“Well, you’re in for a treat then. I don’t know my right from my left anymore. Seems I’m not even responsible enough to put on sunscreen.”
“Close your eyes and press your lips together,” I say, my voice way softer than I expect. She quiets and does as I tell her, shifting slightly from foot to foot as I apply the aloe vera to her face. That mind of hers is going a mile a minute. The moment I finish, she starts talking again.
“I’ve always had my shit together. This is so unlike me. Getting this burnt is something one of my kids would do. Well, not Abby. She’s obsessed with skin care, so she’d never exit the house without using sunscreen first.”
“We all have our moments.” I sit on the edge of the bathtub and gesture for her to put her foot up on my thigh. Then I rub the cream over the burn on her legs. Her skin is really smooth, and it’s possible that my mind is wandering to inappropriate places right now.
“I keep thinking about Archer telling you he’s glad his dad isn’t around.” She shakes her head and changes legs when I tap her other knee. “I’m so saddened by that. I thought I was doing the right thing all these years, keeping the family together and placating everyone. But now I’m thinking that maybe I forced us all to live a lie… and I’m so confused. I mean, did I choose wrong in the beginning, or did things change as we grew older? He seems pretty much the same, actually, so maybe I changed. Or maybe my looks faded too much and…”
It isn’t until I place my hand with the cool cream against her stomach that she reacts to my touch and meets my eyes. It’s kind of strange, because I’m aware that she’s messed up over some other guy, and I’m here rubbing cream on her like it’s nothing and suddenly it is something. We lock eyes and I see the moment when she registers the intimacy of what’s happening right now. Her pupils get darker, and her breathing changes a little, deepening as I take my time covering every millimetre of skin on her stomach.
“Your looks didn’t fade, Darcy,” I say, fully expecting that the words will be the defining moment, where we recognise there’s more attraction than friendship and start doing something about it. But that’s not what happens at all.
Instead, I’m met with laughter as Darcy looks at herself in the mirror, points at her face and says, “I look like a candy cane.”
Standing up, I let the moment fall away as I wash the cream off my hands. “You’re about a month too late for it,” I say, grinning as our eyes meet in the mirror.
She laughs even more. “Maybe I’m just really early.”
“Maybe.” I grab a towel and dry my hands.
“It’s going to peel and I’ll look like a leper.”
“You’ll rock the leper look.”
She gives me the side-eye and purses her lips. “I don’t even think one of those models you date could rock that look.”
I lift my brow. “You’ve googled me?” Of course she has.
The only way I know she’s blushing is because she looks away and the white part of her face turns pink. “Gotta even the playing field. You already knew so much about me.”
“It wasn’t just to look at my pictures?” I tease.
She somehow manages to get redder. “I did it before I came back here. You have to know who you’re letting around your kids. Archer has a thing for you.” She shrugs and I don’t know whether to grin or feel affronted. We only spoke recently about the shit Tash put me through after our divorce, and she acted as though she knew nothing. Those articles are still first-page results.
“Is that part of the reason you wouldn’t talk to me when you came back? You were afraid the things Tash said about me were true?”
Her eyes go wide. “What? No. No, not at all. I read your wiki page and looked at your pictures. I don’t ever read those gossip rags. I like facts and they thrive on bullshit, so I figure if there’s nothing in a legitimate news source, it’s nothing of concern and to be honest”—she lets out her breath—“I was mainly just perving on your pictures.” She drops her eyes like admitting that is a bad thing. “You’re really good-looking.”
The tension falls from my chest and I’m suddenly smiling again, wanting to hug her and let her take all the pictures she wants. Hell, I’ll even get naked for them. “Give me your phone number.”
Her eyes meet mine, surprised by my response. “What?”
“I want your mobile number.”
“Um, it’s…” She rattles off her digits and I nod as I commit them to memory.
“You don’t want to write that down?” Her voice is breathless, and I want to kiss her so badly right now.
“I’ve got it,” I say, tapping my head.
“Oh, that’s a good skill to have. I have to use the same password for everything and I can barely keep that straight. Um, what do you want my phone number for? We live right next door.”
Pulling some hair that has stuck to her cheek free, I tuck it behind her ear. “So, I can send you pictures.”
Her mouth forms an O and her pupils grow larger, her breathing more rapid. “What, um… what kind of pictures?”
I lean close so my lips are brushing against her ear. “The kind you can touch yourself to.”
“Holy fuck,” she breathes out, her hand pressing against her chest. She’s breathing so rapidly now, and I’m sure there’s a delicious wet pool of arousal gathering between her legs. I have to close my hands into fists to resist the urge to reach out and discover the truth for myself.
“I like you way more than a friend should like a friend, Darcy Field.” I’m getting hard for her and fuck if I can care enough to hide it.
Her eyes flick down and she swallows hard before closing her eyes. “God. This is way too soon,” she whispers, as if saying those words is actually painful.
