After Adrian left, Heather went inside to face Erin. She halfway expected Erin to be standing at the door, ready for a fight. She wasn’t. Instead, she had set the kitchen table for dinner, turned off the oven, and set the foil-covered dish of chicken noodle casserole on top of the stove. “Erin?”
Heather followed the sound of the television to the den, where the twins were sprawled on the couch. Caroline looked up. “Is dinner ready yet? I’m starving-up hungry.”
“Not quite yet,” Heather said. “You can keep watching TV for a bit. I’ll come get y’all when it’s time.”
At least it seemed that Erin hadn’t blabbed to the twins.
Heather found Erin in her usual spot: flopped belly down on her messy bed, scrolling through her phone. The bedroom door was all but closed—a good sign, since it meant Erin hadn’t run upstairs and slammed the door. Heather tapped on the door before pushing it the rest of the way open.
Erin looked up, but only briefly.
Heather sat on the edge of the bed. “Do you want to talk about what you just saw?”
Erin sat up cross-legged and set her phone aside on the rumpled bedspread. “Is there anything to say? I caught you making out with a hot guy. I guess you’re entitled; Daddy’s…dead. I just wish you hadn’t been quite so brazen about it.” Erin made a mock shudder. “I mean, ew, Mom.”
“I’m sorry you saw that. I thought all of y’all kids were inside.”
“I hope you’ll be more careful in the future,” Erin said, her tone stern.
“Yes, we will.” The reversal of roles wasn’t lost on Heather, but she wasn’t quite sure how to turn it around. “But I think it is time for you and me to talk about the fact that I may start dating in the future. How would you feel about that?”
Erin rolled her eyes. “If you want to date, date. Just don’t make out with your boyfriends in the barn.”
“Adrian is not my boyfriend,” Heather said. “We’re just…good friends.”
“Yeah? You’re also good friends with Quinn and Mack. Do you kiss them in the barn too?”
Heather had to laugh at that one. Thankfully, her surprised chuckle made Erin’s lips turn up at the corners. “No, I don’t kiss Quinn or Mack. Just Adrian.”
“Yeah. The guy you just spent a whole night with.”
“Yes. We—” Heather didn’t want to lie, but there were some things her kids didn’t need to know. “We had to stay over to pick up the dog because Reva got the dates wrong. You know that.”
Erin snorted. “Yeah, right. Whatever.”
Best not to poke at that subject too deeply. “So, how would you feel if I decided to start dating Adrian?”
“Fine, I guess.” Erin looked up at Heather under her lashes. “At least he’s not a troll.”
Heather grinned. “No, he’s not a troll.”
“So, okay.” Erin picked her phone up and scooted to the edge of the bed. “Is it time to eat yet?”
Heather leaned over and gave Erin a hug. “Yes. Thanks for setting the table and taking the casserole out of the oven.”
“There’s buttered bread warming in the oven too. I turned the oven off, but it was still hot.”
“Thanks. And thanks for understanding about Adrian.”
“You could do worse.” Erin bumped against Heather’s shoulder in a teasing way. “Janelle’s mom is dating an old, bald guy with a beer belly.”
“And I’m sure he’s a perfectly nice man,” Heather answered. “Looks aren’t as important as what kind of person someone is on the inside.”
“And I guess you think Adrian’s a nice person on the inside?”
“Yes, I do.” Heather smiled. “I really do. But…until I know for sure that things are going to work out between us, I think it would be best if we don’t tell the twins.” Keeping secrets in the family was something Heather had always preached against, but she knew it was best not to let the twins know about her and Adrian just yet. “I don’t want to get Josh’s hopes up or upset Caroline over a relationship that might not happen. Adrian and I haven’t yet decided what our relationship is going to turn out to be, but when we figure that out, we will let everyone know. Does that make sense?”
