Rock Wedding(71)

Ignoring him to munch obnoxiously on her treat, she had sticky fingers when he pulled up at the grocery store where they planned to quickly pick up a few other items. “Do you have a bottle of water?” She wiggled the fingers of her right hand at him.

His eyes turned dark, intense.

Gripping her wrist with a gentle but firm hand, Abe tugged her fingers to his mouth and sucked in a finger, swirling his tongue around it to clean off the caramel.

Sarah whimpered.

“There,” he murmured after he’d patiently and calmly cleaned off each and every one of her fingers, his eyes locked with her own the entire time. “Done.”

Putting a trembling hand on the door, she went to push it open. She needed fresh air, needed to find her senses again. Abe was somehow out of the SUV and around to her side before she knew it. He put his hands on her waist, lifted her down… and she caught the flash of a camera going off.

Flinching, she instinctively angled away her face, while Abe turned toward the man who’d taken the shot. She felt his body bunch, and that was enough to spring her into action. Placing a hand on his chest, she said, “Abe. No drama. I can’t handle it.”

“Bastards,” he muttered but wrenched his attention off the photographer. “We’re just going to the freaking grocery store.”

Sarah took a deep breath. “At least I look good.”

“You always look good.” Abe tucked her hair behind her ear. “Why do you straighten your hair? It’s so pretty curly.”

Sarah had never thought of her hair as pretty. It turned into a tangle if left to do what it would. One of the charity workers had given Sarah her first set of straighteners, an old pair that the woman’s teenage daughter had decided to replace. It had been a revelation to see that her hair could be corralled, could be sleek and shiny.

“I don’t want to look messy,” she admitted.

“Sarah, your messy is blow-off-the-roof sexy.” A deep rumble of sound, his chest vibrating against her touch.

Things melted inside her. “I won’t straighten it after I wash it tomorrow,” she promised him. “But I refuse to go out in public with crazy hair.”

Abe snorted, as if the idea of her with crazy hair was simply impossible—and the man had seen the crazy hair any number of times. “Let’s go get these groceries. Ignore the vulture.”

Locking the SUV, Abe took her hand in his and they walked through the parking lot to the store. The photographer—who really did look like a vulture with his pasty white face and black handlebar mustache—suddenly popped up from behind his camera to give Sarah an oddly delighted smile. “Finally!” He fist-pumped the air. “I get to have a payday. Basil, this is your lucky day!”

Astonished, Sarah paused, making Abe halt. “What?”

“A rock ’n’ roll reunion  ,” Basil said in his unexpectedly refined English accent, snapping away. “No one’s broken this story yet. I get to have an exclusive.” He gave her an ingratiating look. “How about a kiss, love?” He held up his camera. “I mean, it’d make the story.”

Sarah was about to shake her head when Abe spun her into his arms and, bending her over, laid one on her. A hot, possessive one. She gripped at him in surprise even as her brain short-circuited, was still breathless when he let her up.

“Now scram,” he told Basil. “Go get your exclusive.”

The photographer, his eyes near delirious, was already pulling out his phone. “I’m scramming and I’m going to be rich! Rich!”

Sarah didn’t find her voice again until they were nearly at the entrance to the grocery store. “What was that?” Abe didn’t play to the media, didn’t have the patience for it.

“What the hell—the man already had photos. Why not make things clear?” A searing glance that set her aflame just when the air-conditioning inside the store had begun to cool her overheated cheeks. “I want the world to know you’re mine.”





CHAPTER 26



SARAH SAT IN HER GARDEN a couple of hours after lunch, Abe’s words still echoing through her head. He’d gone home to change into fresh clothes but promised to be back by four thirty so they could take Flossie for a walk along a dog-friendly beach.

Right now Sarah’s dog was dozing beside her garden chair, protected from the sun by a wisteria-covered wooden awning she’d put up herself after buying the necessary items at the hardware store. It had been hard and she’d made several time-consuming mistakes, but now, each time she glimpsed it, it reminded her that she was strong, that even alone she could survive and thrive.