you taken other women sailing?” she asked.
Shit, he thought. If he told her he’d never taken anyone else out sailing, how would that make him look? Desperate? Would she believe this meant more than it did?
“Not a lot of women would trust me with their lives,” he said casually with a shrug.
“So”—she glanced over at him— “no one else?”
He could hear the worry in the tone. Worry and something else he couldn’t figure out.
“It’s not like I haven’t taken plenty of others out on the water.” He tried for casual. “Just not anyone I’ve… slept with before.”
She relaxed slightly. “Okay, so, what do you normally do with women you’re… dating?”
“Is that what this is?” he asked, motioning between them.
She glanced sideways at him. “No,” she answered quickly with a shrug. “I don’t have time for dating, or beyond.”
“Beyond?” he asked, holding in a chuckle. “Funny. I thought that was what we did the other night.”
She smiled quickly. “Sex is sex. Dating is… complicated, and beyond...” She rolled her eyes. “I deal with the beyond every day at work.” She leaned a little closer to him. “I’m years away from the beyond.” She tilted her head and then chuckled. “And, from what I hear about you, you are centuries away from the beyond.”
That stung a little. He didn’t know why, but there it was. He always figured he’d eventually get the nerve to settle down. After all, part of him deep down wanted the beyond and everything that came with it. The wife, a home with a white picket fence, a yard where kids and dogs would play.
It was just a matter of finding the right woman. Wasn’t it?
“What about you?” He watched her eyebrows shoot up in question. “Why did you pick weddings?”
“It was Kara’s idea,” she said quickly. “Although, we’d always had a fascination with weddings. What little girl didn’t that grew up with parents that were… well, had the perfect marriage.” She shrugged as she finished her sandwich. “We both wanted to see others celebrate their happiness.”
“It’s rough,” he said, causing her to look at him again. “Growing up under the influence of a happy couple. Their happiness casts a large shadow over everyone else. It almost makes you feel like you’re required to find that perfect person to spend the rest of your life with.”
“The hunt for someone to love,” she said softly.
He chuckled. “I suppose it is a kind of hunt.”
“You have a reputation for being an excellent hunter,” she added with a smile.
He laughed. “Jealous?”
“Don’t get me wrong,” she said, holding up her wine glass for him to pour her more from the bottle she’d brought along. “I’ve gone on a few hunting excursions myself.” She rolled her eyes. “A few I’d like to forget.”
“Oh?” he asked, finishing off his lunch. “Care to share the stories?”
“The last one put me off expecting…”
“The beyond?” he jumped in.
“Yeah,” she said with a sigh. “So when Kara suggested we start our own business, we pooled our inheritance together and jumped at the chance to purchase the barn. We’d been coming to Pride all our lives, and I remember one winter our dad took us to a hayride that the man who owned the barn had going for the holidays.”
“The Rogers,” he added. “They used to run the hayride every Christmas. When it snowed, they had a sled.”
“Yes.” She smiled. “It was snowing that year, and I remember walking into the barn and thinking how magical the place was. How… romantic.”
“How old were you?”
“Ten, eleven.” She shrugged.
He thought about what he’d been doing at that age. He’d most likely still been in torn jeans, chasing his cousins around playing tag football with no thought to girls or romance. He guessed it was true that boys matured later than girls. He’d always figured he had such a sex drive in the past few years because he’d gotten a late start.
Chapter Seven
Robin noticed the change in George when she mentioned romance and instantly regretted bringing it up. She should have known better. They’d made the agreement to keep this, whatever it actually was between them, light.
“So.” She decided to change the subject quickly as she set down the last of her drink. “Exactly how are we going to get back if the wind is blowing us up the coast instead of down?”
He chuckled and moved a little closer to her, and then wrapped his arm around her shoulders. She felt her heart kick hard in her chest as her body pressed