“God, yes,” Erin agreed fervently. “Josh would be begging Adrian to marry you and be his new daddy. It would be way too embarrassing.” She pretended to shudder. “And Caroline would be so shy of him that she’d forget how to talk. Better not say anything to either of them until you have a ring on your finger.”
Heather laughed, then remembered that she did have a ring on her finger. She quietly stacked her hands on top of each other to hide it from view. “Adrian would probably run screaming, wouldn’t he?”
“If he had any sense, he would.” Erin’s eyes widened, and her cheeks flushed. “I didn’t mean that the way it sounded. A lot of guys date women who have kids. He probably won’t really run screaming.”
Heather smiled forgiveness. “If he does, that’ll be his loss, right?”
“Definitely his loss,” Erin agreed with a relieved smile. She hugged Heather. “But I hope things turn out however you want them to. You deserve to be happy.”
“We all deserve to be happy. And I promise that no matter what happens between me and Adrian, you kids will always be more important to me than anything.”
Heather stood, then she and Erin walked arm in arm to the bedroom door. Heather decided that she would show her new ring to the kids during dinner when she gave them the gifts she’d bought for them in New Orleans. And she figured that it wouldn’t be too horrible for her to tell a little white lie about who paid for the ring.
This whole dating thing was getting a little too complicated.
***
Adrian had to make two trips from the car to his loft: one to carry the cat and another to carry all the cat’s stuff. Reva had filled his trunk with bags of cat litter and food, plus bowls, toys, catnip, and a big-ass litter box—with a pooper-scooper that Adrian figured Reva expected him to use.
Reva had told him to put the cat in a small, closed-off area at first, so Adrian put the cat and all his junk in the guest bathroom. He set everything up, then opened the door of the crate and waited for the cat to come out on his own. Meanwhile, Adrian sat on the closed toilet lid with his phone in his hand and his laptop on the sink cabinet and took care of texts, emails, and phone calls.
He called Heather first but got a text back: I’m talking to Erin. Call you later.
He sent a thumbs-up emoji and started working. After a while, the cat came creeping out of the crate. Back hunched, neck stretched out, moving slowly, he acted more like a turtle than a cat.
“What’s up, Stinky Cat,” he started singing softly, but then he realized that the cat wasn’t stinky anymore. Those vet techs must have taken their lives into their own hands and given the cat a bath. His black-and-white-spotted coat was now smooth and sleek, shiny and non-stinky. He changed the words slightly. “What’s up, Winky Cat?”
The cat’s cornea-scratched eye was half-closed and clearly irritated, causing him to blink a lot. It did sort of look like he was winking, so the new name fit—at least for now. “You like the name Winky?” Adrian asked the cat out loud.
The cat didn’t seem to care much one way or the other. He sniffed around the edges of the room, then stuck his paws through the small gap between the bathroom door and the T-mold where the bathroom tile met the hallway’s wood floor.
After a few minutes of that, Winky explored the litter box, scratching around a bit before coming out looking dubious. He sniffed at his food and water, then sat in the far corner by the door and stared at Adrian with a you did this to me expression.
“Well,” Adrian said in his defense, “it wasn’t my idea.” In fact, he wasn’t sure how long he was going to be able to handle this cat-fostering thing. Hopefully, the cat would soon be tame enough to go back to the shelter and get adopted out.
Winky huddled in the corner, and eventually, his eyes drifted shut. He seemed to be napping, but only lightly. Adrian worked a while longer, but the toilet lid wasn’t the most comfortable seat, and the sink countertop didn’t make the most ergonomic desk.
Maybe Winky would do better, sleep more deeply, if Adrian moved his stuff to a more comfortable location, like, for example, his office desk in the guest bedroom. “But first, medicine.” Then he could leave the cat alone for the rest of the night, and they could start again on the taming program tomorrow.
