CHAPTER 18
“Have you talked to the kids?” Austin asked before taking a bite of his pancakes.
Sara nodded and took a sip of orange juice. “I talked to them this morning.”
She’d only talked to Trev for a second. He was excited to go out and jump on the trampoline that his uncle had in the backyard. Charlotte was more talkative, but her questions had mostly revolved around Austin. She’d wanted to know where he was. What he was doing. If Sara had seen him yet this morning.
The conversation with Shelby had illuminated the fact that Sara might be getting a little too attached to Austin. And remembering her daughter going on and on about him, she realized she wasn’t the only one. And that was not okay.
This mid-life crisis, or whatever she was going through, should not affect her kids. What had she been thinking, letting him spend time with them? How could she have possibly thought this would end well? This was real life. She couldn’t go around letting her kids get attached to random guys they’d most likely never see again.
“Are they okay?” Austin’s face was etched with worry as he reached across the table and covered Sara’s hand.
Pasting on a bright smile, Sara hoped to camouflage the doubts and regrets that were multiplying in her mind like soaking wet Gremlins after midnight. “Yeah, they’re great.”
“Why are you doing that?” His tone turned serious.
She pulled her hand away, suddenly feeling defensive. “Doing what?”
“Smiling like that.” He didn’t seem offended by her abrupt movement, if anything he seemed more concerned. “If something’s wrong, you can tell me.”
“Nothing’s wrong,” Sara maintained.
“Nothing’s wrong?” he repeated skeptically.
“Nope.”
Austin didn’t respond. He just looked at her. Waiting. Letting his silence speak louder than a thousand words.
It was more than Sara could handle. She cracked. Lowering her voice so the entire diner didn’t overhear, she leaned forward. “I’m just worried the kids might be getting too attached to you.”
“The kids?” He raised his left brow.
“Yes. The kids.” She knew what he was implying, but she really was worried about Trev and Charlotte. “Every time Trev looks at you, he has hero worship in his eyes, and all Charlotte wanted to know about this morning was where you were. If she could talk to you. If I was going to see you today.”
“That’s sweet.” Austin grinned.
“Well, it’s not going to be sweet when you’re gone and I’m dealing with the aftermath,” she snapped.
Sara knew logically she was taking out her frustration undeservedly on Austin. He hadn’t done anything wrong. He’d been nothing but amazing, supportive, and honest. He’d said he wanted to spend more time with them, and she’d agreed. He’d given her plenty of heads up about his desire to kiss her, and she’d been more than willing to pucker up. When things had heated up, he’d stopped and asked her if taking things further was what she really wanted, and she’d practically begged.
This was her fault. She had just been so blindsided by the whole situation, she had broken her cardinal rule. She hadn’t thought about the repercussions. Now she was going to have to deal with the fallout of her misstep.
“And where am I going exactly?” Austin asked calmly.
It was in that moment Sara realized he had the patience of a saint. Great. Like he needed one more attribute to add to his list of Superman qualities.
“You know what I mean.” She knew she didn’t need to spell it out for him. He’d gone into this with his eyes just as open as she had.
A smile tilted his full lips. The lips that had given her more pleasure than should be legal. If she closed her eyes, she could still feel those masterful lips dripping kisses down her neck.
No.
She could not get sidetracked by his lips, or his tongue, or his arms, or his…
“Look.” He rested his arms on the table and sighed. “I know your life is complicated and you’re leaving in a few days. And that makes what’s happening between us complicated. But I’ve never felt this way before, Sara. Maybe it’s selfish, but I want to spend every second I can with you. I want to spend time with the kids too, when they come back. And I don’t want to disappear from their lives when you leave. I know this might sound crazy, but maybe we can try—”
“Don’t.” Sara shook her head.
This conversation sounded eerily familiar to one she’d had with Jack. Not that the one she’d had with her ex had included that he’d never felt this way before or that he wanted to spend every day together. But the complicated and maybe we can try parts were definitely ringing bells.
“You don’t even want to try?” Austin got straight to the point.
“I want…” She was hoping the rest of this sentence would just auto-fill, but when it didn’t, she had to really think about what she wanted, or more importantly didn’t want.
She didn’t want to spend the rest of her time here in Whisper Lake alone. She didn’t want to let the fear of what would happen when this momentary fairytale was over stop her from experiencing it while she could. She didn’t want to look back at the time she spent here and regret what could’ve been.
The kids and what she would do about their attachment to Austin was one thing. When they got back, it would probably be best if Austin wasn’t around as much. But while they were in Chicago, Sara knew what she wanted.
Her entire life had been spent taking care of other people. Always doing the right thing. The responsible thing. She wanted a few days for her, where she could just relax and enjoy herself.
“I want to enjoy my time here, with you. I want to let you drive.”
