Page 61 of Sunsets at the Beach House

“Me, too.” She leaned into him again. “I don’t know if you care or not, but I’m going to change my hair color.”

“Yeah? To purple like your mom?”

She laughed again. “No, nothing that drastic. To strawberry blond. Sorry, rose gold is what they call it now.”

“So…pink?”

A little giggle bubbled up out of her. “Pink? Is that what you think rose gold is?”

“I’m a guy. What do I know?” He was smiling, though.

“You’re teasing me.”

“I think pink hair might be fun.”

“Maybe. But not this time.” She glanced at his head. “Unless you were talking about for yourself.”

“I think my kids might have something to say about that. Speaking of, if you go to church with me this Sunday, you’ll get to meet them. And my parents.”

“Yeah? Do they know about me already?”

He nodded. “They do. And they’re interested in meeting you.”

“I bet.” She blew out a breath. “No pressure, right?”

“I know, it’s kind of a stressful thing to meet someone’s family. But they’re good kids and they’re going to love you just like I do.”

She stared at him. “You love me?”

“I meant…” He swallowed. And then he cleared his throat. If he’d had a shirt on, he probably would have pulled at the collar. “Yeah, maybe I do. I shouldn’t say a thing like that so early in our relationship, because that’s not how you’re supposed to do this stuff, but I told you I was out of practice.”

“So maybe you do?”

“Roxie, if you don’t know how much I like you already then I’m doing something wrong. Yes, I am probably, most definitely, falling in love with you. If that’s too much or it freaks you out, then I’m sorry. About upsetting you. Not about the way I feel. I can’t help that part.”

She rolled her lips in to keep from laughing at how worked up he’d gotten. Like he was ready to fight about it. “I am probably, most definitely, falling in love with you, too.”

He went still. “Yeah?”

She nodded. “But we should keep that to ourselves for a while, don’t you think? My mom is already about to get married. I don’t want us to get the reputation that the Pasternak women are easy.”

He snorted. “Right. And I don’t want people to think I’m desperate and pathetic because of my wife leaving me for my brother.” He stuck his hand out. “We’ll just keep quiet about our feelings then.”

“Deal.” She took his hand to shake it, but he pulled her onto his lap, sending a small wave of water over the edge of the hot tub and making her laugh. “Hey!”

He wrapped his arms around her and kissed the side of her head. “You make me happy, Roxanne.”

No one ever called her by her full name. It felt very adult and very serious. And a little sexy. “You make me happy, too.”

They sat that way for a while without saying anything else. Just letting the water bubble around them as the stars twinkled overhead.

But there was a lingering thought she couldn’t get rid of. She finally decided to ask his advice. “What should I do with that necklace?”

He stayed quiet a few more moments. “The way I see it, you have a couple of choices. You could give it to her.”

“Which means I’d have to talk to her. I don’t really want to do that.”

“You could pretend you never found it.”

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