‘I’m not sure we should be doing that.’
He blinked. He wanted to do a whole lot more than—
Hel ! He snapped away from her.
Kit sighed and sat again. ‘Don’t fal off the rock, Alex. The current is fierce and I don’t feel like diving in and saving you.’
When he sat back beside her she expertly unhooked the fish and popped it in the bucket.
‘Okay, next lesson—how to bait the hook.’
He took his cue from her. She didn’t want to talk about that kiss and he was damn sure he didn’t want to either. It didn’t mean anything. It
They caught two bream apiece. Even given that kiss, the confusion it sent hurtling through him, Alex couldn’t remember the last time he’d had so much fun. ‘I have to hand it to you, Kit. This fishing gig was a good idea.’
He grinned when she said, ‘I won’t say I told you so.’ They sat in companionable silence, their lines dangling in the water and the breeze playing across their faces. They swung their feet and breathed the invigorating salt tang that seasoned the air and listened to the cries of the seagul s. ‘You know, I always dreamed that my dad would take me fishing like this.’
He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. She hadn’t mentioned her father before. ‘He didn’t?’
She snorted. ‘He didn’t know one end of a fishing rod from the other.’
Neither had he before today.
‘When I told my grandma about that little dream, she took me fishing herself.’
‘On this rock?’ He couldn’t get enough of her stories about her childhood.
She pointed back along the way they’d come. ‘We dropped hand lines further along that way in the channel. A much safer spot for a child.’
‘And?’ He didn’t know what he was waiting for. He rubbed the back of his neck. Would his child dream that one day its father would take it fishing too?
The thought unnerved him.
‘And we didn’t catch a thing, but we had the best time.’ She laughed, the memory obviously a good one. ‘Eventual y my grandma and I graduated to this rock.’ She patted it.
He stretched his neck first one way then the other.
Kit’s child would have her for its mother. It wouldn’t miss out on anything. It wouldn’t want for anything.
‘Your childhood sounds idyl ic. You were close to your family?’ He wanted her surrounded by family who would look out for her, support her.
‘My family is my mother and grandmother. I adore them both.’
His heart started to pound. ‘And your father?’
A shadow passed over her face. He immediately regretted darkening her day. ‘I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked. It’s none of my business.’
‘No,’ she said slowly. ‘I think you should know about my father, Alex. It might help you understand where I’m coming from.’
He didn’t need to know about her past to know that she was wonderful now. But he was happy to listen to anything she wanted to tel him.
‘My parents never married. Their relationship was over long before I was born and my mother had me without any support from him.’
‘You and your mum were happy?’
‘Oh, yes, but when I started school and saw the
‘Oh, yes, but when I started school and saw the other children with their daddies, I wanted one too. I started asking Mum a lot of questions, pestering her about my dad until she final y promised to track him down for me.’
He could imagine the younger Kit with her golden hair and her golden skin and her golden eyes. And her yearning. He swal owed. ‘And?’
‘And final y she did. I was so happy. He took me swimming and for ice cream. I got to introduce him to Caro and Denise and Alice and al my other friends.’
‘And then?’
She shrugged. ‘I saw him off and on until I was fifteen. He’d show up three or four times a year with a belated Christmas present, take me out for my birthday, that kind of thing.’
She fiddled with her fishing rod, resettled her hat on her head. Alex didn’t move.
‘I was a bit slow on the uptake. It took me a while to realize he didn’t actual y enjoy hanging out with me.’
Bile burned the back of his throat. ‘Kit, I’m sorry. I
—’
She waved his sympathy away. ‘You know, I could’ve accepted it if he’d made al those visits out of a sense of responsibility or duty, but…I caught Mum paying him.’
He frowned. He wanted her to turn and look at him, but her gaze remained on the swirling water
