“Tana,” Sara gently scolded.
“Well, he is.” Something in the way she said those words sounded determined, like a plea to the universe. Tana grew quiet, more serious. “I want you to be happy.”
“I am happy.”
“Yeah, I know. You tell us that all the time, like you think we’re going to break if you don’t remind us on a daily basis.”
Shock prevented Sara from speaking. Is that what she’d communicated to her daughters?
“It’s okay. Lilly and I know you love us, and we love you. But it’s not the same as romance, is it?”
Sara looked down at her hands in her lap and had to admit the truth. “No. But I’ve never been really good at romance.”
“Because of your parents?”
Sara’s gaze went to Tana’s. “Did Ruby say something to you?”
“No.” Tana shrugged. “I just figured things out. Not hard to figure out your obsession with finding us the perfect dad must have something to do with yours.”
Sara shook her head back and forth slowly. “You’re like a wise old woman in a teenager’s body.”
“What did he do?”
Sara took a deep breath, realized that Tana was old enough to hear and maybe understand. “It wasn’t my dad. He was great. My mom left us when I was young. Dad did the best he could filling the gap.”
“But he wasn’t a mom.”
Sara gave Tana a sad smile. “No. I guess that’s why I’m so determined to be a good mom.”
“And why you watch all those old shows about perfect families?”
“Maybe. Mainly, it’s because those are the shows I watched with my dad. They’re comfort viewing.”
“Why did your mom leave?”
“I don’t know really.” Although her dad had always suspected there was another man in the picture.
Tana made a disgusted sound. “Does everyone have screwed-up parents?”
“It seems that way, doesn’t it? But there are good ones, too. That’s important to remember.” She turned toward Tana. “You, Lilly, me—we’ve all been through situations where parents let us down. That’s why I’ve wanted so much to make our family happy and full of love.”
“We’re happy. But this dad stuff—if he stops being a jerk, I’d rather have Adam than one of those dudes on the shows you watch. Nobody’s that perfect. And if they were, I couldn’t stand them.” Tana wrinkled her nose, which made Sara laugh.
“Point taken.”
The sound of a car arriving in the driveway made Sara’s heart rate kick up.
Tana, who was closer to the window, looked outside. “Your just-a-date is here.”
Sara rolled her eyes at Tana as she headed for the door into the hall. She stopped and turned back toward her oldest. “You know that even Adam might not work out, right? I don’t want you to get your hopes up too high.”
“Whatever you say,” Tana said with a smug, know-it-all look on her face. She might as well have said she did, indeed, think Adam was the one for Sara.
As Sara headed out to meet Adam, she couldn’t deny she hoped Tana was right.
GIDDINESS MADE IT impossible for Sara to stop smiling. The feel of Adam’s gentle touch at the small of her back as they weaved their way among the blankets already spread across the grass of Lakeview Park made her skin tingle. He’d surprised her by his choice of movie night in the park for their date, but she had to admit he’d scored big romantic points for it.
They found a spot near the edge of the grassy area next to a palm tree. Adam spread their blanket out while she held the picnic basket he’d brought along but hadn’t let her peek into.
Her stomach growled.
Adam grinned. “Glad to know you’re hungry.”
Sara’s face flushed. “Busy day. Didn’t have time to eat much.” Okay, so she’d been way more nervous than she should have been after seeing him and unable to eat more than a few bites here and there, but he didn’t need to know that.
“Busy, huh?” Drat the man for sounding like he knew the truth behind her fib.
They settled on the blanket, and Sara finally got to see what was inside the wicker basket. Adam pulled out minisandwiches of several different types, chopped vegetables with dip, chilled bottled water and brownies.
“You make this?”
“You’d better hope not,” he said. “I’m the king of takeout.”
“Oh, good to know I won’t get food poisoning.”
They ate as the movie screen started to flicker. When the title of the movie came up, she nearly choked on a tiny chicken salad sandwich. The Perfect Man starring Heather Locklear as a single mom and Hilary Duff as the teenage daughter trying to find her mom the perfect guy. Either Tana could pull strings with the tourism commission, or fate had an enormous sense of humor.
She’d seen the movie before, but watching it beneath the stars with Adam, nibbling on picnic food, smelling the incoming sea breeze—it was easily the best birthday she’d ever had.
When they’d finished their sandwiches and veggies, Adam pulled something else from the recesses of the picnic basket. As she watched, he placed a candle in the top of one of the brownies, lit it and held it out to her.
“Happy birthday.”
“How did you know?”
“I have my ways.”
“I bet your ‘way’ happens to have white hair and live across the street from me.”
As she stared at the brownie, her heart swelled at the simple and thoughtful gesture. She leaned forward and kissed him lightly on the lips, only pulling back when she realized the flame was dangerously close to the front of her dress.
“Ack, I’m about to set myself on fire.” She lowered her head and blew out the candle, wishing, unrealistically, that this night would never end.
As they ate their brownies, Adam wrapped his arm around her and guided her to his side. He leaned against the trunk of the palm tree, and she cuddled up next to him, soaked up his delicious warmth as they watched the movie. When Chris Noth extended a rose and said, “There is such a thing as perfect, and it’s out there,” Sara truly felt for the first time that she had already found it.
