From This Moment On: Heartwarming Contemporary Romance (Windswept Bay Book 1) (3 page)

She nodded and looked back at the blank wall beside the pool. He could tell she wanted to tell him more about her vision of what she wanted on the wall. Instead, she literally bit her bottom lip and held back.

Despite all his efforts, his gaze locked onto her mouth. And suddenly he wasn’t thinking about painting.

She was staring at him too. “This way,” she said, tersely, as she spun and walked briskly away from him. “It will be visible from the beach and I just think it could be a great statement.”

Electricity flowed through his veins. “Your instincts are great.” Guilt suddenly tried to swallow him and he tried to focus on anything but how he was affected by her.

Pulling his gaze away from her swaying hips and flouncing ponytail, he forced himself to look at the white sandy beach and the sparkling water. It was a wide beach with waves washing gently onto the sand, where children built sandcastles and adults enjoyed the pristine day.

“This is the largest area and will be seen by so many people from the beach.” Cali swung around.

He ran into her this time.

It happened so suddenly there was nothing he could do. Instinctively, his arms went around her as their feet tangled and to his dismay, they tumbled to the sand.

This was not exactly the way to make a good impression.

But…as he landed in the sand, he knew at this moment he didn’t care about anything but that he had Cali in his arms.

Not again!
Cali wasn’t sure what had happened, just that she turned too quickly and found herself in Grant’s arms and fell into the sand, with her landing on top of him.

“Oh,” she managed, breathlessly looking down at him. He stared up at her and she could feel his heart pound beneath her hand, where it rested there on his chest. For a moment, they just seemed frozen and then he laughed huskily as he rolled to his side and gently deposited her beside him in the sand. Her heart thundered and it wasn’t from the fall or from fear. His arms held her, cocooned in their protective grasp. And then, he smiled…not the partial or hint of a smile she’d seen before but a full-blown, gleaming white smile that knocked her socks off.

Potent. Sexy. Lethal.

“I’d say we need to stop meeting like this, but I’m enjoying it too much.” His gaze went back to her lips and her insides melted like honey on a hot day.

She knew she should move. That she needed to escape his arms, but she couldn’t.

“Are you okay?” he asked, concern in his tone.

“Fine. I’m just…”
Dear goodness, what was wrong with her?
“I need to get up,” she snapped as alarm curled through her. She scrambled away from him, forcing herself out of his arms.

What was wrong with her?
She’d sworn off men and now, one moment in Grant’s arms and she was all gooey inside. And wanting his kiss?

No. No, ma’am. This wouldn’t do.

He sat up, and then rose and pulled her to stand. The brief teasing flirtation that had first flickered through his eyes was gone, replaced with concern. “Are you sure you’re all right? The fall didn’t hurt you?”

“No. I…I just lost my breath for a moment.” It wasn’t a lie. She had lost her breath—just not from the fall.

“I’m glad you weren’t harmed because of my carelessness.”

He gently brushed sand from her cheek, flustering her all the more and making her want to dust him off. “I turned too quickly,” she blurted and started dusting herself off like a madwoman batting at attacking bees.

She could feel his perplexed gaze on her but she didn’t look at him. Oh no, that would not do because he could probably see her thoughts in her eyes.

“I should have been paying attention.” He dusted himself off with easy, normal taps here and there. “I was distracted by the beauty around me.”

Her head jerked up. She looked at him and got the enticing notion that he was including her in that beauty. Butterflies the size of parrots went crazy inside her stomach. In defense, she turned back to the building. “This wall will be a feature in the ads for the resort when our new campaign begins,” she blurted. “It’ll be very important.”
This was business. Only business.
She shot him a glance, trying to emphasize the importance his work would make and the fact that she was getting this tour back on track.

But instead of looking at her or the building, he had turned to stare out at the ocean and then the cliffs down the beach. Her gaze, drat it to the moon and back, drank him in like a starving woman.

Anger boiled over inside her as she forced herself to study the view too.

The cliff that rose up on the other end of the resort was striking and she loved to jog and hike up it as part of her workout.

Her gaze wandered back to him; longing flared inside her. She snuffed it out—she’d sworn off men. Sworn off relationships—since she’d been finally freed from her horrible marriage—and now Grant had awakened this dangerous flood of…she refused to call it desire. She’d lost that a long time ago. Hadn’t been able to imagine ever wanting another man’s hands on her. But…suddenly, all she wanted was to be back in Grant’s arms.

His heart raced as Grant studied the landscape and tried not to let his mind linger on what had just happened. Holding Cali for those short few moments had made him want to hold onto her and not let go.

He was here to paint.

To try to feel again—and boy was he. He stared out at the open ocean as conflicting emotions rolled like the waves.

“I don’t understand,” she snapped.

The anger in her words startled him. He focused on her and saw that her green eyes were alive with it.

“You,” she continued with a wave of her hand in his direction. “You barely looked at the wall.
Or
the pool wall.
Or
the main lobby wall. Do you not want this job? You act absolutely bored.”

What could he say? How could he tell her that for the first time in months, he felt an emotion other than the hollow sense of emptiness and loss?

That looking at her, holding her, he felt alive.

“This is ridiculous,” she muttered before he could find words. Then she stalked away, her hips swaying with each angry step.

“Wait.” He moved quickly to catch up to her and without thinking, he reached for her arm. “Hold on.”

Her emerald eyes remained full of fire when she looked back at him.

“Cali, I didn’t mean to make you mad. This is just my process.”

“I don’t understand you.”