“I know it’s too soon.” I stand close and slide my fingers down the length of her spine and she shudders, her full lips parting as she places her hands against my bare chest. “I can’t stop wanting you, Darce. Can’t stop thinking about you.” I’m not being gentle. I’m not being patient. I want her so much my gut aches. It’s taking everything I have not to take her right here—and I’m primarily holding back because I’m mindful of her sunburn. I know nothing is going to happen, but fuck, I want it to. She needs to understand what being near her does to me. We don’t have to act on it now, but I need her to comprehend the size of my hard-on for her.
Her breath catches and she looks away, although she doesn’t stop touching me. In fact, she digs her fingers in, holding on harder. “It would be so easy to give in to this.” She releases a sigh. “But my kids, Leo. I can’t be selfish with the way things are. I’m sorry. This is just… it’s bad timing.”
“Then I’ll keep waiting until the timing is right.”
She looks at me and searches my eyes, her brow knitted. “Why?”
I shrug. “Because I want you and I’m willing to wait until I can have you. Do I need more of a reason?”
“Yes,” she whispers.
“I’m happier when I’m around you. You make me feel hopeful again. I think you’re beautiful.”
“I’m a mess.”
“A beautiful mess.”
She presses her lips together. “You can’t really think that, Leo. I am nothing like those other girls.”
“What girls?”
“The ones in your photos online. The women you normally go for. Even your son was shocked you’d choose someone like me.”
“Niall was an arsehole that morning. He’s never even seen a woman in my apartment, so he was speaking out of his arse. Those photos? That time in my life…it was vacuous. No real emotions, no substance. I’m not that man anymore. I haven’t been for years. I want… I want substance, Darcy. I want you.”
She shakes her head and laughs. “You think I’m substance?”
“Yes. I do. And if you don’t think you are then that’s a problem with your own self-worth, not with what I find valuable.”
She stares at me for a moment with curious and intense eyes.
“You know,” I start, taking a breath before I run my teeth over my lips. “Sometimes, you meet someone and you click. It may not make a lot of sense at the time, but it feels right. This—you and me—it feels right, Darcy. Am I wrong?”
“Leo.” She moves her fingers against my chest, playing with a scar I got after a rough day on the field, and looks into my eyes. I can see her fight. Can she trust me? Even though I’ve been nothing but straight with her since the day we met, I understand why trusting me is hard.
“Tell me I’m wrong.”
She hesitates then closes her eyes and says, “You’re not wrong. The timing is.”
I place my hands over hers and hold them to my chest. “There’s this event I have to go to—”
“You know I can’t go on a date with you, Leo.” There’s so much struggle in her voice.
“Just hear me out before you say yes or no. There’s an event. It’s in August, an awards night I have to present at. I want you to go with me.”
“You’re asking me to an event that isn’t happening for seven months?”
A grin pulls up one side of my mouth. “You think you can be ready by then?” I let my eyes wander over her sunburnt face and she rolls her eyes.
“What if this is simply hormones and we hate each other by then?”
“It’s not hormones.”
“What if?”
“Then we won’t go. Simple.”
“Simple? So why ask me now? Why not wait until then?”
“Because I need you to understand that I see us together in the future. I’m not going anywhere. I’m here and I’ll wait for when you want me.” God, I need her to feel the same.
She closes her eyes. “You know I want you, Leo. It just isn’t as easy as what I want.”
I lean in and press a chaste kiss to the tip of her nose. She smells like a health food store from all the aloe.
“It never is.”
“OK,” she says with another sigh, placing her hands on either side of my face then lowering them down to her side again. “We have a date in seven months. But if I don’t think the kids can handle that, you’ll have to take some pretty young thing you know from your regular life.”
“This is my regular life, Darcy, and you are the pretty young thing. I’d rather go stag than take someone else.”
Her expression softens slightly. “I’ll accept the pretty—despite my current state—but I am not young.”
I shrug. “Younger than me. Is that a yes?”
She takes a deep breath as she moves her head from side to side then laughs a little. “OK. It’s a yes.”
“Yes,” I say, grabbing the back of her hair as I plant a kiss on her cheek. Except it doesn’t land on her cheek, because she turns at the wrong moment and I catch the side of her mouth. We share a split second of surprise. Then our bodies take over, lips colliding, teeth clashing and fingers grabbing. I have her up on the vanity with her legs wrapped around me before I even comprehend what we’re doing.
“This doesn’t feel like friends,” she gasps as I unhook the back of her swimsuit and it falls down her shoulders.
“We were never just friends.”
Beep, beep. Beep, beep.
I freeze. Fuck.
Archer.
“Archer,” she whispers against my mouth as I stop the beeping of my alarm. I slide the straps of her suit back up to her shoulders, careful not to aggravate her sunburn more than I already have.
“Yeah. Time to go get him.” As much as I don’t want this moment to stop, I’m not about to ignore a little kid when I promised to pick him up.
She reaches behind herself and clips her swimsuit up. “It’s OK. I will. I should—”
“Have you seen your face?” I start to laugh.
