“A week from Saturday. Levi’s fiancée flies into town tomorrow, and I should go ahead and warn you that it’s Mia Emerson.”
“Who’s that?”
Grace blinked at him. “Mia Emerson, the actress.”
He shook his head.
“Into the Deep?Twelve Hours?Lesser Days?”
“I’m more of a reader, I guess.”
“But the wedding’s top secret, because... paparazzi, so you have to keep it under your hat.”
“Paparazzi, top secret, got it. You know, we’re getting way off subject here. So, tomorrow night... Six o’clock work for you?”
“Tomorrow night, six o’clock.”
“It’s a date then.” His lips lifted in a grin, then he eyed her wound. “Now we’d better get that knee patched up.”
***
Darkness pressed in, the moonlight glowing dimly through the curtains in Wyatt’s room. Somewhere on the lake a boat’s motor hummed as it passed by. What were they doing on the water past midnight?
He turned on the mattress, the bed squeaking in a familiar way. Sleep wasn’t coming again tonight, but this time the blame fell on Grace.
The hike had been unsuccessful in one sense but highly productive in another. He hadn’t been lying when he told her he hadn’t planned the kiss. Conversely, he’d had every intention of keeping their relationship platonic for all the reasons he’d focused on since his arrival.
But sometimes a man just had to go with his gut. It didn’t make sense, Grace and him. But he’d never clicked with a woman the way he clicked with Grace.
And that kiss had all but sealed his fate.
He loved that she hadn’t tried to hide what she felt. She was so responsive, so genuine. Her ragged breath. That needy little gasp. The way her fingers tightened in his hair until his scalp stung. Like she was as surprised as he, as helpless as he, against the rising tide of want.
How could he shut it down after that kiss? How could he give up something he hadn’t known he’d needed until the moment his lips were on hers? He wasn’t one to throw caution to the wind, but he was going to spend time with Grace. He was going to know what made her tick. And he was going to kiss her again.
After bandaging her knee they’d returned to the business ofhiking, and he hadn’t kissed her again. As quickly as that first one had taken off, he decided he’d better slow things down.
Being with Grace soothed his soul. Thinking of Grace was like floating on water. Relaxing. Tranquil. Wyatt’s weight sank into the mattress, his eyes growing heavy as thoughts of Grace consumed him. And when he finally fell asleep, the nightmares didn’t come.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Grace and Molly hung back inside the inn while Levi went out to greet his fiancée. The sisters weren’t above a little eavesdropping through the front window, however. Mia’s flight had been delayed and, much to Levi’s chagrin, she was arriving only an hour before the girls’ dress fitting in Asheville. It had been three months since Levi and Mia had been together. She’d been on set in Vancouver filming her next movie.
Grace watched Mia unfold from the rental and get swept into Levi’s arms. She wore her usual disguise, a baseball hat and sunglasses, but the hat soon fell off and Levi removed the sunglasses as he took the kiss deeper.
“Go, Levi,” Molly said.
“I think I’ve seen enough.” Grace went to straighten her outfitter brochures at the front desk.
“I remember those days,” Molly said wistfully, still watching out the window.
Grace snorted. “You mean yesterday?” Molly and Adam might’ve been married for over a year now, but they were always touching. It was kind of sickening.
Molly dropped the curtain and gave Grace a sly grin. “You’re right. We’ve still got it. You’ll understand that kind of chemistry someday.”
Grace straightened the other brochures in the rack, heat climbing her neck as she thought of Wyatt and that kiss they’d shared yesterday. Talk about chemistry. She’d reviewed that lip-lock about a hundred times and was still dumbfounded. The kisses in her past had not prepared her for Wyatt. Not even close.
Molly sometimes read Grace snippets of her favorite romance novels, which Grace barely tolerated without rolling her eyes. She viewed the fictitious kisses as fanciful hype, drivel for hopeless romantics like her sister. But yesterday had turned that kind of thinking on end.
