Sea Glass Island (Ocean Breeze) - By Sherryl Woods Page 0,77
in and kissed him the way she’d been longing to since she’d first set eyes on him that day in her grandmother’s kitchen.
“Just a little something to remember tonight by,” she said breezily, walking away quickly and getting into Emily’s car.
Gabi was fanning her face in the front passenger seat. “That was not the sort of goodbye I was envisioning all the way over here,” she said.
“Me, either,” Emily concurred.
Samantha grinned. “Ethan wasn’t expecting it, either. You know what they say in show business? Always leave ’em wanting more. I imagine Ethan’s going to spend the rest of tonight wanting a whole lot more than that kiss.”
“Oh, boy,” Gabi said.
“What the devil went on tonight?” Emily asked.
“Not what you’re probably imagining,” Samantha told her. “No strippers at the party. No wild passion in the clinic parking lot. Just another standoff between two immovable objects.”
She had a hunch, though, that one of them was about to crumble. Her last glimpse of Ethan’s face as she’d walked away had revealed a man who was almost as fed up with being stoic as she was with trying fruitlessly to tempt him.
* * *
Ethan walked back onto the deck at Castle’s and poured himself a stiff drink. He turned to Greg, who was sipping club soda.
“You’re seeing to it that I get home,” he told his friend.
“Happy to oblige,” Greg said readily. “Especially if you’ll tell me what went on between you and the delectable Samantha. Speculation went wild around here till Boone reminded everyone they were talking about his future sister-in-law. That shut everyone down.”
“We fought,” Ethan told him. “Same as usual. And that is all I intend to say about that.”
“But you got her home?”
“Actually I got as far as the parking lot at the clinic, where I parked to have things out with her. Then she called her sister to pick her up.”
Greg stared at him incredulously. “Man, you are seriously out of practice at this whole dating thing.”
“I hadn’t planned on ever being adept at it again,” Ethan reminded him.
Greg studied him closely. “But you want to be, don’t you? Against all that better judgment you claim to possess, you want this woman.”
“Of course I want her. What man wouldn’t want Samantha? It hurts to breathe when I’m around her.”
“I’m talking about more than sex,” Greg said.
Ethan sighed. “So am I, if I’m being honest. She says I’m scared of taking a risk.”
“No question about it,” Greg said without hesitation.
“Thanks for being on my side.”
“I’m always on your side, but the truth is the truth. Until you get that stupid former fiancée out of your head, it will always be this way. You’ll edge right up to the dance floor, but you won’t step onto it.”
“I was on the dance floor just last night.”
Greg regarded him impatiently. “It was a metaphor.”
Ethan sighed. “I know that. I just hate admitting that anyone could possibly be right about me being a coward. I’m a decorated war hero. No one should be able to mention cowardice in the same breath with my name. Yet you’re the second person in the past half hour who’s made the comparison.”
“I don’t think anyone’s questioning your credentials in the hero department,” Greg said. “You aren’t the first man who’d rather face a bullet than put his heart on the line. I think it was easier falling in love the way I did, back when I was young and stupid and didn’t know enough to be scared out of my wits. Now I’m scared every damn day that my wife will get tired of all my PTSD drama and walk out the door with my kids.”
“That will never happen,” Ethan replied with certainty, relieved to have the focus shift away from his issues. “That woman is so crazy about you she’d walk through fire for you. You’re not going to chase her off as long as you let her in. Lindsey just needs to know you trust her enough to do that.”
Greg’s gaze narrowed. “You two have talked about this?”
“You know we have. She doesn’t have anyone else to talk to about it, so don’t get your knickers in a knot. Neither one of us is betraying you. We love you.”
His friend sighed. “I get that. And nobody gets this better than you do. I just hate that I’m putting her through this. It’s not what she signed on for.”
“She signed on to love you no matter what,” Ethan corrected. “And she’s definitely strong enough to get through