Sea Breeze 03 - While It Lasts

sat down at the end of the kitchen table. “I know you aren’t looking for a guy Eva girl but honey , you’re a woman. One day you’re going to have to open your heart again.”
    “Daddy, don’t please. I just want to fry this chicken, m ake your favorite blueberry cobbler , and enjoy dinner. Let’s not talk about anything else . Okay? ”
    With a deep sigh, Daddy finally nodded . He reached for his hat and placed it back on his bald head . “It’s times like this I think I made a mistake not marrying again. Maybe you did need a Momma after all. Because right now I don’t know what to do to fix this for you , baby girl.”
    I laid the last piece of battered chicken on the plate and washed my hands under the faucet. Then took an extra- long time scrubbing my fingers with the soap before turning to look at my dad. “You were enough. You are enough. Don’t say that anymore. I’m happy just the way things are. I don’t need someone to fill Josh’s place in my life. I don’t want someone to fill his place . Okay?”
    Daddy closed the distance between us and gave me a quick hard hug before turning and l eaving the kitchen through the same door he’d entered. I knew my disinterest in dating other guys and moving on bothered him but I couldn’t. I wouldn’t. Josh had been my future. Now he was gone.

    The door swung back open behind me. I wasn’t expecting Jeremy tonight for dinner but I’d made enough just in case.
    I t wasn’t Jeremy. It was him .
    Cage held up his hands as if to say he came in peace. The easy smile from earlier was gone. He wasn’t looking at me like he wanted to take a bite either. Instead, he looked disinterested.
    “I just need a drink. Your dad sent me in here and said to ask you. But I can see you’re busy so if you’d point me to the glasses I’ll get my own water.”
    Was this the same guy f rom earlier? I forced myself not to continue gawking at him and I turned to get a glass out of the cabinet . I handed it to him. “ I keep a pitcher of ice water in the fridge. We have well water here and water from a well taste s better when it’ s really cold.”
    He nodded, “Thanks.”
    I turned back around and checked the temperature of the oil on the stove.
    The sound of Cage gulping down the water had images flashing in my head of how his throat muscles woul d move with each swallow. I closed my eyes tightly trying to stop my imagination. I listened as he opened the fridge and poured himself some more water. Then once again he drank it quickly. The silence in the kitchen only intensified the sound of his drinking.
    “That’s better. I was fu —uh—really thirsty. Thanks for the glass and the water,” Cage sighed and walked to the sink. “You want me to wash it or is that something you’d rather do?”
    “Uh, I can get it,” I stammered , still completely thrown off balance by his behavior.
    “Thanks. But I don’t mind washing it.”
    “No, really I can do it. I’ll just rinse it and stick it in the dishwasher anyway,” I was rambling.
    The kitchen door swung open again and I was so thankful for the interruption until Becca Lynn came bouncing into the house all blond e curls and smiles. Normally I enjoyed Becca’s bubbly interruptions in my life but not now. Not when Cage was standing here. Becca was an idiot when it came to attractive guys and Cage York went beyond attractive.
    Her big brown eyes slowly took him in. I cleared my throat trying to get her attention but she wasn’t awar e anyone else was in the room. The tight tank top and cut off shorts complete with cowboy boots was Becca’s summer wardr obe. It was all she ever wore and s he wore it well. I shifted my attention from Becca to Cage whose sexy smirk had returned and he was enjoying the view just as much as she was. I couldn’t call Becca Lynn my best friend because Josh h ad always been my best friend. Nevertheless, s he w as the closest female friend I’d ever had. W h ere Josh and Jeremy grew up to the right of me, Becca Lynn grew up on the farm to the left of me. So when I’d needed a partner in crime that wasn’t male, it had been Becca . She and Jeremy had once had a thing back during our sophomore year of school. I was pretty sure she’d been the one to take his virginity. But it was short lived. Jeremy had ended it without an explanation and Becca Lynn had cried on my shoulder a few days then moved on the next week to Benji Fitz.
    “You didn’t tell me you had company, Eva,”