Summer on Lovers' Island (Jewell Cove 3)

She’d gone and fallen for him. It had happened by degrees all summer, she admitted to herself, with first the stargazing, then crying on his shoulder, the kisses, swimming, making love … all of it. But the thing that toppled her over the edge was right now, sitting in the middle of a hurricane, Mother Nature throwing a tantrum outside while inside he quietly apologized and asked Lizzie to forgive him.

“Josh,” she whispered, twisting her fingers together. “I need to apologize, too. For those stupid rules I asked you to agree to, for being so difficult and sending so many mixed signals.”

“It’s okay. I knew all along you were going through a lot.”

“I was lying to myself, acting like we didn’t matter. That it was just a fling. What you said on the island that day wasn’t just about you. You said you weren’t built to do friends with benefits. And the thing is, I am. Or rather, I was. It never presented a big problem, until this summer. Until you, Josh. I couldn’t separate my feelings anymore, and that scared me to death. So I kept putting up walls. Making rules. And then I kept breaking them.”

“Scared,” he repeated, and she nodded slowly.

“Scared. Of my feelings for you. Of falling for you when doing so would mess up all my careful plans. Scared of letting you in and then—”

She looked down as her eyes suddenly began to sting. “Scared of letting myself love you only to lose you later. I don’t know how much more loss I can stand this year. I lost my confidence, and I lost my dad, and I’m losing my mom by degrees. My heart is not an infinite resource, you know?”

She blinked hard, willing the stinging to go away.

And then he p

ut a finger beneath her chin, raising it so she was looking at him again.

“You used the word ‘love.’”

“I know. And it scares me shitless.”

He laughed suddenly, an emotion-packed sound that reached in and grabbed her heart.

“If it helps, I’m as scared as you are.”

She smiled at him. “It does, actually.”

“Then will you come over here and kiss me?”

She slid across the sofa until she was next to him. Her heart was pounding so hard she could hear it in her ears, and her stomach was a mess of nerves, but the most delicious kind. She raised her hand, placed it along his cheek, feeling the rough stubble there. He closed his eyes as she moved her fingertips, and she traced a fingernail over his bottom lip.

It was soft and she rose up on her knee and leaned in the last bit of the way to put her mouth on his.

The kiss was tender, sweet, unrushed. It was a get-to-know-you kiss and a welcome-back kiss and a starting-over kiss all wrapped up in one. Josh lifted his arm and circled it around her, pulling her down against his chest, and she lay on top of him, feeling like they had all the time in the world.

His hand slid beneath her sweatshirt and grazed the soft skin of her waist, up over her ribs, making her arch toward him a little more, seeking his touch. But then it went away again and his hand curled around her neck, shifting her slightly until the kiss was broken and their foreheads were pressed together.

“Liz,” he said. “Are you saying that you want to stay in Jewell Cove?”

She swallowed. “I don’t know. Let’s just take one thing at a time, okay?” She smiled against his lips. “I’ve spent years planning every aspect of my career. I think I’d like to wing it for a while. Live in the moment. Enjoy what’s right in front of me.”

They were kissing again when there was a sharp crack and a crash. They jumped off the couch, startled by the loud noise, and Lizzie rushed to the window to look outside.

“It’s not out back,” she said. “And the grill is still on the deck.”

Josh went to the kitchen window. “It’s out here!” he called to her. “One of the big pine trees at the end of the driveway.”

She went to his side and looked out. Sure enough, the howling wind had taken out an ancient pine, and the tree now blocked the end of the drive. Lizzie stared at the huge root system left behind and wondered at the amount of force it would take for such a thing to occur. It was awesome in the truest sense of the word.

Josh was thinking a bit differently. “Looks like I’m stranded right along with you,” he observed.

“I can think of worse fates,” she joked, putting her hand on his arm.

They were nearly in each other’s arms again when Lizzie’s phone buzzed.

“It’s Charlie,” Lizzie said, opening the message. “Shit. She’s in labor.” Josh’s eyes met hers, clearly worried. “She says the road into town is closed because of trees down and they can’t get through to the hospital.”