Page 50 of Nights at Seaside
Because you needed me, too.
“I didn’t name the shop after myself,” she explained. “I know everyone thinks I did, but I didn’t.” She flipped through the poetry book and began reading. “Sun drifts, moon breaches, cool air whispers into the night. Tears fall, arms comfort, birds in the distance take flight. Waning crescent, smother my cries, take me up to the inky skies.”
She gazed up at him with solemn eyes. “It’s one of my favorite poems.”
“It’s my father’s.” His voice was thick with emotion.
“It’s destiny,” she whispered.
Chapter Thirteen
SAWYER AWOKE THE following morning to soft paws stepping onto his chest. He opened his eyes and found Merlin’s scrunched-up furry face staring down at him accusingly, as if he’d taken his spot on the bed. Sawyer shifted his eyes to Sky, fast asleep beside him. Her head was nestled against his chest, one thigh rested over his, and her arm was draped possessively over his stomach. Her long dark hair fell over her shoulder, covering her bare breast, save for a small patch of ivory skin. He never knew it was possible to feel so much for someone so quickly, but every ounce of his soul was wrapped around Sky Lacroux. He’d never met someone whose essence was so similar to his own.
Merlin stretched his paws straight up the center of Sawyer’s chest, then sank to his belly and closed his eyes. A second later Sawyer felt the gentle vibration of his contented purr. Sawyer closed his eyes and draped one arm across Sky, and with the other he stroked Merlin’s back. Life didn’t get much sweeter than this.
He thought about the day ahead and the sparring he’d undergo during training. The doctor’s warning came rushing back, and his thoughts turned to his father. He’d call him later that morning and see how he was doing.
Sky sighed in her sleep, and he pressed a kiss to her head. She was such a nurturing and loving person, and so sensual, open, and trusting, that it made him want to do everything he could to make her happy. As he lay there beside her, beneath her precious kitty, with the sun peeking through the curtains, he knew he needed to get a grip on the emotions she’d awakened in him. He knew that the second he stepped into the ring, thoughts of her would be right there with him, reminding him that it was no longer justhishead, justhisbody—if he wanted Sky, he owed it to her to remain in one piece, wholly functional and cognitively capable.
That meant that he needed to practice even harder, hone his every move even more effectively. Remain completely focused.
Sky’s hand moved up his stomach to Merlin’s back. “Mm. We have company. Sorry.” Merlin purred louder.
He loved her hazy morning voice. “Don’t be. Merlin and I have an agreement. I get to sleep beside you in the bed, and he gets to use me as a mattress. It seems pretty fair to me.”
She lifted her head and looked up at him with sleepy eyes and a contented smile. “I like that deal, too.”
Merlin stirred with her movement and lifted his head, as if he were deciding whether he should close his eyes and try to sleep or if his snuggle time was over. A second later he walked leisurely off Sawyer’s chest and leapt from the bed.
Sky laughed softly. “Think he knew I wanted to get closer to you?”
Sawyer rolled over her, gently lowering her to her back as his chest rose above hers. He loved the feel of her beneath him, soft and warm. He brushed her hair from her forehead and looked beneath her sweeping lashes to her sleepy eyes.
“You’ve lured me in to you, Sky.”
Her lips were faintly pink, lighter than after they kissed, after their passion turned them dark and well loved. The urge to kiss her was strong, but not as strong as the desire to tell her exactly how he felt, to reveal to her the way his thoughts turned to her at every move.
“I’m totally falling for you,” he admitted. “If we keep spending time together, I know I’m only going to fall deeper into your depths.”
Her fingers trailed up his side as she swallowed hard, her eyes never wavering from his, turning mildly serious. He felt her pulse quicken, and he knew she felt his speed up, too.
“Should I be worried?” she asked in a whisper.
He smiled at her response. She never said what he anticipated, and it made her even more appealing.
“Only if you’re going to have second thoughts about us. I’ve never given away my heart before, Sky, and honestly, it’s a little scary.” He fought fierce competitors, willingly opened himself up to a physical beating every day. But nothing—nothing—compared to what Sky could do to him if she walked away, even after a few short days. He could only imagine how his feelings for her would grow after another week, a month, a year.
“I think I’m done with second thoughts,” she answered. “I can’t fight what’s between us. It’s too big.”
“I want to fall into you, Sky, and never find my way out.”
She pressed her hands flat to his back and whispered against his lips, “Fall, Sawyer. I’ll be right there with you.”
LATER THAT MORNING, on her way to work, Sky stopped at a yard sale and found the perfect chair for the shop. The paisley fabric was a mix of blues, wines, creams, and yellows. It had an old-fashioned look to it, though it was obviously much newer and in perfect shape, save for the comfortably used look of the cushion. The guy who sold it to her loaded it into her car, and once her busy afternoon was over, she’d have Blue help her carry it inside.
She spent the first hour at the shop researching Parkinson’s. She read about the progression of the disease, the symptoms and eventualities that Sawyer and his family were facing. She wanted to know as much as she could, to better support Sawyer, and the more she read, the more she connected dots between her father’s alcoholism and his father’s disease. They weren’t the same, of course, because her father’s deterioration into alcoholism was voluntary and Sawyer’s father’s disease didn’t have a remedy waiting behind the doors of a medical facility, the way her father’s had. But her father had dealt with a disease that was stronger than him, the same way Sawyer’s father was. The same way her mother’s life was stolen from her. She wondered what it felt like to be a man, the pillar of strength for a family, and to feel that strength slipping away. For her father, she thought perhaps he readily gave it up in order to keep his sanity after losing his wife. He probably saw it as a reprieve from the pain and loneliness—and she knew just how lucky they were that he’d done well in rehab and had remained sober ever since.
Sawyer’s father didn’t have that option, and even without having met the man, he had her love and her respect. And she already knew she’d do whatever it took to help his family.
