Bella stepped in to help another round of customers so Jenna could talk with Amy, patting Amy’s arm as she passed. Jenna picked up a jar and a label and went to work.
“Do you think that will help?” Amy tucked her hair behind her ear, thinking about Jenna’s suggestion. Tony hadn’t cried at his father’s funeral. She’d never forget the way he’d looked broken and brave at the same time, when inside she’d known he must have been shattered.
“I do. His father doesn’t need to be with him for Tony to come to grips with his feelings. He just needs to be present—you know what I mean?”
“Then maybe I should take him to Pelly, that psychic in P-town.” Pelly was one of the best psychics in the area. When they were younger they’d heard stories of people camping overnight in Pelly’s yard to be seen the following morning. Over the years Pelly had cracked down on those folks, and now he held very limited hours for readings.
“Do you remember when we went as kids?” Jenna’s eyes widened as she picked up another jar.
“How could I forget? Remember how dark the room was? And everything was red. The walls, the tablecloth, even the caftan he wore was bloodred. So weird.”
Jenna laughed. “Remember how nervous we were? I can’t even remember what he told us. I just remember running out and laughing so hard that we tumbled onto the grass.”
“Yeah, well, I remember hoping he’d tell me that Tony was madly in love with me, and instead he told me something stupid like, Be true to your heart and you’ll find your way.” Amy scoffed.
“Ames…”
Amy met Jenna’s wide-eyed gaze. “What?”
“Duh. You did follow your heart. And you did find your way.”
Goose bumps rose on Amy’s arms. “Yeah. Maybe he wasn’t so far off after all, but maybe that’s not the best thing for Tony. I mean, if Pelly is as good as people say, what if he really does reach Tony’s dad and something’s…I don’t know. Off. Or if it doesn’t offer the closure he needs. It might make things worse.”
“There is that.”
“I think I like your idea better anyway. Tony needs to come to grips with his own feelings on his own terms. If there’s one thing I’ve learned this summer, it’s that you can’t fix the past. You can only accept it, maybe try to understand it as best you can, and find a way to move forward and leave it where it belongs. In the past.” It surprised Amy that she was doling out such sage advice so readily. She of all people knew how difficult it was to leave the past behind. And now, reflecting on what she’d said, she also understood how important it was to deal with it before moving on.
It was nearly six o’clock by the time the flea market cleared out, despite the fact that it officially closed at four.
“Beachcombers tonight?” Bella asked as they pulled into Seaside and Leanna parked beside the laundry room, which she often did since her van was so big and it blocked her view of Amy’s deck if she parked in her driveway.
“That sounds perfect.” Amy stepped from the van and glanced over at Tony’s cottage. His car was there, and she couldn’t wait to see him. “I’ll ask Tony. I think we could both use some fun.”
“Ask Tony what?” Tony stepped from the laundry room, shirtless, tanned, and gorgeous, carrying a basket of freshly folded clothes.
“I don’t think there’s anything sexier than a guy doing laundry.” Amy rose up on her toes and kissed him. “Especially this man.”
“I don’t know. Caden in his tool belt is pretty hot,” Bella teased.
Amy laughed. “We were talking about going to the Beachcomber tonight.”
“Sounds great.” Tony slipped an arm around Amy’s waist and whispered, “I need to shower. Want to join me?”
Amy felt her cheeks heat up. “Uh…yeah. Of course.”
They made plans to meet the gang later and headed to Tony’s cottage. Theresa pulled up as they crossed in front of her driveway. She waved, and Amy stopped to greet her.
“Hi, Theresa. We’re going to the Beachcomber tonight. Would you like to come along?”
Theresa pressed her lips together in a way that made Amy feel stupid for asking. She was probably angry about Bella’s prank, although Theresa never really got angry, at least not that Amy had ever witnessed.
“The Beachcomber is for you young’uns,” Theresa said.
“We’re not that much younger than you,” Amy reminded her.
“Oh, I think anything more than ten years counts as older. You guys have fun and be safe.”