As if he knew what she was thinking, Adam kissed the top of her head, then shifted so he could kiss her temple. A moment more and his lips were on hers. Warm, soft yet firm, and so very nice. Sara let herself sink fully into the kiss, her birthday present to herself.
When the kiss ended, he smiled down at her and said, “Happy birthday.”
She smiled back. “You said that already.”
“What, there’s a limit?”
“No, I guess not.”
“Good, because I think I might have a few more birthday wishes in me.”
Sara’s heart rate kicked up again at his words. All birthdays should be this great.
As the credits of the movie started to roll and the people around them began folding blankets, Adam whispered in her ear. “You ready to get out of here?”
No, she wasn’t. She didn’t want to go home, didn’t want this night to come to a close. Some need she’d been ignoring for a long time roared to life within her. Maybe the night didn’t have to end just yet.
Her nerves sparked like electricity gone wild as they gathered their things and walked back to his car. When he opened her door for her, she swallowed the nervousness threatening to overtake her and turned to face him.
“This is the best birthday I’ve had in a long time,” she said.
He smiled that sexy, flirty smile of his. “Be careful, you might make my ego go supersize.”
“It’s a chance I’m willing to take.”
His expression changed. He didn’t really look serious, but his playfulness stepped aside and showed a bit more of the man beneath.
“I’m glad. I had a good time, too.” He lowered his lips to hers again, this time in a kiss so tender it caused her heart to expand and reach for him.
All of her senses were heightened. She felt every nuance of the kiss, every movemen
t of Adam’s hands on her back, every thumping heartbeat in her chest. When they parted for air, she tamped down her normal caution.
“Would you like to come back to my place for some birthday cake?”
She wanted much more than to feed him cake and he probably knew it. But no matter how daring she tried to be, she wasn’t the type of woman to come right out and invite him home for sex. It was hard enough to even accept that she was willing to have sex with him, knowing that despite how perfect he’d felt tonight he might not be the best man for her.
Why wasn’t he?
The question stopped her, made her examine who Adam Canfield was outside of a guy who flirted with tremendous regularity and who eschewed responsibility as if it was the Ebola virus.
He was a guy who bought her daughter a kite just because he thought she’d like it. He was a guy who gave her the most romantic birthday of her life. Maybe Ruby and Tana were right. Maybe her idea of perfect wasn’t realistic. Maybe perfect was holding her in his arms right now.
With a final kiss, he ushered her into the car. But as soon as he got in and pulled out of the lot, he reached across and wrapped her hand in his. Warmth curled its way up her arm and throughout her body, the kind of warmth that made the world take on a shiny new glow.
Her nervousness threatened to dim the glow, however, when they reached her driveway. Was she making a mistake?
Stop second-guessing yourself.
She kept that mantra running through her mind as she got out of the car, unlocked the front door and led him to the kitchen. She hadn’t been in the kitchen more than fifteen seconds when her phone signaled she had a text message. Who would be texting her this late? If it was Tana, she was so grounded.
But it was from Ruby. Girls are asleep. Just get them in the morning.
Hmm. Sara only half believed her neighbor’s claim. She had a sneaky suspicion Ruby had seen Adam come inside with her and wanted him to spend the night. She didn’t know whether to scold Ruby or thank her.
She glanced up and met Adam’s eyes, eyes that held desire in them. If they delivered on the unspoken promise, she’d be forced to thank Ruby in the morning.
She smiled as she turned toward the fridge to retrieve the cake. When she had her back to him, she texted a response. OK.
As she started to open the refrigerator, Adam came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. His breath warm next to her ear, he whispered, “I’m not hungry for cake.”
Chapter Eleven
Sara held her breath, aware this was her point of no return. The thought of tumbling into bed with Adam flushed her skin and sent yearning surging through her.
“Me neither,” she said, then turned toward this man who kept surprising her.
His mouth captured hers the moment she faced him, hungrier this time. He groaned as his hands slid up her back and pulled her closer—close enough that she felt the physical effect she was having on him.
That knowledge fueled her own passion, and she deepened the kiss even more. Somehow, they moved away from the fridge and she kicked it closed with half a thought and started leading him, their mouths still tasting each other, down the hall toward her room.
Adam’s hands, strong hands with long fingers, slid up her neck and into her hair, urging her mouth closer to his own.
A sense of urgency followed them, like they were both determined to feel the other but afraid the other would back out before skin met skin. Desire licked at Sara like bright, intoxicating flames, waiting for her consent to burst into a full conflagration.
“You’re sure?” Adam rasped as if it took all his willpower to ask the question.
The fact he would ask when he was so heavily aroused knocked aside whatever lingering doubt might have been lurking in Sara’s mind. She wasn’t sure she could speak, so instead she took a step away and, before she could think herself into backing out, lifted her dress over her head.
When she tossed it aside, she noticed Adam staring. Self-consciousness assaulted her as she looked down at herself.
