Page 60 of Sunsets at the Beach House

His grin went ear to ear. “I enjoy all of those things very much. Some more than others.”

She leaned in to kiss his cheek, but he turned his head at the last moment and her mouth landed on his.

She indulged him. He was also a very good kisser.

Roxie hadn’t said anything to Trina, because it wasn’t Trina’s business, but Roxie had snuck a bikini into her purse before heading to Ethan’s.

Now she sat side by side with him in his hot tub, staring up at the stars and thoroughly enjoying her evening.

“Feeling better?” Ethan asked.

“I am.” All she’d told him was that she’d had a long day. No details. He already knew she and Trina had gone to Port St. Rosa to get her car. That was it.

“Do you want to talk about what happened today? Just offering. Not trying to pry.”

She looked at him. “How do you know something happened today?”

“I don’t. I was just assuming, since you said you had a long day. I thought maybe the memories of being in your old house got to you. Or something like that.”

She sighed. “It was something like that.” She pulled her knees up to her chest, which put the tops of them just out of the water. “I was going through some of Bryan’s stuff, and I found a necklace with a diamond initial. The letter ‘P’.”

“He forgot your name?”

She laughed. She hadn’t told him about Paulina. “Nothing that simple, I’m afraid.” She explained about the third wife, the new baby, the woman’s belief that Bryan had been divorced, all of it.

Ethan blinked a few times when she was done. “That is…a lot.”

“It really is.” She stared at the water, watching the bubbles rise and pop. It was sort of mesmerizing.

“I’m surprised you haven’t taken to your bed. Except that you’re an incredibly strong, resilient woman. But even people who are strong eventually break. We’re not made to bear the weight of the world. Not alone, anyway.”

For reasons she couldn’t name, his words made her weepy. She sniffed and shook her head. “No, we’re not.”

“Hey,” he said softly. “Are you okay? If you’re not, that’s all right, too. You want to cry, you cry.”

“I’ll ruin my makeup.”

He laughed. “Can I tell you something?”

She sniffed again and nodded.

“You’d be just as beautiful without it.”

“You don’t know that. You haven’t seen me without it.”

He shrugged and tapped his chest. “I’ve seen what’s in here and that’s what makes someone beautiful. Not their face. Although yours helps, because it’s pretty cute.”

She laughed, the feeling she might cry quickly dissolving. “You’re so good for me, you know that? How on Earth did you even know how much I needed this?”

“Can I just say a little bird told me and leave it at that?”

Roxie narrowed her eyes. “Trina.”

Ethan pulled his pinched fingers across his closed mouth. “My lips are sealed.”

“I love that kid.”

“So do I. She’s going to be great in that salon. I think she’s going to have more business than she can handle once word starts to get out.”

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