Page 34 of Flirting with 40

“Then why are you sitting?”

“Because it’s my turn to make sure the fire dies down before we leave it.” Someone tosses a cup of water onto the fire, and it sizzles. “You cold?” he asks.

“I’m fine.”

“Come here,” he says and wraps an arm over my shoulders and pulls me against him. I freeze at first, my need to fight my attraction more ingrained than the resolve I have to go with the flow. But the heat of his body, the scent on his skin, and way his thumb keeps brushing back and forth over my shoulder makes me want to melt right into him. “Better?”

“Mm-hmm,” I murmur as I rest my head against his shoulder.

His friends finish packing up and say their goodbyes, and moments later, an engine revs to life before it fades into the distance. Then we’re left with only the crackling of the fire and the roar of waves as they land on the beach.

But there’s a comfortable silence between us, an ease as we soak in the atmosphere. We don’t talk about the part we have to begin to play tomorrow. We just sit and enjoy each other’s company without pressure or expectations.

“You were awfully quiet tonight,” Slade finally murmurs, the heat of his breath hitting the top of my head.

I shrug. “It was fun. Thank you for inviting me. They seem like a great bunch of people.”

“They are. I’m lucky to call them friends. I did see Prisha talking your ear off. She wasn’t spilling my deep, dark secrets now was she?”

I chuckle. “She may have told me what an awesome guy you are—”

“Clearly, I paid her to do so.”

“Clearly,” I say as her warning ghosts through my mind. As that charm of his pulls me under its spell and I’m left not wanting the night to end.

“Do you feel better about going on the retreat now that you know I’m not a serial killer and everything?”

“Much better,” I murmur. “I’m still not convinced others will buy it.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because we live in two different worlds.”

“And opposites attract.” His sigh fills the space. “You’re still hung up on the age thing, aren’t you?”

I open my mouth to speak and then close it, knowing how stupid it sounds when not a single one of his friends looked at me differently because I was older than them. Not once did they make me feel awkward. “I keep telling myself to go with the flow. That no one notices the age difference, but then I think how ridiculous Paul looks with Barbie on his arm, and I get hung up on it. Is that what people are going to see when they see you and me together?”

His silence is accentuated by the crashing of waves, and he tightens his arm around me. “I think they look ridiculous because they try too hard and because she wants everyone to know she’s landed what she thinks is a good catch, only we know different. I think that someone who is secure in their relationship doesn’t need to keep trying to prove to everyone else that they are.” He presses a kiss to the top of my head, and I tense at the connection—not because I don’t want it but because I don’t understand why it’s so natural to accept it from him. “Am I younger than you? Yes. Does it matter to me? I wouldn’t be sitting here if it did.”

“I didn’t mean to imply that . . . I don’t know what I meant,” I murmur, suddenly feeling stupid. I’m the one who’s older, who should be more mature, and yet, he’s the one showing me it doesn’t matter. None of it does. “I’m sorry. I came down here tonight determined to have a change in attitude, not to care what people think anymore—to be more like you, but I guess old habits die hard.”

“Don’t be like me, Blake. Be like you. Remember our to-do list?” He knocks his knee against mine.

“Yeah.”

“That doesn’t sound very convincing. You’re on a deserted beach with the moon above and a very handsome man at your side,” he jokes. “What more could you ask for?” He rubs his hand up and down my arm. “Let it go. Take the ride. Put your toes in the sand. Howl at the moon. Do whatever it is you want to do so long as it’s in pursuit of finding you again.”

I blink away the tears that well in my eyes. Sure, Kelsie told me similar things, but she’s my best friend, she’s obligated to say stuff like that. But he said it when he didn’t have to. He’s cheering me on like no one ever has.

I nod resolutely. “You’re absolutely right.”

“You’ve never spoken truer words,” he teases, and I hit him playfully as our laughs ring out.

And he is right.

Screw what people think.

My toes are in the sand, now I just need to find the courage to howl at the moon.