Page 22 of Sweet Passions at Bayside
“Dating should be so easy.”
“You don’t need to date every guy in Wellfleet the first week you’re here,” he said under his breath.
She reached over and pushed the pause button on the remote, glaring at him. “What does that mean?”
“I heard you have a date with Brody tomorrow. What happened to not dating the guys you work with?” The bite in his tone didn’t go unnoticed.
“We don’t have adate. He asked if I wanted to learn to surf.”
“Trust me, doll, in his mind, it’s adate.”
“It isnot.” She pushed the play button, and they ate their ice cream in silence. She was annoyed with the possibility that Brody had misconstrued her acceptance of his offer to teach her to surf. Brody was hot, funny, and nice, but even during their short conversation she could see that he was the kind of guy who floated from one thing to the next—surf instructor this summer, traveling with a band last winter. She loved to have fun, but at her core she was a small-town girl who liked stability. Plus, she didn’t want to go out with anyone she worked with.
Her appetite gone, she set her bowl on the table and sat back to watch the show, mulling over what Dean had said. “Do you really think he believes it’s adate?”
“Guys think differently than girls. In his mind it’s a date, regardless of what you want to call it.”
She tucked her feet beside her on the cushion, stifling a yawn as the last twenty-four hours caught up with her. “Well, I’ll just have to make it clear tomorrow that it’s not a date.”
Dean placed his empty bowl beside hers and put an arm around her shoulder, pulling her against his side. “Let me know if you have any trouble.”
“Thanks. But I’ve got this. Telling guys what I think has never been my problem.”
“I like that about you.”
“Because you’re notdatingme,” she said honestly.
“That wouldn’t make a difference, doll. Ilikewho you are, and that doesn’t change because two people become a couple.”
She shifted so she could see his face, and it was as serious as ever. The longer she looked at him, the softer his expression became. And when she smiled, a slow smile lifted his lips, smoothing the remaining serious edges.
“That’s a good thing, roomie,” she said, “because I like who you are, too.”
They fell into comfortable silence as they watched the show. Dean’s fingers moved in an intoxicating pattern up and down her arm, lulling her worries away. It turned out all his ridiculously large muscles weren’t hard as stone. His chest was firm, but cushiony enough to use as a pillow, and his arm was heavy around her, practically crushing her against his side, but it felt good to be embraced by the man who had literally brought a smile to her face every day for months on end.
By the middle of the second episode, Tango and Cash were curled up beside her, purring as they slept, and she was struggling to keep her eyes open, but too engrossed in the show to want to stop watching. After watching shows together from hundreds of miles apart while video chatting, she was enjoying finally spending time—and cuddling up—with Dean in person, like best friends should. For weeks she’d wondered if their friendship would change once she moved here and they were no longer restricted to long-distance phone calls. If after being reunited with Desiree, she and Dean would drift further apart. Even after only a day she knew their friendship had already changed. It was more real than ever.
As she lay against him, safe and comfortable, she realized that it hadn’t been Desiree she’d thought of first thing this morning, even though she hadn’t lived in the same area as her for ages. It was Dean. In fact, it hadn’t been Desiree for a very long time.
THERE WAS PROBABLY some sort of sin wrapped up in allowing himself to soak in every second of this closeness with Emery, but it was worth it. Dean was acutely aware of her every breath, of the way her body relaxed into his and of her hand resting on his thigh. How many nights had he longed to hold her? Watching her on a screen didn’t come close to being able to feel her in his arms and brush his cheek over the top of her head, enjoying the feel of her silky hair against his skin, the scent of her shampoo.
This was so good.
A fantasy.
Literally.
She was a friend resting in his arms. She wasn’t his in the way he wanted her to be.
Not yet, anyway.
He ran his fingers along her arm from her bracelets to her elbow. Her skin was just as soft as he’d imagined, and he told himself this would have to be enough until he could figure out how to convince Emery that what had happened with the so-called friends she’d dated in the past would not happen between them. Their friendshipwouldturn into something more—intoeverythingmore. How could it not? He had no idea how she could be oblivious to the thrum of heat between them. He’d dated Diana Longhorn, his father’s business partner’s daughter, for about six months, and he’d never felt for her what he felt for Emery a month after knowing her long-distance. Emery was everything the women he’d dated weren’t. She was spontaneous, unfiltered, and so full of life, she was like the brightest of lights on the darkest of nights, outshining everyone and everything around her. He’d never met anyone so enthralling—or so infuriating—and it didn’t matter how long it took, he wasn’t about to give up on showing her how great they could be together.
“We got so sidetracked with Brody,” Emery said, pulling him from his thoughts. “I forgot to tell you that I saw my office at the resort. It’s perfect, and I love the color.”
Of course you do. It’s buttercup, your favorite.He wondered if she even remembered telling him that. He was mesmerized by her sleepy, breathy voice and her slightly Southern drawl as she told him about how, on Desiree’s recommendation, she’d designed flyers for her yoga practice while she was at the inn earlier and planned to put them out at local stores later in the week.
“I wish I knew where to go, but Des said just to hit every store along the main drag. That’s what they did for their shop. She already has tons of signups for next week when I start teaching, so I don’t even know how much promoting I need to do. But it can’t hurt, right?”
