his grandmother—but also to find closure with Johanna. Okay, and also to have lots of sex with Johanna until they both were too exhausted to argue about the past. Then they could move on.
Clearly, his plan wasn’t working out because he was falling into an old pattern of charging ahead and expecting her to follow. She didn’t trust him and if she didn’t trust him, there wasn’t a chance in hell they could sleep together again.
He couldn’t change the past, and he’d accepted they couldn’t have a future together.
Although he could damn well do something about the present. For starters, he could share the details about their travel plans. But he would have to dig a lot deeper than that to fully regain her trust.
He sat beside her on the fat sectional sofa, trying to start right now, by including her in the plan for the week. “We’ll be visiting the Landis-Renshaw family in Hilton Head. They’ve vacationed at the ranch before. As a matter of fact, they rented the whole place once for a family reunion.”
“That would be quite a who’s who of family reunions.”
And he hadn’t even told her their third stop would be to meet with a deposed European king.
* * *
Johanna welcomed the bustle of their travel day to Hilton Head, South Carolina. Stone had arranged for accommodations in a pet-friendly beach cottage with plenty of space for the dogs to run. They would meet with the Landis-Renshaw family in the morning.
Other cottages dotted the shoreline, but with an exclusivity that brought privacy. One other couple and a small family played in the surf, but otherwise she and Stone were on their own. She’d sensed a change in him earlier as he’d shared his plans for the South Carolina portion of their trip. He was genuinely attempting to include her, rather than simply taking charge.
So far, the truce they’d declared had held, due in large part to how he’d included her. That helped her relax, taking away a layer of tension she hadn’t even realized existed. She’d been worrying about the unknown.
She sat cross-legged on the wooden deck, a dozen steps away from him. The dogs curled up around her and she checked over each of them, making sure they hadn’t picked up ticks in Vermont or sand spurs from their run along the beach earlier. She finished with Pearl, the search more extensive given the cairn terrier’s longer fur.
Stone walked out of the surf like Poseidon emerging from the depths of the ocean. Big. Powerful. The hazy glow of the ending day cast him in shadows, his dark hair even blacker slicked with water. She’d always known Stone the cowboy entranced her more than Stone the CEO.
But Stone nearly naked absolutely melted her.
She forced her attention back to Pearl to keep from drooling over Stone in swim trunks. Her skin prickled with awareness as he opened the porch gate and walked past her. She heard the rattle of ice as he poured a glass of sweet tea before he dropped into one of the Adirondack loungers.
“How was the water?” She released Pearl to play with the other two dogs on the fenced deck.
“Good, good.” He set his glass aside. “Everything okay with the dogs?”
They sounded like any other couple catching up at the end of the day, except there was this aching tension between them. “They all checked out fine. Just a couple of sandspurs on Pearl. I trimmed their nails, and I’ll want to bathe them all after they run on the beach again. Otherwise, they’re all set to meet their new families.”
He swung his feet around, elbows on his knees. “You’re a nurturer. It’s in your blood.”
Her hands clenched into fists to resist the urge to sweep sand from the hair on his legs. “Are you trying to needle me with the nurturer comment?”
“I’m just stating a fact. You’ll make a great mother someday.”
The humid night air grew thicker, her chest constricting. “You’re good with children. The natural way you held little T.J....I just don’t understand
Clearly, his plan wasn’t working out because he was falling into an old pattern of charging ahead and expecting her to follow. She didn’t trust him and if she didn’t trust him, there wasn’t a chance in hell they could sleep together again.
He couldn’t change the past, and he’d accepted they couldn’t have a future together.
Although he could damn well do something about the present. For starters, he could share the details about their travel plans. But he would have to dig a lot deeper than that to fully regain her trust.
He sat beside her on the fat sectional sofa, trying to start right now, by including her in the plan for the week. “We’ll be visiting the Landis-Renshaw family in Hilton Head. They’ve vacationed at the ranch before. As a matter of fact, they rented the whole place once for a family reunion.”
“That would be quite a who’s who of family reunions.”
And he hadn’t even told her their third stop would be to meet with a deposed European king.
* * *
Johanna welcomed the bustle of their travel day to Hilton Head, South Carolina. Stone had arranged for accommodations in a pet-friendly beach cottage with plenty of space for the dogs to run. They would meet with the Landis-Renshaw family in the morning.
Other cottages dotted the shoreline, but with an exclusivity that brought privacy. One other couple and a small family played in the surf, but otherwise she and Stone were on their own. She’d sensed a change in him earlier as he’d shared his plans for the South Carolina portion of their trip. He was genuinely attempting to include her, rather than simply taking charge.
So far, the truce they’d declared had held, due in large part to how he’d included her. That helped her relax, taking away a layer of tension she hadn’t even realized existed. She’d been worrying about the unknown.
She sat cross-legged on the wooden deck, a dozen steps away from him. The dogs curled up around her and she checked over each of them, making sure they hadn’t picked up ticks in Vermont or sand spurs from their run along the beach earlier. She finished with Pearl, the search more extensive given the cairn terrier’s longer fur.
Stone walked out of the surf like Poseidon emerging from the depths of the ocean. Big. Powerful. The hazy glow of the ending day cast him in shadows, his dark hair even blacker slicked with water. She’d always known Stone the cowboy entranced her more than Stone the CEO.
But Stone nearly naked absolutely melted her.
She forced her attention back to Pearl to keep from drooling over Stone in swim trunks. Her skin prickled with awareness as he opened the porch gate and walked past her. She heard the rattle of ice as he poured a glass of sweet tea before he dropped into one of the Adirondack loungers.
“How was the water?” She released Pearl to play with the other two dogs on the fenced deck.
“Good, good.” He set his glass aside. “Everything okay with the dogs?”
They sounded like any other couple catching up at the end of the day, except there was this aching tension between them. “They all checked out fine. Just a couple of sandspurs on Pearl. I trimmed their nails, and I’ll want to bathe them all after they run on the beach again. Otherwise, they’re all set to meet their new families.”
He swung his feet around, elbows on his knees. “You’re a nurturer. It’s in your blood.”
Her hands clenched into fists to resist the urge to sweep sand from the hair on his legs. “Are you trying to needle me with the nurturer comment?”
“I’m just stating a fact. You’ll make a great mother someday.”
The humid night air grew thicker, her chest constricting. “You’re good with children. The natural way you held little T.J....I just don’t understand
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