“I could use another one of those hugs, if that’s still on offer,” Beau said.
Izzy immediately turned to him. He wrapped his arms around her and rested his hands right in the small of her back, where they’d been before. She tucked her face into that little divot in his shoulder. He dropped his head down onto her shoulder and let out a long sigh.
After a little while, his fingers moved gently up and down her back. It made her whole body tingle. She didn’t want it to stop. She didn’t want this to stop. She didn’t want to let go of him. She just wanted to sit here, with him, so close there was no space between them, feeling his touch, breathing in and out together, listening to the waves crashing into shore.
But after a little while, she could feel him start to pull away, so she forced herself to let go of him, sit back. He moved away slowly and stopped to face her, when they were still so close, when her hands were still touching his shoulders, when his palms were on her upper arms.
“When I told my mom about you,” he said, “about these last few weeks, everything you’ve done for me, she said something else. She said she was so glad I had you. She said how lucky I was, to have someone like you.”
Izzy tried to say something, but for once, she had no idea what to say.
He brushed her hair out of her face, and his fingertips lingered on her cheek. “I told her that she’s right. That I’m very glad to have you. That it was the luckiest day of my life when you knocked on my door.”
Izzy stared at him for a long moment. She noticed the flecks of green inside his golden-brown eyes. He was looking straight at her, in a way he never had before. It made her so happy, and so scared, all at once. She knew she should pull away, get up, break this moment between them.
But she’d been wanting this for so long. And from the look on his face, she thought he did, too. She let her hands move up his shoulders. And then, slowly, she leaned forward and kissed him.
He kissed her back, at first softly, gently. And then the kiss changed, became urgent, insistent. She could tell, from his kiss, from the way he pulled her closer, that he wanted this as much as she did.
They kissed for a long time as the sun set in front of them, until finally, Beau rested his forehead against hers.
“Do you know how long I’ve been wanting to do that?” Beau asked. “The answer is, a very, very long time.”
She pulled back and looked into his eyes.
“I didn’t know that, no,” she said. “I kind of thought I was all alone in wanting to do that. I didn’t even really let myself think about it, because I thought…”
He laughed and dropped a kiss in her hair. “I’m not sure whether to be glad I hid my feelings so well from you or to be furious we wasted so much time when we could have been doing this.” He brushed his fingertip over her bottom lip. “But mostly, I’m just happy to be here with you right now.”
Izzy leaned forward and kissed him again. “I’m really happy to be here with you right now.”
They sat there for a while longer, holding each other, kissing, talking about nothing, kissing more. Finally, Beau stood up and reached for her hand.
“Those snacks aren’t going to eat themselves, you know,” he said.
She laughed and grabbed his hand as she stood up.
They held hands on the way back to the car. Izzy smiled as she put on her seat belt.
“What is it?” Beau asked.
She shook her head. “I’m just happy. That’s all.”
He put his hand on her cheek. “Me too,” he said.
Beau put on his seat belt and started the car. Izzy felt like she was tempting fate, she was so happy. She tried to temper herself, push down her smile, just in case. And then she thought to hell with that, and she smiled so big out the window that strangers smiled back at her.
When they walked in the house, Beau reached for Izzy and pulled her close.
“I just needed to be able to do this again, when we were all alone,” he said, his voice muffled against her hair.
His words, his touch, went straight to Izzy’s heart. She couldn’t believe this had actually happened, that she’d kissed Beau on the beach and he’d kissed her back, that he’d said those things to her about how long he’d wanted to kiss her, that they were back here in the house together, like this. She rested her head against his firm, broad chest and felt his arms around her, and it felt so good. But then, suddenly, it wasn’t enough, and she lifted her face and pulled him down to her, and they were kissing again, and it was immediately more than it had been on the beach. Faster, closer, more intimate. His big, warm hands moved up her back, and the way he held her, kissed her, touched her, made her feel like the whole world had just sparkled from black-and-white into color.