Adrian followed Reva’s instructions for medicine dosing. Moving slowly so he didn’t alarm the cat, he prepared a dropperful of the oral antibiotic, then sat cross-legged on the floor with a towel spread over his lap. Then, by slow degrees, he eased closer to Winky, close enough to reach out and touch. Winky drew back, but he didn’t hiss. With the tube of ointment and the dropper of oral medication on the floor beside him, Adrian reached for Winky with both hands, then brought the reluctant cat up into his lap. Adrian was supposed to quickly wrap the cat as tightly as possible in the towel so he couldn’t scratch, then dose him.
But the damn cat started purring! So Adrian took a few minutes to stroke Winky’s fur and hum a tuneless tune before sneaking a bead of ointment onto his finger and stroking it over the infected eye.
Winky stopped purring and stiffened but didn’t run or hiss. Adrian hummed a little and petted the cat some more until he started purring again.
So far, so good.
Feeling confident, Adrian stroked Winky’s head and neck with one hand while he brought the dropper up close, then held the cat’s head still and stuck the dropper in the corner of his mouth. Winky struggled to break free, and Adrian squeezed the bulb to dispense the medicine.
The cat’s claws all came out at once, and he knocked the dropper out of Adrian’s hand, sending a stream of pink medicine across the floor and onto the wall. Backpedaling over Adrian’s thighs, he leaped onto the sink cabinet and tried to jump through the mirror. He tried once more, jumping at the mirror with such force that he bloodied his nose.
Adrian stood, trying not to panic. “Winky, don’t do that.” He reached out to restrain the cat, who was sitting in the sink, gathering himself to jump again. But when he touched Winky’s back, the cat rolled, slashing out with his claws. “Stop. You’ll hurt yourself.”
Winky hissed and scrambled to jump off the slick marble countertop, knocking Adrian’s phone and laptop onto the hard tile floor in the process. Upset even further by the clatter, he ran behind the toilet and hid, trembling.
Adrian was trembling too when he retrieved his phone and laptop and examined them. Both were fine; they were well protected by the best covers money could buy. But Adrian didn’t think he was up for trying again with the pink medicine.
It wouldn’t hurt Winky to miss out on one dose, and Adrian didn’t want to do any more damage to their relationship than he’d done already. Tomorrow, he would try again. And tomorrow, he would follow Reva’s instructions about wrapping the cat tightly in a towel before dosing him.
“Okay,” he said to Winky. “You win this round. I’m gonna leave you alone for the rest of the night. Try to get some sleep.” He turned out the light. “See you in the morning.”
Adrian settled into his desk chair in the next room and handled a bunch of texts, emails, and calls, though in many cases, handle meant scheduling back-to-back Zoom meetings and conference calls that would eat up the entire day tomorrow.
In one of those meetings, he would explore the possibility of working with a new client he’d been courting for nearly a month.
If he landed this account, it would entail quite a bit of travel at first—and he would be raking in a serious amount of money—but once the work of merging the two companies was done, he would have forged an ongoing relationship that could produce a steady stream of small consulting jobs that stretched far into the future. Bread-and-butter jobs.
Heather called the second he’d shut down his laptop and plugged it into the charger. “Perfect timing,” he answered. He leaned back in his chair and put his feet up on the desk. “How did your conversation with Erin go?”
***
Heather leaned against the headboard, put the phone on speaker, and closed her eyes. Hearing Adrian’s voice, even over the phone, dropped her stress level. “Talking to Erin seems like walking a minefield some days, but I guess I could claim that the conversation went okay. She promised not to blab to the twins.”
“Yeah?” His voice was deliciously deep and calming. “Did you promise her a car or something?”
“No, I just explained that I didn’t want to get anybody’s hopes up or, conversely, upset anybody prematurely. I told her that you and I haven’t yet decided what our relationship is or if there even is a relationship and that when we figure that out, we will let everyone know.”
“Sounds reasonable. How did she take all that reasonableness?”
“Very well, in fact. I think she understood. At the end, she hugged me and said she wanted me to be happy.”
“That’s good, Heather. I’m glad.”
