by Karen Booth
“What will we do if people ask us about it? Because you know they’re going to. They’re going to ask about the baby and whether we’re getting married. And I don’t think I can pretend about that. I need it to be real.”
“We’ll just say that we’re together and we’re focused on Tracy and Carter right now. That’s the truth, and if that’s not good enough for them, then too bad. We’ll just have to walk away or get really good at changing the subject.”
“What do we tell everyone later? After the wedding?”
He took her other hand and gripped them together tightly. They were both putting a lot on the line here, willingly creating a tangle that could become an unholy mess to clean up. It didn’t matter. Their past was littered with mistakes that couldn’t be undone and their future was uncertain at best, but it was theirs. And it was up to the two of them to figure it out. “All we can do is our best right now. If anyone wants to fault us for that after the fact, then that’s their problem. And if someone needs to take the heat, I will.”
“You don’t have to do that. I can take it. I’m used to it.”
“You know what? I don’t want you to be used to it. Let me shield you from this.”
Julia swallowed. “Do you have any idea how many times I’ve had a guy say he’d stick up for me like that?”
He shrugged. “No idea. You know it’s not my favorite subject.”
“Zero. Zero times. You’re the only one.”
“Really?”
“Really. Believe me, I wouldn’t lie about that.” She stood and hiked up her dress again. “Okay. Let me get out of this silly get-up so we can get it to the seamstress and she can hopefully finish the alterations before tomorrow. I need to get out of this place.”
He straightened, now keenly aware of the privacy they had, in a way that hadn’t made an impression before. He really wanted to kiss her again. “I don’t get to stay?”
She shook her head. “We’re in a bridal boutique in the South. Let’s not invite more scandal into our lives by being the unmarried pregnant couple making out in the fitting room.”
His hand nearly twitched. The ring in his pocket might help to shut everyone up. But he couldn’t go there until he knew for certain that she would say yes, and that they were ready. They needed their trial period. They needed to lean on each other again. “Okay, then. Out I go.”
Logan quietly exited the dressing room and closed the door behind him. A few steps into the main room of the boutique and the eyes of the women working at the shop were all on him. He was used to women staring at him every now and then, but this was different. There was a whole lot of judgment being aimed at him right now and he didn’t like it one bit. Julia thankfully emerged from behind the white door, the pink dress in her hands. One of the women working in the shop rushed over to take it from her.
A fraction of a smile crossed Julia’s face as she walked up to him. Relief settled in. As much as she needed reassurance that everything would be okay, he needed it, too. He wasn’t going to ask for it, but hopefully that grin from her meant that he could start trusting his instincts again. It was time.
“So? What should we do?” he asked. “We have hours until we need to be at the rehearsal.”
“You know what would be awesome?”
Logan hoped she would suggest they go back to the hotel and have sex all afternoon.
“Let’s go to the beach.”
Eleven
Julia rolled down the car window and leaned against the door frame, letting the wind sweep her hair from her face and the sun warm her skin. Closing her eyes, she breathed in the familiar salty breeze.
“Any particular place you want to stop?” Logan asked.
“Anywhere quiet. I do not want to see people. And if you see a single member of my family, turn around and go in the opposite direction. I don’t care how fast you drive.”
He laughed, further improving her mood. If ever there was a sound worth listening to, it was Logan’s laugh—not as deep as his speaking voice, but close, and it was always unguarded. “If we want privacy, then I think we both know where we need to go.”
Privacy. “Yes. Go there.”
A short fifteen minutes later, Logan pulled the car over to the side of the road in the perfect spot, right where a long string of rental houses stood between two of the bigger beach hotels. The undertow was particularly strong in this stretch and the sand extra pebbly, making it far less popular with swimmers. With school back in session, it wouldn’t be too busy.
Julia kicked off her flats and collected them in her hands while Logan sat on the edge of the public access walkway, taking off his black leather shoes and removing his socks. He rolled up the legs of his jeans. Julia just watched, admiring him. A stunning ocean vista might have been waiting on the other side of the dunes, but the line of Logan’s athletic shoulders as he hunched over was more enticing. He stood and gathered his things in one hand, while doing something that she had once taken for granted. He reached for her. Surely he’d done it thousands of times over the years, but it nearly knocked the breath out of her now. So much was expressed in that single gesture—everything she’d wished for, the thing that had left an unimaginable void when it was taken away. She’d felt heartbroken every time she and Logan had ever parted, even when she’d done the walking away.
“Hey, Logan,” she said as they advanced over rickety gray wooden slats glazed with sand. Tall beach grass rustled and whipped at their legs. “Can we make a deal?”
“Tentatively, yes.”
She stepped ahead of him and came to a stop, taking his other hand and peering up at him. His aviator sunglasses glinted as a curious smile spread slowly across his lips. Between the glare and his grin, it was a wonder she wasn’t blind. “No more questions today, okay? Even when it’s just the two of us. Let’s practice being happy. I think I’ve forgotten how to do that.”
He wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her close and pressing a kiss to the top of her head. At moments like this, his tenderness was unmatched, a gift. “I think we both could use the practice.”
Julia sighed, her legs feeling a bit like they were made of rubber. Being in his arms gave her exactly what she’d been craving—a refuge. “Good.”
A few dozen steps and they crested the dunes and descended the stairs to the beach. Aside from an older couple sleeping on lounge chairs beneath an umbrella and a man casting a line into the water, the shore was nearly deserted, stretching north for what looked like a mile without another person. Julia let Logan lead the way down to the water. Midafternoon, the tide was low, revealing millions of tiny shells and scattered strands of seaweed.
Julia ventured in to her ankles, but Logan went midcalf, tugging on her hand. “Come on,” he insisted. “It’s so warm today.”
“I don’t want to get my dress wet.”
He shook his head. “Don’t be lame. Just come here.”
There was something so sexy about being beckoned by Logan, somewhere between the tempting trouble of a dare and the thrill of an irresistible man wanting you close. She waded deeper. She had to. There was no denying Logan. Not when he was like this. She stood right next to him, the waves indeed threatening to soak the hem of her dress. They both looked off at the horizon, holding hands, leaning into each other as the Atlantic lapped at their legs. His thumb rubbed the back of her hand in a steady rhythm. The sun warmed her shoulders. Between Logan and the rock of the tide, the stress and worry were slipping away.
“Are you ready to give your toast tomorrow?” she asked.
“Yep. I have it all typed on my phone and everything.”
“How very efficient of you.”
“The best man should be prepared.”
“I, of course, went old school and wrote mine on paper. I’m a little worried it’s corny, though. Either th
at or I’m thinking too hard about it.”
“Do you have it with you?” He tugged on her hand.
“I do. It’s in my purse. Want to trade?”
“We should probably at least practice.”
“On dry land?”
“Yes.”
They took their time, Julia kicking at the water as they made their way back up onto shore. They found a dry patch of sand and sat. The wind blew Julia’s hair in a million directions as she dug around in her purse for the paper. Amid lip balm, gum and a pack of tissues, she finally found the carefully folded sheet torn from a legal pad. She handed it to Logan as he surrendered his phone to her.
It came as no surprise that Logan’s was pure poetry from the first word, but the real curiosity was his subject matter. A few sentences in, she had to say something. “Logan. This is practically the same thing I wrote. Well, I mean, yours is written far better than mine, but that’s no shock. You know, you really should write a memoir. I wasn’t trying to fix your problems when I suggested it.”
“I wouldn’t know where to start with that, and I’m not sure anyone would want to read it in the first place.”
“But you’re an amazing writer. You’d figure it out. I know you’d do a fantastic job.”
He returned his sights to the page, which ruffled in the breeze. Forearms resting on his knees, he shook his head and smiled. “Shhh. I’m reading.”
Like she was supposed to do the same when he was being so adorable. Still, she returned to what he’d written, just to hear his voice in her head. It only took a few more lines before goose bumps were racing up her bare arms, even in the glow of the fading sun. “Fate returning two souls to each other? Isn’t that the exact same thing I said?”
“You said fate bringing two souls together.”
“Of course. I don’t have your flair, Mr. Memoir-Writer. I’m calling you that from now on, just so you know.” She went on reading, soon stumbling over another parallel. “We both told the same story, about that night at the beach house when Tracy cut her foot on that rusty old can in the sand. About Carter carrying her inside and how sweet they were to each other.”
“Is it really that surprising? It’s a great story.”
She shrugged. “It is a great story, but it also happened an eon ago. It’s still a weird coincidence.”
“When you and I are on the same page, we’re really on the same page.”
Julia’s skin tingled with recognition. “It’s true. There’s not much stopping us when we’re in sync.” She handed him his phone and tucked her speech back into her purse. “Yours is so good. It’s almost too good. I feel like I should change mine. Otherwise people are just going to get bored or say that we copied each other.”
“Yours is perfect. Keep it just the way it is. I’ll tweak mine. I’m sure I can come up with something else to say.”
“See? You can’t not write.” Julia leaned back on her hands, digging her toes into the sand. “You know, I think about that night with Tracy and Carter and I’m still sort of in awe of it. It’s still so vivid. It was like watching a movie. We saw them fall in love with each other. It was so romantic.”
He reached back for her hand. “Maybe we’re watching the same thing.”
Warmth rushed to her cheeks. “It’s not the same. We’re participating. And we’re a lot older now. We already fell in love for the first time.”
“First off, I think it’s better that we’re older. It means more. And people can fall in love more than once. My grandmother used to say that the secret to a long marriage was falling in love over and over again. She’d been married to my grandfather for sixty-seven years when he passed away.”
Leave it to Logan to break out an especially poignant story, made even better with his impossibly romantic turn of phrase. As competitive as they could be with each other, she’d gladly be outmatched by him when it came to romance. “Yeah? What makes you think things will suddenly work now that it’s all so much more complicated?”
