“She’s your friend who works with sea creatures, right?” Trevor asked.
“You remembered?” Julie said more as a question than a statement.
“I remember everything you’ve told me.” Wow, he sounded like a teenager trying a new line to pick up a girl. He’d never been this clumsy around a woman before.
“Riiiight. Okay, let’s get to work.” Kat clapped her hands and plopped her oversized brimmed hat onto her long brown hair and headed for the other side of the little island.
“Come on. We’re on lagoon duty. There’s some trash we need to finish cleaning up.” Julie folded her fingers between his and led him down the beach to the other side. In that moment, he thought he could follow her anywhere, but would she want him if he told her the truth? It was too early in their relationship to face such an extreme situation.
Julie paused at the edge of the water and held both his hands so they faced each other. His pulse quickened at the thought of another kiss. “I know they can be overwhelming, but they’re good people.”
“What?” He realized he’d been in deep thought about his issues and decided he had to tell her something. “I think they’re great. Everyone around you is great, even Houdini. And you’re the best.” He tugged her a step closer and touched his forehead to hers, willing himself to tell her everything and for her to accept him and all his drama.
“Then what is it?” she whispered.
He let out a seven-year-old failed-marriage sigh and inhaled the hope of a new beginning. “I’m afraid my ex-wife, Marsha, has created another media storm, and her waves have reached me once again.” He lifted his chin and faced her, eye-to-eye, to tell her the truth. “I want you to know that I thought that all the drama was behind me. I’d left it and her back in Seattle, but she has a way of mucking the waters.” He took in another breath, this one caught somewhere between his lungs and the truth. “She’s creating issues, and I would never want them to reach you. I-I don’t want you hurt in any way.”
She leaned in and stood on her toes. “Shhh.” Her lips pressed to his cheek, to the corner of his lips, to the other side of his mouth before she lowered to her heels once more. “You’ve been dealing with my issues since day one. My back and forth with guilt and fear and want.” She blinked up at him. “Trust me as I’ve trusted you. I won’t let your ex-wife run me off.”
“But…” He opened his mouth to tell her everything, to confess the situation that could change things between them.
“Hey, you two. Back to work. You can play kissy-face later,” Kat yelled through the trees.
Julie popped up on her toes again and placed a chaste kiss on his lips and then went to work.
Since here, in front of everyone, wasn’t the right place to share such news, he went to work. He picked up trash and moved branches for hours alongside Julie. Chance after chance presented itself, but he didn’t say anything. As the day faded, he knew he had to tell her the first chance he could, before she found out from Wind and her internet snooping.
With two bags in hand, he dropped them into the dinghy, brushed off the sand on his legs and hands, and turned to march across the beach to tell her they needed to speak, alone, after they finished.
Trace tied up her dinghy. “Gator’s relocated. It’s safe now.” She hopped out and looked at Trevor. “Sorry I couldn’t introduce myself earlier. I’m Trace Latimer. I was Julie’s best friend growing up.”
He offered his hand, but his gaze remained on Julie and the horrible task awaiting him.
“You know, in all my years I’ve known Jewels, she’s never once looked as excited or passionate about a man as she does now.”
He let out a nervous chuckle. “Except for when she met Joe, I’m sure.”
“No. I mean ever.” After dropping her info bomb, she waltzed away, leaving Trevor with a knot of indecision in his gut. If he could prove Marsha’s child wasn’t his, he wouldn’t have to upset Julie at all. And he never wanted to cause her any trouble. He only wanted to make her happy. She deserved that, not the drama of Marsha. He knew it was a mistake, but he could only hope that he could clear up the mess before Julie found out about the baby. He didn’t want anything to ruin his chances with Julie before they were beyond the starting line of their relationship. Who was he kidding? He’d fallen in love the minute he followed Houdini to Julie’s shop that day. And when he saw her on the beach that night, she’d stolen his heart, and he never wanted it back.
Chapter Eighteen
Julie’s friends and Bri plopped down around her in her room on the bed, desk chair, and floor. Houdini skittered from her lap up to his shelf on the wall. Kat, dressed way too fancy for Cassie’s Catch in her stiletto-heeled sandals and puffy-sleeved dress, set a gold box with a big red ribbon around it on the comforter. “Before we go out for stage one of Operation Jewels’s Birthday Celebration, we need you to open this.”
Julie eyed the box, unsure what her friends had up their sleeves. “What’s in it?”
“Open it to find out, silly.” Wind scooted the desk chair closer and nudged into Julie’s side.
Julie looked to Trace for any sign of what to expect.
“Don’t look at me. I wasn’t involved in this part of the operation. I’m in charge of the finale.”
Bri sat up on her knees. “I’m not a member yet, so I have no idea, but I’m excited for you to open it.”
Julie eyed Kat. “You shouldn’t have.”
“I know, I know.
