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“Sometimes what you think you don’t need is exactly what you do need.” With his free hand, he shifted Lee against his chest, the baby eying the world around him with bright-eyed fascination. “The one you packed is too thick for the night temps this weekend. You’ll be miserable if you try to wear it.”
“Then I can—”
His light pop on her derriere stopped her protest, and he shook his head. “Trust me.”
After a few minutes of aimless browsing, they arrived at the register, and he grabbed a pair of bottles of the sunscreen she liked. The salesclerk made a fuss over Lee, cooing at him and receiving a wide smile and a stream of babbling in return while she rang up their purchases. Grinning, Tick reached for his wallet, extracting the card attached to his dog fund rather than their joint account.
“Tick.” She touched his wrist.
“Hey.” He held the card aloft before inserting it into the reader. “Boyfriend privileges, remember?”
The clerk swept a glance across his wedding ring and Lee, and Caitlin sighed, shaking her head. “You’re not my boyfriend.”
“Oh, I still am from time to time.” He winked at her and slid the card back into his wallet, then accepted their shopping bag from the clerk with that charming smile of his. “Trust me.”
The phrase remained one of his favorites and still made her want to smother him in his sleep.
“You’re ridiculous,” she muttered as they stepped away from the counter, but he only chuckled, holding the door for her to precede him.
Outside, he nudged her onto one of the benches lining the sidewalk and hunched down before her. He rifled through the bag for the anklet, removing the tag. Curving a hand around her calf, he rested her foot against his thigh and traced the bones in her ankle with a single fingertip. Muted sensation shimmered up her leg from the easy contact, and she pulled in a shallow breath, her gaze on his nimble fingers as he clasped the inexpensive piece around her ankle.
He flashed that grin at her, looking up at her from beneath the thick lashes their children had inherited from him, and her chest constricted. They’d been here before, in this moment, a few months before their wedding. He’d fastened a similar thread of leather about her ankle, smiled at her and called her precious, and she’d wanted him so much she could scarcely breathe.
Hope trembled through her. If they’d been there before, they could be again. She’d learned long ago how to get out of her own head, had overcome the conditioning of her past. She could do that again, overcome this emotional morass twisting her into someone she didn’t know.
No, not simply could do that again.
She must find her way once more.
In the carrier, Lee stretched with a grumbling cry, and Tick folded a hand over him. “Hey, what’s that about?”
“He’s hungry.” She leaned forward to release the straps and lift him into her hold. “We should get back.”
Before he straightened, Tick brushed a finger over her ankle again, then eased a stray lock of hair behind her ear. “We should.”
Keeping up a steady stream of conversation with an increasingly fussy Lee, she hurried the block or so back to the house. As they crossed the street to the driveway, Lee rubbed his face into her shoulder and launched his I’m-seriously-hungry wail, so her breasts tingled with the familiar sensation of let-down. She headed for the stairs, a faster route than waiting for the somewhat clunky elevator.
In the driveway at the rental next door, a pair of women near their age and both shorter than she was wrestled with a roof-top cargo carrier. Tick handed her Lee’s sling. “I’m going to see if they need help.”
With a quick nod, she hustled up the stairs, cradling her baby, now crying in earnest. Catching a glimpse of Tick unfastening the cargo carrier and handing objects down to their neighbors, she brushed a kiss over Lee’s hair while she punched in the code to unlock the door. Oh, patience was not this child’s virtue when he was hungry.
The living area stood empty, cartoon dialogue drifting down from the entertainment room upstairs. The panorama of glass doors offered a glimpse of Eleanor with her uncles and Callie on the beach.
Whispering soothing nonsense to Lee, she carried him through to their suite and out to the sheltered deck off their room, where fans and a cooling mist system joined with the ocean breeze to provide a calm and private nook to cradle her baby and nurse.
He settled quickly, nestling into her hold to suckle, a small hand flexing against the curve of her breast. She stroked his cheek and feathered a finger over his hair. “Is that better, gioia?”
She sank deeper into the cushions, feet propped on the edge of the coffee table, letting the rhythm of the waves soothe her. With a toe, she traced the line of that ridiculous anklet, smiling at how ridiculously happy the simple gift made her.
“You got everything unloaded already?” A sparkly female voice floated up from the pool deck next door. “That was fast.”
“This guy with a hot dad vibe from next door helped us.” Items clattered on the deck.
“Ooh, hot dad vibe?” A third woman chimed in, laughing. “That sounds interesting.”
“Hmm, he had a wedding ring and a very married vibe to go with it.” Ice rustled like someone fished through a cooler. “But he was definitely fantasy worthy.”
Well, she couldn’t argue with that. At least he wasn’t around to hear the conversation and have his arrogance stoked.
