“I can wait. I’m not a kid anymore. I know who I am and what I want. I want you. But look. No one knows how long he has to live. All the wisdom says to seize the day. I want to seize each day with you. Actually,” he said with a smile, “I want to seize you.”
Lisa smiled. “I want that, too.” Reluctantly, she added, “Just not yet.”
“I’ll be ready whenever you want,” Mack said. He stood up. “Let’s go back downstairs. Sitting on this bed with you is keeping me from thinking logically.”
Because she was shaking, Lisa held on to the banister as they went downstairs. She hoped this didn’t make her seem like a little old lady who was afraid of falling, and as she turned to explain this to Mack, who was right behind her, she thought, But I am afraid of falling, afraid of falling in love.
They went into the kitchen. Lisa sat at the table while Mack brewed two cups of decaf.
“If I have real coffee after eight o’clock, I can’t sleep,” Mack explained.
“I know. I’m the same way.”
He set her cup before her and sat down across from her. Lisa stared into her cup, stirring it as if her life depended on it.
“I’m sorry,” she murmured.
“Don’t be,” Mack said. “Look, Lisa, whatever is happening between us is something rare, I think. I certainly haven’t felt this way before.”
“No, I haven’t, either. It’s not only physical, Mack.”
“I know. And it’s new. But it’s strong. And it’s real.”
Lisa lifted her eyes to meet his. “So what do we do?”
Mack smiled. “I guess we slow down. I mean, on the physical part. I think I’ve got a lot to learn about you and a lot I want you to know about me, and something about you makes me want to be around you, even if it’s just walking on the beach.”
The front door slammed.
“Hey, Dad!”
Lisa froze.
Mack said, “She said she was going out with the girls. I was sure she’d be gone all evening.”
“Dad?” Beth strode through the large room, a shining princess with her long blond hair and willowy frame. When she spotted Lisa, she stopped dead, blushing crimson, wide-eyed. “Oh, Lisa.”
“I invited Lisa to dinner,” Mack told her.
“Oh! Oh, wow, so that’s why you were marinating that giant roast.”
“Hi, Beth.” Suddenly Lisa was grateful for the years of practice her own children had given her with awkward situations. “Your father’s been working on my old house and we’ve become good friends. He invited me to dinner, and what a surprise! He cooks as well as he restores old homes.”
Beth smiled uncertainly. “Oh,” she said again, obviously struggling through her emotions to find words.
“I thought you were having a girls’ night out,” Mack said.
“I did, kind of. I left early because I have to work tomorrow.”
“Want a cup of decaf?” Mack asked.
“No thanks. I’m good.” His question eased the situation, and Beth joined them at the table. Shyly, she turned to Lisa. “I saw Theo today. At the Corner Table Café. He came over to the Ocean Matters office and helped me unload and hook up the computers and printers.” Quickly, Beth brightened. “Oh, and I saw Juliet and asked her to help build a website for Ocean Matters and she agreed.”
“That’s great,” Lisa said, but secretly thought, and now Mack’s daughter is going to be involved with both of my children. So much had happened in the last half hour that Lisa couldn’t think straight. I’ve just been kissing your father, she thought giddily and she glanced over at Mack. He was smiling at her. Lisa was dazzled, and frustrated that she couldn’t continue the intimate conversation with Mack, and all she could do, really, was leave. “I should go home. I’ve got my shop to open tomorrow.”
Mack stood up. “And I’ve got your ceilings to finish.” He put a hand on her waist as they walked toward the front door.
Lisa paused at the door. “Thanks so much for the delicious dinner. That roast was almost the best thing I’ve ever tasted.”
“Yeah,” Mack said with an intimate wicked grin. “For me, too.”
eighteen
When her father returned to the kitchen, Beth asked, “Are you dating her?”
She knew her father would be slow to answer. He was a thoughtful man, wanting not to be misunderstood.
“I’m not sure,” he said at last. “I think for now we’re friends.”
“You two looked more than friendly to me.”
Mack put his hands on the back of a chair. “Would that be a problem for you? I know you liked Theo in high school.”
“Oh, Dad, come on, that was high school!”
“Theo is back in town. He helped you in the office today.”
“True,” Beth responded with exaggerated patience. “But that was a one-time thing.” She was distressed and couldn’t figure out her own emotions.
Her father said, “Well, you’re upset about something.”
How could Beth tell her dad that what was really driving her out of her mind was Theo?
She’d felt so close to Theo when he was unpacking the computers. He’d seemed so real, not just a handsome goofball. But what was going on with Lisa and her dad? It would be impossible to date Theo if his mom was dating her dad!
“Thanks,” she said, when her father handed her a warm cup of cocoa with a marshmallow on top. “This is awesome.” She took a breath. “But please. Are you seriously seeing Lisa, like, romantically?”
Mack grinned. “Are you, like, ten years old?”
“I mean, Dad, come on. Isn’t she a lot older than you?”
Mack’s face changed. She could tell her father’s sense of humor had disappeared. “She’s ten years older than I am. We’re both adults. I don’t see the problem.”
“Well…won’t people talk?”
“For God’s sake, Beth. When have we ever cared about people talking? I thought I raised you to be more open-minded than that. So what if people talk?”
Beth flushed. She’d made her father angry, and that was an indication of how he felt about Lisa Hawley. When she was a little girl, she’d wanted, in a vague misty Disney sort of way, to have a new mother who would love her and help her choose the right clothes and make her bedroom lavender instead of the dazzling pink her father had painted it. By the time she was twelve, her feelings had changed. She didn’t want another woman to break into the happy twosome she’d become with her father. Whenever she caught him flirting with another woman at a school ballgame or play, she’d plunge into a dark mood for days. She’d pretty much hated him during high school because he wouldn’t let her go places or have boys spend the night like her other friends’ parents did.