Sarah Morgan - First Time in Forever

“I was hoping the same thing.” He was all charm as he reached out and took her arm. “All ready for tonight, Hilda?”

“I might have a problem with transportation because the doctor told Bill he shouldn’t be driving for a few weeks.” She looked at him hopefully, and Ryan didn’t disappoint.

“What time are you planning on leaving? Seven?”

“Perfect. Will you drop me home afterward?”

He laughed. “You think I’m in the habit of leaving my date stranded?”

“You’re a good boy, despite all the rumors.” She patted his arm. “I hear all sorts of stories about all-night parties at the Ocean Club, but I try not to listen.”

Boy? Startled, Emily looked at the stubble that darkened Ryan’s jaw and the lazy, sleepy eyes. She saw nothing of the boy in him, only the man. She wondered what the rumors were.

Women, no doubt.

With a man who looked like that, it had to be women.

“You’re talking about Daisy’s twenty-first birthday party. It didn’t last all night, but it’s true that the sun was coming up.”

“I heard she was wrapped like seaweed around the Allen boy.”

“Is that right?” It was clear that if he knew, he wasn’t telling. “If anyone else needs a lift tonight, let me know.”

Emily liked the fact he wasn’t prepared to reveal someone else’s secrets.

As someone currently guarding a big secret, it reassured her.

Hilda glanced around and then stepped closer to him. “This month’s book was a shocker. It was Agnes’s choice.”

He looked amused. “You don’t surprise me. My grandmother enjoys shocking people.”

“True. I still remember the time she hired a nude model for our drawing class.” The woman’s face wrinkled into a smile. “We had better attendance that night than any other night in the history of our group. We had to paper over the windows to stop people peeping through the glass. This book was a step up from that.” She noticed Lizzy and lowered her voice. “There were naked people and spanking.” She gave him a knowing look, and Ryan’s eyes gleamed.

“Now I’m thinking I should join the group.”

“You can’t do that. No testosterone allowed.”

That would rule out Ryan Cooper, Emily thought. He was surrounded by a force field of testosterone.

“This is Brittany’s friend Emily,” Ryan said easily. “She’s staying at Castaway Cottage, and this is her niece, Lizzy.”

Hilda studied Emily closely. “I remember you. You’re one of Kathleen’s girls. You used to spend the summer here. You and the pretty blonde girl.”

Emily hadn’t expected anyone to recognize her. “Skylar.”

“Kathleen talked about the three of you all the time. ‘Hilda,’ she said, ‘those three are as close as sisters. They’d do anything for each other.’ You were the quiet one.” Hilda transferred her attention to Lizzy. “You’re going to love Puffin Island. You should take a boat trip to see the seals and the puffins. And don’t forget to visit Summer Scoop. Best ice cream in Maine and all organic. What’s your favorite flavor?”

Lizzy considered. “Chocolate.”

Emily felt something stir inside her.

Everyone knew the right way to talk to a child except her. They were easy and natural, whereas she used the same tone she used when presenting to a board of directors.

Miserably aware that she was only a few hours in to a responsibility that was going to last a lifetime, she watched as Ryan helped Hilda back across the street. If they were going to escape, this would be the perfect time.

She could walk to the store and do what she’d planned to do, stock up the cottage.

“Aunt Emily?” Lizzy was clutching the bear so tightly it seemed unlikely the stitching would survive.

Emily looked at the white knuckles and the lost expression on the child’s face.

She didn’t know anything about fairy wings or teddy bears, but she knew this.

She crouched down in front of Lizzy. “It must feel strange for you, being here without your—” cook, nanny, cleaner, mother? “—the people you know around you. It’s strange for me, too. It’s a new life for both of us, and it’s going to take a little while before it feels normal.” She didn’t admit how afraid she was that it would never feel normal for her. “We don’t know each other very well yet, so I won’t always know what you want unless you tell me. It’s important that you know you can ask me anything. Talk to me about anything. And if there’s anything you want, you just have to ask.”

Lizzy looked at her for a long moment. “I want waffles and chocolate milk.”

RYAN ORDERED AT the bar and exchanged a few words with Kirsti who ran the Ocean Club and had made herself indispensable in the short time she’d been with them.

“Who is she?” Kirsti passed the order through to the kitchen and then glanced across to the deck, where tables had views across the bay. “She’s pretty. Not in an obvious way, but in an interesting way. A little too innocent-looking for you, but it’s time you mended your wicked ways, so that could be good. I think she could be The One.”

Kirsti was obsessed with finding The One. It drove some people crazy. It made Ryan smile.

“It’s a big world out there. If there really was only one person for everyone, we’d all be single.”

“You are single. And you’re mixing up sex with relationships.” She selected a tall blue glass from the shelf. “A common mistake, particularly among the male sex, and the reason so many partnerships fail. You don’t only need someone who can rock your body, you need someone who can rock your mind.”

Ryan was fairly sure Emily would be able to do both, but Kirsti didn’t need encouragement, so he kept that thought to himself. “Sometimes sex is the relationship.”

“With you, sex is always the relationship. I bet you slap a page of terms and conditions in front of every woman you date.”

“I don’t, but it’s a good idea. I’ll run it past my lawyer.”

She gave him a reproving look. “You’re not funny.”

“I’m hilarious. You just don’t share my sense of humor.”

“Does anyone? But this is my point! You need someone who is going to hold your attention. Your eye might be caught by a double-D cup, but your cynical heart will be caught by something more complex.”

He glanced across at Emily’s eye-popping curves. “My attention is caught. There’s just one thing wrong. One thing that makes me completely sure she’s not The One.”

“Don’t tell me—the child.” With a sigh, Kirsti whipped up chocolate milk, added a straw and put the glass on the tray. “What do you have against children?”

“Nothing. I like children. I just don’t want to be responsible for one.”

“A bit of responsibility would do you good. Who is she, anyway?”

He knew all about responsibility, the sort that made you sweat and kept you awake at night. But Kirsti wasn’t an islander, so she wouldn’t know the details of his past.

“Friend of Brittany’s. She’s staying in Castaway Cottage.”

“I love that place. The garden is like something from a fairy tale.” Her eyes narrowed. “I think you might marry her.”

“Jesus, Kirsti, keep your voice down.” He was torn between exasperation and amusement. “For all you know, she’s already married.”

“She isn’t. And the child isn’t hers.”

“How can you possibly know that?”

“The way she behaves. She isn’t comfortable. It’s as if this whole thing is new to her, as if they barely know each other and she isn’t quite sure what her role is.”

Ryan thought about the text Brittany had sent.