Late afternoon found Pete caulking the seams along the bottom planks of the schooner, and he realized that he’d finish refitting the boat very soon. That should have thrilled him, but instead it gave him a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. This was supposed to be the project he and his father completed together. A joint effort. More importantly, it was supposed to be the project that pulled his father from his internal struggles and brought him back to Pete as the man—and the father—he used to be.
He wiped the edge of the caulking with a rag, then set to work on the next plank. Jenna had been sitting in the grass talking on the phone with her mother for the last half hour. She was inviting her to visit for a few days, and darn if the first thing that entered Pete’s mind was of how it would affect their time together. He knew it was a selfish thought, and between his father and that thought, he was mired in guilt. A moment later, his thoughts shifted to what Jenna had said about rescuing their parents. He’d never thought of what he was doing with his father in those terms, but the more he thought about it, the more he realized that he wasn’t rescuing him. He was enabling him, putting a Band-Aid on a much larger problem. And what made it worse was that he hadn’t realized that part of the reason was probably that he wasn’t sure he was selfless enough to take over the hardware store and set his life aside for however many weeks it might take for his father to get the help he so desperately needed. Then again, the reality of his father drinking himself to death was a fear that gripped Pete every time he walked into his father’s dark house. The silent battle between them must have been warring in his subconscious.
Even though he wasn’t running the store, hadn’t he already put his father’s life ahead of his own and set aside his freedom? Wasn’t he still?
Yes, he realized, he was.
He heard Jenna laugh softly, and it was so different from her normal loud, halting laugh that it pulled him from his thoughts. She was sitting just outside the barn with her legs stretched out in front of her. She wiggled her toes, and when Joey licked them, she laughed. Pete loved listening to the cadence of her voice and seeing her smile as she listened to her mother on the phone, then responded, and then listened again. It made him long for the relationship he once had with his father. He hadn’t realized how alone he’d felt dealing with his father’s drinking until he and Jenna had spent the day talking about their families.
Jenna ended her call and jumped to her feet, reading a text on her phone. She tugged at her bikini top as she hurried across the grass toward him. Bo Derek had nothing on Jenna Ward. Jenna was the sexiest woman he’d ever met. Her shirts were always too tight on her breasts and too wide on her waist. Her dresses clung to every delicious curve. She couldn’t hide her body if she tried, but Jenna’s mannerisms that Pete thought might make them incompatible were the very things that softened her and made her even more alluring.
“Bella texted. They’re having a barbecue tonight in the quad.” She reached for his hand and began swaying to the music. “Do you want to be my date?”
He shoved the rag in his pocket and wrapped his arms around her. “That depends. Can I bring Joey?”
“Always. I love Joey.” She went up on her tiptoes and puckered her lips.
Pete pressed his lips to hers. “You love Joey, huh?”
“Yeah. She’s the perfect dog. Sweet, cute, and not too demanding.”
“So you don’t like demanding?” He lifted her into his arms, and Jenna wrapped her legs around his waist. She was light as a bird, and he loved the way she buried her hands in his hair and held on. Her skin was hot from the sun, and when he nuzzled against her neck, she smelled so good he had to kiss his way across her collarbone. “I can be pretty demanding.” She tightened her grip on his hair and he pressed openmouthed kisses down her breastbone and along the edge of her bikini top.
“I like…” Jenna’s words came out as one long breath. “Pete.”
“Too demanding?” He leaned back and looked at her. Her eyelids were heavy. She had a foggy, sexy look of wanting to be kissed.
“I like your demands.” She returned his kiss with hunger, loving his mouth with hers and pressing her breasts against his chest. She felt so good that he wanted more of her. He had no control when it came to Jenna; he always wanted more. He wanted to be closer, wanted more of her heart, more of her love. Jenna tore her lips away and eyed the boat.
“Have you christened it?” She raised her brows with a mischievous glint in her eyes.
Holy cow. “No, I haven’t christened it, you dirty girl.”
Jenna shot her arms straight up in the air. “Lift me up, baby. We’ve got lovin’ to do.”
Pete took her in another greedy kiss. “Where the devil have you been all my life?”
“Trying to get your attention, silly.” Jenna kissed his chin and reached her arms up again. “Come on.”
She was so crazy cute, but there was no way he could hoist her into the boat. It was too tall. He set up the ladder with her clinging to his neck like a monkey. She kissed his chin, his jaw, his neck, driving him out of his freaking mind. Finally, when he had the ladder set up, he lifted her by her waist and turned her around, patting her butt as he followed her up the ladder.
She stood in the middle of the boat, and he watched her eyes dance over his workmanship. He’d refinished all of the wood, stained and painted it, and worked his fingers to the bone, which he now realized he had done to work out his frustrations over his father’s drinking.
“Pete, this is stunning. It’s beautiful.”
“You’re stunning, Jenna. I don’t mean that as cheesy as it sounds.” He folded her into his arms and kissed the edge of her mouth. “You have the biggest heart of anyone I’ve ever known, and it comes through with everything you do and say.”
He kissed her softly, loving the feel of her hands as they traveled up his chest, and he deepened the kiss. He pushed away the thoughts of his father and what the boat was supposed to signify and allowed himself to get lost in Jenna, in the taste of her lips as he dragged his tongue over the bow of her upper lip.
“Pete.”
She reached for him, her eyes full of pleasure and desire, her body ready to receive all that he had to give. Pete reveled in the sound of his name coming off her lips, and when their bodies joined together for the second time, his heart swelled and his whole body became hot with emotions. He’d shared his most intimate secret with Jenna, and as he lowered his cheek to hers, he barely contained the three words that he wanted to say. Their relationship was years in the making, and there was no stopping his heart from pouring out, one word at a time. He had to tell her, had to let her know, even if he withheld the words he really wanted her to hear.
“I can’t even begin to conceive of a single night without you in my arms.”
Chapter Fourteen