Summer Secrets - Barbara Freethy [148]
"You're living dangerously, Kate," he murmured.
"You may not know this about me, but there was a time when I liked to live dangerously, and I'm beginning to want to do it again." She lifted her head and smiled as he opened first one eye then the other.
"How dangerous are we talking?"
"Really dangerous." She hesitated, not sure he was as ready as she was to talk about the future. "But we can discuss that later."
"Why wait?" he asked. "I'm right here. I'm not going anywhere."
"Maybe not today," she said slowly, "but I suspect soon." She put her head on his chest and closed her eyes, listening to his heart beat steadily beneath her ear. She wished she hadn't said anything. She could feel the tension in his body now, tension she'd created by wanting to talk about the future.
He gently stroked her hair. "Kate?"
"What?"
"I don't know the best way to work things out between us. But I do know that I want to make it work, more than anything."
She lifted her head and turned over on her stomach so she could look him straight in the eye. "I want that, too. I love you."
"I love you back," he said with a gaze so tender, so full of promise, she felt tears in her eyes.
"Wherever you want to live," she said, "I'll go with you. I want you to know that."
"You'd give up this island, your garden, your little house in the hills? You'd give that up for me?"
She didn't answer right away, because she wanted him to know that she was taking this question seriously, that her answer mattered and meant something. She saw his eyes darken with uncertainty. "Yes, I would," she said finally. "I'd give up everything for you. I would have jumped in the water for you tonight, if I'd needed to. I don't want to lose you. If my grip gets too tight, you'll have to let me know."
"I'll be holding on to you just as tightly, Kate." He put his hand behind her head and pulled her close for a kiss. "You're the best thing that ever happened to me. I'm not going to ask you to give up anything for me. We'll find a way to work it out." He kissed her again, then set her aside.
"Hey, that wasn't enough," she complained.
He smiled as he reached for his cell phone on the bedside table. "There's one call I need to make."
"To your brother?"
"Yes, I need to let him know that Caroline is no threat to Amelia. He'll be very relieved."
Kate frowned. "How do you think he'll feel about you being involved with the sister of Amelia's birth mother? That could be complicated."
"He'll deal with it, just as Caroline will. I think Amelia is a lucky little girl to have so many people love her. And hopefully one day she can know the true circumstances of her birth. I think it's important, and I hope Mark will realize it, too. Amelia should know her biological family."
"Even my father?"
Tyler groaned. "Well ... maybe not my first choice, but he is your father. However, I will never sail with that man again. In fact, I may never sail again."
"Fine by me." Kate sat up in bed, wrapping the sheet around her bare body. "Before you make that call, there's something else I wanted to talk to you about."
"What's that?"
"I've been thinking, and this will sound crazy, but I want to race in the Castleton on Saturday and try to win back the Moon Dancer." Her words came out in a rush, and she waited for him to say she was a fool, it was a ridiculous idea. But he didn't say anything, he just smiled at her.
"I think that sounds like a terrific idea."
"Really?"
"It's the last bit of unfinished business, isn't it?"
"As long as K.C. has our boat, he'll always be in our lives. I want him out. I want all of the past to be over with." She sighed. "Now I just have to convince Caroline and Ashley to sail with me."
Chapter Twenty-Five
"All for one, one for all." Caroline held out her hands to Kate and Ashley as they stood on the dock in front of the