CHAPTER SIXTEEN
When they were finally able to take Mason away from the park without too much of a fuss, the three of them headed to the ice cream shop. Playing at the park. Getting ice cream. Sharing hot kisses. See, Grace told herself, we’re just having fun.
Leaving Mason sitting proudly like a big boy beside Dylan outside the ice cream store with his little legs sticking straight out in front of him on the brightly painted bench, she went inside and placed their orders. Five minutes later, she returned with her hands full.
“Here’s your rainbow sorbet, sweet pea.” Mason reached for the cone and immediately shoved it against his lips, bright green, orange, and pink streaks smearing his chubby cheeks. “And our banana split and two lemonades.”
She usually just got a vanilla cone because the split was way too much for one person. But when Dylan had suggested they share the split, it hit her that she wasn’t alone anymore. At least not for as long as whatever they were doing together lasted. Certainly as long as it took her to write the magazine story, she figured. And after? Well…she’d learned a year and a half ago that no matter how much you wanted to predict the future, there were some things you simply couldn’t plan for.
Fun, she reminded herself yet again. That’s all this was. All it needed to be.
Seeing that Dylan had Mason’s sticky face well in hand with the container of wet wipes he’d found at the bottom of the stroller, she sat on his other side. When he’d finished cleaning Mason up, she lifted her lemonade.
“Congratulations on your newest creation.” He clinked his cup against hers, and then she leaned over to kiss him softly, as natural a move as it had been to walk down the street from the park to the ice cream shop with her baby playing happily in his stroller in front of them.
“Speaking of creations, how’s your article going?”
“Good.”
He raised an eyebrow. “That was the least good-sounding good I’ve ever heard.”
She dug her spoon into the strawberry scoop at the end of the dish and amended her reply to, “I did so much research before I began to interview you and you’ve given me so much great stuff…it should be coming together much more quickly than it is.”
“We’ve got to get you out in one of my boats. I promise you, that will change everything.”
Her heart skittered at the suggestion, because that was exactly what she was afraid would happen if she sailed with Dylan. That everything would change. That she’d lose hold of her “just having fun” perspective. That she’d start to want more than pleasure and laughter. And that she’d only be setting up herself and Mason for a huge fall.
“I’ll be back from Australia on the Saturday after next, so why don’t we schedule our sail for the following Sunday? That way you’ll still have nearly a week to polish up your story if you need to.”
Nearly two weeks was enough time to mentally prepare herself for their sail. It had to be. “Okay, I’ll book a babysitter.”
“You do realize that my mother was serious when she offered to watch Mason anytime you needed her to, don’t you?”
“Claudia is very sweet and generous, and Mason obviously loved playing with her, but—”
“It will make her day knowing she’ll get to see him again.”
When he put it that way, how could she keep arguing? “My mother would have felt the same way.” It was a beautiful sunny day, and she was eating ice cream with her perfect son and the gorgeous man she was having “fun” with. She shouldn’t feel sad. Still, she’d never figured out how to shake her sorrow that both her parents were gone.
Obviously, Dylan sensed it, because he put his hand over hers and said, “They see him, Grace. And you, too, the daughter they’ve always been so proud of. Watching you raise Mason…I know they’re prouder of you than ever.”
The sun, the ice cream, the smile on her son’s face, Dylan’s hand over hers—all helped her hold the tears at bay. “I had a friend in high school who came from a big family, and she hated it. Hated the lack of privacy. Hated that someone was always into her things. My parents tried for more kids, but my mother couldn’t...” No, she absolutely refused to ruin their afternoon by breaking down. She focused instead on slicing off a piece of banana from the split and feeding it to Mason between his own licks of sorbet. “What I’m trying to say is that you’re very lucky to have such a close family.”
“I agree,” he said. “Although I’m a little pissed off at my brother Adam right now.”
“Why? I thought he helped you with the boat yesterday.”
“He did, but only after he walked in on us, which meant you put your clothes on long before I was ready.” She was blushing by the time he added, “And I was planning to ask you on our first official date for tomorrow night, but it turns out that Adam needs the two of us to go with him to a swanky cocktail party at the old Maritime Museum, put on by the board members. They’re thinking of tearing it down and putting up a modern glass and steel showcase. He wants us to help talk them out of that and into letting him get his hands on it to restore the building.”
“I’m glad he wants to fight to save the historic building. It’s a truly beautiful one. And it makes perfect sense that he’d want you there. But why would he want me to come?”
“You’re smart. You’re beautiful. And I’m guessing that, from the way you research the topics that you write about, you already know more about the history of Seattle sailing than anyone on the museum’s board.” He leaned forward to lick a drop of ice cream from her lips. “Come with me tomorrow night, Grace. We’ll do the rounds for my brother as fast as we can, then sneak off and have our own private night on the town without anyone from my family around this time.”
The brush of his tongue against her sensitive skin had knocked her brain cells off-balance, far enough that she couldn’t quite focus on what her answer to his question should be.
“Say yes,” he murmured against her lips as he leaned in again to kiss her this time.
Spinning even faster now, she said, “You’re doing this on purpose. Making it hard for me to think.”
He nuzzled her earlobe. “Is it working?”
“Almost.”
