From This Moment On: Heartwarming Contemporary Romance (Windswept Bay Book 1) by Debra Clopton Page B

concentration and your work. All that creativity, you know.”
    He smiled. He wanted to go. Anything that would get him time with her, he was all in. “Still, it sounds like I might be intruding tonight.”
    “No, you would be welcomed. And to be honest, I should have already invited you but I worried you wouldn’t want to come. I didn’t want to take up your time. But, tonight you would take pressure off me. I’m shamelessly using you, not only here at the resort but in this dinner invitation also.”
    He grinned. “Use me all you want. Sounds like fun.”
    She swallowed hard. “Yes, sure. So you don’t mind?”
    “Mind? I just said it sounds like fun. More plainly, I’d love to go with you.” Anywhere, anytime.
    “Great.”
    “Will all of your family be there? Other than Cam?”
    “No. Some of my brothers will but I’m never sure who’ll show up at the weekly dinners. It depends on schedules and what’s going on in everyone’s lives. Shar and Jillian will be there so I’ll warn you now. But Olivia is out of town.”
    “Sounds intriguing. I need to run up and shower. Can you give me a few minutes?”
    “Of course. Take your time.”
    “I don’t want to make you late. I’ll meet you in the lobby in thirty minutes. Does that work?”
    “Perfect. I’ll be there.”
    He fought the urge to touch her and knew he was doomed to fight that urge all evening.
     
    “Cam has told me a little about your family,” Grant said later as they drove down the coastal road toward her parents’ home. “There are nine of you. Seven biological and two adopted. Right? And though they don’t look like it, Shar and Jillian are part of a set of triplets.”
    The man smelled of clean, manly soap and his hair was still damp at the edges from the shower he’d had. Cali had been finding it hard to concentrate as she rode beside him in his rustic Jeep. “Yes, that’s correct. But we look at Jake and Max as blood. They lost their parents when they were adolescents. We’d all grown up together, so we were already close when tragedy struck their lives. And Shar, Jillian and Olivia are triplets but Jillian and Olivia are paternal so they look alike, though age has brought slight differences. Shar is one of a kind.”
    He laughed. “Oh yeah. I can see that. Your parents sound like amazing people. They raised nine kids.”
    She laughed because there was such awe in his voice. “Many more than that if you count the constant stream of friends who traipsed through our home. There it is.” She pointed to the house that sat alone on this stretch of the coast and glanced over at him. He was studying the house with deep interest. With an artist’s eye, maybe, considering the house was perfect for the setting.
    Sitting back from the beach, the waterfront home was a large beach-style home with gray shingles and bright white shutters. “We moved into this home not long after the triplets were born. By that time, we were about to bust out of the smaller home we’d lived in. And later, when the twins joined our family, this place could accommodate us.”
    “Did Jillian do the landscaping? With the ocean backdrop, it is brilliantly highlighted.”
    “Mom helped. That’s where Jillian gets her talent.”
    Because of the man beside her, butterflies had been exhausting themselves inside her rib cage as they drove. Now they seemed to have burning wings as he parked the Jeep and the evening drew imminent.
    “You’re getting off light,” she said, trying not to let her nerves get the better of her. Would they all start pressing her to date? Would they all see the attraction to Grant that was becoming almost overwhelming? “Levi and Jake are my only brothers who are here. At least at the moment. Unless they arrive later, it looks like Levi’s twin, Trent, and the youngest brother, Max, are missing. Lucky you. That pulls your number of interrogations down substantially.”
    “So you think I might survive now?”
    “It’s possible.