Page 73 of Defenseless
“It is good,” he agreed. “It’s new. Ish. And in a lot of ways, it feels that way. In so many, though, it doesn’t.”
Ethan nodded, understanding what Chad said and what he hadn’t. What was between him and Sabina wasn’t something that he could easily describe. But it was more real than anything he’d ever experienced.
“Well, I’ll pop around the corner. Dinner should be here by the time I’m back,” Ethan said before slipping out of the room.
His timing was spot-on, and twenty minutes later, they all sat around the table eating and drinking. As the night went on, neither he nor Ethan imbibed much. They were, however, conscientious about keeping Sabina’s and Kara’s glasses filled. The drinks were strong enough to keep them on the tipsy side, but not so strong as to push them over the line to being drunk.
As Chad had hoped, the sisters relaxed and, for a little while, shed the weight of the situation. Another benefit of the tequila, one he hadn’t predicted, was that it loosened both women’s tongues, and memories. Over the course of the night, they added several more options to their growing list of potential passwords. But the side effect Chad enjoyed the most was when the sisters started telling stories and the hours filled with “remember whens.”
It could have been bittersweet, but neither woman seemed interested in letting it become that. There were tears of laughter rather than sorrow as they recalled their friends, the pranks they’d played on each other, and one particularly cringe-worthy trip with their mother to Lalibela, the archaeological site for which Sabina was named. Apparently, naming your US-born daughter after a town in Ethiopia was endlessly entertaining to those who lived there.
At the end of the night, Ethan walked Kara to her room while Chad made sure Sabina drank a big glass of water before they sank into bed. He expected her to curl up beside him and fall fast asleep—it was late, it had been a long few days, and she’d had a fair bit to drink.
He wasn’t at all disappointed when he learned that verbal inhibitions weren’t the only things that fell to the wayside when tequila was involved.
CHAPTERTWENTY-SEVEN
“You did that on purpose,didn’t you?” Sabina said, the dull ache in her head mildly subdued by Chad’s fingers brushing through her hair, massaging her scalp.
She was draped over him, a leg thrown over his, an arm across his stomach, and her head on his chest. His chuckle rumbled under her cheek. “Maybe,” he replied.
She raised her head and glared at him, though in truth, she wasn’t all that upset. The minor hangover was a small price to pay for the laughs she’d shared with Kara last night. And the list of potential passwords they’d come up with once their minds loosened up.
Chad’s phone rang, and she closed her eyes against the sound as he reached for it.
“Yeah…We’ll be ready…Yeah…See you then,” he said, then hung up. “Ethan and Kara are going for a walk and grabbing some breakfast. They’ll be back in an hour, and we can walk to the Capitol together,” he relayed.
She groaned then forced herself to roll out of bed. When her feet hit the ground, she paused, sitting on the edge. The dull ache ratcheted up to a deep throb then subsided into something distracting but not unbearable.
“There’s Advil in the bathroom. Why don’t I make some coffee while you shower?” Chad suggested. “Or would you prefer tea?”
“Coffee, please,” she managed to mutter before pushing to her feet and dragging herself to the shower. When she emerged, wrapped in a towel, he handed her a cup. Taking a sip, it was sweetened exactly how she liked it—just enough to take the bitter edge off. It was an odd thing to notice—especially given everything else on her mind. But the fact that he’d given her the drink just as she liked it struck her. They’d been circling around each other for two years and keeping the other at arm’s length, but he’d always shown her how much he paid attention.
She paused, halfway to her suitcase. Chad was already going through his, picking out clothes for the day. “You are a remarkable man, Chad Warwick,” she said.
He paused and looked up. “Uh, thank you?”
The mixture of pleasure and confusion on his face was adorable, though she doubted he’d like it if she mentioned it.
She smiled. “I just wanted you to know. And I love you,” she added, because it was true. It had always been true. And now that shecouldsay it, she planned to say it a lot.
He grabbed a stack of clothes in one hand and walked to her. Slipping a hand into her wet hair, he tipped her head up and kissed her. When he pulled back, he rested his forehead against hers. “I love you, too. Now let’s go get this thing with Jacobs over with so we can hit that beach vacation.”
“Sounds good.” She went up on tiptoe and kissed him again, a quick brush of her lips against his. “And why is it always a beach vacation?” she asked, as he stepped away.
“What do you mean?” he called over his shoulder as he walked to the bathroom.
“In romance novels, the couples always talk about beach vacations. Why not the Alps or Banff, or the Amazon?”
“Easy,” he said, toothbrush in hand. “Beach vacations imply someplace warm. Someplace warm implies bathing suits and not a lot of clothing. But if you want to go somewhere cold, I can arrange that, too.”
She considered that answer as she started to dress. Oddly, in all her years of reading romances, she’d not thought of that. She’d always assumed that beach vacations meant relaxation. And, after going through whatever the couple went through, relaxation was usually well-earned.
She pulled a sweater on and when her head emerged, she saw Chad watching her. “Do you want to go somewhere else? Somewhere we can hike or ski?” he asked.
Her eyes swept over his body. Dressed only in boxers, he was a sight to see. She grinned. “No, a beach vacation will work out just fine.”
* * *
