Cindy Miles: About That Kiss

“I’ll just go help Dad, Jep and Willa,” Nathan said, and left Sean to Emily’s caretaking.

“Hey, guys,” Emily said to the couple. The dark-haired guy leaped to his feet and grasped Sean’s hand in a firm shake.

He smiled wide, and the very same green eyes that Nathan had twinkled. “I’m Eric Malone, the baby of the family and obviously the better-looking one.” He dropped his hand and moved to stand behind the other chair, enveloping the young woman who sat in it. “This is my gorgeous fiancée, and Emily’s baby sister, Reagan.” He kissed the top of her head.

“Nice to meet you both,” Sean answered. “I’m...Sean Jacobs. My daughter, Willa—” she glanced over to where her daughter was helping the men “—has found a new friend. We live just up the river.” Sean noticed Reagan wasn’t exactly meeting her gaze. Not precisely, anyway. It was then she saw the walking stick propped against the chair.

Wow. Blind. At such a young age.

She briefly wondered how it happened.

“I was an airman once upon a time,” Reagan offered with eerie intuition, as though she’d seen the question in Sean’s eyes. “An explosion on the tarmac and...voilà! Now I’m a blind artist engaged to a crazy rescue swimmer.”

“Oh, I’m...sorry,” Sean stammered. “I mean, I didn’t intend to stare.”

“I stare all the time,” Eric stated with a smirk.

Reagan nodded. “He does.” She grinned, and Sean noticed how much she looked like Emily. Yet different. Beautiful in a different way. “And it’s fine. Life is good,” she said, and slipped a hand up and grasped Eric by the neck, caressing his cheek.

The look on his face was absolute and pure love.

“Mama! Come over here and look at these sea diamonds!” Willa hollered from the cookery.

“Ha! Old Jep’s pulling that sea diamond stuff with the kid,” Eric exclaimed. “He did the same to us when we were growing up.”

Emily laughed. “I remember.” She shook her head. “The years have left that old sea biscuit unchanged.”

As a group, they made their way to the cookery, and Sean stood back and noticed what a large, grand cluster of family they were. Never had she been around such engaging people. They all seemed so close. So fond of one another. The brothers teased each other, and King Jep seemed to be the instigator of most of it. She’d gathered that Emily and Reagan had grown up with the boys, and the sense of family bond was strong. Stronger than Sean had ever seen in her life. And the way Eric looked at Reagan? The protective arm he had around her?

She briefly wondered what that would be like to have.

* * *

FOR THE FIFTH TIME, Nathan turned his gaze toward Sean and his brother and sisters-in-law. What were they talking about? Now that they were all walking to the dock kitchen, he busied himself, making sure he didn’t appear to be the least interested in what they had been discussing.

“Hey, Captain Nathan, whatcha keep lookin’ at my mama for?” Willa said loud enough for everyone to hear.

Just that quickly Nathan learned how perceptive and intuitive Willa Jane Jacobs was.

Eric, that irritating jackass, threw back his head and laughed. “Dang, brother.” He clapped Nathan on the back. “That was a clear bust-out.” Eric held up his hand to Willa, who, without hesitation, gave him a high five.

Nathan had no reply. There was no getting out of a Willa observation. That was a fact he’d come to realize, just as clearly as Sean knew she couldn’t pull one over on her daughter. So, the fact he’d been staring at Sean had been flatly called out by a five-year-old. Hell, he couldn’t help it. But now he’d make a conscious effort not to. The last thing he needed was to be the butt of his brothers’ ribbing. That would only make him want to punch them in the face.

Besides, he didn’t want to make Sean more uncomfortable than she probably already was. He briefly wondered what she thought. Her expression seemed closed, so he didn’t even try to guess what might be going through her mind. He merely turned around and continued deveining the pile of shrimp he’d been working on. Hoped it wasn’t obvious that he wanted to knock Eric on his ass.

“Ah, the mysterious girl on the dock,” Owen said to Sean as she joined them. “Nice to finally meet you.”

Sean gave a shy nod. “You, too, sir.”

“Young lady.” Jep inclined his head, beckoning Sean to join him. She did. “Know how to make hush puppies?”

Out of the corner of his eye, Nathan watched Sean peer over Jep’s ingredients. Then she looked at his grandfather with those enormous hazel eyes.

“Teach me?” she said.

Was it the way she said it? Or the sincerity in her quiet voice that caught Nathan so completely off guard? Whatever it was, it had affected poor Jep, as well. The old man’s cheeks turned red and splotchy and he sputtered, cleared his throat, then gave Sean an affectionate pat on the shoulder.

“Of course, gal,” he said, and she stepped closer to him, and so began Jep’s lesson in the art of making hush puppies.

Nathan watched the interaction further, and found it more than curious. He was astounded to find himself almost mesmerized by the way Sean’s innocent acceptance of Jep had not only made the old man stammer, but slip into his Irish accent. Jep Malone did that only when he was absolutely furious, or completely enamored.

The way Sean responded to Jep touched Nathan’s heart in a way he wasn’t expecting. It made him sit up, take notice. Not just the fact that she was beautiful. She was and, despite Nathan’s determination not to notice, he had. He’d been unable to help it. No, his attention went beyond the recognition of the beauty that resided beneath her bewitching eyes or the love he saw in those very same eyes whenever she looked at her daughter. It was something about those two small words, teach me, that Nathan found so humbling. So damned enchanting. It made his earlier determination not to get close to her just that much more difficult.

He watched her now, seemingly at ease with his grandfather, allowing the old man to show her how to combine the ingredients for his secret hush puppy recipe. Whatever clever thing Jep was saying to her was rewarded with a smile—one that was entirely different from any Nathan had seen on her yet. It was intriguing. It was baffling.

He suddenly realized it wouldn’t be quite so bad being the one who coaxed such a smile from Sean Jacobs.

When Nathan looked away, it was his father’s eye he caught.

And Owen simply smiled.

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