He lay back on the blanket and laced his fingers behind his head. “Did she tell you that?”
“In so many words. When you and I started making racket he got angry and left the room. She was pretty upset.”
Something dark and pitiful in him rejoiced at making Jason upset. And as for Kelli, maybe they’d done her a favor.
“How about the guys? Did you get interrogated, too?”
A cloud the shape of a rocket ship floated overhead, and he was reminded of when he and his brothers used to go to the beach, before he started spending every weekend at the office with his dad. “Mark only asked what Sue had told him to ask—when we met, our living arrangements, that kind of thing.”
Her voice was tentative. “And Jason?”
He rolled on his side to face her. “Jason asked pointed sexual questions about you and he’s lucky I didn’t kick his ass.”
For a moment, her eyes widened, then she smiled and lay down on the blanket facing him, Clancy and the empty food containers between them. “Watch out. Your emotions are showing.”
So they were. Best to take it back to familiar territory. “Black.”
“Black what?”
“Undergarments.”
Immediately, she looked down at her chest, then back at him, eyes narrowing.
“I saw the strap when you took off your jacket.”
She delivered a playful punch to his shoulder. “Cheater.”
They said nothing for a while, simply enjoying the sounds of the waves and the birds, and he marveled at how comfortable he felt with her.
“Thanks for coming to the wedding with me. It would have been awful without you.” Her voice was so low, it almost was as if she were talking to herself.
“Why are we here? Are you that close to Sue, really?”
She sighed and rolled on her back. “I’m pitiful, but Sue’s downright pathetic. She’s a military brat and an only child. Never stayed in one place long enough to make friends, so she never tried. Hates big gatherings with lots of people.”
Hence the tiny wedding with only family and friends. It made more sense to him now and it made Jason even more a prick for trying to get Mia to back out when she was Sue’s only friend. He hadn’t really nailed down the guy’s motives, but right then, he didn’t even care.
With her inky hair blowing around her face, she looked wild and free. It took everything in him not to touch her. Fascinated, he watched as she continued. “Sue’s father died and her mother bought a permanent home and got three dogs, which is how we met.”
“You were the dog sitter. Yes, I remember.”
“Sue felt like she had a real home, finally, and risked a friendship with me during my housesitting gig in her neighborhood. She set me up with Jason and when that didn’t work out after a year, we both felt awkward and guilty.” She smiled over at him. “I think we’re good now, though.”
He propped up on an elbow. “How about us? Are we good?” He hadn’t planned this turn in the conversation. It was like his subconscious had taken over and blurted out what he’d been wondering all afternoon. Maybe Dr. Whittelsey’s dog therapy was really working.
“Wow.” She sat up, legs folded under her. “You are full of surprises. Is there an us?”
There it was. In a business deal, this was the pivotal moment in which the arrangement was defined and agreed upon. At the negotiation table, he would dress it up and say what the other party wanted to hear, as long as it was truthful and forwarded the transaction. In this case, raw, unembellished honesty would have to do. “I don’t know.” He met her eyes directly. “I want there to be.”
She lay back down, staring up at the sky and said nothing for a long time. Her breathing was quick and shallow. He’d surprised her.
He was used to being one step ahead at all times, and with this woman, he was forever racing to keep up. Somehow, he’d relinquished control to her completely, and amazingly, he was okay with that.
He’d learned in his years of business that silence was sometimes more powerful than words, so he let the silence play out and they watched the clouds go by and gulls glide overhead.
“I probably would have slept with you without all of this,” she said finally.
Well, that wasn’t what he had expected. He sat bolt upright, startling Clancy. What the fuck did that mean? He closed his eyes and took a calming breath. From her point of view, perhaps that was a reasonable response. Go to the why, not the what, he reminded himself. She’d been hurt before. Had felt used and betrayed.
She took his hand as she sat up, and her wide eyes met his. “You’re shaking.” She brought his hand to her face and placed it against her warm cheek, then turned her face to kiss the inside of his palm, a gesture so sincere it made his throat tight. “You’re cracking. That calm, expressionless mask is letting a little light in so I can see the real you underneath—the one you hide from the public.”