“I can see that I should have explained better. I work in tandem with the environment around my canvas. To me, a wall is a wall until I paint something on it. Looking at it isn’t going to tell me anything. The environment around it will tell me everything. That’s what I’m looking for. I know you have ideas for your walls, but you could hire anyone to paint your idea. You can tell me what you want all day long and it won’t help me give you what makes my work what it is. Until I experience what you already know and I grow to appreciate it, I won’t have a feel for it. And even if I paint it, the wall won’t come to life. And that’s what you’re after. Isn’t it?”

Talking about his work explained some of what she’d seen but not all. It at least gave him an excuse for making her uncomfortable.

The anger in her eyes dissipated and the stiffness of her shoulders relaxed. “Why didn’t you say that in the first place?”

Looking at her with the beach behind her, he was suddenly thinking of moonlit nights and… He rubbed the back of his neck, biding time as he tried to make sense of what was happening between them. “I get focused on my objective and I sometimes forget that people can’t read my mind. Forgive me?” he finished gently.

Seconds ticked by. At last she nodded. “I can understand that. I can do the same thing, or so I’m told by my siblings.”

Cam had warned him that he had four sisters and in a half teasing wager, dared Grant not to fall for one of them while he was on this project. Grant had taken his words lightly, but now…now he wasn’t so sure Cam hadn’t been right. Cali took his breath away. The force of attraction he felt toward her was incredible. And before he’d met her, he’d say that was impossible after the deadness that had been filling him since the crash.

The crash.

The thought sobered him. For a few moments, he hadn’t thought about it. Guilt cut through him.

“Let’s go up there.” He walked, taking long strides, intent on putting some distance between him and the thoughts swirling in his mind. He might be thinking of moonlit nights and kisses but he was here for a job. He had no right to feel anything.

“Grant,” she called, startling him. She took a few steps toward him and there was a lost expression in her eyes.

“Is something wrong?”

She shook her head but he didn’t believe her.

“I just need to get back, change and get ready for my afternoon agenda. You go ahead and explore and if you need something, I’ll be in my office.”

She didn’t wait for a reply as she headed back toward the resort and left him standing at the base of the path, wondering whether he looked as lost as she had just now.

Chapter Three

Cali’s sister Shar looked up from her computer when Cali entered the office.

“Hey, glad you’re here. I’m about to head over to the sea turtle hospital and lead a tour. They just brought in an injured big fella that got caught in a fishing li—” She stopped short and her eyes sharpened. “What’s wrong? You look…flustered.”

“I do not,” Cali denied and fought the urge to glance in the mirror near the door. Despite having showered and changed in the hour since she’d abandoned Grant at the beginning of the trail, she still felt shaken by her reaction to the man.

“No.” Shar gave a sardonic laugh. “Big sis, you’re in a dither. Your cheeks are flushed, you’re stomping, and
you
, Miss Cool, never do that. So spill.”

A groan rolled through Cali. Shar was not one to let something drop when she thought she was onto something. Still, Cali gave pretending nothing was wrong her best shot. Carefully she pulled her chair up to her desk and turned on her own computer.

She could feel Shar’s eyes narrow. Absolutely felt the pinpricks of her stare.

Shar tapped her lip with a finger. “No, something is up. I can feel it through your pretending. Although you should win an Oscar for your performance.”

Cali let out an exasperated huff and met her sister’s all-too perceptive gaze. “You see too much.”

“Thanks. I try. But to be fair, this wasn’t too hard to see.” Shar laughed and then cut it short and frowned. “It’s not about your dirt-bag ex, is it? I tell you, if that sorry excuse for a ma—”

“No, not him. Calm down, Superhero,” she urged affectionately. Shar was always rescuing something or someone. If she knew all the details of Cali’s life before her divorce, she would have been really upset. But Cali had kept most of her problems to herself, not wanting her large family of three sisters and five brothers, parents, and close-knit extended family to know the dirty details. She told herself it was to protect them and keep them from trying to harm Paul, but it was also because she was ashamed. All of this was reminders of exactly why her response to Grant was so unreasonable. At last she snapped, “It’s Grant Ellington. The man is…”

Shar’s face brightened. “
McDreamboat—
I knew it. You’ve already seen him!”

“Stop calling him that.”

“He is and I will not. All those
make-me-wanna-run-my-fingers-through-it
dark curls and that crooked Patrick Dempsey smile makes a girl’s heart go pitter-patter just thinking about it. You can’t stop a runaway freight train when the brakes go out.”

Cali frowned, because it was all true. Even the pitter-patter part. She just hadn’t expected it to be full-blown explosive in person.

“What’s he like? I know he checked in late last night.” Her eyes widened. “You
have
met him.” She stood up in her excitement. “And that’s why you’re all flustered and—”

“Aggravated. I am not flustered.”

Her sister started to say something but her mouth dropped open and she clapped her hands together. “You’re
interested
. Praise God! You are actually interested. That’s life in them thar eyes that I see.”

Cali glared at her. “I’m not—”

“You are too. It’s okay if you are, Cali.”

Her insides balled up in a knot, causing a dull ache. She knew it was okay to think about another man and to have a new relationship if she chose. She didn’t choose. It wasn’t that easy. Shar just didn’t understand. “I know that, Shar.” She wished she could just go crawl under a rock.

“So what happened? Tell me all about it.” Shar perched on the edge of Cali’s desk. She looked momentarily like the kid sister who’d always waited up for Cali to come home from a date. Back then, she would rush into Cali’s room and jump onto her bed and demand to hear all the details of the date. Back then, Cali had liked having someone to talk to about her hopes and dreams and girlish romantic notions. A girl could dream all she wanted to about romance and how perfect her life and love would turn out…but she’d learned the hard way that wolves could hide behind the shiny armor that a knight in shining armor wore while dating. The ugly came out after the vows were said.