Sherryl Woods - Home to Seaview Key

“Those are meant to keep the kids away, though I doubt they pay much attention. I certainly wouldn’t have, back in the day,” Abby said. “You’re welcome anytime.”

He nodded. “Okay, then. I enjoyed tonight, Abby. Welcome back to Seaview Key.”

She watched him take off, his pace slower than the jog a few days before, but the view every bit as excellent. He was a man who looked as sexy in khakis as he did in swim trunks, a claim too few men could make, in her opinion. She sighed as he disappeared from sight.

“Stop it,” she ordered herself as she went inside to wash their cups and shut off the coffeemaker.

Working with him was going to be incredibly uncomfortable if she kept thinking about hauling him off to her bed. And if there was one thing she knew with absolute certainty about Seaview Key, it was that it was no place to have a careless fling. Gossip was plentiful and the ramifications could last for years.

* * *

“Abby looks great, don’t you think so?” Hannah asked Luke as they cleaned up the kitchen after their dinner party.

“I suppose,” Luke replied distractedly.

“I don’t think she’s aged a bit,” Hannah persisted, determined to press the point, though she wasn’t certain why she felt compelled to get an honest reaction from her husband.

He put the last of the leftovers into the refrigerator, then turned slowly. “Hannah, what’s going on? Are you thinking I’ll say something and give away some secret lust that Abby’s stirred in me?”

She winced at the direct hit. He’d voiced the fear that nagged at her. “Well, it’s always possible,” she said defensively.

Luke stepped closer, put his hands on her shoulders and gazed directly into her eyes. “No, it’s not. You’re the woman I love. Abby’s an old memory.”

“Who’s very much back in our lives.”

“As a friend,” Luke said. “But if even that’s going to worry you, we can keep some distance between us. You’ve done your duty. You’ve had her over. We can let it go at that.”

She frowned at his reasonable, accommodating tone. “And have everyone think I’m an insecure, mean-spirited shrew?”

He had the audacity to laugh at that. “Name one single person who’d ever think that about you. Everyone in this town loves you.”

“I’d think it,” she admitted. “That’s exactly what I’d think of me if I cut Abby out of our lives.” She sighed. “I’m such a mess.”

“But you’re my beautiful mess,” he said, pulling her close. “We’re solid, Hannah. What we’ve found is real and good and lasting, okay?”

She rested her forehead against his chest. “Okay,” she murmured softly, relieved to have it all out in the open, even if her insecurities didn’t speak well of her. “I love you, Luke. And though at times like this I can’t imagine why, I do know you love me.”

“Just hang on to that.”

She really intended to try. She pictured Abby with her perfect body, her stylish clothes and gorgeous hair and regretted that God had given her quite such a test of faith.

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