She took a breath for courage, then said, “I do think, though, that we’ll need to be more careful in the future. No more kissing when the kids are anywhere near.”
Maybe easier said than done, but yes. “I agree. We’ll be more careful.”
“Probably means no more touching or hand-holding, either, because both of those things lead to kissing.”
“Understood. When we’re not absolutely alone, we’ll be good friends, nothing more.”
“Thank you for understanding. I’m sorry this is so difficult.”
“It’s not difficult…” He chuckled softly, a wry sound. “Well, it is. But it’s a difficulty worth navigating, right?”
“Right. I’m glad you think so. Because I was thinking…”
“Uh-oh.”
“I was thinking that it would be a good thing if you and my kids could get to know each other a little better without me in the middle.”
“Hmmm.” He sounded dubious. “I thought you didn’t want them to know anything about us.”
“Well, yes. But I was thinking that maybe whenever you come to ride Charlie, you could plan to stay long enough to hang out with the kids when they get home from school.”
“Hmmm.” His tone was noncommittal, revealing nothing.
“I’m not asking you to babysit. I’m just suggesting that y’all can…I don’t know…spend a little time getting to know one another.”
“Well…” He drew the word out. “I may be working quite a bit these next few weeks.”
“I don’t mean to pressure you,” she hurried to say. “If it’s not convenient, then of course—”
“I’m not saying that.” She listened for an inflection in his voice that would reveal his attitude toward her idea, but there wasn’t one. “I’m just saying it might not happen right away.”
“That’s okay. I understand.” She wasn’t sure she did; was he backpedaling? Or did he really have a lot of work to catch up on? “Whenever you can do it will be fine.” She let a small silence stretch out, then changed the subject. “How’s the cat doing?”
Adrian laughed. “He won the first battle of the medicine-dosing wars. I’m regrouping and changing my strategy for the next battle in the morning.”
“Awww, poor you. Did you get scratched?”
“Not too bad, but I wish you were here to doctor my wounds.”
“Me too…” She yawned—silently, she hoped—then turned off the bedside lamp and scooted down to put her head on the pillow. “Did you catch up on work?”
“I successfully moved most of it onto tomorrow’s calendar, so that’s progress at least. I had just closed my laptop when you called.”
“That’s good.” She ended the word on a yawn, and this time, she knew he heard it.
“Should I let you go? I know you have to get up early, and I didn’t schedule my first call till ten in the morning.”
“Rub it in, why don’t you?” She yawned again, but sleepiness notwithstanding, she wasn’t ready to let him go. “Let’s talk a few more minutes.”
“Shall I talk dirty to you?”
“I don’t think I’m the talking-dirty type,” she confessed. “I never understood the point of phone sex. Sorry.”
He laughed. “So you’re not gonna tell me what you’re wearing?”
“I’m wearing a sleeveless cotton nightshirt from Target. It comes to about mid-thigh and has a panda on the front. It is very old, so the fabric is soft and comfy. But I might have to throw it away in a couple of years because it is developing a bunch of tiny pinholes… I hope that doesn’t mean there are moths in my closet.”
“So sexy…”
“Yes, I know,” she said. “And just so you know, I’m not sure you’re quite in my league when it comes to sexy bedroom attire. But I’m willing to be persuaded. What are you wearing?”
He started spinning a yarn that started with Spider-Man underwear and got more outrageous from there, and the next thing Heather knew, the neighbor’s rooster was crowing, early morning sunlight had begun to brighten the windows, and her phone had gone dead on the pillow beside her.
***
Winky waited until long after the bathroom door had closed before slinking out from behind the toilet. The room was very dark, but not completely so. A sliver of light filtered through the bottom of the door, and Winky’s eyes—the good one, at least—adjusted quickly.
The hurting eye, the one he’d allowed Adrian to smear grease into, was always blurry. It felt like it had sand in it all the time. It hurt whenever he blinked. It hurt when it was open, and it hurt when it was closed. The ointment seemed to help temporarily, but only after it stung like fire ants biting when it first went in.
