Kyle remembered the funeral, all the men in the Coast Guard dress uniforms telling him he was “the man of the house now.” He remembered being handed the flag while at the gravesite and wondering what he was supposed to do with it. But more than anything, what he remembered was watching his mother cry and knowing then that it was up to him to take care of her.
His mother had done an excellent job raising him by herself, and he knew that she missed her husband. More than anything, what Kyle missed was the idea of his dad. It was the loss of having someone to do all the things a boy should do with his dad that Kyle felt most of all. It had been his mom who had taught him to tie a tie, lectured him after his first fight, explained the birds and bees, and who had enlisted a neighbor to help teach Kyle all about boat mechanics after seeing him express interest. It had been his mom who shoved condoms in his pocket before his senior prom, telling him that this is where his father would be reminding him to “wrap it up or else.” She’d been trying to do what she felt was best and he owed her everything for that.
It was for this reason he’d been so focused since moving down here. He’d gotten so lucky meeting Grayson that day and being offered a job at the Indigo Royal. The job paid enough, on top of covering most living expenses, that he could save to one day start his own company and still send money home to help his mom. He was so close to having enough saved. If the math he ran in his head most days stayed true, he only needed to hold out another six months or so. He’d broken every rule he’d made for himself by falling for Drea, and then broke the rewritten rules when he kissed her the other day.
But after today—sharing stories of her family, her giggles under the umbrellas, the look in her eyes while they made love on the beach, and her happy tears when she told him that he had made a secret dream come true—he couldn't bring himself to regret any of it. The lack of regret did nothing to ease his worry about coming clean to her uncles though. The insight provided as to why they were the way they were only made him realize that he’d not only be risking his current job, but also their support in getting his own business off the ground if they were to find out. Asking Drea to keep this a secret for another six months wasn’t fair, however, and he couldn’t do that to her. There just wasn’t a good option.
She stirred next to him and he glanced over to make sure that he hadn’t somehow woken her up. She’d been out the second her head hit the little travel pillow that he’d brought with them, not even waiting for him to lie down. Leaning over, he brushed some of her hair from her face and kissed her cheek. He loved the peaceful look she had on her face, and he wanted to freeze this moment in his memory. Now that she was really his, he needed to figure out all the details.
And since it was her happiness at stake, he would have to find a way.
Chapter Twenty
The sun was relatively high in the sky when Drea finally woke up the next morning. Finding a wadded up blanket next to her, she assumed Kyle had draped it over her at some point during the night. The fabric of her sundress was all twisted around her waist, causing her to have to sit up in order to straighten it out. After fixing her dress, she ran her fingers through her hair, realizing in the process of doing so that they were moving. She looked up to find the sails raised and full of wind.
Looking around some more, she found Kyle up in the captain’s chair, gently steering the boat, letting the wind do most of the work. His dark brown hair was waving in the wind and he had a little bit of stubble on his normally smooth face. His focus was out at sea, not realizing she was awake, so she took this moment to simply drink him in. At some point between arriving back last night and now, he’d changed back into his board shorts and a long sleeve T-shirt which, based on its current position of being draped across the back of the chair he was leaning against, he seemed to have since shed as well. His upper body was incredibly well-defined, his broad shoulders showing off some serious muscles. She loved watching those muscles work as he was dealing with the rigging and sails. He hated the gym as much as she did, but unlike her, he was obviously getting enough of a workout via the job to compensate for never going.
His good looks had stood out to her the second her Uncle Gray pointed him out on his follow-up trip to the marina. Grayson had gone on and on the night before at dinner about the smart, fun kid he’d come across at the marina and how helpful he’d been. Grayson had been so impressed with this normal kid—who obviously had no idea that his bosses probably would have wanted him to kiss Grayson’s ass—and the help that he provided, that he was insistent that when he went back the next day, he was going to make sure this kid got the credit. He had insisted that Drea accompany him to see the kid in action, despite the fact that she would have rather done anything else other than go with him. She’d only tagged along on the trip as a way to get off the island and away from the resort for a couple of days. But one look at Kyle as they approached had made giving up a day of shopping worth it.
She had been taken by his looks from the moment he looked at her. However, it had been who he was as a person that truly won her over. They’d hit it off from pretty much the moment Grayson had introduced them, and he had hung back with her as his coworker caused a scene over who got the credit for the sale of the boat. When Kyle had tried to intervene to mediate the altercation, she saw that he was just as much of a good human as he was good-looking.
As she stood there on the boat watching him, it occurred to her that, if possible, he’d gotten better-looking in the years he’d been at the resort. Either way you looked at it, the guy was hot.
He looked down and caught her staring at him. He smiled widely, and blew her a kiss. Her left hand shot up and grabbed the imaginary kiss from the air and shoved it in the pocket of her dress, before bringing that hand to her lip and returning the action.
“Give me five minutes to get us to a place we can anchor and I’ll be down,” he called out to her.
“Sounds good, I’m gonna change out of this,” she replied, motioning up and down to her clothes from the day before.
For a moment, Drea considered putting on the purple suit that Dalton had given her a few days ago, instead of the red one that she’d worn the day before. However, she just couldn’t bring herself to do it. She had felt so damn good in that little red one, and loved how Kyle looked at her while she was wearing it. She made sure to loosely tie the top into place, so if it just so happened that it came undone, oh well.
Reemerging from below deck, she could hear the little electric kettle working its magic to heat up some water and found Kyle standing behind the bar. It was not a place she usually found him, unless he was there hanging out with her, so she welcomed the sight. In fact, pairing this image with the one of him in her kitchen yesterday morning, he was starting to look downright domestic.
“Instant coffee coming right up,” he smirked. He poured some water from the kettle into a camping mug and handed it to her. She took a quick sip, smiling over the mug at him.
“Thanks. What time is it?”
“A little after ten.”
“Oh my God, how long did I sleep?”
“You needed it. Yesterday turned out to be a big emotional day,” he said, coming around the bar and placing his hands on her hips. “Your cute little body needed the rest.”