Take a Chance on Me(44)

“You had a motorcycle?”

“The one Casper’s driving. The Kawasaki 300. It was mine. I traveled to Montana and back quite a few times on that thing.”

“Hard to strap a car seat to a motorcycle.”

“Exactly.”

They’d reached the end of the breakwater, where the lighthouse perched. He tugged her underneath the giant girders and beyond, to the edge.

From here, looking back along the shoreline, the town sparkled, lights sprinkled around the bowl of the harbor and against the hill.

“You know every great view in town,” Ivy said.

“Just about,” he said, turning to her. Oh, she was pretty, with those freckles that belied her job as a prosecutor, those big green eyes, staring at him.

There was something about her that made his breath leave him, warmed everything inside him. Maybe it was just the longing for something to be different and good. For someone to look at his broken life and put it back together.

For God to finally let him start over.

Darek licked his lips, tried to find the words. “I’d like to . . . ,” he said softly. He touched her face, running his thumb down her cheek, meeting her eyes. “Can I . . . ?” He drew in a breath as the fireworks started behind him. He could hear the murmur of approval from the audience echo across the harbor.

“I’d really like to kiss you.”

Ivy looked at him, blinked. Swallowed. Then a smile slid across her face. “I . . . I’d like that.”

I’d like that.

So he started with something gentle, tentative, brushing his lips against hers. A sweet chill ran through him at the taste of butter brickle ice cream, the vanilla fragrance of her skin lighting a blaze inside. She reached up and hooked her hands lightly around his jacket collar as if to pull herself closer, and he ran his hand behind her head, into that thick, soft hair, just barely holding himself back from deepening his kiss, from allowing this heady rush of emotions to scare them both.

Because holding her like this, kissing her, awakened an awareness in him of just how long it had been since he’d let himself wonder, let himself want. Let himself believe in grace.

Yes, standing here in the glow of the brilliant plumes of celebration, his arms wrapped around this beautiful woman who molded herself to him and kissed him with such tenderness, could only be something he didn’t deserve.





The fireworks went by too quickly. And not just the display in the night sky over the harbor, but the ones that happened inside Ivy as Darek held her in his arms.

She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been kissed the way Darek just kissed her.

Okay, never. Because the truth was, she never had real time for dating. Not with keeping up her grades for her scholarships and clerking at Atwood and Associates and then her junior partner position in Daniel’s firm and the hours and hours she’d studied for the bar.

Nope, with the exception of a very sloppy sixteen-year-old prom date, this was it. Her first real kiss. The kind to wait for.

She couldn’t believe how sweetly he’d kissed her. Nothing like the prickly man she’d first met, wearing his anger on the outside. No, this man had asked her permission before he kissed her, savored the kiss, made her feel like he meant it.

Please, let him have meant it. Because she surely did.

They sat on the edge of the breakwater, watching the fireworks arching across the sky, holding hands. And then, when she shivered, pulling her knees up into her dress, he’d moved behind her and pulled her against his chest, wrapping his arms around her.

That kept her warm. On fire, really.

She felt his heart thump against her back, reveled in the woodsy campfire scent of him, and felt only a little guilty that his wife had missed out on so much, her life cut short.

But Ivy didn’t want to think about her. Not tonight.

When the fireworks ended, Darek helped her down the breakwater and through the mass of crowds toward the beach. “I can walk home from here,” she said, but he had her hand and didn’t let go.

“I’ll walk you home. I just want to check in with Tiger, make sure he’s okay.”

What a great father. She could melt at the sight of Darek with his son, the way he’d gently wiped Tiger’s face and hands tonight.

The smell of firework debris seasoned the air, the crackle of faraway contraband celebrators in the distance. Darek stopped on the beach, turned to look.

“What?”

“I’m going to call the sheriff’s department, see if they can track them down. It’s a great way to start a forest fire.”

“Seriously?”

She and Darek continued along the shore, rocks falling away under their feet. “The forest is one big tinderbox right now. And people can be so careless.”