Joey,” but the dog ran for the door, barking his fool head off. Midnight followed, her claws skidding on the floor as she added her higher voice to the fray.
“Quiet,” Celeste admonished from where she’d curled into herself on the couch. “It’s just Brad.” She got up to answer the door, and Gwen wanted to retreat to the screened-in back porch. She’d take the dogs with her, and Celeste and Brad could have the house to themselves.
“She never used to bark until you took Joey,” Gwen said, walking over to the black poodle and scooping her up. “And why didn’t he just come in?” Brad always walked in after knocking.
Gwen opened the door, saying, “You can just come in—oh.” Teagan stood on the front step, and he reached up and ran his hand through that gorgeous flop of hair. “Teagan.”
“Come on, girl.” Celeste appeared at her side and took the little dog from Gwen. “You guys go on out back.”
But Gwen didn’t move. “What are you doing here?” she asked.
“I called a couple of times,” he said, smiling at her. “I was in the neighborhood, and I’m hungry, and I thought maybe you and I could grab some dinner we don’t have to cook.”
“I’ve—”
“Hey,” Brad said as he came up the steps. He clapped Teagan on the back. “I didn’t get to meet you at the grand opening. I’m Bradley Keith.”
“Yeah, of course,” Teagan said. “The football star.”
“He’s my sister’s boyfriend,” Gwen said. “She took the dogs out back. Can’t you hear Joey barking?”
“Hey, at least he stopped chewing her shoes.”
“Well, for a day,” Gwen said as Brad pushed through Teagan and Gwen and entered the house. He walked toward the back door like he owned the place, and Gwen watched him go before turning back to her own boyfriend.
“Dinner would be great,” she said, though she’d eaten two pieces of pizza only twenty minutes ago.
“Before we go, I just have to say something,” he said. “I’m nervous about tomorrow.” He slicked his hands down the front of his jeans. “There. That’s it. I thought if I saw you I’d be less nervous.”
Gwen gave him a smile. “I’m scared out of my mind.”
He started laughing, and Gwen joined in. She kept giggling as she bent to put on her shoes. “But you were right. I’m less nervous now that I’m face-to-face with you.”
Teagan reached for her hand, and she pulled the front door closed behind her. “Why do you think we’re nervous?”
“I’m not sure,” Gwen said. “We see each other every day. Morning and night.”
“But I still get to go home at night,” he said. “Not that I don’t want you home with me. I mean—I’m going to stop talking now.”
“I know what you mean,” Gwen said. “I’m an introvert too, though I wouldn’t classify you as one.”
“No?” he asked. “I’m more of a hermit, I guess.”
Gwen burst out laughing. “That’s not what I meant. You run a kitchen like a pro. Guiding plenty of people.”
“But I don’t actually hang out with them.” He cocked an eyebrow at her. “I don’t like people.”
“Yes, you do,” sh
e said, scoffing.
“I tolerate most people. I like you, though.” He opened her door for her, and Gwen slid into the passenger seat. She thought about what he’d said while he circled the car and got behind the wheel.
“We don’t have to go to Whistlestop Shores,” she said. “There’s still quite a lot of people there.”
“Oh, we have to go,” he said. “We’re having dinner with my mother and my sister’s family tomorrow night.”
“So they confirmed,” Gwen said, a new tremor in her stomach.
“A couple of hours ago,” he said. “Leave it to Tilly to wait until the last moment. I guess her husband had something he had to work out.”
“At least it’s the first night, right?” Gwen asked. She hadn’t met his family yet, but Teagan had said they were hard to be around, thus why he didn’t go visit though Whistlestop Shores was only three hours up the coast.
“Tilly’s fine,” he said. “I don’t know her husband well, but he’s usually fine too. It’s just my mother.”
“Beverly, right?”
“That’s right,” Teagan said. “What are we feeling like tonight? Pizza?”
“I actually ate pizza already,” she said, drawing his attention.
“What? When?”
“Half an hour ago,” she said with a smile. “But I wanted to go out with you.” She’d never been so open and honest with a man as she was with Teagan.
He chuckled and shook his head. “So sushi then. You don’t like it, and I do, and this feels like the right time for us to venture down that road.”
“They’ll have avocado rolls,” Gwen said. “And I like those.”
“And tempura,” he said. “And that’s one of my favorite foods.”
“Is tempura a food group?” she teased.
“Totally,” he said. “And I want it right now.” He took a right, and they pulled into the Japanese restaurant a moment later.
“I like some sushi,” she said, looking up at the sign. “And this is a great place, I’ve heard.”
“So you’re going to try it?”
“I’m doing all kinds of new things lately,” she said. “Taking vacations, eating dinner twice in one night, and saying all kinds of things I never would’ve before.”
“And eating sushi,” he said, grinning at her.
They met at the front of the car, and Gwen put her hand on his arm. “So you know, you’re the one who inspires me to say what I’m really feeling.”
He simply looked at her. “Why?”
“Because you showed up for lunch when we got back together and told me things you didn’t want to. Sometimes we just have to say what we’re thinking and feeling, but I’ve never really done that.” Everything inside her quaked just a little bit. “At least not with a man.”
Teagan’s slow smile made her heart beat rapidly for a different reason, and he leaned down and touched his lips to hers in the sweetest kiss.
And Gwen wondered why she’d been so nervous.
Chapter Twelve
Teagan pulled up to Gwen’s house again the next morning much later than he was used to seeing her. The sun was well up into the sky, and Teagan hadn’t woken up while everyone else still slumbered.
The front door opened before he’d taken two steps, and Gwen came out with her bag. “I’m coming,” he called to her so she didn’t try to heave it down the steps herself.
