Page 46 of Love At The Shore
“Why don’t I drive you?” Lucas nodded toward his Jeep, parked beside the van.
Jenna froze.
So now they were the sort of neighbors who rode to concerts in the park together? It felt too much like a date.
She knew it wasn’t.Obviously.But still…
The thought of riding together made her feel jittery and nervous for reasons she didn’t want to contemplate, so she seized upon the first excuse she could find.
“You want us to ride inthat?” She pointed at the Jeep.
The vehicle didn’t even have a roof. Plus the entire backseat was occupied by one of his many surfboards. It was a legitimate concern.
“Mmm-hmm.” Lucas nodded.
“Cool! Can we?” Ally and Nick begged in unison. “Please?”
“I mean, does that thing even have seat belts?” Jenna countered.
But she knew when she was outnumbered.
Minutes later, she was sitting beside Lucas in the front seat of the Jeep as they crossed the island bridge toward the park. Tank was tucked in between Nick and Ally in the back, wearing the seashell collar the kids had made him a few days ago. Jenna felt uncharacteristically wild and carefree. A sea breeze whipped through the Jeep, tossing her hair and her thoughts into a whirl.
I was right. This doesn’t feel like a date. It feels more like…afamily.
“This is awesome,” Ally said, shouting above the wind.
“Okay, this is pretty cool.” Jenna’s smile was so wide that her cheeks ached.
And then she remembered the night of Lucas’s bonfire and all the young, pretty girls whose smiles had been just as bright—most notably Kayla. She’d taken Jenna’s place beside Lucas as if she belonged there, and every time Jenna saw them together, she couldn’t help but wonder if they’d ever dated.
Meanwhile, five minutes in Lucas’s Jeep had her fantasizing about a happy, beachy family life. Maybe she needed to build a fence around her daydreams instead of the patio.
“Not as bad as you thought?” Lucas grinned at her from the driver’s seat.
Her heart did a foolish little tumble. “No. Not bad at all.”
She almost wished she could say otherwise.
For as long as Lucas had lived at Tybee, pretty much everyone on the small barrier island gathered in Memorial Park on Thursday nights for free concerts.
Every week, a different band from one of the surrounding cities in Georgia took the stage while concert-goers lounged in the grass on blankets. Beneath the dramatic limbs of the oak trees, they snacked on items from the surrounding food trucks and swayed to and fro to the music. As fun as it was, it didn’t really seem like Jenna’s thing. Then again, he hadn’t thought volleyball was her thing either, and he’d been wrong about that.
As she sat beside him in the Jeep, grinning from ear to ear, he came to a profound realization. Despite all her rules and regulations, Jenna Turner was full of surprises.
He smiled quietly to himself as he pulled into the gravel lot beside the park. Lucas rather liked surprises.
They piled out of the Jeep and headed toward the picnic area. Lucas had never come to a summer concert with an entourage before—certainly not an entourage that included children. He wasn’t sure whether he should sit with his neighborly trio or go his own separate way. After all, it wasn’t adate.He’d simply given them a ride.
But Nick remained glued to his side, even when he paused to let Tank sniff a few trees. The kid was obviously starting to look up to him, which should have been his cue to cut and run. He was completely out of his depth. Maybe if his own dad had ever taken him to the park when he was Nick’s age, he’d know what to do or how to act.
Strangely enough, though, Lucas didn’t mind Nick’s admiration. Maybe it had something to do with the bag of Rice Krispies Treats Lucas polished off with his coffee earlier this morning.
Maybe it also has something to do with Nick’s mother.
“So do you think you might have time for another lesson?” Nick said.
The question was a welcome distraction from the dangerous trajectory of his thoughts. He could sense mouse ears looming in the periphery.