He didn’t understand why Adrian would squirt that horrible medicine into his mouth, though. There was nothing wrong with his mouth. But humans were an odd lot and often did things that made little sense.
After eating all the dry, meaty-tasting kibble he could hold, Winky hopped up onto the shiny white table with the strange depression in the middle. He crouched at the table’s edge, then looked down at a papery-smelling white cylinder affixed to its side. He batted at the soft cylinder, and his claws sank into it easily. It tore with a very satisfying sound. Then it started rolling, spewing out more of the white papery stuff. The faster Winky batted at it, the faster it spooled off and drifted down to the floor in a flowing heap.
This was fun!
He hopped down to the floor and skittered through the heap of soft white stuff until it covered the floor. Eventually, the only thing left on the side of the shiny white table was a hard brown cylinder that spun and spun but did nothing more, so Winky lost interest. He sat, tail twitching, wondering what to do next.
He wished Adrian would open the door and let him out of this room so he could explore the rest of the place. He knew there was more because he’d seen some of it through the bars of the crate when Adrian had carried it inside.
Winky sniffed at the crack where the light came in. He heard Adrian talking, so he slipped his paws under the door and yelled for Adrian to let him out.
Adrian didn’t listen.
He sat up and scratched at the door, digging his claws in as high as he could reach, then raking his claws down the door, over and over again, until the smooth door began to develop a nice, satisfying texture, much like that of tree bark. He sharpened his claws, then sat for a nice grooming session. He ate the rest of his food, just for something to do, then paced around the room, meowing for Adrian to come.
Adrian didn’t come.
Winky tried to climb the long curtain that hung across one end of the room, but it was harder than he thought. He realized that he had probably eaten too much, but he needed to remember to keep himself fit, just in case this thing with humans didn’t work out and he had to go back to being a wild cat.
So he kept trying until he succeeded, but the jingly rings that held the curtain up popped loose, one by one, dumping Winky on the floor, where the curtain drifted down to cover him.
Exhausted, Winky tunneled under the curtain until he found his crate, where he curled up and slept for a long time. But he woke with a terrible griping pain in his distended stomach, a roiling, rumbling upset that proved his theory that he had, indeed, eaten too much of the food Adrian had given him.
Winky tunneled under the curtain again, this time in search of the litter box, but he couldn’t find it in time. He did find a soft scrap of rug, though, which seemed as good a place as any to relieve himself, given the circumstances.
He curled up in the smooth bowl and hoped that Adrian would come soon and let him out of this tiny room, since it was quickly becoming very smelly, and Winky was a very fastidious cat. It was a long time later when Adrian opened the door, but Winky didn’t hold a grudge. He meowed in gratitude, but Adrian didn’t seem to understand his sentiment.
“Dammit, Cat!” Adrian bellowed.
Confused, Dammit Cat sat up. He’d thought his name was Winky. He meowed sweetly to let Adrian know that he really liked the name Winky much better than Dammit Cat.
But for some reason, Adrian didn’t seem to be listening.
***
Sunday morning, with his parents following behind him in their car, Adrian drove to Magnolia Bay with a yowling, unhappy cat in a crate on the front seat. He felt bad about it because Winky was doing much better. He hoped a two-day stint in the shelter wouldn’t cause him to backslide. But since Adrian would be in Magnolia Bay for two days and Winky needed meds twice a day, there was no other option.
“You’ll be okay, I promise. And we’ll go back home on Tuesday.”
Though Adrian still had to drop Winky off at the shelter, he first led his parents to the Bayside Motel so they could check in and get settled. The name of the place made it sound seedy, but it really was an okay place. The simple U-shaped concrete-block structure housed eleven units with a central courtyard facing the bay.
Adrian parked in front of the tiny office facing the road and rolled down his window. His parents’ car pulled in beside his. “Thank you for leading us here,” his mom said through her open window. “I know we’d have gotten lost on all these back roads.”
