Page 72 of The Love Shack

She stroked his jaw, liking the slight rasp of his beard shadow. His fair hair, a little messy and a little long, drew her fingers next. Who knew a man’s hair could be so sexy? She never had before, but everything with Lawson felt new. Seemed appealing. And turned her on.

Lawson held perfectly still, watching her intently, before he caught her wrist, turned his head and kissed her palm. “What are you thinking, Berkley?”

Many things, decisions that involved the immediate future. She hoped he would continue to be agreeable. “That talking with you is easy, maybe because you share, too. Thank you for trusting me.” That’s what it was, she knew. Trust. He’d told her things no one else knew, awful things that a boy should never have gone through. She’d had her mother, she’d known love and concern and caring. He hadn’t. Compared to what he’d gone through, her own worries felt smaller.

And Chad... Well, Chad felt like nothing at all.

“Thank you for listening.” He opened the bag and dug out their food, handing one thick sandwich to her. They ate in comfortable silence, hearing only the distant, barely perceptible drone of voices from the main stretch of the beach. Occasionally a bird sang. Repeatedly, the lake washed against the shoreline in a lulling hush.

“Did you see that fish jump?”

He nodded. “Looked like a big carp, maybe. Or a bass.”

She finished off half of her sandwich and gave him the other half.

“You don’t want it?”

“I’m full.” She finished off her shake, then nodded out at the sunset. “It looks like it’ll sink right into the water.”

“Pretty.”

Berkley watched him polish off the sandwich, then use a napkin to wipe his mouth. “It’s not that late yet.”

Pausing, Lawson gave her his full attention for several arresting, heart-stopping moments. “Not late at all.” With his light brown eyes extra alert, he asked, “Something else you want to do?”

Oh, boy. Yeah, there were several other things she wanted to do, but not here in public. To give her something else to look at, she gathered up the wrapper from her sandwich and her empty milkshake cup, and put them back in the larger bag. “We could maybe go to your house.”

His voice went deeper when he said, “We could.”

She studied him, trying to gauge that simple reply, and realized at once that he wanted her, too. It was there in his heated expression, and that gave her the confidence to say, “I want sex.”

His eyes flared, then narrowed. “Hell, yes,” and suddenly he was on the move, grabbing up his own empty wrapper and cup, urging her to her feet, shaking out his jacket.

His rush was flattering enough that she laughed as she hurriedly brushed off her feet and stuck them into her sandals. She caught Lawson’s hand and, while dragging him along at a fast clip, said, “We could jog to your truck,” and she was only half-joking.

Holding her to a walk, his own smile warm with anticipation, he said, “No way, lady. We’ll continue like two sedate adults just finishing our casual stroll. Don’t forget how quickly news spreads in Cemetery.”

She nodded, but after a minute or two, asked, “You want to keep our relationship private?”

“No, but I don’t want it advertised, either, not until you and I figure it out.”

That made sense, and yet as they moved along, a few reservations set in. “So... Do we have a relationship?”

His brows pinched together, his look serious and firm. “Damn right we do.”

She nodded again. “And that relationship is...what?”

As if he’d just run into a wall, Lawson stopped. It was so abrupt, she went a step past him before she realized it.

Tugging her around, he said, “If I haven’t made it clear, I care about you.”

The words were a balm, softening her heart. “I care about you, too.”

His frown eased away, replaced by satisfaction. “I haven’t done any serious, one-on-one relationships that I wanted to last. If I miss a beat, just tell me.”

Biting her bottom lip, she wondered how to reply to that. They’d only been reacquainted for a month, but the history they shared made it feel longer. Definitely deeper and more meaningful.

“This, with you,” he stressed, “is serious. It needs to be one-on-one. Just me and you.”

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