She closes her eyes. “Oh shit. You’re right, I can’t go out in public like this.”
“I’ll meet you back at yours?”
She nods then worries at her lips with her teeth.
“You OK?”
“Yeah.” She frowns. “It’s just, we’re not very good at this waiting thing, are we?”
A laugh bursts from my chest. “No. Our self-control could do with some work.”
“I feel very out of control around you,” she agrees.
“Perhaps we can be good at being careful instead?”
While she’s still frowning, she also nods. “Yeah…I don’t know how that will look, but I think maybe…perhaps we should only be around each other when no one else is. That might be best. Or maybe we should only be around each other when there are other people. I’m not sure which.”
Pressing my lips against her forehead, I grin. “We’ll work it out.”
She wraps her arms around my waist and lets out a sigh. “I hope so,” she whispers.
I leave to get Archer with my chest full of hope. Our defining moment is a sunburnt kiss.
TWENTY-FOUR
LEO
“Let me guess.” Archer sees me waiting for him and places his hands on his hips. “They’re both drunk.” He rolls his eyes and shakes his head, disgusted. I let out a small laugh and hold my hand out for his backpack.
“Nah, man. Your mum spent a little too much time in the sun and your Nana is still having fun with her friends.”
“Drinking nipples.” His response is just loud enough to attract the attention of some mothers who are also picking up their kids from holiday club. One shoots me daggers, but another snickers and keeps her kids moving. It’s time to get out of here.
“Come on, big guy. We’re walkin’.”
“Your kid’s cute,” some woman says to me as I’m opening the door. I don’t know whether she’s a mum or one of the workers, so I nod and say thanks.
“Why’d you say I’m your kid?” Archer asks as we walk along the footpath. He slips his hand into mine and scuffs his feet on the concrete. I miss this age. I remember when Niall couldn’t go anywhere without holding hands. Now he barely wants to stay in the same room as me.
“I didn’t say you were my kid. I just didn’t correct her because I didn’t know who she was.”
“She’s the girl who makes the sandwiches.”
“She works for the holiday camp?”
He starts jumping from crack to line, his little body tugging on my arm as he leaps. “Yeah. She said that she knows how to make ham and cheese and that I didn’t have to tell her how. But she put too much butter on, and the cheese was too small for the bread. I don’t think she’s very good at her job.”
“I guess she makes them the way she likes them.”
He stops jumping and starts hopping. “I guess so. Does your knee still hurt?”
“Only when I get up in the morning.” It aches most of the time, actually. But it’s been a problem for so long, I’m used to it.
“What about when you’re walking?”
“A little. But that’s why I wear this brace. It helps with the hurting.”
“Nana said you need an operation for it. Is it because I knocked you over?”
“No, mate. I hurt it when I used to play football.”
“Oh, so it’s not because I hurt you.” He looks at me, his eyes hopeful. I realise that he’s actually been worried that he might be responsible for some long-term damage. Darcy might not feel it most of the time, but she’s obviously a brilliant mum.
“Not at all.”
“Because I’m sorry, you know. I didn’t mean it.”
“I know that. You were just having fun. But maybe keep the tackling to the footy field, huh?”
“I’m not al
lowed to play football. Mum says only meatheads play football and she doesn’t want them to put meat in my head.”
I grin. “That’s what she says?” I would never have picked Darcy for a jock-hater.
“Yep. And Dad hates all sport. He only likes computer games, and he swears at them a lot.”
Every piece of information I get on this guy is painting a picture of a man who deserves to be taken down a dark alley. And not with friends.
“Do you like playing computer games?” I ask, trying to keep things neutral. I’m not going to engage in any sort of negative conversation about the kid’s father. Even if I do think the guy’s a douche. I mean, who treats a woman like Darcy and two fantastic kids, who obviously love him to death, like he did?
“There’s this game called Roblox that’s really fun.”
“What’s that about?”
We stop for ice cream and talk about block-shaped people and ‘OP’ weapons for the rest of the way home. It makes me miss my own son even more. I could have had this. Fuck, Tash.
“ARCHIE.” Abigail rushes across the side street just before we turn onto Beach Road. Normally we’d use the deck entrance, but Archer wanted to help his nana by checking the mailbox.
We stop and face her direction, waiting until she reaches us. “Where are you going with him?” Him being me, I assume, since she inclines her head my way but doesn’t even acknowledge me. When Niall saunters up behind her, hands in pockets and gives me a nod, I understand why. Great. He’s obviously been telling Abigail what an awesome dad he thinks I am.
“To check the mail. Where are you going with him?” Archer shoots back, and I have to fight a grin.
“Home,” she says. “You should come too.” She holds her hand out to Archer and glances at me, distrust in her eyes. Jesus.
“But I wanna check the mail.” Archer squints up at her.
She leans in close, but speaks loud enough that I can hear. “You can’t just pick some random guy to stand in for Dad, Archer. It’s weird.”
Love is a Beach: a romantic comedy Page 16