“What?”
Adam closed the distance between them and ran his fingertips over the part of her breast exposed above her bra. “You’re beautiful. And I want you, now.”
Sara knew the feeling. She tugged his shirt from the waistband of his jeans. “Then you’re going to need to get rid of this.” When he whipped off the shirt and flung it aside, she ran the tip of her index finger along the inside of the top of his jeans. “And these.”
He leaned forward. “Why don’t you help me?”
Her nerves crackled as she reached for the button on his jeans and worked it loose. The nervousness made her hesitate, but then Adam’s hands were there, helping her lower his zipper so slowly she thought she might scream. Before the jeans came off, however, Adam pulled her close and kissed her again. First her lips, then her cheek, moving to the lobe of her ear and trailing down her neck to the swell of her breasts.
Sara’s hands went to the back of Adam’s head, her fingers snaking through his hair, pressing him closer. Those wonderful hands of his slid under her bra and flicked open the clasp. Then they moved down to the waistband of her panties, and started sliding them down as he captured one of her breasts in his warm, wet mouth.
Sara’s body spasmed with pleasure and demanded more. So much more. She shoved her hands inside his jeans, and he got the message. A few more heated moments and they were both naked and falling back onto the bed, a tangle of limbs and crazy desire. Sara’s ability to think was so occupied with physical sensation that she barely recognized the sound of a foil wrapper ripping before Adam was there, above her, looking down at her in the half dark.
“This is what you want?” he asked, looking like he might die if she said no.
Something about the expression on his face, a sort of unexpected hopefulness, had her thinking that he didn’t always ask this before making love to a woman. She tried not to examine the thought too closely, to assign it too much meaning.
“Yes,” she said and captured his mouth for another kiss. She couldn’t get enough of those kisses, like they were some exotic delicacy she was helpless to resist.
Even though they’d been touching a lot tonight, Sara was totally unprepared for the feel of Adam’s body next to hers with nothing between them. If she’d known it would make her feel more alive than she’d felt in her entire life, she would have caved the first time he’d flirted with her. So she was glad she hadn’t known, because now she’d discovered there was more to him than what he often showed the world around him.
He was a man to whom she could lose her heart if she wasn’t careful.
If she hadn’t already.
With Adam’s next movement, Sara’s thoughts fragmented like lovely shattered glass into single impressions. The feel of Adam’s back muscles moving under her hands. The warmth of his breath as it moved across her skin. The sounds of pleasure coming from them both. And finally the tightening of her own muscles, as well as Adam’s entire body, as they reached the peak of their lovemaking.
Adam sank beside her, his mouth next to the crook of her neck. “That…was…” He sounded like he could barely breathe, and that made Sara smile as she supplied a word to finish his sentence.
“Awesome.”
“Yeah.”
She ran her hand over his sweat-slickened back, loving the feel of those sinewy muscles. How could a guy who sat on a pier or a bar stool all the time stay in such good shape? Did he have a gym at home? Did he run? Both things seemed at odds with what she knew about him, but then hadn’t she been discovering he was more than what first met the eye? And he’d been in the army, where fitness had probably been drilled into him.
“Happy birthday,” he said and kissed her neck.
It certainly was.
ADAM SAT ON THE SIDE of Sara’s bed, watching her sleep. Even with her hair tousled, she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. How had he not realized that the first time he’d seen her? And it wasn’t just her
physical beauty that attracted him. It was her dedication to being a good mother to two little girls who might have otherwise been lost. The way she’d made love to him like she didn’t have any doubts about him, like he was the best thing to ever walk into her life. Even that part of her that urged her to be selfless, to put her life on the line for others if need be.
He admired it all. Maybe he even loved it all.
And it all scared him half to death.
He needed to get away for a little while, make sure he wasn’t making a mistake—for both of their sakes. She didn’t know he was damaged goods. He couldn’t help thinking that she deserved better. Sure, he was feeling less like a lone wolf these days, but could he really be the type of responsible, giving man she needed?
She might need time to reassess, too. Desire had gotten the better of them, but they both had to be sure before they took things any further. He didn’t want to hurt her or the girls again.
She stirred beneath the blankets, enough to make him want to forget his entire line of thought and crawl back into bed with her. He had the sneaky suspicion that he could make love to her a million times and it wouldn’t be nearly enough.
He watched as she opened her eyes. She looked sleepy as she smiled at him.
“Is it morning?”
“Technically. I better go before your girls wake up and you have uncomfortable explaining to do when they see my car still in the driveway.”
She lifted her head and looked at the clock, then back at him. “You don’t have to go yet.”
Dang the woman. She had to know how hard it would be for him to resist the invitation in her words. Rarely had he done anything more difficult. He lifted his hand to her cheek and caressed it with his thumb.
“If I get back in that bed, neither of us is going to make it to work on time.”
She smiled. “We could call in sick.”
He laughed. “Sara Greene, I think you have a little bit of wicked in you.” He smiled. “Not that I mind.”
Sara lifted herself to a sitting position, holding the sheet up to her chest. What a pity.
The Family Man Page 11