“Okay, maybe next time.”
Theresa made that face again. Amy waved as they crossed the quad toward Tony’s cottage. Her cell phone rang as they stepped inside. It was Duke.
Time to face the music.
IT HAD BEEN a long few days, and Tony was ready to chill. He leaned back and enjoyed the view from their table at the Beachcomber restaurant. It wasn’t the view of the ocean that drew his attention, although the Beachcomber was built on a bluff overlooking Cahoon Hollow Beach. It was Amy’s hot little body moving seductively on the dance floor that drew his eyes. She was dancing with Bella, Jenna, Leanna, and Sky, and she was the most beautiful woman in the place.
“Dude, I’m pretty sure you can go blind staring like that,” Caden joked.
“Then blind I shall be.” Tony took a sip of his drink. He could watch Amy dance all night long. He really wanted to be out there with her body pressed against his, but she was having too much fun with the girls for him to step in.
Pete patted Tony on the back. “Glad to see you guys together, man. This is the way it should be. Now Jenna and I can finally get married.”
Tony shifted his eyes to Pete. “You needed me and Amy to be together so you could get married?”
Pete took a swig of his beer. “Not me.” He nodded to the girls. “You really think they’d do something that big without each other? They can barely take a piss without holding each other’s hands.”
Tony laughed. “Yeah. It’s one of the things I love about Amy. She’s loyal to the bone.”
“That’s why Duke offered her the job,” Blue said. He and Sky had been joining their group outings ever since last summer, when Sky had moved back into town and Blue had built Jenna’s art studio. “He said she’s not only one of the best logistical coordinators he’s ever worked with, but that she’s loyal and dedicated. In our family, loyalty trumps all.”
As if Tony hadn’t known that from the day he first kissed Amy so many years ago. She’d kept the secret of their relationship from their families and best friends, and if that wasn’t enough, she’d gone fourteen years without being intimate with another man. She was the most loyal person he knew. Well, at least as loyal as he now knew his mother had been to his father. She’d kept a secret of her own for the same amount of time.
Tony scrubbed his hand down his face. Amy had spoken to Duke earlier in the evening and she’d scheduled a meeting with him for the following weekend, when he was coming to the Cape to look over a property that Blue was thinking of purchasing. Tony hadn’t pushed her for information even though he was dying to know if she’d made a decision. But after they’d made love and showered together before coming to the Beachcomber, he’d asked if she had a plan for the job. She’d said she wasn’t sure, but she’d made it damn clear that she wanted their relationship to work, and Tony could only hope that meant she’d consider staying in the States.
“How do you feel about her going to Australia?” Blue asked. “You surf there, right?”
I feel like I don’t want her to go. “Yeah, I do. Whatever makes her happy.”
“You’re a better man than me,” Pete said. “I’d tell her to stay.”
Kurt looked at him sideways. “And Jenna would listen?”
Pete ran his hand through his thick dark hair and shifted his eyes to Jenna, who was shimmying up Bella’s body on the dance floor. “Jenna doesn’t listen. She makes her own decisions, but I know she’d never leave me.”
“If Leanna wanted to go to Australia f
or her work, I’d go with her,” Kurt added.
“That’s because you can work from anywhere,” Caden pointed out. “It’s a tough call.”
“You’re in a rough spot,” Blue said to Tony. “I’m no expert on love. I mean, I haven’t had a steady girl in years, but I’m not sure I could sit back and wait for a woman I loved to make that big of a decision. I’d take Pete’s route and tell her to stay. Of course, Duke is my brother, so if it were me, I’d have to deal with that.”
“You’d put your relationship ahead of her career?” Tony asked. Amy had already put Tony’s career ahead of their relationship once. He didn’t want her to do it again. While he knew Amy had been protecting herself as much as she’d been protecting him all those years ago, he couldn’t deny—and would never forget—that she’d supported his success by removing herself as a distraction. Even if he hadn’t wanted her to.
