Trent admired her for a few minutes, debating going inside without interrupting her, but he couldn’t stay away.
He walked down the sidewalk toward her, but Reese must have been concentrating too deeply to notice. She didn’t turn to greet him, or give any indication that she sensed him near. That didn’t surprise him, but what did surprise him was that it stung a little—and that made him realize what she must have felt like while they were in New York, when he could barely see past his work.
He took a step closer, afraid to startle her for fear of ruining her beautiful painting. “Hi, gorgeous,” he said softly.
She glanced over her shoulder—her paintbrush still moving—and smiled. “Hi! I didn’t expect to see you this afternoon.”
“Chandler asked me to drop by his office.” He leaned forward and kissed her. “I don’t want to interrupt. I just wanted to give you another kiss, and also to find out how your parents reacted when you told them we’re together again.” He brushed a lock of hair away from her face. “I hope it went okay.”
“It went great. My dad wasn’t able to be there, but my mom had some really interesting stuff to say. Some of it ended up being about lust, which was...” She made a face, and he laughed. “But she also had so many amazing insights about making love last.”
“I’d love to hear what she had to say.” Her parents had a great marriage, just like his did. It was too bad neither he nor Reese had asked their parents for advice the first time around. Perhaps that was part of what came with being older and wiser. And having less pride...
“I’m still processing it all, but one thing she said that really resonated was how we shouldn’t put pressure on each other to be totally perfect or to live on a rigid schedule. That there has to be room to make changes and adapt to each other’s moods and desires and to allow for mistakes and then recover from them. The past few hours, I’ve been thinking about how right she is. Real life might not always be perfect, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be amazing.”
The last thing he wanted was to screw things up with her again, but had part of his problem been that he set the bar so high for himself that true happiness always felt just out of reach? “Everything your mom said sounds right on the money. It makes me think we should have talked more with our parents before, asked for their advice.”
“At least we’re asking them to share their wisdom now.” She went onto her tippy-toes and gave him a kiss. “I’m so glad you stopped by.”
“I am, too. I didn’t want to throw you off your groove, though.”
“It’s exactly the opposite, Trent. Every moment with you is helping me get into my groove. I’m knee-deep in the mural and loving every second of it. I really need to thank your family for giving me this project.”
“You’ll have a chance at Shelley’s grand opening, if you’ll come with me.”
“Do you think they’ll be ready to see you and me together again?”
“Sierra and Shelley sure are,” he told her with a grin, though he left off the wedding bells part for now. “And Derek told me at lunch that he’s really happy for us and thought we were always great together. But the question isn’t whether they’re ready.”
She trapped her lower lip in her teeth and nodded. “I know it isn’t about them. It’s about us. I’m scared,” she said softly, “but I don’t want to hide what I feel. Not from our families, not from myself, and especially not from you.”
“We both have our eyes open this time around, and I made you a promise that I’m never going to break.” He kissed her again, lingering at her lips long enough that people walking past them couldn’t help but stop and stare. And wish they had a love like ours. “I should get upstairs before Chandler calls again. Are we still on for dinner?”
“Yes,” she said, dipping the brush into the can again. “Meet me at my place?”
“Six?”
“Perfect.”
* * *
AS TRENT WALKED inside the resort, he worked to prepare himself for the transition from bright and sunny Reese to his dark and stormy grandfather. He exited the elevators on his grandfather’s floor, cleared his throat, and pulled his shoulders back, slipping into professional mode. As a lawyer, he’d had to do this mental shift at least a thousand times. But it was a much harder transition after seeing Reese, with thoughts of her smile fresh on his mind...and her kiss still tingling on his lips.
Chandler’s assistant, Darla, was relatively new, having been hired after she’d moved to the island from North Carolina following a nasty divorce. She was in her late twenties, with a two-year-old son, and from what Trent had heard, she was living with her aunt and uncle, having lost both of her parents a few years earlier.