Page 56 of Whispers at Seaside
We have to trust that we’ll both know what the right thing to do is when we get to that point.
Was thisthatpoint?
Chapter Twenty-Two
THE ROCKY BAY floor felt familiar beneath Matt’s feet, like an old friend greeting him as he and Pete carried the raft into chilly, chest-deep water. Behind them, their father carried Hagen, who was sporting a new blue life vest Matt had bought for him. Jenna and Bea stood at the water’s edge with Mira, who held her phone, ready to take pictures of Hagen’s big event. Her windswept hair framed her face, wayward strands whipping across her cheeks with the warm summer breeze. Her sun-kissed skin glistened in the late-afternoon sun. She bit her lower lip, holding his gaze and looking sexy as sin in a pale green bikini. The excitement and the heat he’d come to expect when they were together twinkled in her beautiful eyes as they lowered the wooden raft onto the surface of the water.
Everyone seemed to be holding their breath for what they’d deemedHagen Savage’s First Rafting Adventure. Hagen insisted he was going to write a book about it, and Matt was sure the determined child could do anything he put his mind to.
Matt knew the raft wouldn’t sink, but that didn’t stop adrenaline from pumping through his veins as the raft rose with the ripple of the bay’s gentle waves. He saw Jenna nudge Mira and gesture to her phone.
Mira laughed and lifted her phone, pointing the camera at them, and said loudly, “I wasn’t drooling.” She slapped her hand over her mouth, and everyone laughed.
“Keep telling yourself that,” Jenna teased.
“It floats!” Hagen yelled, pointing to the raft. “Look, Mom! It floats!”
“Of course it floats, baby,” she said. “Youbuilt it.”
“Webuilt it!” Hagen corrected her. “Theguys.”
Behind her phone, Mira’s smile appeared.
“Remember our raft battles?” Pete asked.
Memories of rafts and water fights sailed into Matt’s mind. “How could I forget? You insisted on putting a sail on yours, which Hunter tried to climb and broke in half.”
They both laughed.
“I remember the broken rafts and the wrestling that ensued after each of those battles,” their father said.
“They wrestled?” Hagen asked.
“Like little monkeys.” Neil laughed and handed Hagen to Matt. “Matt and his brothers were always getting into some kind of trouble. But not Sky. She was too busy doing her artwork.”
They’d tied ropes to each corner of the raft so they could pull it through the water. Pete stood on the left side of the raft holding both ropes. When Neil settled Hagen in Matt’s arms, he joined Pete, who handed his father one of the ropes.
Hagen’s arms circled Matt’s neck. “I wish I had brothers. I want to wrestle like a monkey.”
Matt’s gaze shifted to Mira. She lowered the phone with a look of longing in her eyes, and he felt it everywhere, as if her hands stroked over his skin. When she smiled, it drew him in, just as it did when she laughed, the feminine melody making his heart sing right along with it.
Oh yeah, he was atthat pointall right.
“Maybe someday you will,” he said, his gaze never leaving the woman who owned his heart.
Mira’s eyes widened, and for a quiet moment no one said a word, but Matt was sure everyone could feel his burgeoning love for her. He blew Mira a kiss, and it must have landed hard, because she blinked a few times and covered her heart with her hand.
Jenna said something to Mira and Mira’s cheeks flushed, sending rivers of emotions rippling through him.
“Where’s the captain of this raft?” Pete said loudly, jolting Matt’s brain back in gear.
He placed Hagen in the middle of the raft, but Hagen clung to him.
“Are you sure it will hold me?” His tiny fingers pressed into the back of Matt’s neck.
“Absolutely,” Matt assured him, and peeled the little boy’s fingers from around his neck. “You’re a master raft builder, remember?”
Hagen nodded and nervously took hold of the rope handles they’d fashioned for him. Matt kept one hand on Hagen’s back, walking beside the raft as Pete and Neil pulled it through the water.
