Page 84 of Serenity Harbor

He had to laugh at the vision of the two spunky senior citizens toking away amid a cloud of smoke.

“Seems like a fun party,” he said. “It was very kind of your mom to welcome Milo and me, when she barely knows us.”

He saw a little color creep over her cheekbones. “I don’t think kindness had much to do with it. You heard what Wyn said earlier after the parade. She’s desperate. I think she’s still hoping you could convince me to stay in Haven Point and give up any silly idea of adopting a child.”

Why would Charlene Bailey thinkhecould have any influence on Katrina? Did she know something he didn’t?

“To be clear, I couldn’t, right? Convince you to stay, I mean.” He had to ask.

She sent him a sidelong glance. “We’ve covered this ground already. I need to be with Gabriela.”

He did his best to hide his disappointment. “I totally get that. She’s a lucky girl.”

She was quiet for a long time. “If those circumstances were different, would you...try? To convince me to stay, I mean?”

“In a heartbeat,” he said, without a second’s hesitation.

Her eyes were wide, and she gave him a half smile that made his heart flop in his chest like one of those lake trout coming out of the water.

“Why do you have to be so hard to resist?” she murmured.

“Why do you have to try so hard?” he countered.

She laughed a little, rolling her eyes. When the laughter faded, she gazed at him, eyes soft in the moonlight, and it seemed as inevitable as the sunset when she reached up and kissed him. It was poignant and tender and moved him beyond words.

He held his breath as emotions seeped through him. Though he wrapped his arms around her, he forced himself to let her take the lead in the kiss, to savor each slow, seductive moment of it, knowing that it might well be their last.

* * *

TENDERNESSSEEMEDTOswirl around them like the whirlpools rumored in spots out on the lake, an inexorable force that she was helpless to resist.

She had no one to blame but herself. She had kissed him this time, had been completely unable to help it. She had slipped away from the party for a little breather, a chance to regain some perspective, and then suddenly there was Bowie and she had felt...safe.

Here in his arms, she didn’t have to carry the weight of her worry about Gabi, about the adoption process, about her insecurities and uncertainties. She could simply savor this last chance to be with him, to let that whirlpool pull her down a little farther. Wouldn’t it be lovely if she could stay here? If she didn’t have to worry about anything else?

She sighed, hands in his hair, and gave herself up to the moment and the tantalizing heat of him. He seemed content to wait for direction from her, and she gave it, deepening the kiss and pouring all her newfound tenderness into it.

They kissed for long, delicious moments while the shadows lengthened and the sounds of her mother’s party murmured through the trees, and her heart broke a little more.

She didn’t want it to ever end, for reality to intrude once more—her obligations, her inadequacies, the sheer impossibility of them ever being together. Right now, this moment, would have to be enough.

They were wrapped together tightly, her hands exploring the strong muscles of his back, when she suddenly heard a gasp. Too late, she realized this might not have been the most discreet place for one last kiss, when her mother was throwing a party a hundred yards away. She turned and was horrified to find Samantha standing at the edge of the clearing with a look of utter betrayal on her face that cut into Katrina like a rusty saw blade.

“Sorry to interrupt,” Sam said. Her eyes were two big green pools of pain and disillusionment. “I... The fireworks should be starting in a few moments and I...didn’t want you to miss them. I told you I would save you a spot.”

Her best friend in all the world—the one who had been kind to her when no one else was, who had shown her how to put on lipstick and listened to her gush on about a dozen different guys—didn’t even look at her after that first blast of shock and disappointment.

“But I guess it looks like you were busy setting off a few fireworks of your own,” Sam went on, her voice tight and hurt. “Sorry again that I interrupted. I’ll leave you to it.”

She turned and headed back along the lakeside loop trail toward the party, leaving a tense and awkward silence behind.

As much as she longed to be back in his arms, Katrina knew she should be grateful for the interruption. She was so weak when it came to him. One look and she lost any hint of common sense and turned back into a person she didn’t like: the kind of stupid girl who would walk away from a great job to follow a guy she didn’t even care for that much to another country.

The kind who would forget to consider her best friend’s feelings.

A woman who for a few moments had actually been tempted to consider giving up the fight to help a child she loved and who needed her desperately.

For a man.

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