“No worries. Y’all check in for us and hang on to my key. I’ll be right back after I drop off this cat at the shelter.”
“Yes, yes,” his mom said. “I’ll text you with the room numbers.”
He drove to the shelter, where Heather’s car was the only one in the lot. He had passed Quinn’s truck heading toward the boat launch. It bristled with water toys: inner tubes and water skis strapped to the hood, kayaks and paddleboards in the bed. People and dogs were packed into the crew cab. He thought he saw Josh bouncing in the back seat, but they had blasted past so quickly, he couldn’t be sure.
He parked next to Heather’s car and took Winky’s carrier inside.
Heather came into the room dressed in a gauzy light-green sundress over a darker-green two-piece swimsuit. She looked good enough to eat. Her blond hair was pulled up in a ponytail, and her skin shone with coconut-scented sunscreen, so she also smelled good enough to eat.
He gave her a quick kiss. “Where should we put him?”
“How has he been doing?” She led the way upstairs. “Do you think he’ll be okay in the cat room, or would he be better in a smaller space?”
“He’s been doing really well. I let him out of the bathroom Friday morning, and he’s had the run of the house ever since. He comes when I call him now.”
“Okay. Good. Cat room it is, then.” She opened the door and held it wide for him. “I’ll set up the food station and fill a box with litter. Go ahead and let him out so he can explore.”
While Heather set everything up, Adrian sat on the floor and opened the crate. “Come on out, Winky.”
The cat hunched in the far corner of the crate and glared.
“Give him time.” Heather sat cross-legged next to Adrian. “Has he had his medicine this morning?”
“Yep. He’s been good about that too.” Adrian had tied a small bag to the crate’s handle. He untied it and gave it to Heather. “It’s all in here. The antibiotic has to be refrigerated.”
“I’ll tell Abby to make sure he gets another dose tonight.” After a second of silence, Heather looked at Adrian’s watch. “I hope Winky decides to come out soon.” As if in response, Winky slipped out of the carrier and started exploring. “We should head out soon. They’ll be leaving the dock in an hour.”
Adrian stuck his bottom lip out in an exaggerated pout. “And we’ll be spending the whole day together, pretending we hardly know each other.”
“I have good news that might make you feel better about that.” She leaned over and kissed him. “My kids are all spending the night away from home tonight. The twins are going with Sara, and Erin’s staying with a friend.”
He felt a grin spread across his face. “Is that so?”
“I was thinking that maybe after your folks go to bed, you could slip away from the motel and spend a little time at my house.”
“Oh, yeah?” He pulled her into his lap and kissed her thoroughly. “You want me to sneak over to your house and hide my car in the garage and everything, huh?” He slipped a hand under her beach sundress. “I think I might enjoy sneaking around with you.”
“Meanwhile,” she said primly, “while we’re on the water today, you and the kids can get to know one another better, and you and I can pretend to be good friends.”
He was already willing to spend the day with Heather’s kids, but the imminent payoff for his sacrifice took him from willing to enthusiastic. He slipped his tongue between her lips and skimmed past her teeth to stroke the roof of her mouth. “I do have a slight problem though.” He guided her hand down to underscore his predicament. “I’m not sure I’ll be able to hide my reaction to you.”
“I feel sorry for you,” she said. She stroked his tongue with hers and slid her hand up and down his erection in the same rhythm. “But I’m not sure what I can do about it.”
“I have an idea,” he said, smiling against her mouth. “But we’ll have to hurry.”
***
Heather drove her car to the boat dock. It only made sense because she’d have to take Jasper back home after the party and drop the kids off for their spend-the-nights. But as she drove behind Adrian’s fancy little convertible, she wished she could be sitting next to him, holding his hand.
Was she stupid to be so adamant about keeping their relationship a secret? Erin had taken the news better than Heather might have expected.
