“That explains why you get along so well with Grandma Jenny, too,” Abby guessed. “You’re comfortable with seniors. Too many people shy away from them, as if age were contagious or something.”
Seth laughed. “I don’t know about that. I think it’s more about the pace at which everyone lives these days. Older folks have time on their hands. They like to spin out a story while younger people want them to get to the point. I think that’s one of the reasons I like Seaview Key. People here aren’t in such a rush.”
“That’s definitely one of the reasons I was anxious to get back here,” Abby said.
“But you haven’t really slowed down since you got here,” Seth argued. “You didn’t waste a minute jumping all over this rescue boat project, even though you already have a full plate between getting your place cleaned up and the Blue Heron Cove development.”
“Force of habit,” she agreed. “But I’ll mellow eventually. I’m counting on it.”
He didn’t look as if he believed her. “Mellow how? You’ll sit on your porch every afternoon with a book? Maybe wander into town for ice cream after dinner? Sit outside and enjoy the sunrise?”
“Exactly,” she said. “Maybe I’ll take up quilting, so my hands won’t be idle while I laze around enjoying the view from the porch.”
“Ah-ha,” he said, laughing. “There you go, already thinking of productive ways to occupy yourself. The view should be more than enough on its own. That’s the mellow lifestyle.”
“Are you there yet?” she asked curiously, trying to imagine him being still for more than a few minutes at a time.
“I’m working on it,” he said. “Want to give me a test?”
“How?”
“Pour a couple of glasses of iced tea, join me on your porch and we’ll see which one of us gets bored first.”
Abby held his gaze. “You’re on,” she said, accepting the challenge.
And as long as Seth was right there in plain view, she was pretty sure boredom would not be a problem.
* * *
Seth had no idea why he’d uttered a dare to Abby, even one as innocuous as this. Maybe it was because she’d looked so certain that she could attain some sort of Zen status eventually. He’d had his own share of troubles adapting to a more laid-back lifestyle, but the living-on-the-edge experiences of Iraq and Afghanistan had made him determined to succeed. He thought he’d made excellent progress since coming to Seaview Key. Abby still looked fidgety at the prospect of being unoccupied for more than a minute at a time.
He set the rocker he’d chosen into slow motion, closed his eyes and felt himself relax. Beside him, he could hear Abby’s rocker going at an impatient, rapid-fire clip as if she had places to go and things to do and couldn’t wait to get started. He bit his lip to keep from smiling.
“You’ll wear a hole in the porch floor if you keep that up,” he chided eventually.
“What?”
He glanced over and caught a guilty blush in her cheeks. “What were you thinking about?”
The blush deepened. “All the things I ought to be doing,” she admitted. “You?”
“Absolutely nothing,” he said, though the truth was he’d been envisioning taking the woman next to him inside, then tumbling around in her bed with her.
“Seriously?” she said. “You were actually able to empty your mind of everything? How?”
She sounded so eager to figure it out, Seth smiled. “Take a deep breath. Count slowly. Envision yourself all alone on a beach. Given there’s not a soul in sight from where we are right now, it shouldn’t be that difficult.”
Her gaze narrowed. “And that works?”
“Try it.”
She closed her eyes. He could almost hear the deliberate counting going on in her head. Her eyes blinked open and she frowned at him.
“Hogwash!” she said. “You made that up.”
He laughed. “It works for me. I swear. You must have been counting chores on your to-do list, instead of letting your mind empty of everything going on in your life.”
“Well, there’s a lot to do,” she grumbled. “It isn’t going to get done if I’m just sitting around out here staring at the water.”
“I knew it!” he said triumphantly. “You are incapable of total relaxation.”
“And that pleases you why?”
He shrugged. “Something to hold over your head, I suppose. Or maybe because it suggests that I’m beginning to understand you.”
She looked startled by that. “Is there some reason you want to understand me?”
He held her gaze, letting awareness sizzle between them. “I think it’s best if people aren’t strangers the first time they sleep together,” he said quietly.
She swallowed hard at that. “And you think we’re going to sleep together?” she asked, her voice choked.
“I know we are,” he said evenly. “The more important question is whether or not it’s going to be a mistake. Any thoughts about that, Abby?”
She looked completely flustered by the question, or maybe it was the topic. “Are you always so direct?”
“Always,” he said. “There are fewer regrets if everything’s on the table from the beginning. I’ve been attracted to you from the moment we met. I’ve spent a lot of time the past couple of days thinking I was probably crazy, but here we are. I still want you. I guess what I’m asking is whether you think it’s crazy.”
She seemed to be at war with herself. He could read the desire in her eyes, the precise moment when logic overruled passion.
“It would be a mistake,” she said, though she was unable to keep a wistful note from her voice.
“Because?” Not that he hadn’t thought so, too, but he wanted to know why she felt so strongly about it.
“You’re younger than I am, Seth.”
He actually smiled at that. “Try again. We’re adults. We both know the age difference doesn’t make it wrong or crazy.”
“It’s Seaview Key,” she said, as if things might be different in another community—in a big, anonymous city.
“You’re afraid of the gossip?” he asked.
“Aren’t you?” she
