She looked up at him and nodded.
“Then, I consider it an honor to have bought these things for you. Look at it as my contribution to Operation Bring Back Charlie.”
Charlie couldn’t help but laugh. “I’m pretty sure you’ve already contributed to that more than you needed to. Besides...” The corners of her lips fell a little. “I’m not some charity case.”
“Never said you were, darlin’. Trust me, I’m doin’ this as much for me as for you. And I’m just gettin’ started.” He nudged her shoulder playfully and winked.
She didn’t really understand what he meant by that, but Charlie just smiled and moved on. No, she wasn’t looking for a handout, but it was nice having someone care for her the way Derek had been. Even if it was just as a friend.
Too bad he doesn’t want to be more.
Fearing that ship had already sailed, Charlie ignored the thought and got into his car.
It dipped as Derek sat behind the wheel. “You ready for this?” he asked with a grin.
More than you’ll ever know.
“Sure.”
Forty-five minutes later, they were aboard Marcia’s Dream, the cruising sailboat Derek’s father had bought and restored many years before.
It was forty-feet in length and had a small cabin equipped with a bed, bathroom, and a small kitchen-type area below.
Charlie had been on the boat several times as a young girl. On those rare occasions where her dad was either too drunk or too uninterested to care, he’d given her permission to come along with the Wests for a day out at sea.
Protective of his family—and her—Mr. West never traveled too far out, but Charlie remembered sitting on the bow watching the swimmers at the beach shrink smaller and smaller. Eventually, they’d be as small as tiny little ants.
“Having fun?” Derek’s deep voice broke through the pleasant memories.
Lying on her stomach across the bow, Charlie lifted her head and smiled. “Definitely. This is great, Derek. Just what I needed.” The beach towel she was on kept her from sticking to the boat’s slick surface.
“Good.” He beamed at her from behind the boat’s large steering wheel. “I figure we can hang out here for a while and then go back into town for dinner later.”
“Sounds perfect.”
Charlie closed her eyes and rested her head against her forearms. The warmth from the sun mixed with the fall breeze and the steady rhythm of the small waves nearly put her in a trance.
“I could do this forever,” she uttered lazily.
“Me, too. I love the water.”
She opened her eyes and looked back at him again. “You always did.”
Looking at the water surrounding them, he sounded almost in awe when he said, “There’s just somethin’ about it that always puts me at ease. Doesn’t seem to matter how stressed I am or what’s goin’ on in my life. I come out here, and it’s like it all gets washed away. At least for a little while.”
Charlie stared at him from behind her dark sunglasses. The man was seriously amazing to look at.
He wasn’t handsome in the classical sense. The hair on the top of his head was a bit long and always looked kind of messy, but somehow it worked on him.
His nose was slightly crooked from when he’d broken it back in high school, and Derek’s eyes were two narrow for what Hollywood would call gorgeous.
To Charlie, however, there was nothing better in the world to look at than those baby blues.
She lowered her gaze.Okay, almost nothing.
Even larger than they’d been when he’d left for BUD/s way back in the day, the muscles in his arms and chest moved in the most delectable way as he worked the large, metal ring.
Even his forearms were sexy as hell. All taut and sinewy. And his hands...she could only imagine the kind of pleasure they could bring if they were—”