The bad-boy smile that was quickly ranking in Sara’s top ten favorite things spread across Austin’s face. His eyes darkened to a deep emerald shade and the energy between them crackled with electricity. She would’ve thought that after being together, it would’ve diluted the potency of pent-up sexual desire. If anything, it had multiplied it.
“Well, hello there, Mr. Stone, Ms. Kellan.”
The voice startled Sara out of her lust haze, and she looked up to see that Mrs. Dobrinski was approaching their table. She hadn’t met the woman formally, but her reputation certainly preceded her. Sara braced herself for a Spanish Inquisition or some kind of FBI level interrogation, but instead she was looking back and forth between Sara and Austin like she was seeing a ghost. Or two ghosts. “I’m sorry…I feel like I’m in the Twilight Zone.”
Austin and Sara exchanged glances to see if the other one knew what was going on. They didn’t.
Being the assertive gentleman of Sara’s dreams, Austin stood and offered the woman his chair. “Is everything okay, Mrs. D? Would you like to sit?”
“No, I’m fine.” She shooed Austin with her hand. Then her eyes laser focused on Sara. “You’re Betty Casson’s granddaughter.”
Chills ran up Sara’s arm. Casson was her grandma’s maiden name. “Yes, I am.”
“I just can’t get over how much you look like her. The spitting image.”
“Did you know her?” Sara heard her voice go high as excitement raced through her at the possibility that she had. She started rummaging through her purse to find the picture.
“Oh, yes. I spent every day with her and Clifford the summer she was here with her folks.”
“My grandpa?” Austin asked.
Sara was still putting the pieces together as she pulled the photo from her purse.
“He knew her?”
“Oh, boy, I should say so. Maybe I should sit.” Austin pulled his chair out and held Mrs. D’s arm as she lowered into it. Then he grabbed another chair from an adjacent table and joined them as Sara was handing Mrs. D the photograph of her grandma.
“This picture is why I came here. My grandma said the summer she spent in Whisper Lake was magical.”
“Well, yeah. I bet she did. She and Clifford were inseparable, much to your great-grandfather’s dismay. He didn’t like the idea of his daughter running around with a local boy. But your grandma.” Mrs. D shook her head as a whisper of a smile crossed her face. “She was a firecracker. She was ready to throw away her inheritance, her family name, everything just to be with Clifford.”
“So they were in love?” Sara felt tears prick in her eyes.
“Oh, yes. And it was the real thing, if I ever saw it.”
“So what happened?” Sara prompted.
“Well, as summers have a habit of doing, it came to an end. And a week before Betty was set to leave with her parents, on his eighteenth birthday, Clifford enlisted in the Army. He was shipped out the next day, but before he left he came to see me. He told me that Betty deserved better than what he had to offer. He gave me this picture to give to her, told me to tell her it was how he’d always remember her. I’ll never forget the look on her face when I broke the news to her that he was gone.”
“Did they ever see each other again?” Austin asked, looking as stunned by the story as Sara felt.
“Not that I know of. It wasn’t like it is nowadays, with Facebook and Google and all the other ways you can find someone. Back then, it was difficult to stay in touch. I never heard from Betty again after that summer. Clifford came back after serving for six years. He bought the B&B with his GI bill.”
The B&B he’d renamed after her grandma’s favorite fairytale. The Princess and the Pea.
“He and Alma had your dad a few years later.” Mrs. D motioned to Austin, before looking between the two of them again. “Boy, I bet they’d be beside themselves to see the two of you here. Together.”
Sara knew that her Grandma Betty hadn’t married until she was in her late twenties and had given birth to her mom around thirty. She always told Sara she was considered an old maid in her time. Now she was wondering if she hadn’t waited to get married because her heart had belonged to someone else. To Clifford.
“Well, I’d better let you two get back to your breakfast.” Mrs. D looked overwhelmed with emotion as she stood and handed the photo to Sara. “Thanks for the walk down memory lane.”
“Mrs. Dobrinski.” Sara stopped her. So many questions were racing through her mind, but one more than the others stood out. “Do you happen to remember what he wrote on this?”
She turned the picture over.
She bent down and squinted. “No, dear. I’m sorry. I don’t.”
“Okay, thanks.” Sara tried to push down the disappointment that filled her chest. Mrs. D had told her so much more than she could’ve ever hoped for. Still… “It’s just driving me crazy that it’s signed YT and to MT.”
“Oh, now that I can tell you.” She grinned with a knowing glint in her eyes. “Those were their code names, since your great-grandparents didn’t approve of them running around together.”
“Do you know what they stood for?”
“Well, sure. MT stood for My Temptation and YT stood for Your Temptation.”
MT. My temptation.
Glancing up at Austin as he said goodbye to Mrs. D, Sara thought, yep, I can definitely relate to that.