CADEN STOPPED IN his tracks at the sight of Bella wearing a powder-blue hoodie and a pair of jeans that accentuated her figure. He tried to name the startlingly unfamiliar feeling in his chest. Full, was the best he could come up with. He felt full.
He’d been wondering if in his mind he’d exaggerated the instant attraction he’d felt when he’d seen her the night before, but his quickening pulse was all the confirmation he needed to know that what he’d felt was definitely not a fluke.
“Bella. Hi.” Caden had been playing a game with himself all afternoon. He told himself that if he ran into her again, he’d ask her out, and if not, then he would stop thinking about her altogether. Then he’d driven by Seaside about six times throughout the day, hoping to spot her so he could ask her out.
The breeze blew her blond hair back from her face, revealing thinly arched brows above the warm eyes that had sucked him right in last night. She was even more beautiful than he remembered.
“We didn’t really get properly introduced last night. I’m Jenna.” The short brunette ran her eyes between Caden and Evan.
“This is my son, Evan. Evan, this is Bella and Jenna. I met them while I was on duty last night.” He watched Bella look from him to Evan, then back again. Even at twenty Caden had never felt anything but pride for his son, but now he wondered if Bella felt the same attraction he did, and if so, did his having a son change that?
Evan arched a brow in a look that translated as, You met a woman? It seemed too old for his teenage son to be casting his way.
“Hi,” Evan said.
Caden stifled the urge to reach over and move his son’s hair out of his eyes.
“Did you catch anything?” Jenna peered into the bucket.
“Mung,” Evan answered. Mung was fisherman’s speak for thick seaweed that tangled in their lines.
“Gross. I hate that.” Jenna scrunched her nose.
“Yeah, it’s pretty gross,” Evan said.
“Are you just out for a walk?” Caden gripped the bucket tighter to ease his nerves. It had been so long since he’d been interested in a woman that it took him a minute to get used to his quickening pulse and the tightening in his gut.
“We’re having a bonfire.” Bella pointed to the fire down the beach. Her friends waved, and Bella waved back.
“Want to join us?” Jenna asked.
Bella shot her a look that Caden couldn’t read—she was either pissed or excited—and the two emotions were so far apart that he went with a safe answer, giving her an easy out.
“That’s okay. We don’t want to impose.”
“A bonfire might be fun,” Evan said.
“Of course it’s fun.” Jenna grabbed Evan’s arm and pulled him toward the bonfire. “Come on. I’ll introduce you to everyone.”
The sound of waves breaking filled the silence that stretched between Caden and Bella. Oddly, he didn’t feel rushed to break that silence. Just being in her presence felt nice—almost natural. He forced himself to say something, in case she felt uncomfortable, although she didn’t appear to, the way she was smiling up at him.
“I guess that means we’re staying, but really, if you’d rather we didn’t—”
“No. I’d rather you did. Stay.” Bella seemed quieter than she’d been the previous evening, and Caden didn’t know how to read that, either. A gust of wind swept off the ocean and whipped her hair across her cheek. She shook her head to clear it away. It flew right back again.
Without thinking, he stepped closer and tucked the wayward lock behind her ear.
Bella’s eyes narrowed, as if she were uncomfortable. “That means we’re married, you know.”
She said it with such a serious face that for a second he worried he’d crossed a line. What the devil was he thinking?
Oh, just go with it. “Cool. I’ve never been married before.”
Bella slid a confused glance at Evan, who was making himself right at home with the others.
“Evan’s mom and I were never married,” he explained. Why was he nervous talking about Evan? That was new, too.
“Oh,” Bella said.
He was sure she was waiting for an explanation, but he’d found that when he shared the story of how he and Evan came to be a family, women got weird, like he was a lost puppy who needed taking care of. He didn’t need that garbage. He loved his life with Evan, and he’d never regretted his decision to leave school to take care of him.
“So, you sure you don’t mind if we hang out for a while?”
“The more the merrier, as long as you don’t mind hanging out with a bunch of women. It’s pretty chilly. Do you want to go sit by the fire?”
He’d much rather wrap his arms around her. Short of that, sitting by a fire with Bella sounded just fine. “Sure.”
At the fire, Jenna threw Caden a blanket. “Here, you and Bella can sit on it.”
He almost made a joke about being already married and checked himself before the words left his lips. He didn’t need to freak out Evan, although from the looks of things, he was feeling pretty darn comfortable. He had his hand buried in a bag of marshmallows.
Caden glanced at the others. “I hope we’re not intruding.” He held a hand out to the brunette that had stuck her head out of the cottage window. “I don’t think we met last night. I’m Caden Grant. And this is my son, Evan.”
“I’m Leanna.” She shook his hand. “Evan already introduced himself.”
He was glad to hear that.
The skinny blonde waved to him. “I’m Amy. Want a glass of wine? Oh, and, Evan, we have Sprite if you’d like, too.”
“No, thanks. I have to drive,” Caden answered. The cop in him cataloged that all four of them were drinking.
“That’s why we take a cab to the bonfires. They’ll pick us up at eleven. Like our personal chauffer,” Amy explained.
“Good to know.” Responsible. He liked that. Caden and Evan hadn’t been to a bonfire on the beach, and it wasn’t something Caden would have instigated on his own. He was glad for the opportunity not just to see Bella again, but for Evan to be exposed to something new.
Amy handed a plastic cup of wine to Bella, then dug through the cooler and handed a can of Sprite to Evan.
Caden sat beside Bella on the small blanket, hyperaware of their close proximity. Bella’s hair swept across her face again.
“Does anyone have a ponytail holder?” she asked.
“No, sorry,” Amy said.
The others shook their heads.
“I’m going to the flea market tomorrow and buying three boxes of them. One for my beach bag, one for my car, and one for at home. That way I’m never without,” Bella said. “Anyone want to go with me?”
“The Wellfleet Flea Market?” Evan asked.
“Yeah. Do you want to go?” Bella was asking Evan but looking at Caden with a glimmer of hope in her eyes.
“Ev?” Please say you want to go. He never thought he’d be hoping his son would want to do something so he could spend time with a girl.
“Yeah. I’m looking for a few PC games, and that discount guy is there on Sundays, remember, Dad?” Evan leaned forward with hope in his eyes.