“Sydney,” Angie said, clearly relieved to see her. “Would you please talk some sense into him?”
“What’s going on?” she asked.
“He’s being a jerk, that’s what!”
Daniel turned to her. “Dee’s boyfriend dumped her. So she isn’t going. And now Beth isn’t going because she doesn’t want to leave Dee alone. And the only reason I agreed to go is because they were going.”
And Sydney could see he was pretty dead set against going. He was going to need some serious incentive.
“Angie, could you excuse us a minute?” Sydney said, and gestured Daniel into the house. When they were inside she said, “Why don’t you want to go?”
“Look, it’s no secret that I don’t like Jason. I didn’t want to go on this trip, but Angie guilted me into it. She made it sound like some big family thing because Beth and Dee were going to be there. But if they don’t have to go, I don’t think I should have to, either.”
“It obviously means a lot to Angie.”
“She’ll get over it.”
“You don’t care that you’re hurting her feelings? She’s almost in tears. She doesn’t strike me as the type to cry unless she’s really upset.”
Daniel frowned and folded his arms across his chest.
“You can make an exception, just this once.”
“Once? I’m constantly humoring her.”
Sydney doubted that. “Then do it for me,” she said, unfolding his arms and stepping into them, pressing against him in a way that she knew would drive him crazy. “Think how much fun we could have.”
His arms closed around her and something warm and sexy sparked in his eyes. “What did you have in mind?”
“I think we could get creative. And fewer people there means more time alone.”
She could see she was getting to him. “Keep talking.”
“I’ve really been looking forward to this,” she said, rising up on her toes to give his lips a soft nibble. “Pretty please?”
“Ugh, gross.” Lacey said from behind them. Sydney turned to see her standing in the kitchen doorway, her stuffed duffel bag on the floor beside her. “So, are we going or not?”
She had obviously heard at least part of the discussion. Sydney looked up at Daniel. “Are we going?”
He sighed and shook his head, as if he couldn’t believe what he was about to say. “Yes, we’re going.”
“Dude,” Lacey said, shaking her head sadly, “you are so whipped.”
“Go put your duffel in the van,” Sydney told her. “And strap April into her car seat.”
Lacey plucked April out of her bouncy seat and headed outside.
“She’s right,” Daniel said. “You owe me big-time.”
It was a debt she looked forward to paying in full.
ANGIE LEANED FORWARD and whispered to Sydney from the middle bench seat where she sat with April. “What’s with those two?”
Sydney looked to the back of the van, where Lacey sat hunched into the corner next to the window, her black lipstick intensifying the scowl she’d been wearing since they left, iPod blaring. Jordan occupied the opposite end, the brim of his baseball cap pulled down over his eyes, arms folded over his chest, his music equally loud.
“I don’t know,” she whispered back, although she doubted they could hear her. They probably wouldn’t hear a nuclear explosion. “Do they not like each other?”
Angie shrugged. “I have no idea. They work together every day and Jordan hasn’t mentioned them not getting along. Of course, Jordan doesn’t say much about anything. He had a girlfriend for three months before I heard a word about it.”
“Of course they like each other,” Daniel said from the driver’s seat, not even bothering to lower his voice. “That’s why they’re acting like they don’t. I don’t even have kids and I know that.”
“Maybe if they were twelve,” Sydney said.
“She’s right,” Angie told him. “Kids their age should’ve grown out of that.”
Daniel shrugged. “Whatever you say.”
Angie gave his shoulder a playful shove. “Trust us on this. We’re mothers, we know our kids.”
They passed the sign marking their arrival to Stillwater.
“Where to now?” Daniel asked.
“Follow this road through the city,” Angie said. “Jason’s place is south of town.”
Daniel drove through the congested streets of what looked like a trendy tourist town, until they reached the cove. Though it was nearly eight o’clock, people still occupied a long expanse of white, sandy, private beach. An assortment of canoes and sailboats dotted the clear blue water. The only thing bluer than the water was the pallet of cloudless sky. They couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day to begin their vacation.