Caroline never complained about anything, so Heather knew she wouldn’t make a fuss. But Caroline’s quiet acceptance of everything was a problem in itself. The child’s still waters ran so deep, Heather sometimes wondered if those depths were full of fears and insecurities she was unable to share.
Josh would be over-the-moon happy about it, but he was the main reason Heather wanted to take things slow. She didn’t want him to get his hopes up unless she and Adrian were in a solid-feeling committed relationship.
She was right, Heather reassured herself, to keep quiet for now. No reason to spill anything until after Adrian had time to get to know the kids—and her—a lot better.
By the time they got to the Bayside Motel, the pontoon boat was tied to the dock and loaded with water toys—boards and skis and kayaks and tubes. “Where have y’all been?” Abby called. “Why haven’t you answered any of my texts? I sent about a dozen.”
Adrian took a small duffel bag out of his trunk. “I’ve gotta go change.”
Heather nodded. “I’ll make our excuses.” It was hard not to lean toward him and steal a kiss—especially when she was still feeling all tingly from their brief but passionate encounter in the shelter’s small bathroom (the only room with a locking door).
“Sorry,” Heather called out to Abby, then started walking toward the dock where everyone was gathered. “We had to get the cat settled at the shelter before we left.”
Josh ran up to Heather, wrapped his arms around her hips, and squeezed. “Mommy!” He hardly ever called her Mommy. He was being dramatic, something he tended toward whenever he was in a crowd. He seemed to think that whenever he felt uncertain, the best remedy was to become the center of attention.
Heather clenched her teeth and hugged her son. “Hello, Joshua.”
Caroline came running too, and plastered herself to Heather’s side. Heather patted Caroline’s back. “Hey, sweetie. Did you have fun riding over here with everyone?”
“Yes.” Caroline nodded against Heather’s hip. “But I missed you.” Even though they’d been apart for little more than an hour.
“I missed you too, but I’m glad we can still have fun even when we’re not together, aren’t you?” Heather wished she could find a way to help Caroline become more independent, but it wasn’t something she could just order up from the corner store. Having Adrian spend time with her kids while she was at work might help with that as well as allow them time to bond.
Adrian emerged from one of the motel rooms with his parents, whom Heather hadn’t yet met. They had just crossed the motel’s courtyard when Josh noticed them.
“Ade!” Josh catapulted into Adrian’s arms and clung like a starfish on a rock.
“Hey, buddy.” Adrian hugged Josh and smiled at Heather over her son’s shoulder. “You ready to go waterskiing?”
“I don’t know how to water-ski,” Josh yelled in a shrill tone. “I’m only in first grade!”
“Really?” Adrian pulled back and stared at Josh with a fake-surprised look. “I thought you were in college already.”
“Nope, but I can run really fast.” Josh squirmed to get down. “You want to see?”
“From here to the picnic bench and back again. I’ll time you.” Adrian pressed a button on his watch. “Ready, set, go.”
Josh took off running, and Adrian introduced Heather to his parents, Gordon and Eileen. Gordon was an older, rougher version of Adrian, a good-looking man in his early sixties with steel-gray hair and Adrian’s blue eyes. Eileen, who stepped up and gave Heather a warm hug, had smiling brown eyes and honey-brown hair lightened to almost-blond by a liberal scattering of soft white strands. “We’ve already met your children,” she said. “They are delightful.”
“Mom,” Erin yelled, waving from the dock. “Can I go with Abby and Quinn?”
Quinn brought over a couple of child-sized flotation vests. “These are for the twins.”
“Thanks.” Heather took the vests.
Quinn looked back at the teenagers, who stood next to the pontoon boat with Abby and the two dogs who’d been allowed to come, Jasper and Georgia. “Erin wants to come along and do beach patrol duty. We’ll need to leave some people on the beach to watch all the stuff while I come back to get the rest of y’all.”
“That’s fine, as long as Abby will chaperone.”
