It went on like that, up and down the beach, Gracie pinging from one thing to the next like a pinball. No sooner had he started to answer her questions than she bounced off to a new object, pulling him and his heart along with her.
Gracie’s eyes were brown, but their sparkle reminded him of Abby. Everything came back to Abby.
He and Gracie finished their exploration as the sun slid past noon into the west. Matt took some time to throw the football with Jack, then kicked back in his chair, listening to the kids playing in the sand a few feet away. Abby praised their construction efforts as she straightened hats and dabbed sunscreen on noses. The velvety sound of her laughter as her two-year-old Tasmanian devil spun across the sand brought a strange twisty feeling to his chest.
He liked watching her when she didn’t know. There were no games. No trying to impress him. Just beautiful and real. The kind of woman a man would do everything in his power to keep.
Abby settled in the chair beside him, and a calm washed over his mind like the waves of the Atlantic. For the first time in a long time outside of work, he felt like he knew what he was doing. Knew where he was supposed to be.
She shifted, getting comfortable and he closed his eyes, pictured her cute little bottom wiggling in front of him. Abby. He liked to say her name, liked to think it. Minutes passed and he sensed her turning, felt her stare. Looking her fill, was she? Well, he’d make damn sure he got his turn. He forced himself to breathe slowly and evenly until he couldn’t take it anymore.
“You’re staring,” he said, opening his eyes and angling his head, catching her in the act.
She jerked back. “No, I’m not.”
“You were. I felt it.” But she wasn’t nearly as close now and he regretted it.
“You couldn’t have felt me,” she added. “I didn’t touch you.”
“Well, I did.”
“Superhuman powers?”
He smiled at her snarky tone. “Close your eyes.”
“What?”
“Close.”
She glanced at the kids.
“I’ve got the kids. Trust me,” With his last words, her eyes snapped back and searched his, looking for…something, but finally obeyed.
Her watched her a moment. Her chest rising and falling, the top of her bathing suit cupping soft, sweet breasts. He leaned in close enough to feel her breath and count each fine hair of her feathered brow and his own breath caught in his chest. She has no idea how beautiful she is.
Because he had to touch her, he gently smoothed his thumb over her cheek. Her eyes flew open, met his, and an involuntary smile pulled at his lips, a warmth spread through him. Happiness maybe?
Realizing how close he was to putting his lips to hers, he dropped his hand and forced himself to sit back. “Could you feel me?”
“Of course I could. You were touching me.”
Her hand came up and nervously tucked strands of hair behind her cute little ear. Yep. He effected her and she couldn’t hide it worth a damn. His smile grew. He’d let her think she could. For now.
“What?” she asked, catching more silky strands in her fingers.
“Don’t fight it.”
She just stared at him.
“Your hair.” He could smell it from here, the wind blowing her scent over him. “It wants to be down.”
Keeping her eyes on his, she slowly pulled the elastic band from her hair and all that dark silk tumbled down past her shoulders. Damn. He needed a diversion. “So, now that you’ve seen me in my underwear, tell me something about you.” Her look of utter shock had him laughing. “The picture. Remember?”
“Oh. Superman.”
“What underwear were you thinking of?”
“None. I mean…I wasn’t thinking of you in anything.”
Interesting. A pretty blush spread over her cheeks and he chuckled as she dug herself deeper into a hole.
“You know…um, Jack, he really likes Spider-Man underwear right now, but last month it was SpongeBob.”
Matt was learning little things about her, like she babbled when she was nervous.
“And Charlie, he’s obsessed with this dog from—”
“You make me laugh.” Something he used to do a lot. “Now, tell me something about you I don’t know.”
She chewed on her lip like he’d just asked her to recite a mathematical equation, and he did a quick kid check. Gracie dug with the single-minded determination of a trench digger.
Jack looked up to find Matt watching him and lowered the bucket from above Annie’s head. The disappointment of a foiled plan was evident on his five-year-old face. Matt had antagonized his own sister enough to know.
“Well?” he prompted.
She adjusted her chair, fiddled with the strap on the bag beside her. “I don’t know. I really like your stories.”