Hewasscared of them. Lilly could tell. Flapping her arms, she chased the bird away before returning to him. “Don’t worry. I’ll protect you,” she said with a teasing grin.
He arched an unappreciative eyebrow. “I could’ve done that. I was just... waiting to see if it would be necessary.”
He wasn’t even attempting to sell the lie. He was laughing, too, and that made her like him even more. He wasn’t all that different from Steve, she realized—so real he could laugh at himself for being afraid of something as harmless as a bird.
“You’re funny, you know that?” she said.
He flexed for her. “Just so you know I’m also strong and masculine and perfectly capable of protecting you from... everything except birds.”
This time when she laughed, it felt perfectly natural to slide her arm through his as they continued to walk, which was such a rare thing for her—she couldn’t believe she was that comfortable with him. Jules felt like an older brother.
“So are you going to answer my question about Cliff and Charlotte?”
He glanced down at her arm. “Look at you—growing all confident and brave.”
She felt her face heat as she withdrew, but he reached over and put her arm back inside his. “I don’t know why he left her,” he said.
“You must havesomeidea,” she insisted.
“Other than that Cliff’s an asshole? I actually don’t.”
She let go to bend over and pick up another broken shell, which she transferred to the hand holding all the others. “What are the chances he’ll want to get back together with her?”
“Once he realizes what he’s lost, I’d say the chances are good. He’ll never find anyone better. But maybe he’s not even as smart as I think he is, in which case he’ll never realize it.”
“You really like Charlotte,” she commented.
He shifted his gaze to look out at the sea. “I know what kind of person she is.”
“Do you have a girlfriend?”
“Not right now.”
“Why not?”
His grin slanted to one side. “What woman would want a man who’s afraid of birds?”
“Yeah, that’s intolerable,” she said, joking back with him, and picked up another shell.
“Why are you only going for the broken ones?” he asked when he saw her stow it with the others.
“Just because something’s broken doesn’t make it worthless,” she pointed out.
Lines appeared on his forehead as if he might argue with her, but then they disappeared, and his smile grew easy again. “You’re wiser than your years, you know that?”
“I only had my mother.Oneof us had to be an adult,” she muttered and felt a little lighter when he chuckled as if he understood and found another broken seashell he handed to her.
chapter 20
The image of Sabrina that had emerged in Charlotte’s mind made Penny look like the best mother on the planet—so much so that Charlotte called her before going to bed. She’d also sent her and Don a few pictures of the villa, Praiano and Lilly, as she would have done already if she hadn’t been so torn about the latest developments in her life and her parents’ role in them.
Charlotte could tell how relieved they both were to be forgiven and she felt guilty for ever being angry with them. They’d faced a difficult decision and felt they’d made the right choice. Considering what she was learning about Sabrina, it probablywasthe right choice. Not many people had the kind of parents she’d had, biologically linked or otherwise, and she was determined to show a great deal more gratitude.
At least she seemed to be working her way throughthataspect of the mess her life had become. Anything was an improvement.
She’d just set her phone on the nightstand and curled up to go to sleep when her phone started to ring. Assuming her mother was calling back to say something she’d forgotten to get in before, she checked. But it wasn’t Penny; it was Cliff.
She’d been ignoring his texts. She didn’t know how to respond to him. Why wasn’t he out having the fun he’d been craving when he blew up their marriage?