Reaching the end of town, they followed the road south, driving parallel to the shoreline for several minutes then turned off on a narrow residential road.
“It’s the last house on the right,” Angie said. They passed several mid-size homes and a row of luxury condos, but when Sydney saw the sprawling white, Cape Cod-style home set off by itself at the end of the road, her jaw nearly landed in her lap.
“This is a vacation home?” Sydney asked.
“I know. Isn’t it beautiful? It belongs to Jason’s parents. It’s been in their family since before Jason was born.”
“How big is it?”
“Thirty-five hundred square feet. Six bedrooms, three baths. And what I love is that they don’t have a single television in the house.”
Daniel glanced in the rearview mirror at the kids. “That should go over really well.”
He pulled up the long dirt drive and around to the front of the house, pulling up in front of a porch that spanned the entire length of the house. Beyond the house the landscape dipped to a wide strip of private beach with a breathtaking view of the entire cove.
The door opened and a tall, slender man, who Sydney assumed was Jason, stepped out on the porch. Angie’s eyes lit up and she hopped out of the van. Jason’s smile said he was just as happy to see her. They met at the bottom of the porch steps and Angie launched herself in his arms. They were clearly crazy about each other, which didn’t seem to go over well with Daniel, if the scowl he wore was any indication. Sydney hoped he would at least be civilized.
“I’ll get April,” he grumbled, and Sydney got out to stretch her legs, breathing in the salty ocean air.
Jordan and Lacey climbed out as Angie and Jason walked over to the van.
“Hey, Jason,” Jordan said, speaking for the first time since they’d left the house. Jason greeted him with some complicated handshake and Jordan actually smiled. “Not bad.”
“Told you I would get it,” Jason said.
“Sydney, this is Jason,” Angie said, practically glowing she looked so happy.
“Sydney,” he said with a warm smile, reaching out to shake her hand. “It’s wonderful to finally meet you.”
He was very attractive, but older than Sydney expected, or maybe it was the salt-and-pepper hair aging him. “You, too. You have a beautiful home.”
“And this is Lacey,” Angie told him.
If Jason was shocked by her appearance, he didn’t let it show. “Hi, Lacey. Nice to meet you. I have twin daughters who are right around your age. Fifteen, right?”
Lacey nodded. “Are they here?”
“Unfortunately not. They live in Los Angeles with their mom. We’ll have to all get together some time when they’re visiting.”
Lacey nodded. “Cool.”
Daniel emerged from the van holding April.
“Hey, Daniel,” Jason said.
Daniel politely shook his hand, but there was obvious tension between them.
“And this must be April,” Jason said, taking her sticky fist and shaking it, too, which made her gurgle excitedly in Daniel’s arms. “She’s a cutie. It seems like yesterday mine were this small.”
He seemed so nice, Sydney couldn’t help wonderi
ng what Daniel didn’t like about him. It was clear from in the way Jason looked at Angie that he adored her.
“I wasn’t sure if anyone would be hungry so I took some hot dogs out,” Jason said. “I thought we could build a bonfire.”
Sydney hadn’t roasted hotdogs over a fire since summer camp when she was eight.
“That sounds like fun,” Angie said, smiling up at him.
“Can I help with the bags?” he asked Daniel.
“Sure,” Daniel said, handing April to Sydney.
Angie looped one arm through Sydney’s and the other through Lacey’s, who surprisingly didn’t object. “Come on, I’ll give you guys a tour of the house.”
Though it was enormous, the house had a distinctly cozy and lived-in feel. Decorated in a mishmash of furniture styles from a dozen different eras, it possessed a slightly jumbled but appealing quality. Comfortable, yet functional. Just what she would expect from a summer home.
“This is really nice,” Sydney told her.
“I’ll show you where you’ll be sleeping,” Angie said leading them up a slightly creaky staircase to the second level.
