“You want to come in first? Or do we have a reservation?”

“We should get going now. We’ll come back here after dinner.”

The thought of us being alone later made me jittery.

He opened the car door for me. “You still like seafood?”

“Yeah. You know it’s my favorite.”

I could feel Mitch glancing over at me constantly as he drove.

“What?” I asked.

“You look really pretty.”

I rubbed both hands over my arms to tame the goosebumps. “You look nice, too.”

“You seem nervous. You okay?” he asked.

“You’re acting differently today.”

“You’re right. Today is a new day. This trip will be over in the blink of an eye. I want you to know if I’m thinking something over the next few days, I’m gonna say it. Until last night, I thought I had more time to remind you of who I am and to tell you things you need to know. I’m not going to waste the rest of this time talking about the possibility of your moving with him. This is about me and you and no one else.”

I gave him a slight smile to show him that I understood.

His eyes returned to the road, and he didn’t look at me the rest of the quiet ride.

We pulled into the parking lot of a high-end restaurant, Rowlings on the Water. He held the door open for me. The smell of fresh seafood immediately hit me. There was a room off to the left with lobsters swimming around in a large tank. To the right, was the dining area that was pretty crowded for so early in the evening. There was indoor seating and an outdoor area that overlooked the water.

A hostess greeted us. “Would you prefer inside or out?”

Mitch looked at me.

“It’s so nice out. Let’s eat outside,” I said.

She grabbed two menus. “Outside it is. Right this way.”

Once seated, our waitress, a pretty redhead named Ginny, came over. “What can I get you started with?”

“I’ll have a glass of Pinot Grigio,” I said.

“I’ll have a Sam Adams.”

When I handed her my drink menu, her eyes landed on my diamond, which was shining brightly in the sun. “Whoa, stunning ring,” she said before looking at Mitch. “You have nice taste.”

“Oh, I didn’t pick it out. She’s not my fiancée. We’re just friends,” he said curtly.

“Really? I would have never guessed that.” She took his menu. “Does that mean you’re single?”

“I am,” he said while looking right at me.

“I’ll be right back with your drinks.”

An awkward silence ensued as Mitch and I browsed the food menu.

When she returned, the focus of her attention shifted solely to Mitch. She totally made eyes at him when she handed him his beer.

“Are you ready to order?”

Mitch pointed to me. “Skylar?”

“I’ll have the one pound lobster with a side of baked potato and a salad.”

“And I’ll have the sea scallops with rice and a salad. Can we also have the oysters on the half shell appetizer?”

“Absolutely. You know what they say about oysters, right?”

Mitch was still looking at me while answering her. “What do they say about oysters, Ginny?”

She blinked her eyelashes. “They’re an aphrodisiac.”

His eyes were still burning into mine. “Good to know.”

She winked at him, oblivious to his clear disinterest. “I’ll be right back.”

He unfolded his napkin with a guilty laugh. He knew she wanted him. “Did you know that about oysters, Skylar?”

I rolled my eyes. “She’s a little bit too obvious, don’t you think?”

“About what?”

“She wants to f**k you, and she’s letting you know it.”

He took a long sip of his beer. “Does that bother you?”

“No. I’m just…pointing it out.”

“Okay. So, you wouldn’t mind if I asked her to meet up later, then?”

The thought made my stomach sick. His behavior had been so unpredictable today, though, that I couldn’t be 100-percent sure he was kidding. For all I knew, he might do it to prove a point and then end up really liking her.

“If that’s what you want. Is it?”

He leaned in. “Oh, it wouldn’t be what I want. What I want is for all these people to magically disappear and to take you on this table until you scream my name. So, what I want is irrelevant, isn’t it? I was just wondering if you’d care.”

All of the color must have drained from my face.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, knowing exactly the effect his words had on me.

I was so turned on. I could hardly breathe.

I took a long sip of my wine in an attempt to cool myself down. “You weren’t kidding when you said you weren’t holding back.”

“I’m done wasting time with bullshit. Think hard before you ask me something. From now on, I’ll damn well give you the honest answer. When we were kids, you used to always do the same. I used to love that about you.”

Ginny arrived with our oysters, placing the entire plate in front of Mitch as if I were invisible. “Just let me know if there’s anything else I can get you. Anything at all.”

Bitch.

Mitch ignored her and pushed the plate into the middle of the table. “Have one.”

I stuck my hand out. “I didn’t realize they were raw.”

“You didn’t? I thought you knew what these were. You like sushi, don’t you?”

“Yeah, but these are kind of slimy-looking.”

I watched closely as he lifted one to his mouth and licked the oyster out of the shell, sucking out the juices. He licked his lips, and it made me instantly wet. Talk about food porn. He took another and reached across the table.

“Open your mouth.”

I did as he asked and sucked it into my mouth, swallowing the sludgy oyster as fast as possible.

I made a face. “Okay, I’ve tried it.”

“No more?”

“No.”

“Thank you for trying it.”

“I’ll try anything once.” It came out more suggestive than I intended.

I was completely egging him on, and I couldn’t stop myself.

When our meals arrived, things cooled down. It never ceased to amaze me how the mood with Mitch could easily turn from sexually tense to comfortable in minutes. That had always been our modus operandi.

We talked about everything from my health to our families. It was sweet to see the look of genuine relief on his face when I explained that my doctors were more optimistic each visit. All routine scans and blood work in the years since my transplant had checked out clear. Then, we moved to the topic of his sister whom he’d remained close with in recent years. He lamented over the fact that Summer was now in her preteens and that he might have to physically harm any boys who break her heart.

