She and Jack whooped and splashed in the shallows like two children instead of one staid grandma with grandchild.
And Abbey?
Ryan showed her to their unit, which was right on the water’s edge and unbelievably luxurious, allowed her two minutes to change into her bathing costume and then carried her to the shoreline. Here he set her down in the shallows on a cut-away seat-a seat with no legs-and organised another seat for her foot to rest on. His
‘There. You can’t get your bandage wet if you try.’
And then he was off, scooping up the wondering Leith and carrying the little girl out on her first ever serious swimming lesson.
Abbey was left with her mouth open. Stunned as a beached whale.
For a transformation, a genie in a bottle could hardly have done better. She gazed about her in awe. The beach resort was unobtrusively netted, way out There was no threat of marine stingers here. Janet was lying full length in the shallows, her grandson crowing in delight as he crawled all around her. It was impossible to tell who had the biggest smile, Janet or Jack.
And Leith… The wan little girl was listening seriously to what Ryan was telling her and then putting her face in the water and blowing bubbles. Not such a big deal maybe-but Abbey knew how frightened the little girl was of new experiences and she also knew Leith wasn’t accustomed to water.
All of them-Janet, Jack and Leith-were putting their trust absolutely in Ryan Henry. Ryan had told Janet she must drop her isolated grieving and here she was, doing just that. He’d told Leith to leave her terror behind and the child had obeyed.
And what of Abbey?
It was Tuesday morning, for heaven’s sake. If anyone had told Abbey the week before that this Tuesday she’d be lying on the beach with her feet up she would have laughed in disbelief. Yet here she was…
She lay back and watched them. Her Jack. Her beloved Janet.
Her Ryan.
The thought brought her up with a jolt.
What had her heart meant by that? It had been an involuntary thought but it stayed, insidious in its appeal.
Her Ryan?
He was no such thing. Once upon a time she’d been proprietorial about Ryan Henry. ‘He’s
Well, he wasn’t her Ryan now. He was engaged to be married to a lady called Felicity who, Abbey gathered, could appear at any minute. To claim her own. And Abbey certainly couldn’t let her jealousy show then.
Jealousy?
Abbey examined the word from all angles. How could she possibly be jealous of Felicity? After all, she hardly knew Ryan any more. He had left here almost twenty years ago. He was rich and successful and… and practically American.
But she looked out to where Ryan’s tanned, muscled body was glistening in the morning sun, the water running in rivulets down his broad back and catching the rays of the sun across the sea. He looked across and laughed at her, his eyes crinkling in just the same way they had when he’d first met her. A long time ago…
Some older girls had been teasing the tiny Abbey on her way to school, and one of them had tipped her lunch out into the dirt. Abbey had sat down, tear-stained and angry, trying to separate the dirt from her sandwiches. Then, all of a sudden, Ryan had been there.
‘Kid, I have six whole sandwiches, two chocolate bars and a game of football at lunchtime,’ he’d told her. ‘I can’t possibly manage to eat everything in the time available and if I did I’d get fat. Let’s feed your sandwiches to the seagulls and divvy up my lunch between us.’
Abbey had looked up through tears at this big, kindly boy with the twinkle and laughter behind his eyes, and her heart had been his ever since.
And, damn, the man just had to look at her now…
‘Penny for them.’
Abbey’s head jerked up. She’d been playing with a trickle of wet sand as she’d been thinking and hadn’t seen Ryan, splashing up through the shallows. Lesson over, Leith had gone to join the fun. Grandma, grandson and now Leith, all pretending to be whales.
‘Penny?’
‘What are you thinking, Abbey?’ Ryan sat himself beside her, and his broad, wet shoulder touched hers. Skin against skin. A shudder of sensation ran though her and Ryan saw it.
‘You’re cold.’
‘No. No, I’m not. How… how did the lesson go?’
‘Brilliantly.’ He smiled and put his arm around her. A gesture of affection. Nothing more. ‘You saw. I have her doing dead man’s float already. I had to take things easy because she’s exhausted from last night and I don’t want a recurrence, but she’ll be swimming like a dolphin in no time.’
‘Or a whale.’ Abbey smiled over to the silly game being played out nearby and tried hard to ignore the sensation of Ryan’s arm around her waist.
Ryan grinned. ‘As you say.’
‘Ryan…’ Abbey’s voice sounded stiff. ‘I want to thank you-’
‘There’s no need,’ Ryan said roughly, and the arm around her waist tightened. Possessively. ‘No need at all.’
‘But-’
He put his hand up and pressed a finger against her lips. ‘Abbey, I said no.’ Then he paused.
It was as if he’d suddenly realised how close they were.
And how much was between them.
The glimmers of light that had been dancing all around them suddenly seemed to intensify. Ryan’s finger stayed where it was. There was an electric current running between them-running through Ryan’s finger on her lips-from Ryan’s hand on her waist-from his body straight to hers.
And both of them could feel it. Abbey’s eyes flew up to Ryan’s and her heart gave a jolt stronger than any gained from a defibrillator.
Ryan…
There was suddenly only Ryan.
Out in the shallows, Janet and the two children were wholly engrossed in their game. Their laughter rang across the water, heightening the sense of delight. Heightening the joy…
And Abbey felt the joy flood through her. Through and through. Ryan holding her. Ryan touching her. It felt so right.
Abbey’s face tilted upward to the sun. Lifted compulsively-so her lips were just where Ryan’s lips could meet them, if he would only bend his head a little.
And he did.
Ryan stared down at Abbey for a long long moment but he could no more resist the force pulling them together than she could. He couldn’t even try.
Ryan’s lips met hers as if the two of them were pieces of a puzzle now joined. His chest touched her breast, and her scant bikini bra was no shield at all. Skin against skin. Mouth against mouth. Body against body.
Heart against heart.
That was how it felt, Abbey thought in wonder. As if, by that single touch, Abbey’s heart had found a channel to escape-from her body to his. Her lips touched and felt and explored and her whole body yearned to be closer. Closer to this man who made her feel as no man on earth had ever made her feel…
As if she were part of a whole and the other part of her was the man whose lips were claiming hers. And if she drew away she’d be tearing herself in two.
This was crazy. Somewhere in the back of Abbey’s head her common sense was screaming at her. Mistake.
