“Just like that?” He sounds dubious.
“Just like that.” I frown. “Why are you questioning?”
He lifts a shoulder in a half shrug. “I don’t know. Back at your apartment, it sounded like you were going to turn me down.”
I so was.
“Shows what you know.” In truth,Ididn’t know until the words tripped out of me.
“Okay,” he says with a happy slap on the wheel. “Okay! Let’s do this, Sweets.”
We don’t say much more until he pulls into the massive beachfront parking lot that flanks the pier. It’s fairly empty and the SUV stands on its lonesome as we get out. I’m making an attempt to grab the sunscreen bottle when August hops out of the truck and rounds it with quick strides. He opens my door and captures my hand.
“Come here for a second.” That’s all the warning I get before he lifts me high and spins me around. I squeal both in surprise and pleasure. No one has swung me like this since childhood.
That August is doing it, smiling at me like I’ve made his year, his firm body pressed against mine, has my breath hitching. His neck is warm where I wrap my arms around for stability, and he smells so good, all I want to do is nuzzle in close and breathe. The whole thing flusters me so much, I get hot.
“Put me down,pazzo!” It comes out by rote because I don’tknow how to be this publicly free. Unfortunately, August immediately sets me down.
But he doesn’t let me go. His big hands rest on my waist as he grins down at me. “Pazzo?”
“‘Crazy’ in Italian.” The wind blows my hair in my face, and I swat it back. “Tu sei pazzo. You’re crazy.”
August groans and tips his head forward. “God, that sounds sexy.”
Flushed, I avoid his gaze and try to ignore the heat of his hands seeping through my shirt. “And here I thought you had a thing for grandma talk.”
He bites his bottom lip as his eyes light up. “Maybe you could combine them?” The suggestion sounds far too hopeful. “We can get you one of those long-ass pins they use to roll out pasta dough, and you can wave it at me while lecturing in Italian.”
“Maybe you should go to Bologna and spend some time with mynonna.”
“Will she make me pasta and those little almond cookies your mom always has at Christmas?”
“For you? Probably.”
“I am very charming when I try.” This is offered with a perfectly straight face. It makes me laugh, despite my best efforts.
“Yes, you are.”
His snicker is unrepentant, but, after giving my waist a squeeze, he lets it go. “Why’d you change your mind, because I know you did.”
Before I can answer, he holds up a hand. “Doesn’t matter. You said yes.” Again, that light comes in his silver eyes that makes my insides flutter and float. “That’s enough for me.”
“Okay.” It’s all I can come up with under the brilliance of his joy. But relief has me breathing a bit easier. Telling him why I’d said okay to hispazzoidea is a bit more than I’m ready to reveal.
He hasn’t moved away and doesn’t look as if he’s planning to.Whatever is going on behind those eyes has his brows drawing together in concentration. “Right, then.” That sharp focus shifts to me. “Let’s do this.”
“Okay but...” I reach into the open truck and grab the sunscreen that I’d dropped on the seat when August decided to have a celebratory whirl. “Lather up first.”
He blinks at me as though not understanding.
I shake the bottle enticingly. “Protection is key.”
The corner of his mouth quirks. “Usually when I hear this, I’m being offered a condom instead.”
“I’d like to think you wouldn’t need reminding of that,” I say primly. No, I am not going to picture him in that situation. No, thank you.
He takes the bottle. “Joking, sweet Penelope. I am a safety guy through and through.”