Ginny returned to our table. “Did you want dessert?” she asked, looking only at Mitch.

I just wanted to get home and intercepted. “We still have a ton of tiramisu left over from the other night back at the house,” I said.

He looked at her. “I guess that’s a no. We’ll just take the check.”

She returned with our bill and two mints.

He looked down at it and made a funny face.

I reached out my hand “What’s the damage?”

“It’s nothing.”

“Mitch, you’ve paid for this whole trip. The least I can do is cover dinner. Please let me.”

“No way.”

I suddenly snatched the bill out of his hand and saw that Ginny had left more than those two candies. His earlier smirk made total sense now.

I think you’re adorable, and I’d love to go out sometime. Call me. 757-969-2352.

My body stiffened as a feeling of primal protectiveness surged through me. It was unfair to feel this way given my circumstances, but the thought of Mitch with another woman made me crazy.

“You okay?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

He gave me a knowing look. I guess I wore my jealousy on my sleeve.

“I’m not gonna call her, Skylar.”

“You don’t owe me an explanation. You’d have every right to be interested in someone else.”

He looked around to see if anyone was listening then looked into my eyes. “I wish I could f**king want someone else.” His stare was penetrating. “It doesn’t feel good, though, does it? Times that by 1000, and that’s what I’ve been going through.”

For the first time tonight, I saw genuine sadness in his eyes.

“No, it doesn’t...feel good.”

He ripped the bill from my grasp and cracked a smile. “For the record, you’re adorable when you’re jealous.”

I didn’t put up a fight about paying. I just wanted to get out of there as fast as possible, angry at my sudden and selfish desire to be alone with him.

***

Mitch took two small plates out of the cupboard. “Let’s take dessert out to the beach while there’s still a little light, unless you’d want to go swimming?”

“No, the water’s too cold. It’s high tide, and the waves are rough. Dessert on the beach sounds good. I’ll grab a blanket from upstairs.”

We took our shoes off and walked out onto the sand where we spread the blanket down.

It was windy, and our hair was blowing all over the place. A flock of a dozen seagulls decided to join us once they saw we were eating.

Mitch threw one a remnant of his dessert. “They must know we’re bird people.”

I let out a giggle. “Aw, I miss Seamus. He’s probably miserable without me.”

“That old bird and I always did have that in common.”

He startled me when he moved closer and rubbed his thumb against my chin. “You had a ton of whipped cream right there.” When he licked his thumb, a shiver ran down the length of my body.

He didn’t realize he had some whipped cream, too, on the corner of his mouth, and it was taunting me. I imagined licking it off.

“You have some, too,” I said.

“Where?”

“Right here.” I brushed my index finger along the corner of his mouth. The tip of his tongue peeked out from in between his teeth and grazed my finger as I moved it along his lower lip.”

He shut his eyes as if to fend off the feelings produced by the contact. I didn’t know why I was torturing myself. Touching his mouth wasn’t going to help if I couldn’t kiss it deeply the way I was dying to.

Now, he was staring at my mouth, a silent invitation to continue what I started. I tried to change the subject. “I have a confession. I didn’t make this tiramisu. I bought it at the bakery down the road.”

“Ah…you sneak,” he said, taking another bite.

“Isn’t it the most delicious thing you’ve ever tasted?”

He slowly pulled the spoon from his mouth and shook his head. “No, actually. It’s not.”

It took me a few seconds to understand why he was looking at me like he wanted to eat me. Then, I figured out that he was referring to going down on me. I squeezed the muscles between my legs in response to the immediate reaction triggered by the memory of his hot mouth devouring me. He was the only man who had ever done that to me.

In another attempt to change the subject, I looked toward the seagulls that were now yards away. “The night is still young. What do you want to do?”

“I want go inside and light up that electric fireplace. Have you tried it?”

“No. I haven’t yet,” I said.

“That’s what I want to do. I want to sit by the fire with you and just chill.”

“Okay.”

“But first I want to make you wet.”

Excuse me?

“What?”

Before my mind could fall further into the gutter, he lifted me up over his shoulder and sprinted toward the choppy ocean.

I whacked him repeatedly as my body bounced against him while he ran. “Mitch! No. No. No. Put me down! Put me down!”

My back slapped against the cold water when he dumped me in. I swallowed some of the salt water and started coughing incessantly. My dress was drenched, and so were his clothes.

“You jerk!” I started to splash him as fast and furiously as I could.

He didn’t even try to block me. He just stood there and let me do it with a devilish smile on his face, periodically pushing his hair back with his hands and spitting out water. At one point, I got taken out by a wave and lost my balance. I started to laugh fervently after it knocked me down.

As he held his stomach in laughter, I trudged through the water and knocked him in the chest. “You think that’s funny, huh?”

“No,” he said, grabbing me again and lifting me over his head. “I think this is funny.” He threw me down hard into the water again.

We frolicked in the ocean for at least an hour until every drop of sun disappeared. The light from the house was like a lamp in the darkness.

“It’s getting chilly. Let’s go inside,” he said.

We squeezed the water out of our clothes and raced to the door. It felt like we were teenagers again. We were laughing and panting as we wiped our feet free of sand in the doorway.

“I’ll go get some towels,” I said before running up the stairs.

I quickly got out of my dress, putting on a cami and shorts before returning downstairs.

He had turned on the electric fireplace that was built into the wall in the living room. I threw one of the towels at him.