finished unpacking the last of the food and paper plates.
Kennedy settled on the blanket beside her, lying on one side, as he reached for the rosé thermos. He looked . . . different.
This was relaxed Kennedy. Picnic Kennedy.
She didn’t like it. She’d just barely figured out how to get over crusty Kennedy and had convinced herself that she didn’t want her heart entangled with anyone, and then he had to go and be all appealing.
Kate forced herself to look away before she did something stupid, only to look in the entirely wrong direction. “Oh jeez.”
Kennedy picked up the plastic cups and followed her gaze, going still when he saw where she was looking.
On the far side of the lawn was a couple who, while not naked or even half-naked, might as well have been. Make-out session didn’t quite describe it. It was more like . . . foreplay.
“I don’t think I’ve ever quite so clearly understood the phrase get a room,” Kate muttered, somehow unable to look away from the amorous couple. She wasn’t close enough to determine anything more than that the woman was blonde, the man brunette, but there was no mistaking the way his hand slid over her hip, the way her long hair spread above her head, unknowing, or uncaring, that it was in the grass.
Kennedy cleared his throat. “Wine?”
Kate tore her gaze away. A second ago, she was thinking, Heck yes, wine. Now her body was tingling, ever aware of his nearness.
“Have you ever?” she blurted out.
“Have I ever what?”
She nodded in the direction of the couple without looking at them.
His eyebrows lifted. “Made out in the grass?”
She smiled. “Yeah. Or, you know, kissed in public. Actually, never mind,” she said with a shake of her head. “Stupid question.”
Kennedy frowned. “Why is it a stupid question?”
“Because you’re Kennedy Dawson. I believe I once heard you use the words PDA and lowbrow in the same sentence.”
His frown deepened to a scowl. “You make me sound so . . .”
“Uptight?” she teased.
“Yeah.” He looked down at the cups, then tossed them to the side before looking back at her, his gaze going from irritated to considering. “Though, now that I’m remembering, that’s not the one word you’d use to describe me.”
Kate froze, that night on the boat crashing down around her, remembering her outburst, her confession. Remembering that what had followed made the couple across the lawn look tame.
Every instinct in Kate’s body wanted her to flee, but she forced herself to face the situation like an adult, even as she swore she could feel her heartbeat at every single pulse point. “Yes, well. That was before.”
“Before your dad passed?” he asked softly.
Kate swallowed. Nodded.
Kennedy’s hand twitched as though he might reach for hers, but then stilled once more. “So the feelings . . . the ones I was so blind to. Gone?”
Her heart began to pound. “I thought we agreed to put that night behind us.”
“Actually, I didn’t agree to any such thing,” Kennedy said quietly, studying her. “I merely haven’t pressed the matter. But I do have questions. When you’re ready.”
“All right,” she said after a moment. “Hit me.”
His gaze never wavered from hers. “Ian told me I missed my window with you. That you had feelings for me early on, but then they stopped. I want to know why.”
She laughed. “No, you don’t.”
He frowned. “I do.”
Kate hesitated only a moment longer before deciding to come clean. He wasn’t her boss anymore. She was no longer in love with him. So why not clear the air?
“Fine,” she said, folding her hands in her lap and looking at him. “You know that night when you and the guys made that dumb pact to not date me?”
He visibly flinched. “You knew?”
“That you guys were childish morons? Definitely. But it wasn’t the pact that bothered me. It was what you said to convince them to agree to it.”
He shook his head, indicating he didn’t follow.
Kate took a deep breath. “You said, ‘The little thing’s hardly irresistible, but better safe than sorry in case any of us gets drunk and stupid.’”
His head snapped back. “I didn’t say that.”
“You did,” she said simply. “Trust me, a woman doesn’t forget hearing the man she loves say something like that.”
His eyes closed. “Loves.”
“Yeah, well.” She kept her voice light. “What can I say, I was young and stupid. But on the plus side, hearing your thoughts helped me get over it real fast.”
He rubbed his hands over his face. “I sure as