But what he was asking her was too important to be decided on a dizzy, aroused whim.
A date.
She hadn’t been on one of those in a really long time. Dinner at his parents’ house had been an interview, though it had ended with a kiss. And the aquarium hadn’t started as a date, either, though it had ended with much more than just one kiss. Even this trip to the ice cream store could simply have been two friends and a baby out for an afternoon break. A fun break for sun and sugar in the middle of the day. Friends with benefits, but still nothing official. Not a date that could potentially lead to so much more.
“Tell me I’m going too fast, Grace, and I swear I’ll figure out a way to back off and give you more space.”
It should have been exactly the right thing for him to say. But she was shocked to realize that the thought of Dylan backing off had her gut clenching far tighter than did the risk of dating him.
Was she wary about going down that road with anyone again? Yes, and she’d be crazy not to be. But she had to start to live again at some point, didn’t she? And having a full life didn’t only mean stolen kisses and crazy hot orgasms.
“Yes,” she said, smiling up at the man who had been waiting none too patiently for her answer. “I’d love to go on a date with you tomorrow night.”
Dylan sealed her affirmative reply with a kiss that was hot enough to melt what was left of their ice cream. At least until Mason climbed between them, planting wet, sticky kisses on both of their cheeks.
* * *
Grace was still smiling ten minutes later as she headed for their apartment with Mason falling asleep in his stroller. Before they’d parted, Dylan had quickly pulled out his cell phone and checked in with his mother about babysitting both tomorrow night and then again during their sail when Dylan returned from Australia in a couple of weeks. If Grace’d had any doubt that Claudia would be excited to see Mason again, his mother’s happy exclamations—loud enough for Grace to hear from the other side of the bench—put them to rest.
After Dylan had left to meet with a potential new client, she’d been walking around with a silly smile on her face. At least until she realized that she had absolutely nothing to wear!
Grace had a few nice dresses from before she’d gotten pregnant, but even on the off chance that they still fit her new post-baby curves, all of them had been dresses she’d worn for Richard. Deciding to box them up to give away when she got back to their apartment, she accepted that she was going to have to make a dent in her savings with a new outfit. She’d put every spare penny into her just-in-case legal defense fund for the past year and a half. With the money coming in from the cover story, she could let herself spend a teeny bit on this special night with Dylan, couldn’t she?
Fashion was yet another thing she hadn’t given much thought to since having Mason. Grace looked down at her jeans and striped blue and white top and knew that she managed to look pretty or professional when she needed to. But she hadn’t gone for sexy in a very long time.
Making a slight detour from her apartment building toward the nearby shopping street, she reminded herself that while sexy would certainly be exciting, she really shouldn’t break the bank, because simple and pretty would be good enough, right? Of course, that was right when she caught sight of a beautifully dressed boutique window, one that had the most incredible dress on display. The color was what struck her first—not red, not pink, but the best of both hues. The straps were braided lace and silk, a delicate pattern that continued through the bodice. A slim, shiny belt the same color as the fabric wound around the waist, further emphasizing the floaty skirt of the dress, which ended just below the knee.
It probably cost a fortune, but in spite of that, she still couldn’t stop herself from pushing Mason’s stroller inside the store.
“Welcome to Indulgence.”
It was, Grace thought, the perfect name for a store in which every single item on display made her yearn.
The woman’s face lit up as she looked down at Mason strapped into his stroller, clutching his stuffed giraffe in his sticky little fist. His head was turned to the side in sleep, his eyes closed so that his lashes looked a mile long.
“Your son is absolutely gorgeous,” the woman whispered, clearly in an effort not to wake him up. “If you’re thinking about trying on the dress in the window, I already know you’re going to look amazing in it. And I swear I’m not just saying that because this is my store.”
Grace knew what looked good on her. This dress would make Dylan’s eyes pop out of his head. That alone would be worth the dent it made in her savings.
The store owner, who introduced herself as Colbie, correctly guessed Grace’s size, and a very short while later was oohing and ahhing over how great she looked in the dress. “One more thing,” Colbie said, leaving the dressing room for a few moments and returning with what had to be the greatest pair of shoes ever made. The leather on the high-heeled sandals was a super-soft gold and braided in a pattern very similar to the bodice and straps of the dress. “You’re a size eight shoe, aren’t you?”
Grace was already reaching for the sexy sandals as she nodded. She felt like a princess straight out of a fairy tale in this dress, these shoes. She’d just close her eyes when she signed the credit card slip and wouldn’t let herself think about the bill until it came at the end of the month. She’d make it up by working doubly hard on the story about Dylan, doing such a great job with it that, hopefully, she’d turn this cover story into the first of many.
“I’ll take them both.”
Besides, even though being able to put money away for Mason was hugely important, wasn’t feeling like a sexy woman again—and proving to herself that her ex hadn’t stolen that from her—also something she should have prioritized long before now?
Which was why, when a luxurious lingerie set also caught her eye on her way to the register, she added it to her pile of goodies. Because really, what good were the gorgeous dress and perfect shoes if what Dylan found when he stripped her out of them at the end of their date wasn’t just as pretty?
Her entire body flamed at the thought, already revving with anticipation of her date with Dylan. A date that suddenly felt as though it couldn’t come soon enough.