Page 10 of Beach Cottage Kisses
Chapter Three
Iris spent Sunday night lost in her photography. Sinking into a pair of deep brown eyes, surrounded by rings of brown fur in a bed of white that segued back to brown for the ears, she could almost forget the way Scott’s blue eyes had clouded just before he’d responded to her comment about Sissy. An introverted dog who was sweet, loving, loyal, eager to please and just not suited to public service.
That’s about the cruelest thing you can do to a person. Expect them to be different than they are.
She hadn’t been talking about people.
But he’d somehow thought she’d been referring to him. His comment had been so pointed, sounding emotionally driven, almost defensive.
Because of the damned kiss. A friendly peck he’d delivered at the end of a lovely, romantic, highly emotional and somewhat tough day. She’d responded like a lovesick schoolgirl.
Giving Scott a hugely wrong impression.
Working on the sky behind Lacey, the beautiful girl on the large monitor in front of her, Iris played with tinges of color, needing a softer tone to fully complement the warm soul of the King Cavalier. To make clear to the viewers the things Lacey had seemed to be saying to her as the canine had gazed into Iris’s lens that afternoon.
Maybe she could capture a photo of her own essence. Mail it to Scott. And transport them back to reality. Prekiss.
Because nothing had changed. Would ever change.Couldever change. She couldn’t promise to love and cherish, or to be someone’s everything for always. She’d done that once. And knew that life didn’t work that way. You got the present. The moment.
Nothing more. To pretend otherwise was life crushing. Permanently debilitating.
Not that she and Scott needed to get into all that. The fact that they were able to fill voidswithoutgetting into it was what made them work.
She’d found her own happily-ever-after. The one that was meant for her, that suited her, in walks on the beach. A friendly face and voice that was just there. Not waiting for her. Or expecting anything from her. But always welcoming her when she arrived.
And had assumed that Scott had found the same in her.
It wasn’t forever. That was a given.
But why lose it, if they didn’t have to yet?
They’d gone to a wedding. Been caught in some moments swirling with intense emotions. And then they’d left.
Sage’s wedding was a memory. Not a life changer.
Lacey’s gaze made everything so clear.
Because dogs didn’t bother with the vagaries of life. They lived in the moment. The only reality. Giving their best, accepting what bounties were given to them and moving to the next minute in which they did it again. All without questioning why. Or worrying about what came next.
Iris slept better that night, and, as usual, took Angel out for her walk on the beach the next day when she got home from an afternoon wandering the streets of San Diego,catching great everyday moments, as part of a job she was doing for the city’s public relations department.
And tried to tell herself that she was fine when Scott didn’t show up for their after-work sojourn.
* * *
Scott saw Iris on the beach. Purposely didn’t go out.
He’d had a long day in court—preliminary court hearings for a high-profile trial that was due to start the next week. He was prosecuting a woman for attempted murder after she’d sued her decorated-colonel husband for emotional distress, lost, in spite of the reams of proof of neglect that she had, was consequently sued for divorce and then hired someone to kill him before the divorce was final.
She had a team of high-priced attorneys attempting to bring in the previous civil case, with various arguments, all of which took a lot of research into former case files he could use as precedent to keep the evidence out of his trial.
He’d won some. Not all.
But the biggest loss wasn’t work related. Waiting until after dark to walk the beach left him and Morgan completely alone out there.
Without…anyone.
Granted, darkness fell early in winter months. Before six. He’d barely made it home before the sunset. Dale, Harper, some of the occupants of other cottages on the beach, weren’t even home yet. They’d all be out yet that night.
