Page 49 of Inevitable
Hell, I should be glad she was having an emotional reunion with the men who had watched out for her for years.
However, what was eating at my gut at the moment definitely wasn’tgratitude.
In fact, it felt suspiciously like an emotion I almost never experienced.
Was it possible that I was actually feeling some kind of…jealousy?
Nah. Not possible.
But as she finished hugging her friends and tossed herself into my arms in an affectionate greeting, I held her tightly, finally admitting to myself that I justmighthave a few possessive emotions toward Emma after all.
It didn’t make sense, and I was a man who believed that everything should be rational.
I closed my eyes and held Emma intimately against me for far longer than I should have.
This woman was starting to make me feel irrational, and I wasn’t sure I liked feeling those emotions…at all.
Chapter 15
Emma
“It’s hot,” I informed Colin two days later. “Let’s take a swim before we barbecue.”
Brock, Nate, Gage, and Seth had snagged a picnic table and one of the permanent barbecue grills near the entrance while Colin and I had found a spot on the sandy beach to spread out a bunch of blankets.
It was summer, and the local beach was pretty crowded. Cherry Cove swelled to capacity during the summer because it was a popular beach town.
I’d spent the last two days showing Colin around Cherry Cove.
We’d strolled the shops in town, had ice cream at the well-known, iconic ice cream shop, and we’d all had dinner together at Gage’s restaurant, The Beachfront Café, last night.
Little by little, I was starting to feel secure and normal again after my experience in Lania.
Colin still slept in my bed every night, but now it was simply because I wanted to be close to him, not because I felt nervous about being alone.
He’d kept his distance after that incredible kiss, making sure he kept busy.
He’d insisted on mowing my lawn and doing some yard work even though I’d protested.
He’d also fixed anything that wasn’t functioning optimally in my cottage, things I just hadn’t gotten around to getting fixed yet.
We both worked in the mornings on our computers, but I had a sneaking suspicion that Colin had no idea what to do when he wasn’t busy with some kind of work.
The man had no idea how to just relax or how to just spend time with friends doing something for fun.
“I don’t swim in public,” he informed me stiffly as he dropped the bags he’d carried down to the beach.
I knew he was still self-conscious about his leg, but he really needed to get over that.
He’d purchased a pair of board shorts at my insistence when we were at the shops in town, grumbling because he said he didn’t need them.
He was wearing them beneath the jeans and T-shirt he was wearing.
I finished spreading the blankets out and put my hands on my hips. I couldn’t really see his eyes beneath the sunglasses he was wearing, but I still glared at him. “Don’t be silly,” I said firmly. “If I can bare my plump body to swim, you can swim with me.”
“Nobody calls me silly,” he reminded me.
“Then stop doing silly things,” I insisted. “Look around you, Colin. Do you see a bunch of perfect bodies? I’m not sure how things are in California, but nobody here cares if your body isn’t perfect. Our summers are short, and all Michiganders want to do is enjoy the summer we have. Let’s swim.”
