Page 7 of Seized by Love at Seaside
She needed the money for Maddy, and she’d do the program for as long as it took. With every show she held out hope that it would be the big one. The one that earned her enough money that she could quit hosting it altogether. Her schedule was exhausting: She taped shows on Mondays and Thursdays and edited them on Tuesdays and Fridays. The show aired on Wednesdays and Saturdays, which meant watching the first few minutes to make sure there were no technical glitches, and that left Sunday as her only day off—and that was only if the programs didn’t need refilming.
“I can’t really afford to take off Friday or Saturday, and leaving you to watch my shop will cut into your income from your business.” Lizzie felt Blue’s hand brush over hers on the blanket. The hope in his eyes turned to understanding.
“It’s okay, Lizzie. Sky’s just being pushy.” He glared at Sky. “I don’t actually need someone with me. It’ll be nice to focus on my family.”
“I love your family,” Sky said.
“Speaking of family,” Lizzie said. “I just remembered that I have to pick up Maddy next weekend to have dinner with my parents.” Maddy went to college in Harborside, about an hour away from the Cape.
“How are your parents?” Sky asked with a teasing smile.
Margaret and Vernon Barber had been stable forces throughout Lizzie’s life. Her mother was sweet and never pried too deeply, and her father was a big man, weighed down with a strict set of morals.
“As proper as always,” Lizzie answered. Every time she saw her family she worried that they’d find out about her webcast—and she knew her parents would not react well. The worddisowncame to mind, and that was not something Lizzie wanted to think about.
“You say that like it’s a bad thing.” Blue touched her hand again, and her insides warmed.
Blue was so attuned to her, to everything she said, and every time they were close sparks flew. She tried not to think about those things as she answered. “It’s not abadthing, just something I’m very aware of. My parents never let me or Maddy date, even in high school. They monitored what we wore—‘Button up, girls; don’t want to give anyone a show.’” She cringed at the memory. The Naughty-Love list had opened a door for Lizzie. When her father had taken ill and a friend had mentioned making money off of webcasts, she’d immediately nixed the idea. But later that evening, when she was adding to her secret Naughty-Love list, she realized that maybe she could help raise money for her education after all—with a secret webcast. It was a far cry from her upbringing, but it was also an outlet for a side of her she wasn’t comfortable publicly playing with. And as the money came in, Lizzie became more and more embarrassed about what she was doing, and she feared her parents and friends finding out. But just when she was ready to give up the program, they’d needed money for Maddy’s education. There was no way she could walk away from it then. She’d do anything for Maddy, even if it meant putting her own relationships at risk.
“I love my folks. I’ve just got a lot on my mind.” She rose to her feet, feeling antsy thinking about her parents and theNaked Baker.
“Worried about your oven?” Blue asked as he rose beside her.
Not for the first time, she wished she had someone to confide in about her double life, but deep down she was so embarrassed by what she was doing that every time she thought about even confiding in Sky, she couldn’t bring herself to do it.
She shrugged.
“I have an idea.” Blue picked up the blanket and shook it off. “Hey, guys. I know we just got here, but we’re going to go for a walk before we need to get back to fix Lizzie’s oven.”
A walk?
“Go. Have fun.” Sky shooed them with way too much enthusiasm. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Lizzie.”
“Sounds good,” Lizzie managed, trying not to think about taking a walk with Blue, or the way his hand had already taken up residence on her lower back again. She’d spent so many months avoiding a date with him, and in one night she’d already spent more time alone with him than she had in the last year. And to her surprise, she liked the fluttering in her stomach and the anticipation that was tickling up her spine.
Chapter Four
AS THEY WALKED away from the warmth of the bonfire, a breeze blew off the water, bringing with it the scents of the sea. Lizzie’s brows furrowed, and Blue knew he was pushing her a little harder toward being alone with him than he’d planned, but she’d looked like her mind was going a million miles an hour. He knew her nature was to handle sixteen things at once, but even the Energizer Bunny needed a break sometimes.
“So, you grew up in a conservative home?” he asked to break the ice, loving the fact that she hadn’t tried to shake off his touch yet.
“You could say that. How about you? I’ve met a few of your brothers, and they don’t seem very conservative, but…” She obviously didn’t want to talk about her childhood. Lizzie looked down at the waves crashing along the shore, and the moonlight caught her profile, highlighting her slightly upturned nose, her high cheekbones, and her incredibly distracting, kissable lips.
Blue took a moment to regain his focus before answering. “My father had strong beliefs about family loyalty and work ethics. He drove home the idea of what a man should be with each of us, and I think he forgot that my sister, Trish, was a girl, because he expected the same tough standards from her as the rest of us. That’s probably how she’s gotten so far in her acting career—on sheer will and wanting to be better than everyone else.”
“I knew she was an actress, but when you say better than everyone else, do you mean stuck-up?”
Blue laughed. “No. My sister is anything but stuck-up. She’s very competitive. Even growing up she tried to keep up with me and our four brothers, and we’re a tough group. We were always roughhousing and racing around.”
“It sounds like you had a lot of fun with your siblings. What do your parents do?” Lizzie stopped walking and gazed out over the water.
“My father is one of the founders of East Coast Search and Rescue.” Blue had always been proud of his father and of the way he’d been raised. “I think it’s safe to say that he has a no-bull policy on all things, ranging from taking responsibility to how we treat others. My mother was a little looser with us. She was a stay-at-home mom, and she was always baking and tinkering around with our school projects, building forts out of sheets with us. That kind of thing.”
“That sounds wonderful. My mom isn’t like that at all. She loves us, but she wasn’t a sit-down-on-the-floor-with-your-kids type of mom. I’m going to be, though. I’m going to be the type of mom who bakes and makes forts for sure. I want my kids to smile every time they think of me.”
“Don’t you smile when you think of your mom?” Blue watched her eyes drop to the sand again, and his chest burned. He would do anything to give her a reason to smile. He wanted to fold her in his arms until she smiled again, go back in time and give her the childhood she wished she’d had. But he was thankful that she was here, taking a walk alone with him on the beautiful beach in the moonlight. He didn’t want her to feel pressured for more, so he held back.
He’d been careful not to give any indication of his feelings toward Lizzie to their friends. She’d turned him down enough times that he didn’t want to embarrass her, even though it had been torture fighting his desire to reach out and pull her into his lap, as Sawyer had with Sky. When Lizzie had first turned him down for a date, he’d purposely not told Sky he’d asked her out. What guy likes to admit defeat? The last thing he needed was Sky putting pressure on Lizzie to go out with him. He knew in his heart that if Lizzie ever came around and went out on a real date with him, she’d fall for him on her own, the same way he’d been falling for her all along.