He watched a group of handsome twentysomething guys approach the girls. Amy smiled up at one of them. Jealousy corded Tony’s muscles tight. Amy took a step back from the guy and Tony rose to his feet.
“Yeah,” he mumbled to himself. The word dripped with sarcasm. “That’s not happening, asshole,” he mumbled as he crossed the dance floor and slid a possessive arm around Amy’s waist. “May I?”
She turned in to him with a grateful smile and clenched his shirt in her fists. “I was hoping you’d come to my rescue.”
Their bodies moved in perfect rhythm, hips brushing, hands wandering, getting Tony hard as steel. He pulled her closer and whispered, “I’m not taking any chances of losing you after this many years.”
She ran her hands down his biceps, and her eyes darkened. “I don’t think you have to worry about that.”
“I only have to worry about losing you to kangaroos and the outback?” He touched his forehead to hers, knowing it was unfair to put pressure on her to decide between him and the job, but he was unable to stop himself. He needed to know exactly how committed she was, because he was damn well ready to be committed to her.
“Mr. Black, is that jealousy I hear in your voice?” Her lips curved in a playful smile.
“It would be petty to be jealous over a job.”
“Oh, I meant over the hot guy—and the job.”
He narrowed his eyes, took her hand in his, and led her off the dance floor and down a narrow hallway, where he took her in a deep, hard kiss and backed her up against the wall.
“I want to put you in a position that I shouldn’t,” he said in a harsh whisper.
Amy’s eyes widened. “Here?”
“Not a sexual position.” He laughed, then lowered his voice. “Although that sounds good, too.”
She trapped her lower lip between her teeth.
“You’re so fucking cute, kitten.”
She hooked her finger in the waist of his pants. “You already made me purr twice today.”
“Three times, but who’s counting?” He kissed her neck, earning him a sexy moan.
“I know I told you to take the job with Duke, and I don’t want to stand in your way, but I want you with me, Amy. Every day, every night, every fucking minute of my life.”
Chapter Sixteen
AMY LAY ON her back in Tony’s bed, listening to the calm cadence of his breathing and thinking about what he’d said the night before. I want you with me, Amy. Every day, every night, every fucking minute of my life. They’d been interrupted by Bella and Jenna about a second after he’d said it, and he hadn’t brought it up again.
Tony stirred beside her and she closed her eyes. She felt the bed shift, and then his warm lips touched hers.
“How long are you going to pretend to be sleeping?” He smiled down at her.
“I’m sorry. Did I keep you up?”
He looked beneath the covers and flashed a heated grin. “That would be a very happy yes.”
He rolled onto his back and lifted her on top of him. Her legs naturally straddled his hips as he pulled her into a kiss, his arousal hard and eager against her belly. She felt herself go damp and rose up on her knees. Tony reached for the nightstand drawer.
“I’m on the pill, Tony. I think we can skip the condom.”
His hand stilled in the air. “I know. I’m just nervous about putting you in the same position you were in before.”
“It wouldn’t be the same position. We’re adults, and the pill is ninety-nine percent effective.”
His eyes grew serious. “I told you I’d always take care of you, and a one percent chance is one percent riskier than you deserve.”
“Isn’t that being a little overprotective?” She ran her fingers lightly over his chest.
“Maybe.” He cupped her cheeks and brought her face to his so their lips brushed. “I’ve learned my lesson. No more taking chances where you’re concerned. You’re my life now, kitten.” He took her in another soul-searing kiss.
“Then let me be your life. Love all of me. Feel all of me.”
He gazed up at her. “I want to do the right thing.”
“This is the absolute right thing. I want to feel you, Tony, without a sheath between us. I want that with all my heart. I never want anything between us again.”
His strong hands wrapped around her hips, lifting her up, then helping her ease down upon him.
“Christ almighty, Amy. You feel like heaven.”
