Page 18 of Catch and Release

He groaned internally.

God, he was pathetic. Using his grandmother’s award-winning cooking as a reason to talk to a pretty girl. He’d wooed dozens of tourists over the years, but this one woman put him on his knees with a simple glare. And he needed everything in his arsenal to get back in her good graces. Of course his grandmother would exploit that. She was little and white-haired, but she was clever.

“Of course it will. Well?”

“You have to accompany me to Bingo this Friday night.”

Shawn narrowed his eyes.

“That’s it?” he asked, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

“For now.”

She turned back to her cooking, as if he hadn’t even walked into the kitchen, so before she could change her mind, he snagged the pecan pie and scurried out the back door. As soon as he stepped outside, the sea breeze calmed him, and he made his way to Willa. He could see her immediately, at the edge of the water, doing yoga. Her auburn hair was in a big clump on top of her head, and the sunset made it burn brighter.

God, she was beautiful. And he had the burning desire to tell her so, but he had some making up to do first.

As he approached her, he noticed that every few minutes, she grabbed her phone. It looked like she was either sending a text or writing down some notes. But after a few moments, she’d put the phone back down and get back into her flow, picking right up where she left off. Once he was only about twenty feet away, she’d settled into a position that perched her ass in the air, and he could see up close how perfect it was.

He forced himself to clear his throat before he started drooling, startling her out of her flow.

She turned to face him, her face pleasantly relaxed but guarded.

“Grams made you a pie,” he offered by way of introduction.

“Another one?” She looked puzzled.

“What do you mean?”

“She dropped one off earlier.”

Well, shit. Grams had played him like a fiddle.

“I think she accidentally made a few extras,” he said quickly. “For the bake sale. At the church. Now she’s trying to get rid of them. You know how she is. Old. Forgetful.”

God, he sounded like an idiot.

Willa narrowed her eyes at him, lips twitching in amusement.

“She seemed pretty put together to me, but whatever you say,” she said, trudging toward the house. “Let’s take it inside.”

He followed after her and sure enough, sitting on the counter in her kitchen, was the pecan pie Grams must’ve dropped by earlier. He set the one in his hands next to it and stuffed his hands in his pockets.

“Look, I feel like every time I’m around you, I put my foot in my mouth. I’m sorry for what I said last night. And I just want to make sure we’re... cool.”

He felt so stupid as he looked at her, and her ocean blue eyes twinkled at him. She chuckled, and he marveled at how good it felt to be the reason for her smile.

“I’m sorry, too,” she said. “For being so… curt. I’m not in a great headspace right now. It’s making me a little more… combative than usual. Obviously. But yeah, we’re cool.”

“Cool. Good. Yeah. Okay. Great.”

She bit her lip, clearly trying not to laugh at him, and he crossed his arms.

“So. Yoga?”

Maybe changing the subject would help him figure out how to talk to the stunning creature in front of him without sounding like he just got whacked over the head with a baseball bat.

“Yes, yoga,” she smirked at him. “I was an instructor back in California. I just got a gig at one of the local hotels teaching a few classes a week for their guests, and I start tomorrow. So I was just trying to prep.”

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