“We are?” he asked, knowing his mom would strongly disagree with her. She’d wanted him settled down with babies since he was with Alicia in his early twenties.
She nodded. “My sister Ava was with someone for over twenty years, they started dating when she was twelve, and he left her a Dear Jane letter on the day of their wedding.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah, I found it slipped under the door.”
“Is she okay?”
“Yeah, she’s better than ever. It turned out she wasn’t happy with him at all. She’s actually engaged again to the right guy this time.”
Her choice of phrase, the right guy, made him think what people said whenever he told them that he didn’t see himself getting married. “You just haven’t met the right one.”
Until tonight, he thought they didn’t know what they were talking about. But as he laid there with Grace in his arms, he was starting to think they just might be right.
“He’s a cop and they sort of have a history. If my mom was here, she’d say that fate brought them together.”
He could tell by the way she said fate that she didn’t share her late mother’s opinion on the subject. He’d never put much stock into that phenomenon, either. He’d lived by the creed that your life is what you made it. But just like not meeting the right one, his opinion on the subject was evolving since meeting Grace.
“So then, in that example, she had it right.”
“What do you mean?”
“She was committed to someone who wasn’t right. They broke up. And now she’s with the right person and committing to them.”
“Oh…” Grace blinked. “Yeah, I guess so.”
“Maybe the key really is finding the right person,” his voice held a gravelly tone as it deepened with arousal.
The air between them crackled with electricity as they stared into each other’s eyes. Their bodies were lying side by side, but other than his arm draped over her hip and his hand on her lower back, they weren’t touching. There’d been a few leg grazes but nothing more than that. He wanted so badly to close the short distance between them, and press his lips to hers, he’d never wanted anything as much as he wanted to kiss Grace, but he didn’t want to cross a line.
If she kissed him, however, it would be a completely different story.
Their breaths synced together, each one a little more labored than it had been a minute ago. Each silent second that passed the energy between them built. He could cut the sexual tension with a knife.
He wanted to make the first move so badly, but he wouldn’t. If anything happened between them, she would have to be the one to initiate it.
Grace broke eye contact with him as she pressed her hand to his chest. He was sure that she could feel his heart pounding beneath her palm. He waited for her to say something about it, or to lean forward and kiss him, but neither of those things happened.
Her eyes lifted to his. “You said that your sister-in-law is Shayne Fox, right?”
If Easton wasn’t careful, he’d get whiplash from the sharp turns Grace made in her conversations. He never knew what was going to come out of her mouth. “Yes, she is.”
“My sisters went to her, and I guess your brother’s, wedding.”
He tried to ignore how good the softness of her touch felt as she pressed her hand against him, and concentrate on what she was saying. “It’s a small world. That’s why I’m moving to Hope Falls. I sort of fell in love with it while I was at Evan’s wedding.”
“You were at the wedding?” she asked as her body tensed.
He’d said the wrong thing again, and again he had no idea what it was.