Page 47 of Hearts at Seaside
“Blue? Green? Yellow?” She fingered the edges of the colorful sarongs.
“I love the green.”
She frowned. “I like the blue.”
He laughed. Only Jenna would ask and then dispute the answer. “The blue is beautiful. It sets off your eyes.”
Jenna wrinkled her brow. “But the yellow will go with my yellow bikini.”
Pete reached for her hand and led her to the cashier. “We’ll take all three.” He pulled out his wallet.
“Oh, no.” She began unwinding the vibrant material from her body. “I can’t afford—”
Pete unwrapped the sarongs, folded them neatly, and set them on the desk beside the cash register. He handed his credit card to the cashier, a gray-haired woman with bright blue eyes and weathered cheeks.
“Pete, you can’t buy all of them.”
He draped an arm over her shoulder. “I think I just did.”
“Petey…thank you.” She hooked her finger in his shorts.
The nickname no longer struck him as out of place. It claimed him ashers, and he liked that.
THEY WALKED AROUND until the sun went down, and then they got takeout to eat in the park with Joey. It was intimate and romantic. Pete had ordered dinner for the two of them, and as he handed Jenna her dinner, she was surprised by what he’d chosen for her—oysters on the half shell and a chicken Caesar salad. Two of her favorite foods.
“How did you know exactly what I’d want?” She watched a smile curl his lips.
“I told you before, just because we weren’t dating didn’t mean I wasn’t paying attention. I adore you, Jenna, and I guess that my mind must have known that before my heart caught on, or the other way around. You know what I mean.” He leaned in for a kiss.
She thought she must have died and gone to heaven. All those years she thought he hadn’t paid much attention to her, and meanwhile he was memorizing her likes and dislikes?
“What do you think of the Vineyard?” he asked.
“Amazing, but I’m glad this was my first time. Now we have something that’s ours. Or at least in my memory it is.” She put her hand on his thigh, worrying over the question she couldn’t keep from asking. “Have you…taken many women here?”What is wrong with me?
“Eh, I guess I bring a different woman about every other week or so.” He sipped his drink, and Jenna’s heart sank.
He set his drink down and cupped her cheeks in his hands. “You’re a goof. Do you think I’d take you someplace I made a habit out of taking other women? What do I have to do to prove how different you are?” He kissed her, and thezingJenna had come to love warmed her all over. “The last time I was here was a few years ago with Sky. I brought her the summer after she graduated from college.”
She poked him in the side. “Don’t do that to me. In fact, if I ever ask you something stupid like that and the answer is not something I would want to hear, lie to me, okay?”
He shook his head. “No can do. I’m not a liar.”
She loved that about him. They poured more water into Joey’s water bowl and watched families stroll around the park.
“So, when are you going to fess up to turning off your hot water so I’d come over and fix it?”
She nearly choked on her drink. She swallowed the liquid and blinked away the surprise. “Excuse me? I didn’t turn off my hot water.”
He arched a brow. “Jenna, I was there, remember? I fixed it?”
“I swear I didn’t do that. I even checked the fuse box to make sure it hadn’t flicked off.”
“Tripped.” He flashed a sweet smile.
“Whatever. Do you really think I’d take a shower at Bella’s if I could have—Oh my gosh.” She narrowed her eyes. “We’ve been had.”
“We have?”