“Only the master on the main floor has its own bath, so everyone up here will have to share.” She gestured into a bedroom the was distinctly feminine and told Lacey, “This will be your room. It’s where the girls usually stay. Sydney, you and Daniel have the bedroom at the end of the hall.”
Her and Daniel? “Daniel and I are sharing a room?”
Angie blinked. “Yeah, I thought…”
They were sleeping together? Yeah, but not with her daughter down the hall.
Lacey, however, seemed to know exactly what was going on. “Mom, it’s okay,” she said. “I don’t care if you guys share a room.”
“Lacey—”
“You think I don’t know what goes on at Daniel’s house every night?”
Naively, she had hoped not. If her own mother had shared a room with a man after the divorce, Sydney would have been horrified. Of course, her mom hadn’t been stable enough to date. Most days, she didn’t even get out of bed.
But Sydney didn’t want Lacey to feel she had to accept it if it made her uncomfortable. “Honey, are you positive it’s okay? Because I won’t be upset if it’s not.”
“It’s totally cool,” Lacey said. “I’m gonna go down and grab my bag.”
“I’m really sorry about that,” Angie said when she was back downstairs. “I wasn’t thinking.”
“It’s okay.”
“She’s a great kid.”
Sydney smiled. “She definitely has her moments.”
Angie showed her to the room she and Daniel would be sharing. It was small but cozy, with antique furniture and French doors that led to a balcony overlooking the ocean. There was even an old portable crib with a mobile set up in the corner for April.
“This is beautiful,” Sydney told her. She laid April in the crib and the baby squealed excitedly when she saw the mobile, kicking her legs, before rolling over onto her belly and pushing herself up on her arms.
“Hey! Look at that,” Angie said.
“She started doing that last week. You should have seen how excited Daniel was the first time he saw her. You would have thought she was the first baby in history to roll over by herself.”
Angie crouched down beside the crib. “He seems to love her. It’s hard to imagine that he could give her up at this point.”
“I know.” But as far as Sydney knew he was still looking for April’s family. What she really hoped was that someday she and Lacey and Daniel and April could be a family. But she knew it would be a long time before he was ready for that. She could wait. This time, she was determined not to rush things.
“So what did you think of Jason?” Angie asked, pulling herself to her feet.
“He seems really nice. And it’s obvious he’s crazy about you.”
“I’ve been divorced for seventeen years and Jason is the first man I’ve ever seriously considered spending the rest of my life with. The truth is, I’ve always been kind of a jerk magnet. And Danny knows that. But Jason is different. He’s…amazing. I just wish Danny could see it.”
“I’m sure he will once he gets to know him.”
“I hope this weekend wasn’t a bad idea. Oh, by the way.” She gave Sydney a quick, firm hug. “Thank you for talking him into coming. I don’t know what you had to promise him as leverage, but I hope it isn’t too much of a hardship.”
Sydney couldn’t fight the smile curling her lips. “Oh, it won’t be.”
Angie laughed. “Why do I get the feeling that if I’d put you in separate rooms, you would have wound up together anyway?”
“What’s this about separate rooms?” Daniel asked, appearing in the doorway with their luggage.
“I was just saying,” Angie started, then she looked from Daniel to Sydney and shook her head. “Never mind. I’m going to go find Jason.”
When she was gone Daniel set the bags on the floor by the closet and said, “So, we’re sharing a room?”
“If that’s okay.”
“You know it’s okay with me, but how will Lacey feel about it?”
She loved that he cared enough to worry about her daughter’s feelings. “She says she’s fine with it.”
“Good.” A sly smile lifted the corners of his mouth as he shut the bedroom door. “I’ve been looking forward to spending the night with you again.”
“Me, too.” They’d only spent the night together that one time, but it had been so nice sleeping curled up against him and waking in his arms.
He started toward her, giving her the look he usually had just before their clothes started flying. “So, what do you want to do?”