She flashed him a quick smile and then ducked back into the house, saying something to the dogs there. Teagan went up the steps and took her bag back to the trunk of his car. He looked at hers next to his, and something peaceful moved through him.
He’d hardly been able to sleep last night in anticipation of this trip, but now more excitement than anxiety filled him. Back at the front door, he found Gwen feeding the dogs as she talked to her sister.
“…going to be great,” Celeste said. “Don’t think too much. Enjoy your time off with that handsome man.”
Gwen said something Teagan couldn’t quite catch, and the sisters laughed. He entered the house then, because he didn’t want to eavesdrop on his girlfriend and hear something he didn’t want to hear.
“Ready?” he asked.
“Just about,” Gwen said, twisting toward him. “I need that beach bag on the couch too. You can take that out. I just need to find my phone….” She patted all of her pockets while Teagan collected her bag and turned to leave again.
“Joey,” Celeste called, but the dog caught up to him and preceded him out the front door.
“Stay here,” he told the dog, who trotted down the steps and onto the front lawn. “Joey, stay.”
The dog sniffed around, clearly not going to run off, and Teagan put the beach bag in the trunk too. Gwen had gotten them rooms at a very nice hotel—one of the nicest on the Shores—and Teagan couldn’t wait to see how many swimming suits she’d packed.
“Come on, boy,” he said to the dog, and they went back up the steps together. He nearly ran into Gwen coming out, and they laughed as he grabbed onto her so they wouldn’t fall.
“Bye, Celeste,” Gwen said over her shoulder, and Teagan stepped back so they could walk to the car together.
A blast of nerves hit him as soon as everything was in, all the doors were closed, and he sat behind the steering wheel. He drew in a deep breath. “All right,” he said, exhaling hard. “We’re really doing this?”
“Yes,” Gwen said, nodding to the windshield. “I actually slept until eight-thirty this morning,” she said. “It was amazing.” She looked at him with a new light in her eyes, and Teagan had the sudden impression that Vacation Gwen was going to be very different than Kitchen Gwen.
And he couldn’t wait to find out what Whistlestop Shores had in store for them.
Teagan stood at the window and watched the waves roll in. The view from his room was spectacular, and whatever connections Gwen had here was on the island were serious. He’d been ready to hit the beach for ten minutes, but Gwen said she’d knock on the door connecting their rooms when she was ready.
That sound came in the next moment, and Teagan turned toward the door at the same time it opened. Gwen walked through, and he froze, unable to move. She wore a floral-patterned bikini top that left his throat dry and his lungs breathless. Paired with that, she had a pair of extremely short denim shorts on, the ends fraying while they barely covered any leg.
“Wow,” she said, and he realized she was raking her eyes down his body too. He suddenly felt self-conscious standing there in his swimming trunks and nothing else.
“Yeah, no kidding,” he said, grabbing his towel and holding it in front of his body. He cleared his throat, trying to remember how to think, how to walk, how to act normal.
“No kidding?” Gwen cocked her head as if she didn’t know what he meant. His feet had done a lot of walking, and they managed to move over to her.
“Yeah, no kidding,” he murmured. “Wow times two. Double-wow.” He let his fingers trail down her bare arm, never removing his eyes from hers. In the next moment, he kissed her, the union of their mouths a little rougher than it ever had been in the past.
His hands met bare skin on her back, and Teagan had never been happier to come to the beach. Gwen matched him stroke for stroke, her hands sliding over his shoulders and up into his hair.
He pulled away breathing heavily, and fell back a step. Then two. “Sorry.” He’d dropped his towel during the exchange, and he bent to pick it up.
“I can put that in my bag,” she said, taking it from him. Her voice sounded as ragged as he felt. “Should we go?”
“Yes, let’s go.” He couldn’t stay in this room with her for very much longer. They went downstairs and on down to the beach, where she found a spot of sand and laid out their towels. She sighed as she sat down and stretched those impossibly long legs in front of her.
“Vacation,” she said. “This feels so great.” She sighed as she leaned over to extract something from her bag. “One for you.” She handed him something h
e didn’t understand. “One for me.”
Teagan watched her unfold the apparatus to reveal the back to a chair. He did the same, hoping he wasn’t too oblivious in his experience with beach tools, tips, and tricks.
But of course he was.
“It just goes in the sand like this,” she said, stabbing the ends of it down into the beach at the top of her towel. “And you can sit up and lean back.” She did, beaming at him.
“Amazing,” he said, copying her and sitting beside her. A long sigh leaked from his mouth too, and he closed his eyes and tipped his face toward the sun. Everything was golden and bright and hot, and Teagan’s soul felt like he could soak it in forever.
“So nice, right?” she asked with a giggle.
“Amazing,” he said, basking in the warmth, the company, the sound of surf and children laughing and everything about this moment. “I see why people do this now.”
“Have you never laid on the beach?”
“It’s been a while,” he admitted. “But of course I have. At some point in the past, I have.”
“You grew up here. What did you do as a child?”
“We came to the beach when Mother wanted to,” he said. “Usually on midweek afternoons. That’s when there weren’t as many tourists.”
“What did your mother do?” Gwen asked.
“Nothing,” Teagan said. “She lived on my dad’s life insurance and her family’s money. Her parents are very wealthy.”
“Are your grandparents still alive?”
“Oh, no,” he said. “My grandfather died several years ago.” Teagan hadn’t been particularly close to them. His mother had few friends, and while he knew she was lonely, he couldn’t bring himself to do much about it. She’d done the same with her parents, and he supposed the cycle would have to be broken at some point.
“So do you have a lot of money?” Gwen asked, and Teagan turned toward her.
“Enough,” he said. “You should know. You sign my checks.”
“Uh, you have direct deposit,” she teased. “And if we were living in the Dark Ages, Olympia would sign those checks.”
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