Page 45 of A Beach House Beginning

“Okay,” she said. She rose and let out a long breath. “Good night, then. Thanks again for...for listening to me.”

She grabbed Theo’s leash and the two of them walked into the house, leaving him alone to curse and ache and want.

Jenna walked back up the stairs to her apartment on knees that felt weak, somehow.

She still couldn’t quite wrap her head around the realization that she had instigated another kiss with Wes Calhoun.

Hadn’t she learned her lesson the first time?

She wanted to blame it on the moonlight or the peaceful garden or the simple release of sharing her story with him finally.

She suspected the real reason for her behavior had nothing to do with that. It had more to do with the man himself.

When Wes first moved into Brambleberry House, she had considered him the very last man in Cannon Beach she might come to trust, someone with whom she had nothing in common.

What an illuminating example of how very wrong first impressions could be. These past few weeks of coming to know him better—of seeing his gentleness with Theo, with his own daughter and with hers—had given her a picture of a kind man beneath the gruff, intimidating exterior.

She respected and admired him more than any other man she had met in a very long time.

What was she going to do about it?

As she reached her apartment, she let herself and Theo inside, where she took off the puppy’s leash and harness. The dog rushed to his water bowl, and Jenna closed the door behind her, listening to the small, comforting noises of the apartment settling around her.

Nothing.

That was exactly what she planned to do about this attraction to Wes. They had kissed again and it had been amazing, but now she had to go back to her regular life and try to forget those few stirring moments in the garden had ever happened.

The idea depressed her, even though she knew she had no other option.

They were attracted to each other. She couldn’t deny that. The heat they generated could have ignited a dozen beach fires.

Why not give in to it? They were both unattached adults. What would be the harm in finding a secluded spot in the garden, maybe the pergola or one of the padded benches in a dark corner, and surrendering to the attraction between them?

Because she would end up with a broken heart.

She was not a woman who could handle a casual fling. She had seen her mother’s heart broken too many times by men who would move in and out of their lives.

She was a forever kind of woman. She knew that about herself and suspected it wouldn’t take much for her to fall in love with Wes.

Then what?

Try as she might, she couldn’t picture a future with Wes. She again couldn’t imagine she could provide anything that a man like him might be looking for in a woman.

Someone adventurous. Audacious. Brave.

She wasn’t any of those things. Eventually Wes would figure that out and grow tired of her.

She couldn’t go through the pain of loving someone again and inevitably losing him.

Better to stop things now, before either of their hearts were involved. Before she could make a fool of herself over him and destroy a friendship she was coming to cherish.

Theo went to stand by the door of his crate, ready for bed. She opened it for him and watched him curl up on the soft blankets, then headed for her solitary bed.

Chapter Ten

Somehow, she and Wes managed to maintain a cordial relationship over the next week while she helped fill in the gaps of Brielle’s care, between his work schedule and the girls’ science camp schedule.

He was friendly enough when he would drop his daughter at Jenna’s apartment in the morning, a half hour before she had to take the girls to camp.

---