My mouth falls open as I struggle to keep my pulse in check. Who the hell is she? If I ask her now, I look like an asshole. It’s bigger than that. She just told me she loves me. She just told me she’s always loved me. Was this girl stalking me?”
Get a grip, dickhead. No way this goddess stalked you.
While she waits, the shock on her face transforms to fury. “You really don’t know? I can’t believe you’re like this. Do you just kiss random girls you approach on the beach? What kind of man are you?”
The insinuation sparks my anger. “Of course not.” I run a frustrated hand through my hair. “I saw you earlier today. You’re the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen, and I searched all day for you. When you said you hoped you’d find me here, I thought you’d seen me through the glass, or maybe this was fate. I don’t know. I’m so sorry. This feels like fate.” I pull her back into my lap and bring my forehead to hers. I need to feel her close. I need her warmth to banish the cold ache that consumes me daily. In a few brief minutes, the pain of not having her in my arms threatened to swallow me whole.
“You weren’t my patient, were you?” I whisper, unsure what I would do if she said yes. “Please tell me you’re over eighteen.”
She chuckles sweetly and kisses my forehead. “I’m twenty. The same age as Olivia.”
Olivia? How does she know Olivia?
“You know my...” My heart stops as memories flood into my lovesick brain. Teresa Franco. Little Teresa Franco. She was a pretty little thing. Olivia adored her and cried for weeks when she moved away. She was here. Years ago, she was here, at this house, for one of the worst weeks of my life.
How could I forget her?
Oh, my God!
Reality hits. I just had my hands all over little Teresa Franco’s luscious ass, and I loved every fucking minute of it. I could have kneaded her flawless mounds for hours.
I jump to my feet and inadvertently toss her onto the sand. “Teresa?”
She quirks an eyebrow and dusts herself off. “Only my Nonna calls me Teresa. Everyone calls me Tessa.”
“Tessa, I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize it was you.” I choke on every word as the lump in my throat grows larger by the second. All I want to do is sweep her into my arms and carry her into the house, but she’s my daughter’s friend. I can’t be with my daughter’s friend. It’s obscene. Lecherous. Scandalous.
And chastising myself doesn’t help one bit. I’m only getting harder.
She lifts a hand to silence me. “Don’t mention it. This was my mistake.” With tears in her eyes, she pivots in the sand and walks away. I want to chase after her. Every step she takes shatters my heart and rips my soul in two, but my feet remain glued to the sand. I can’t be that guy. I can’t be the sleazy man who sleeps with his daughter’s friend.
I’m a pediatrician, for fuck’s sake.
Jesus Christ, this is a nightmare. Of course, she feels familiar. I’m such an idiot. It’s unfortunate my whiskey-soaked brain couldn’t pinpoint exactly why she felt like an old friend. And not my friend. Olivia’s friend! This was never fated or miraculous. This is nothing but an old pervert hitting on his daughter’s best friend.
And why the fuck am I still hard?
Eight
Tessa
Oh, my God! I can’t see where I’m going. It’s too dark, and I was too heartbroken to count the houses after I fled in disgrace. Even the clouds conspire against me.
The trickle of moonlight seeping through the overcast skies is hardly enough to help me distinguish one house from the next. This is such a disaster. I need to get home. I need to change out of this damn bikini and order a pizza. I’ve starved myself for the past two weeks on the chance I’d see Calvin Young.
And for what? He’s nothing but a gigolo, and I’m nothing but a fool.
Olivia has him pegged all wrong. She thinks he’s a lonely, sad shell of a man who hasn’t dated in two years.
What a joke!
She doesn’t know he lurks around beaches, luring unsuspecting girls to watch the sunset just to cop a few feels and pinch their behinds. How could I be so gullible? I thought we were soul mates who’d fall into each other’s arms and promise our life and love forever. I thought I’d spent the next few weeks arguing with Olivia about how much I love her father and insist she call me Mommy just to make her laugh.
I’m a dummy. A big, blind dummy who can’t find her way home in the dark.
Clutching my broken heart, crying my eyes out, I stumble through the sand in search of my father’s house. It’s coming up. It must be coming up soon. Why didn’t I think to leave the deck light on?
“Tessa!” A voice in the wind makes me pick up my heels. I think it’s him. If it’s not him, it’s a man and I have no use for men. I’ll never trust them ever again.
“Tessa!” He calls again, but a break in the clouds illuminates my dad’s pool and makes me veer to the right. I run at full speed. I don’t care if I look insane. I don’t care if I fall and need to crawl the last few steps. If I can make it inside, I can lock the door and freeze him out.
“Please, stop. I’m sorry.” He’s gaining. His bellow is just over my shoulder, but I bound up the deck and fly past the pool.
“Leave me alone. Go home!” I crouch to the floor and scramble as I search for my key under the mat.
“Tessa, I’m so sorry. Please forgive me. I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings.” He grabs my key, but I snatch it out of his hands. Every word stabs my heart.
He’s sorry? Those precious moments meant the world to me, but he sees them as a lapse in judgement. A horrendous mistake he’ll want to forget. I don’t need to make him feel better when I feel lower than dirt.
“Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! You’re making things worse! I don’t want to hear your apologies. You’re only here because of Olivia. I won’t tell her anything. It’s too humiliating Please, leave.” I aim for the keyhole, but he blocks my path with his body.
“Please, listen. I don’t want you to think badly of me. I don’t do this. You’re the first woman I’ve kissed since my wife, and it’s no secret how much I hated her. If you weren’t who you are, wild horses couldn’t keep me away from you, but I just can’t. I’m so sorry.” Affection and remorse swim in his beautiful blue eyes, but I can’t listen. I’m seconds from bursting into a sniveling, blubbering fit the likes no one has seen since my cat, Nicoletta, passed away eight years ago.
Nothing he utters makes me feel better. Every word shatters me into a million pieces and scatters me into the sand. I’ll never recover. I’ll never be whole again. But I played my cards, took a chance, and now I can move on knowing I fought for love.
No regrets, Tess. That’s what matters.
“Thank you, Dr. Young. You must think you’re a kind man for coming here to let me down gently. But I don’t care. I don’t care about you and I don’t care about tonight. You may leave with your conscience intact. I wouldn’t dream of sharing this horrible experience with anyone. Goodnight.” I push my way past him, but again, he hampers my efforts.