face. Sucking in a quick breath, she cocked her head to the side, her unspoken question filling the space between them.
“You’re looking at the shelter’s new director.”
Her fingers gave an involuntary flex, and her mouth dropped open. “You… you’re… what?”
He started to sit and tugged on her hands, and she fell to the sand next to him. “I know it’s a lot of changes all at once, but I’m serious when I say I found a place to put down roots.”
Her brow furrowed, uncertainty crowding out the excitement she saw on his face.
“I can see in your expression that you’re not sure,” he said, offering a rueful snort. “I can’t blame you.”
“No, Joseph, it’s not that I’m unsure. Well, not completely unsure. It’s just… you’re right. It is a lot of changes.” She dropped her gaze to their clasped hands and sighed. “Tell me about the shelter.”
“I liked what I saw, but when I met Betty and Sid, we talked about the Navy, and they invited me into their house. I swear, it smelled just like my grandmother’s kitchen, and I felt right at home. They told me about needing to move to North Carolina but were trying to figure out what to do with the shelter. Samantha, I walked out of there, and it was as though everything was so clear. Somewhere that needed me. Really needed me.”
“I understand the desire to help, and I understand that without working for Jason you’ll have time. But… um… you’ll need to apply for grants and funding and—”
He smiled. “I can handle that. Plus… well, there’s something I never told you.”
Uncertainty moved through his eyes, but she remained focused on his smile.
“I have money.”
She blinked, then lifted her brows. “Money?”
“Yeah, money.”
“Um… okay.”
He swallowed and pushed back the lock of hair that always fell into his eyes. “My parents may have cut me off, but my grandparents left everything to me.”
“So, you’re… well off?”
A deep, rueful chuckle erupted, and he blew out a long breath. “Yeah, babe. I’m well off. So well off that I never really needed to work, but I did, wanting to pay my own way. I lived off what I earned, just letting their money sit in investments. I figured one day I’d know what to spend it on. Now, I have the shelter to make improvements on, and… well, I’m sure other things will come up.”
“So, you’re going to take over running the animal shelter.” Her words may have been a statement, but she was still trying to wrap her mind around all that he had told her.
He twisted to shift his body closer, lifting a hand to slide along her face, his fingers tangling in her windblown hair as his palm cupped her cheek. “A place to stay. A job that makes a difference. Friends I can count on. Animals that needed me. But, Samantha, the shelter is a bonus, not the only thing tying me to this place.”
He swept his thumb over her cheek as though to gain her attention, but it hadn’t wavered. She squeezed his leg, swallowing deeply. “What’s tying you here, Joseph?” she whispered, her words almost lost in the Bay’s breeze.
“You.”
His one-word answer threatened to steal her breath, and she pinned him with her stare. “Me?”
“Most of all, I want to stay for you.” A slow smile curved her lips at the same time a tear slipped down her cheek. He leaned forward and kissed it away, repeating his words as a whisper against her soft skin. “I want to stay for you.”
19
“Babe, I don’t like the idea of you going there by yourself.”
Samantha loved the way ‘babe’ fell off Joseph’s lips. For many men, ‘babe’ was a throwaway, but with him, she felt the endearment soothe over her. From Joseph, the word had a claiming effect but in a good way. In the way a man speaks to a woman he cares for.
The first time he’d said it was when they were making love and his body was slowly rocking into hers, his hands were cupping her cheeks, and his intense gaze was peering into her eyes. She knew she had his attention and his devotion. The one word was spoken with such reverence, she had to battle to keep a tear from escaping. Since then, he’d used it more often, but each time, as the word rumbled from his chest to reverberate into her heart, she loved the way it sounded.
“Babe?”
He was standing at her tiny stove stirring the beef