Quinn’s fifteen-year-old son, Sean, looked like a young Keanu Reeves. Tall, broad-shouldered, with a soon-to-be-studly build enhanced by his tanned olive skin, tousled dark hair, and deep-indigo eyes, Sean was the sort to make a young girl’s heart spin daydreams of happily ever after.
And even though Erin was younger than Sean, she showed a promise of beauty that could turn a young man’s head. The clear retainers she wore at night had just about straightened her teeth, her long blond hair shone like spun gold in the sun, and she had developed a few curves that were emphasized by a string bikini Heather didn’t remember buying for her barely teenage daughter. Erin had probably borrowed it from a friend.
The teens were both too beautiful, too young, and too inexperienced to be trusted alone with each other.
“I see what you’re seeing.” Quinn patted Heather’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. Abby will be with them. We won’t have a problem.”
“You’ve got a vest for Erin on the boat?”
“Yup.” Quinn looked back at the dock, where Erin and Sean stood next to each other, talking and laughing. “We have more than enough flotation devices on both boats. Just need to make sure the littles keep theirs on all the time.”
“They will.”
“Abby’s and my parents are already on the houseboat, and Mack has taken the speed boat with the propane grill and all the coolers to the floating dock. We’ll be back to fetch y’all as soon as we unload all the toys.”
Josh ran back, panting and out of breath. Adrian knelt and showed him the timer on his watch.
“Sorry we can’t fit everyone on the pontoon,” Quinn said with an apologetic glance all around, “but with all the toys…”
“It’s fine,” Heather assured him. “We’ll use the time to apply sunscreen. Thanks, Quinn.”
“Sure thing. I’ll be back for y’all in a few.” Quinn headed toward the boat, and minutes later, the pontoon took off, leaving Heather, Adrian, his parents, and Reva behind with the twins. By unspoken consent, everyone migrated to the tree-shaded picnic table at the water’s edge.
“No fair,” Josh pouted. “I wanted to go first.”
“What?” Adrian’s father pretended to have hurt feelings. “You don’t want to hang out here with me? I bet I know where we can find some tadpoles.”
Josh debated with himself for a second; then his expression brightened, and he grabbed Gordon’s hand. “Show me.”
“Mama.” Caroline tugged at Heather’s sundress, then whispered in a not-quite-quiet voice, “I need to potty.”
“Here.” Gordon reached into the pocket of his swim shorts and gave Heather the key to his motel room. “For anybody who wants to make a pit stop before we head out. Josh and I are on a mission to find tadpoles.”
On the way back to the picnic table after taking Caroline to the bathroom, Heather let Caroline run ahead while she paused to savor the sight of Josh and Gordon wading at the water’s edge. Her son was in hog heaven right now, doing little-boy things with a grandfatherly figure, something none of Heather’s kids had experienced because she and Dale had both been estranged from their families.
With Gordon filling some of Josh’s bottomless need for recognition, Adrian was free to give Caroline some attention. He sat next to her on the picnic table, bending toward her to hear something she was saying. As Heather watched her twins interacting with Adrian and his dad, she allowed herself to imagine how full their lives could be as part of a larger family.
Heather wasn’t looking to replace Dale in her children’s lives—or in hers, either. She had only just now come to terms with the idea of entering a new, independent phase of her life. Maybe she had no business even thinking of dating Adrian, much less of entertaining a dream of a deeper and more permanent relationship.
Adrian certainly wasn’t at all the sort of guy she would have envisioned for herself or her children. He was polished, highly educated, a city sort of guy. The cozy little backwater of Magnolia Bay would hold no appeal for him. It couldn’t hold a candle to his fancy loft in New Orleans, where he could order up gourmet meals or walk out his door and find live music and fine dining in a party-all-the-time atmosphere.
The snapshot images of Adrian talking to Caroline and of Josh wading with Adrian’s father in the shallows were compelling. But could it ever be anything more than a dream?
She couldn’t see how.