Page 9 of Beneath the Dawn

Of course, he would want to know more, she thought. Glancing over at him, what she saw in the dark depths of his gaze nearly took her breath away. It wasn’t anything sexual. Instead, she saw inquisitiveness. But then she also saw an even higher level of strength, protectiveness, and reliability.

She shouldn’t be surprised. After all, he had rescued her from the ocean so many years ago, and the notorious Edgar just today. But as she stared further, she saw something else in his gaze. Something she hadn’t seen in a man’s eyes in a long time, if ever. Emotional maturity. He was a man who intelligently played the cards he was dealt.

“And he betrayed me in the worst possible way,” she finally said softly. “For that reason, I will never give my heart to another man.”

She would leave it at that, knowing he’d probably assume another woman was involved. That would be a logical assumption, but one way off the mark. “I’ve stayed out here long enough. Definitely longer than I had planned,” she said. She didn’t want Dante making any further inquiries into her personal life. They had shared enough information for now.

Marti eased to her feet, and he did so as well. “Thanks for coming to my rescue, Dante. For the second time.”

Her breath hitched when his lips curled into a smile. “I’ll take an encounter with Edgar over having to save you from drowning any day. That was a nightmare I don’t want to ever relive.”

She nodded as she put on her hat. Neither did she. “Was it hard for you to go back into the water after that day, the way it was for me?”

He shrugged. “It might have been, only Dad wouldn’t allow it. He told me that if I let fear consume me, I’d be ruining my life. So, I went back into the water, with Dad beside me, in the beginning. And I returned here every summer with Dad, even after I left for college. However, this is the first time I’ve come back here since I lost him.”

And she hadn’t returned to this beach until a few days ago, Marti thought. Fear had been the reason she hadn’t wanted to come back to Wild Rose Point, and it was fear of a different source that had driven her back.

“Dad made this place special for me,” Dante said, penetrating her thoughts. “Knowing the summers were mine to enjoy here made me look forward to working hard during the school year and while attending Harvard. Although we would split our time between here and Italy, Wild Rose Point became my stable summer place.”

She never had what she considered a stable summer place. Her parents liked to travel, and each summer they would haul her and Kara to different destinations for sightseeing and, as her mother would say, ‘cultural enrichment’. She began to think fondly of those trips as adventures.

“Got plans for dinner?” he asked, once again cutting into her reverie.

She glanced over at him and saw that, as she’d been gathering up her water mug, the book she never started reading, and the rest of her snacks to put into her tote bag, he had folded up the beach towel. “No, I haven’t made any plans. Why?”

“I plan to grill tonight and want to invite you over,” he said. “Will you come?”

Did she dare? “That sounds wonderful. Yes, I’ll come.”

CHAPTER 4

“Those steaks smell so good, I think my feelings would have been hurt if you hadn’t invited me to join you.”

Dante glanced up from moving the meat around on the grill when Marti arrived, and he couldn’t help but smile. She looked good in the green shorts and coordinating printed blouse she’d decided to wear. The more he saw her, the more he liked what he saw. Everything she wore seemed to bring out the beauty of her eyes. Back when he was a teen, he’d thought her eye color an oddity. Now he found it mesmerizing.

“Of course, I’d have invited you. I am a real neighborly person. What do you have there?” he asked, motioning to the box she was carrying.

“Nana always taught me and Kara that we should never arrive empty-handed when we’re invited out. So I went to the Salty Dog Diner to pick up dessert. I figured I couldn’t go wrong with their signature salted honey pie. I got a whole pie in case we want seconds.”

“Thanks. Good choice,” he said. “I stopped by the diner a few weeks ago and had a slice. It was totally delicious. I ended up hanging around and talking to the owner and his staff. All likable guys, combat veterans who aren’t ready to be civilians. I loved hearing their war stories.”

“I bet,” she said, glancing around. “Nice setup you have here.”

“Thanks. I’m pretty good with my hands and thought I’d put them to good use.” Earlier, he had installed a row of string lights in the area where a table and patio chairs were placed. “You can put the dessert inside on the kitchen table. I figured we could sit on the screened patio to eat, so we won’t have to worry about pesky insects that like to make their presence known at night.”

He saw relief show on her face. “I appreciate that since I can’t stand bugs of any kind,” she said. “You don’t have to worry about me being out on the beach at night. I heard that’s when those crawly creatures ─ the beach hoppers ─ come out.”

“Yes, and they come out in large numbers. But they don’t bite,” he added.

“I’ve heard that ‘they don’t bite’ line before. Namely, from one of my neighbors in Charlotte, just five minutes before one of her dogs bit me,” she informed him.

“Ouch. What kind of dog was it?” he asked.

“A Husky. And it hurt.”

“I’m sure it did.” He couldn’t rewrite the past, but he could show that he was a neighbor who was also a man of his word. “To help rid you of your fear of being on the beach at night, I’d like to invite you out on a beach date night one day this week.”

She lifted a brow. “A beach date night?”