He shook his head and raised a finger to her lips. “We aren’t asking questions today. No worrying about tomorrow. We only do what makes us happy. We do what feels right.” He moved his hand to the side of her face and raked his fingers through her hair. “Like this.”
Her heart wouldn’t stop fluttering at the anticipation as he rubbed her jaw with his thumb and caressed her neck with his fingers. When his lips finally met hers, the kiss was soft and tender, but passionate. Focused. She sensed a different sweet sentiment with every move of his mouth, which still amazed her, even after all this time. She arched her back, craned her neck, desperate to keep doing the one thing that they knew they couldn’t get wrong, no matter how hard they tried. His lips became more insistent, the heat building, his tongue gentle but unsubtle in where this was going. He wasn’t kidding about doing what felt right—this was every kind of correct she could imagine. She shut out the bad thoughts that wanted to creep in and went with the moment. Old wounds would take a long time to heal. She couldn’t expect it to happen overnight. And the kiss was definitely helping.
* * *
Logan really wished they had a blanket, so they could lie back on the sand, roll around a little. But they didn’t, which meant he could take this kiss only so far. Not to mention that they were in public, however quiet the beach was that afternoon.
Julia’s lips were as sweet now as they’d been every other time he’d kissed her over the last few days, but there was something else behind the kiss now...a promise that they were going to try to find a way. If Julia would just give a little bit, try to understand his hesitation and at least acknowledge that it was okay for him to feel the way he did, he could do the same. Give an inch here, an inch there, until finally they could meet in the middle.
Her hand clutched his biceps, her hair whipped at his face, as they both became more emphatic with the kiss. It was as if they were in their own little world and they were doing nothing but one-upping each other, a familiar part of their dynamic. I want you. I want you more. I want you the most. Logan’s brain wouldn’t stop thinking about what might lie ahead...a continuation of the heavenly fun they’d had that morning. They did, after all, have a hotel room to return to. They did, after all, have several hours until the rehearsal.
Julia’s phone started beeping in her purse. She wrenched herself from the kiss and turned away from him, grabbing at her bag and digging in it.
“No, Jules. Let it go.” This is too good. His eyes were half-open, his breathing labored. Every part of him was poised and ready to have her, make love to her.
“It’s not a call. It’s the alarm on my phone. We should head back to the hotel to get ready for the rehearsal.”
The hotel. Bed. Privacy. “Yes. We should go.” Logan grabbed his shoes and stood up, even when it was difficult to fully straighten. Everything below his waist was ready to have her, and it felt as if the blood had left his limbs. Julia scampered up the dunes to the stairs and Logan had no choice but to follow, every step painful, especially as he watched the sway of her hips in that summery dress and the way the wind carried it up to the middle of her thighs.
Logan grabbed a pair of flip-flops he’d left in the back seat and put them on, wanting to hurry as much as Julia did. He started the car and cranked the air-conditioning, needing to cool off. Julia had him way too warmed up. That morning had been wonderful, but it wasn’t nearly enough, and everything had been a mystery then. There was far less gray area between them now.
They arrived at the hotel in record time, but Julia didn’t seem to notice the liberties he’d taken with the speed limit. She was preoccupied with texting and checking things on her phone. The guy at the valet stand greeted them and took care of the car quickly, and they lucked out when they didn’t have to wait for the elevator inside. Down the hall to their room, each step only made Logan’s pulse race faster. He
would have her. Right now.
He took her into his arms the instant they were inside their room, his hand quickly finding the zipper on the back of her dress and drawing it down. She kissed him back, moaning softly. He loved the sound, until he realized it was a complaint.
“Everything okay?”
“Why did you have to kiss me at the beach that way?” Her gorgeous chest was heaving.
“We were going with it, remember? And being around you is making me crazy, Jules. I want you. Now.”
“I know. I want you, too.” She kissed him, her tongue winding with his. “But we can’t. There’s no time. If we’re late for the rehearsal, Tracy will literally kill me.”
Julia’s moans might have conveyed annoyance, but he was about to register a grievance of his own. “Just a quickie. Or a shower. We’ll call it multitasking.”
She shook her head and kissed his cheek. “You’re cute, but I have to do my hair and makeup from scratch and I haven’t shaved my legs.”
“See? I’ll help.”
“Do you really want to rush through this? If we’re going to make love do you really want to hurry it? After the day we’ve had and everything we said to each other?” She pressed her hand flat against his chest. “I want us to be able to take our time with each other.” She bit on her lower lip. “I want to be able to be thorough. If you know what I mean.”
A low rumble came from the center of his chest. Oh, he knew exactly what she meant. And thinking about it all night was going to make him insane. Still, she was probably right. If they were going to get back to where they used to be, it needed to be more than a quickie. They needed hours to reconnect on every level. “Okay. You shower first. Just be sure to use all of the hot water. Every drop. I want mine ice cold.”
“I’m sorry. Really. I am.” She popped up onto her tiptoes and kissed his cheek. She flashed a smile and hurried off to the bathroom, shutting the door behind her.
Logan flopped down on the bed, frustration about to eat him alive. This is going to be a really, really long night.