"No, really. It's all right. If I hid from every reminder of this whole mess, I would never go anywhere." She extended her hand. "Help me aboard?"
There she went again, being so trusting when he deserved to crawl for what he'd done. He certainly deserved more wariness. All he'd offered her were a couple of unsavory facts from his childhood.
He took her hand, a strong hand with short nails and impossibly soft skin he remembered, too. His memory flamed with their out-of-control kiss at his door, her hands tunneling up under his shirt, gliding her softness over him at a time when raw pain heated him from the inside out. He owed her so damn much.
Carson held her hand tighter as she stepped on the rocking hull, palmed her waist for the final boost. She looked so right there he wondered why he'd never thought to bring her before.
"Catch." He pitched the rope to her, leaped aboard and finished launching from the dock.
Already the familiar roll of the waves rocking beneath soothed his soul like a cradle in motion shooshes a baby. He took his place behind the wheel, firing the small motor to power them out of the narrow channel, Nikki an arm's reach away, trailing her fingers in the light spray.
She pulled her hand out. "Are you doing this today for my dad, too?"
"What part of 'trust me' did you not understand?"
She flicked her damp fingers, showering an icy spray on his face. "Just joking."
Laughing, he leaned low and popped in the CD he'd bought this morning once he'd realized he would be detouring to her parents' house. He cranked the volume as the best of the 1940's spun up some "Bing" along with the percussion of the waves against the hull.
"Oh, you're playing dirty today."
"Gotta work with what you've got." He revved the motor to clear the channel without creating too large a wake to damage the shore.
The croon of the engine and slosh of waves mixed with Nikki's off-key croonings that somehow took on a musical-ity all their own.
After they finished the final bite of apple pie, she glanced over at him. "Thank you. This is really nice."
"I've missed running into you."
"Missed me showing up all the time, you mean?" She tipped her face into the sun. "God, I can hardly believe now how obvious I must have been with that mega embarrassing crush I had on you."
Had. Past tense.
Of course he'd known, and done his best to treat her like a little sister—except for one major lapse. He should have kept well away all the time, but God, she was charming.
He cut the motor, ready to switch to sail power. In a minute. After he had the answer to one more question he had to know now. "What do you think we would have done today if I hadn't screwed everything up then?"
"Hmm. You would have asked me to come along and I would have pretended it was no big deal. So we would have been doing the same thing, except now we're both coming into this with no expectations and being totally true to who we are. And speaking of being totally me, do you mind waiting a few more minutes to set sail?"
"Whatever works for you. This day is about you relaxing."
"Sometimes there's nothing more relaxing than getting your heart racing."
Heart racing? She couldn't actually mean what his body hoped she meant even if his mind knew better. She'd just said she was over her crush on him.
Before he could reason through the maze of her words, she'd jumped from her seat and clambered over to the main mast.
And up.
Holy crap.
Those long legs of hers in jeans and strong arms in his windbreaker shimmied her higher, her ponytail swaying from the back of her ball cap. He'd done the same countless times, but this was different. Enticingly different. He held the wheel and watched her stare out over the scenery, gasp in air, totally in the moment.
Sunlight streamed down over her. No makeup. No jewelry. But plenty of bling just from...her.
Bling and Bing. Modern but timeless, with a breezy sophistication in her old-soul self. He was toast.
So for the moment he surrendered and simply enjoyed the view of her slim body, the sweet curve of her bottom so perfectly on display. Sensory memory returned of gripping her taut roundness as he rolled her beneath him...