Just What I Needed(24)
“Guilted him into it,” I repeated. “He was your father. Taking care of you should’ve been his joy, not a damn burden.” I reached for her hand.
She twined her fingers through mine. “In a perfect world? Yes. But in my world I was his burden. By that time, he and the stepmonster had two other kids, so I just . . . assimilated. But that meant having a normal name like their kids, instead of a ‘hippie’ name. I went from Trinity to Amelia.”
“That’s just wrong.”
“Freshman year in college I refused to respond to them unless they called me Trinity.”
And it made perfect sense to me why she’d use Amelia to ward off potentially unwanted attention—it was her way of taking ownership of that name.
“I never knew what to sign on my finished art, so I went with Trinity Amelia. Being called Amelia growing up did affect me on a creative level, both positively and negatively, and yet it formed me as a person so I wanted to acknowledge it.”
“Professionally, you ditched your last name entirely?”
“Yes. It’s not like there’s family pride in what I do for a living.”
I brought her hand to my mouth and kissed her knuckles. “Healthy attitude, Trinity Amelia Carlson.”
She tilted her head toward me. “It’s so sexy when you say my name like that.”
“Ditch the hat, sweetheart. I hate that it masks your face.”
Trinity tossed it aside. “Probably the stepmonster’s intent.”
Probably because the woman was jealous. Trinity had the fresh-faced girl-next-door look that was both sexy and sweet. I took that expressive face in my hands and kissed her.
We were both breathing hard when I pulled away.
“What was that for?”
I lifted an eyebrow. “I gotta have a reason to kiss you?”
“When you kiss me like that? Yeah.”
“It just struck me how happy I am that you’re here with me.”
Trinity turned her head and kissed the center of my palm. “Despite your protests to the contrary, you are smooth.”
“That didn’t sound like a compliment.”
“It was. A big compliment. I like that you’re honest rather than trying to play it cool. Mixed signals suck.” She pecked me on the mouth. “Unpack the picnic, Walker. You need to satisfy one of my appetites today.”
“Only one?”
“One at a time.”
—
The spread from Surdyk’s impressed her. Fussy food tended to piss me off, but the roast beef, arugula, roasted red pepper and lemon aioli sandwich managed to be light and filling. Trinity raved about the beet, goat cheese and pepita salad, as well as the bourbon and salted caramel brownie we shared. I’d chosen hard cider instead of beer and it rounded out the meal perfectly. Yeah, I was a freakin’ natural at this romantic meal stuff.
In my head Nolan took a bow and I flipped him off.
After we cleaned up, I returned to the chair in the sun and closed my eyes. I must’ve been more tired than I thought because I awoke with a start when a jet boat motor blew past us. I scrubbed my hands over my beard. Had I really fallen asleep on my date?
“Don’t move,” Trinity warned.
I squinted and saw her sitting in the shade beneath the canopy, her knees drawn up, a sketch pad on her lap, a pencil in her hand and one clamped between her teeth. “How long was I asleep?”
“Long enough for me to get a basic sketch. Now go back to the way you were.”
“Asleep?”
“At least when you were sleeping you weren’t moving,” she said with saccharine sweetness.
“You weren’t this bossy about the sets yesterday.”
“Apples and oranges, Walker. When I work for someone else, it’s on their terms. When I’m creating something for myself, I call all the shots.”
“Was my head positioned like this?”
“Perfect. Don’t move until I tell you.”
I grinned. “You being bossy is kinda hot.”
“Stop smiling! Sheesh. How am I supposed to concentrate when all I can see are your dimples?”
Like I could stop smiling after that comment? No. Way.
I really tried not to move. But when the tiny bit of breeze died entirely and I became sticky with sweat, staying still was impossible. My nose itched. So did my beard. The back of my left thigh was stuck to the chair. A fly buzzed around my ear.
Enough.
I jumped up, climbed on the ledge of the boat and dove into the water.
The cold shocked my system. When my momentum stopped, I tilted my head and looked up at the spot of light above me and propelled myself toward it. I broke the surface and saw Trinity leaning over the edge.
“Was it something I said?”