today belonged to him. He’s the best caddie I’ve ever had.”
“I think you made him sweat a little on that last hole.”
“Hey, I made me sweat.”
“You’re the one who decided to shoot for the green. Cameron wanted you to take two strokes to get there.”
“Sometimes you just have to give yourself a kick in the ass.”
“Cameron definitely figured that out. He had total confidence in you.” She felt like touching him but didn’t let herself. “He’s different since the Winnebago incident, don’t you think?” She slipped into the familiar routine of discussing the kids with him. This was their relationship and she meant to keep it that way. “I meant to tell you, I think you handled it well. Initially, I didn’t believe humor was the way to deal with it, but now I see that was the perfect response.”
“Good, because I couldn’t help myself. I look at Cameron and I see Derek and me as boys. We were idiots sometimes, just like he is.”
“That’s the key, then, treating him like the kid he is.” She sighed. “That’s what I want for all three of them, Sean. I want them to remember their parents without being frozen or stuck in grief or guilt.”
“Ever notice how we always talk about the kids?” he asked suddenly.
Notice? She did it on purpose. “Is that a problem?”
“We should talk about us.”
“The only reason there’s an us is that we’ve got these three kids—”
“Bullshit, Lily.” He grabbed her then, giving her no chance to get away or make excuses, and he kissed her, hard and long, openmouthed, his tongue doing things that made her forget what they were arguing about or if they were even arguing at all.
That was the thing about Sean. He made her forget. He made her forget all of the things she trained herself to remember—that going to bed early and getting up early made a person productive. That a proper diet and exercise regimen were crucial to good health. That love was always a precursor to hurt. He was making her forget that, and suddenly she was kissing him back with a hunger and intensity she’d never felt before.
By the time he ended the kiss and gently lifted his mouth from hers, she could barely remember her own name.
“We should get drunk and celebrate,” he said.
Feeling reckless, she said, “I know something I want more than to get drunk.”
“Miss Robinson,” he whispered, his thumb outlining the shape of her jaw, “you are full of surprises.”
She slipped her hand into his, lacing their fingers together. She felt reckless and bold, not like herself at all. “You’d be even more surprised if you knew what I’d like to do right now.”
He laughed, the sound as soft and smooth as a caress. “Then I’m not letting you go until you tell me.”
chapter 45
Back in the RV, Sean couldn’t take his eyes off Lily. Her hands shook as she moistened her lips and then parted them, artlessly tantalizing as she lifted the fresh, dark Devil Dog to her mouth. He watched her teeth sink into the tender flesh of it, watched her lips close around the soft inner filling. She shut her eyes and gave the sort of moan he usually only heard from a woman when she was flat on her back.
She chewed slowly, ecstatically, and swallowed. Under the table, Babe thumped her tail. Then at last Lily’s eyes drifted open. “That…was…incredible,” she said breathlessly. “My teeth are singing.”
He pushed a steaming cup across the table to her. “Coffee?”
She sipped the freshly brewed coffee he’d made to go with the Devil Dogs. “I missed my calling,” she confessed. “I should get a job with Drake’s.”
“The caffeine might keep you up all night.”
“Fine with me. We’ve got all these Devil Dogs to eat.”
He helped himself to one and she to another. “You’re really something, Lily Robinson.”
She licked a bit of white cream from the corner of her mouth. “Really? Why?”
“I don’t know. Something.”
“A puzzle wrapped in an enigma?”
“Took the words right out of my mouth. You’re just not like most women I’ve known.”
“What, boobs too small? Brain too big?”
“You really think a lot of me, don’t you?” This was the way it always was with him and women. If Lily was like the others, she’d leave him eventually. That’s what women did. They left him. He didn’t seem to know how to make them stay or how to make himself want them to.
“All right,” Lily said, “you tell me. How am I different?”