“I have the day off tomorrow, and that sounds great.” She tapped his chest. “Look at you making plans and wanting to go out.”
“Apparently pixie dust has many powers.”
“Mm-hm, and you really heard every word I said last night, didn’t you?”
“Of course. Why wouldn’t I?” He’d wanted to hear everything she was willing to share about herself.
“According to my sisters, the male species is bad at listening.” She went up on her toes and kissed him. “Thank you for being good at it. Want to see what I brought?”
Before he could answer, Crash came running out of the bedroom, and when he tried to stop in front of them, he slid right into Jules’s boots. She scooped him up, kissing his head. “I’ve missed you like crazy.” She nuzzled against Crash’s head and said, “Did you know your daddy was so good at decorating and building?”
“I’m not his daddy,” Grant said flatly.
Jules rolled her eyes. “You are as long as he’s living with you. And I brought him a present.” She set Crash on the couch beside the bags and whipped out a gray cat bed from one of the bags and placed it on the floor. Crash jumped down off the couch and went to sniff it. “That’s your new bed, sweetheart.”
Crash looked up at her and darted into the bedroom.
“Jules, he’s not staying.”
Crash returned with the ragged green bow and set it in his new bed.
“I think he has other ideas,” she said with a giggle, whipping two blue-and-white pillows from the bags. One was square with IF YOU’RE LUCKY ENOUGH TO BE AT THE BEACH, YOU’RE LUCKY ENOUGH! printed in blue across it, and one was long and skinny and had LIFE IS GOOD emblazoned across the length of it in peach. “What do you think?” She set them on the couch.
They were just pillows, and she probably had more just like them in her shop, but they were so very Jules, he adored them almost as much as he adored her. He pulled her into his arms, gazing into her gorgeous eyes. “I love them. Thank you. But stop spending money on me, Pix.”
“I couldn’t resist. And they match everything you bought perfectly. It’s another sign that we’re meant to be together.”
“I don’t need a sign to know that everything I need is right here in my arms.” As he lowered his lips to hers, the truth in his words hit him. How was it possible to want a woman with whom he’d only recently connected on this level with the same vehemence as his desire to go back to the life he was forced to leave behind?
They grilled steaks and vegetables and ate dinner at the island he’d built. There were no uncomfortable silences or stressful conversations, only laughter, good-natured ribbing, and lots of kisses. After cleaning up, they put on their coats, Grant grabbed the heavy blanket he’d bought, and they headed out to the firepit.
Grant draped the blanket around Jules and lit the bonfire as she gazed out at the moonlight reflecting off the inky water. “You’re so lucky. You get to enjoy this view every day.”
He put the metal screen dome over the bonfire and pushed to his feet, admiring her. Her long eyelashes fluttered against the breeze that lifted her hair off her shoulders. “I’m lucky, all right.” Taking her hand, he led her to the lounge chair, and they settled in side by side beneath the blanket.
“It’s so big,” she said, snuggling closer.
He gave her a dark look, earning an embarrassed giggle, and kissed her. “You’re so damn cute.”
She rested her head on his shoulder with a contented sigh, and for a while they lay without talking, the swishing of the grasses and crackling sparks of the fire filling the silence. As he lay with Jules in his arms, he thought if ever there were a perfect moment, this was it. The fact that it was lifetimes away from any definition of perfect he’d ever imagined made no difference.
He couldn’t remember the last time he’d relaxed enough to simply enjoy a moment or notice the sounds around him when he wasn’t listening for sounds of danger.
“I could stay right here forever and be perfectly happy.” Jules turned on her side, putting her arm around his middle and resting her cheek on his chest.
He kissed the top of her head. He’d been a fool to fight what he’d felt for her. If he was this much more at ease and this much happier because of letting Jules into his life, what else was waiting for him right around the corner? He thought about the pillows she’d given him. They were printed with such simple statements, but just like everything she did and said, they held a wealth of much-needed reminders. He was lucky to be alive, much less to be on this glorious island surrounded by people who wanted him to be part of their lives. Life was good, and he’d been ignoring that for too long.
But enjoying life meant fixing his relationship with his father. He’d always used the pent-up anger and disappointment from their relationship to feed his aggression in the field. Without that outlet, it had twined together with the anger over losing his career, and there was no room for that kind of darkness off the battlefield. He wasn’t sure how to fix the tension between them, but he hadn’t been sure how to handle things with Jules, either. He’d led with honesty when he’d shown up at her apartment to apologize, and look at them now.
Maybe she was right. It was time to flood those family riverbanks and deal with the aftermath.
Jules tipped her beautiful face up. He was no match for the tug she caused in his chest. Forget the battlefield. There was no room for darkness in a life where this beauty existed.
He shifted her onto her back and kissed her. “I’m glad I didn’t scare you off.”
“You’re not nearly as scary as I was in the vineyard. I got you good,” she teased.
“Some people might say otherwise. I still can’t believe some guy hasn’t put a ring on your finger yet. Don’t girls like you usually marry their high school sweethearts?”
“That would take having a high school sweetheart, and I think girls have to put out for that to happen.”
He laughed. “You and that smart mouth of yours. You must have driven the guys nuts in high school.”
Her brows furrowed. “Not really. I was a late bloomer. I didn’t even get boobs until tenth grade, and I was always different. I was a bit too happy, not great at flirting, and a little naive. I meant it when I said I was an acquired taste, and to be honest, it took me a long time to feel comfortable in my own skin. I always felt kind of awkward, but I couldn’t change who I was.”
“I’ve never seen you as awkward.” He kissed her shoulder. “Quirky, maybe, in an adorable way, but not awkward.”
“That’s because I was a great actress, remember?”
“How could I forget? Jock and I thought you might end up in Hollywood, and Archer used to say over his dead body.”
“Sounds like Archer. Sometimes it was easier to be someone else than to be awkward me.”
“I hate that you ever felt that way. Did kids make fun of you? Because I will hunt them down and make them pay.”
She laughed. “No. You’ve heard people say things like that’s just Jules. That stung when I was young, but I knew they weren’t trying to be mean. They were just figuring out who I was and how to act around the happy girl who saw the good in everyone. The same way I was figuring out who they were. I couldn’t relate to all of the brooding and pouting. And then one day during my senior year, I realized just as you said, I liked the girl I saw in the mirror, so I embraced her.”