Page 86 of Against The Tide

Coming? X

I smile at the kiss as another message comes through—a short video of Iris telling me they’re waiting for me. Jo doesn’t say anything more as she starts to get up, using her stick along with my help.

Pressing a kiss to my temple while I hold her up, she tells me, “He’s a better man than he knows.”

“I know.”

“Don’t forget the cookies. My baby girl won’t forgive you.”

Her baby girl. The smile already on my lips widens with the assurance that we are exactly where we belong.

I pause by the back door, staring at the small clear-topped tent. The mesh comes about halfway down the sides so that I can see Rhett and Iris sitting beside one another. She’s got his phone in her hand, and they’re staring at the screen as they hold it up to the sky.

He takes the phone from her, and almost instantly mine vibrates in the back pocket of my shorts.

Rhett

Get in the tent

With my heart picking up its pace, I go to the kitchen and grab a few plastic cups, milk, and the cookies. Joining them, I manage to crawl into the tent. The blankets and cushions from the couches are all arranged on the floor. Even in the dark, I can sense both of their smiles.

“I really shouldn’t leave you both unsupervised.”

“At least we’re not all wet again.” Iris shrugs, taking the cup I hand her.

“There’s that at least.”

I pour some milk for her and give her the cookie bag before I settle beside Rhett.

“Apparently you’ve never been camping,” he says, voice low and gravelly.

I can hardly breathe with how close we are, and although the breeze filters through the mesh, the air is stifling.

“No,” I tell him.

Unable to look at him without making a romantic fool of myself, I pour him a cup of milk too and offer it to him. We may have touched before, but the shock of his fingers touching mine in the dark is stronger than anything I’ve ever felt. It throws me. Then I look up at him, and his eyes make it impossible to catch myself.

I don’t relinquish the cup, and he doesn’t release my hand. We’re sucked into a moment where the ground falls away beneath us.

“Hey, sunshine…” he murmurs, thumb stroking over my knuckles.

He sounds as breathless as I feel with my heart hammering in my throat and stars gleaming at me from his eyes.

“Hey, Doc…”

Lips hitching to one side, he runs his hand up my arm to the edge of my sleeve, caressing around my wrist with long strokes, so soft and light that my stomach flips. It somersaults wickedly until frissons of heat and electricity course through me.

“Are you going to kiss again?”

Rhett’s quick to take the cup from my hand before I drop it or crush it in my attempt to dissipate the chagrin of being caught out by my daughter. He places it on the floor where Iris has set up a small picnic with the cookies and her own milk.

“Sure are.” He sticks his tongue out at her playfully, earning him a squeal as he follows through with a light brush of his lips to my cheek.

As much as I love the chaste kiss, I want more. The yearning to pull him close and taste him is staggering, and while he’s smiling down on me, I contemplate taking what I want. Kissing him. Tasting him.

Every second ticks louder in my ears, palpably as my longing is mirrored back at me.

“Can we take a photo?” Iris climbs in my lap, pulling Rhett so close that she’s sandwiched between the two of us. “You gotta say cheese, okay?”