“Does it bother you when I have a drink?”
Mick lifted his glass of mineral water. “No. Why should it?”
“Just wondered if you miss it.”
“Alcohol? Not really. It’s not good for me and I can’t handle it. But it doesn’t bother me to see other people drink it.”
“I can drink water or tea.”
He laughed and picked up her hand, kissed the back of it. “Thanks, babe. But there’s no reason you can’t enjoy a glass of wine. To be honest, I don’t even think about what you’re drinking. I’m too busy looking at your hair or your mouth or your tits or thinking about how great it was to f**k your ass today.”
She shook her head. “Such a guy.”
He waggled his brows. “Would you have me any other way?”
“No.”
“Okay then. Quit worrying about it.”
She did. They finished their meal and Tara stopped worrying about doing dishes. Though she still insisted on taking them inside and putting them in the sink, even though Mick laughed at her when she did.
“How about a walk on the beach?” Mick suggested.
“Great idea. That dinner was fabulous. I need to walk it off.”
Mick took her hand and led her out onto the beach. Tara inhaled the salty air and wondered how she was ever going to go back to the reality that was her life after spending a weekend at this idyllic paradise with a man like Mick.
“Tomorrow I thought we’d play some football on the beach.”
She snorted and leaned against him. “Trying to put me on the disabled list so I can’t work?”
“The thought crossed my mind. I’d have to keep you here on the island until you were well enough to travel.”
“I’d be at your mercy, day and night. I’m a slow healer, too.”
“How convenient. So how long do you think we could hold out here? A few months?”
She nodded. “At least.”
“That’d be tough.”
“You’d miss the start of the season.”
“Someone would have to do your job for you and handle all those headaches.”
She laughed. “Yeah, that would be a hardship.”
He put his arm around her and tugged her close. “Nice to dream, isn’t it?”
“This is paradise, Mick. I don’t know how people ever leave it.”
“Some might miss television and phones and Internet.”
“I don’t watch that much television anyway. I’m always on the phone at work, and it drives me crazy. And the only time I’m on the Internet is for work purposes. Getting away from it all here has been wonderful.” She stopped and stepped in front of him, the ocean waves sifting sand and water over her feet and ankles. “Thank you for this. It’s been the most amazing trip.”
He tipped her chin with his fingers. “I thought you might enjoy it. And it’s a nice break for me, too, before the craziness of the season starts up. I’ve never done the whole tropical island getaway, and when I saw it on the bid list, I thought of you and me and knew I had to win it.”
“Did you?” She couldn’t hide her grin.
“Yeah.”
He kissed her, a slow, sensual kiss that made her slide her toes into the sand and lean against him to hold on because she was getting dizzy. With Mick, she lost her senses, which was both a good and a bad thing.
She moved beside him again and they walked, not talking. She found she could be comfortable just being with him and not saying a word, though that tended to get her mind to working, and she thought about being here with him this weekend and what it all meant.
Total fantasy. Nothing real about it. Everything with Mick since the beginning had been built on fantasy. Dream dates and wishes and over-the-top fantasies come true. He was everything she’d ever dreamed of in a man, and everything she’d never dreamed was real. But what scared her about the two of them was the possibility that, like the fantasy of this weekend, there was no reality involved in it, nothing tangible to hold on to once the fantasy wore off.
Soon his football season would start, and he’d be so intensely involved in playing that he wouldn’t have time for her. And her business was taking off. She was getting more and more involved, her bookings were picking up, and she barely had time to see to Nathan’s needs. Once fall came he’d have games she’d need to attend, plus making sure he handled his schoolwork.
Where was there going to be time for a romantic relationship in both their schedules?
Maybe it was time to start seeing the reality of what she and Mick had together. It was a fun summer fling, and that’s all it was ever going to be. The sooner she came to grips with that, the better off she’d be. Before something stupid happened and she fell madly in love with him and started thinking they’d have a future together.
She’d had her heart broken once, and she wasn’t going to let it happen again.
Mick seemed to enjoy spending time with her, and okay, he seemed to like spending time with only her. But that didn’t mean anything. Men’s thought processes were utterly different from women’s. And men were inherently lazy, which meant that she was just easy to be with for the summer.
Wow, Tara, could you insult yourself any more with this thought process?
She hadn’t meant to, and she knew what she was thinking sounded bad, but it wasn’t what she meant. She and Mick got along great, they had fun together, their chemistry was smoking-hot, so why wouldn’t they be together? She wasn’t a demanding actress or model who needed to be seen and photographed and taken to events. She was fine doing whatever he wanted to do, and Nathan hero worshipped him, so there wasn’t even a problem with her kid.
Yeah, right. There’d been a huge problem when her kid had gotten drunk. And Mick had stepped in like a champion. How could a guy who wanted nothing more than sex from her have gotten so involved like he had with Nathan?
Maybe he was just a nice guy. No reason to read any more into it than what it was.
She was kind of the best summer fling he could have, right? And she’d made it pretty clear she wasn’t trying to put hooks into him, which would make leaving when his season started easy enough for him to do.
There was nothing holding him to her. Nothing holding her to him.
It was the perfect relationship.
So why didn’t it feel so perfect right now?