She stopped him with a hand on his chest. “I think we’re supposed to be downstairs for a bonfire.”
He sighed and flopped down on the bed, which made a loud creak. “No way,” he said, bouncing a few times. The bed groaned under his weight. “Is this a cruel joke?”
“It is a little loud. I’m sure we can figure something out.”
There was a soft knock at the door and Daniel got up to open it. Lacey stood on the other side, looking wary, as if she was afraid she might see something gross. “Angie said to tell you to come downstairs. They’re starting the fire. And she said bring a sweater because it gets chilly after dark.”
“Tell her we’ll be right down. I just have to change April,” Sydney said.
Lacey left and Sydney scooped April out of the playpen and laid her on the bed to change her.
“By the way,” Daniel said, “when we were bringing the bags in I asked Jordan what the deal was with him and Lacey.”
“What did he say?”
“He shrugged and said, ‘Nothing.’”
“So they don’t like each other.”
“No, that means they do.”
She frowned. “That makes no sense.”
“It makes perfect sense.”
“And you’re the relationship expert?”
He just smiled. “You’ll see.”
SYDNEY WAS SO GONNA GET IT when Daniel got her upstairs.
They’d spend the last hour and a half cuddled up together on a lounge chair under a blanket by the fire, and she’d had a severe case of wandering hands. Every time he’d let his guard down one would be trailing up his thigh or sneaking under his sweatshirt. He sat there in a constant state of semiarousal, counting the minutes until they could be alone. If he’d thought to bring his handcuffs, he could have resolved the issue by locking her to the chair. Which evoked some very interesting scenarios, making the problem worse.
By eleven-thirty Daniel was in agony. He made a production out of yawning and said, “I’m beat.”
“It is getting late,” Angie said. “Maybe we should call it a night.”
Sydney couldn’t get off his lap fast enough. She must have been as eager to go upstairs as he was, but like him, she probably hadn’t wanted to be rude.
“I’ll go put Apr
il to bed,” Sydney said, and lifted April from her bouncy seat, where she’d been sleeping soundly since ten.
Daniel hung back to help douse the fire, then he, Jordan and Jason carried the chairs back up to the porch, while Lacey and Angie brought in the hot chocolate cups and sticky marshmallow skewers.
When everything was cleaned up, and all the doors locked, he said good-night and headed upstairs. The bedroom door was closed, so he knocked softly.
“Come in,” she said in a loud whisper. He opened the door to find the room dark and Sydney already in bed. He reached to turn on a lamp but she whispered, “Don’t. You might wake her. She’s restless.”
He closed the door as quietly as possible and tiptoed to the side of the bed. “Are you naked under there?”
She smiled and lifted up the covers. Oh, yeah.
He shed his clothes and climbed in beside her, wincing as the bed creaked under his weight. “Man, that’s loud.”
“Then we’ll just have to do something that doesn’t require a lot of movement,” Sydney said with a smile that said she already had something in mind. She carefully sat up, trying to make the least noise possible, and threw a leg over him, straddling his thighs. He was about to ask how she thought this would be a quieter alternative, but then she kissed him. His mouth, his chin, the side of his neck. Then she started working her way lower. Down his chest, then his stomach, until it was clear where she was going with this.
She circled her hand around his erection, leaning over, and he felt the heat her breath…then April started to cry.
He cursed.
“I’ll try propping her bottle up,” Sydney said, crawling off the bed and walking to the crib, trying to get April to settle down, while he lay there in agony. After a minute April quieted, and Sydney crept back to the bed, but the second she leaned on the mattress, and it creaked, the baby jolted awake again.
Sydney sighed and sagged in defeat. “Why do I get the feeling she’s not going to let us have any fun.”
“She’s in a strange place, in an unfamiliar bed. I guess we should have expected this.” Daniel grabbed his boxers from the floor and pulled them on. April wasn’t in full-blown hysterics yet, but if he let it go that far she would wake the whole house. “Give her to me.”
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