Page 33 of Secrets at Seaside
She shrugged and closed her eyes. He kissed her closed lids.
“I’ll make it up to you.”
“You don’t need to make it up to me. Just love me. Love the past away.”
He lowered his forehead to hers. “The past will always be there.” No lies. He’d promised to be the best man he could, and that meant pure honesty, no matter how much it hurt him to say it.
“Then love me through it.”
Amy lay with him as she’d done a dozen times that summer. He breathed deeply, allowing the memories of the past and the present to coalesce.
His sweet kitten was back.
Chapter Twelve
AMY AWOKE TO an empty bedroom. She listened to the silence of her cottage and knew Tony had left. She had a fleeting thought that perhaps she’d made up last night in her hopeful mind, but when she rolled over and buried her nose in the other pillow, Tony’s scent remained. She exhaled loudly and covered her eyes with her arm.Tony. She waited for the longing and the inevitable pain that she’d been squelching for too many years, and when it didn’t come, it gave her hope that she could move forward. They’d talked about that summer, and she hadn’t fallen completely apart. And he’d loved her—oh, how he’d loved her. Like they’d never been apart.
Amy heard the slider open to the front deck. Her heart leapt.Tony.
“Hurry up.”
Jenna. Amy heard feet scurrying across the floor and turned to find Leanna, Bella, and Jenna lined up in the doorframe with stupid grins on their faces and steaming mugs in their hands—two in Leanna’s.
“I saw Tony leave for his run,” Jenna explained as they piled onto her bed.
“And Sky said she tatted him up last night.” Bella leaned in close and whispered, “Kitten.”
“Oh my gosh.” She covered her eyes. “Isn’t there some rule of confidentiality with tattoo artists and their clients?”
“They’retattoos,” Bella explained. “Think of skin like a billboard. Even beneath the waist.”
Amy groaned. Bella was the only one not wearing pajamas. Unless Amy counted herself, because she was quite nude beneath the blankets.
“Oh, come on, kitten. We think it’s cute.” Jenna curled her fingers into claws and pretended to paw at Amy while holding her mug in the other hand. “Meow.”
They all laughed.
“It’s not a sexual thing.”Well, it kind of is.
“Uh-huh.” Bella patted Amy’s shoulder. “You keep up that lie. We’ll back you up.”
Leanna handed Amy a cup of coffee. “Sit up and drink up. We want the scoop.”
Amy held the sheet over her chest. “Hand me a T-shirt?”
Jenna snagged a shirt from Amy’s drawer and tossed it to her. After putting it on, she sheepishly added, “And underwear,” to which Jenna laughed and obliged.
“Please tell me you’re clean,” Bella said.
“Geez, Bella.” Amy felt her cheeks flush. “We showered last night.”
“Oh, this is better than I was hoping for. Details?” Jenna fixed her cami, which was slipping off her shoulder. She scooted closer on the bed.
The girls formed a semicircle around Amy. She felt a little like it was sharing time at school, but no student would be grinning from ear to ear with delectably sinful memories.
Amy sipped her coffee and gave in to her friends’ expectant gazes. “It wasn’t like a real first date. I mean, it’sTony.”The man I made love to at least once a day the summer when I was eighteen. The only man I’ve ever made love to. Only they didn’t know that. She bundled the guilt into a ball and mentally tucked it away.
“Well, that’s true,” Leanna said. “You guys have known each other forever. I’m happy for you, Amy.”