He gritted his teeth and kept a firm grip on her hips, helping her move in time to his efforts, and holy moly did he feel good—and different from when he had the condom on. She felt all of him, the ridge around the head, the pulsing heat of his shaft. She braced her hands on his ribs, moving slowly at first, getting used to the exciting new fullness from this angle. He fondled her breasts and rose to a sitting position, thrusting even deeper, taking her higher as their lips crashed together. And then those delicious lips slid south, and he took first one breast, then the other in his mouth. He rubbed the scruff of his cheeks against her sensitive nipples, and her muscles involuntarily clenched with the sharp heat it sent straight to her center. His hips thrust harder, deeper. How he did that from this position was beyond her. He wrapped her in one strong arm and swept her onto her back beneath him. Her knees fell open wider for him as he sank into her, his heat rubbing, thrusting, filling her to near bursting.
“Amy,” he muttered hoarsely. “What you do to me.”
He nuzzled against her neck, continuing his perfect thrusts, taking her up, up, up, until the friction of him rubbing against her sent spikes of lightning to her center, and her body shuddered and quaked beneath him. It took a minute for her to realize that the sporadic gulps for air were coming from her. Her fingers and toes curled tight, and her entire body pulsed like one throbbing nerve ending as he called out her name and they both spiraled over the edge.
They lay with their bodies spun together, fingers laced, until their breathing returned to normal.
“That was amazing. We are never, ever using a condom again.” Amy couldn’t repress her smile as her body hummed with pleasure. “I really don’t want anything separating us, Tony. In any way.”
“I don’t either. Including the past. I was thinking about your suggestion, about going to my father’s grave.”
“Yeah?” She’d suggested it on the way to the Beachcomber last night, and he’d said he would consider it.
Tony pushed himself up on one elbow and traced a line down the center of her belly. “I think it’s a good idea.”
“You do?” She felt her eyes bloom wide and tried to rein in her hope that this might bring him some relief from the hurt he tried so hard to hide. He was good at putting on a brave face. Amy hadn’t realized how good until she’d allowed herself to revisit the memories of that tragic summer again. Now she understood the strength it had taken for him to not only walk away from her that night at her dorm but to keep from pushing her away all these years.
“If you don’t have any plans, maybe we could drive out to Rhode Island together to visit his grave.”
“Tony,
I would love that.” She could hardly believe they’d come this far. “I’ve decided not to talk to my father about that summer. I think it’s time I have a different talk with him. It’s time for me to cut his umbilical cord. I’m going to clear the air with him, but about how he hovers over me, not about you and me. What we do is private.”
“Are you sure you’re okay with that? He might not like it.”
“I’ve only remained under his thumb out of guilt. I don’t feel guilty about my mom leaving anymore. I never should have. It wasn’t my place, but I was never strong enough to draw that line. As we’ve come back together, I realized that it’s time.” She squeezed his hand, knowing it was the right thing to do.
“I support you any way you want to handle it. Just let me know what I can do to help.” He kissed her softly. “Will you consider doing one more thing for me?”
“Anything.”
He brought her hand to his lips and pressed a long, warm kiss to it; then he gazed into her eyes. She wanted to lie right there for hours. Just like that, staring into his deep blue eyes and wondering what he wanted. She loved the not knowing, and the anticipation of readily agreeing to whatever it might be. She loved pleasing him. She loved seeing the relief and love in his eyes when they found each other after a few hours apart and the way his arms engulfed her, making her feel safe and warm.
“Anything,” she whispered again.
“Let’s put the past where it belongs and really move forward.”
“I want that.”
He stared at her for a long moment with loving eyes and spoke just above a whisper. “Surf with me again.”
There were a million things that Amy was ready to agree to. This wasn’t anywhere near the list.
Chapter Seventeen
MONDAY MORNING HEAT beat down on Tony’s back and rose from the pavement, burning from all angles as he ran toward the bay. He’d gotten up early to try to get his head around visiting his father’s grave. He hadn’t been to the cemetery since the year after his father died, when he’d visited with his mother on the anniversary of his father’s death.
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