Sea Haven 01 - Water Bound

grinned at him and a curious fluttering in the vicinity of his belly startled him. He took the fork from her, his fingers brushing hers. The contact gave him intense satisfaction. For the first time in his existence, he knew he was drowning and he wasn’t thinking about survival. His head, his heart, hell, everything he was, rushed to take the plunge. What, after all, did he have to lose?
    “You think it’s safe to risk it?”
    Her soft words startled him and for a moment, he misunderstood, certain she was reading his thoughts. Her eyes held amusement and a bit of a mischievous glint. Her face might not be expressive, but he could read it all, there in her eyes.
    “I think you should,” he agreed and settled back in his chair to watch her take her first bite of pancakes. Who would have thought something so simple could bring such pleasure? He’d made each pancake quite thin in the hopes the texture would bother her less.
    She put a thin spread of peanut butter over one. Her knife made lazy little swirls that weren’t quite as lazy as he first thought. Each circular wave was exact, creating a pattern. The top of the pancake began to look like the surface of the ocean. Her entire attention was on the peanut butter as she drew waves swelling, cresting and rolling over. Each stroke was deliberate and seemed to absorb her completely. He found himself nearly as mesmerized as she was.
    “That’s a beautiful drawing, Rikki.” He kept his voice low. “Do you paint?”
    She startled, raised her lashes and blinked several times before she focused on him. “What?” She frowned, processing his question. “Why would you think I paint?”
    He indicated the top of her pancake. “That’s a beautiful picture of the sea and it’s in peanut butter. If you can do that with a knife, you must be good with a brush.”
    Her frown deepened and she turned the dish around and around, studying the decorated top from all angles. “I never noticed. It isn’t art.”
    “It was very precise,” he commented and forked another bite of pancake.
    “I suppose it is. I count.” She looked at him, obviously expecting him to find her revelation disturbing. “In my head, I count.”
    She actually muttered to herself, half aloud, mostly under her breath, but he didn’t point that out to her. He liked the little talks she seemed to have with herself, especially when she was annoyed with him.
    128

    “It’s the ocean.” He ate more. His body needed fuel, and he downed a piece of bacon.
    “It is, isn’t it?” She smiled at the design. “I can’t draw. This, apparently, is a secret skill.” Her eyes changed and a little frown came back.
    “When I lived in foster homes or at the state home, whenever they forced me to eat something, I weighed the punishment for not eating it and if I didn’t want to pay the price, I counted to focus my attention on what I was thinking and not on how the food felt in my mouth.”
    A stabbing pain pierced his chest in the vicinity of his heart. He reached across the table to still her hand as she raised her fork. “You don’t have to eat the pancake, Rikki.”
    She shrugged. “I know that.” She looked around her home with satisfaction. “Not here and not on my boat, but Blythe says I should always try to expand my comfort zone. It’s hard to do when I’m alone. I just fall into a routine. When I’m with one of my sisters, eating at their houses or going somewhere with them, it’s easier to make myself try new things.”
    There was just a hint—a note—of Blythe’s voice in her tone. He knew it was unintentional, that she’d taken on a bit of the woman who she so admired.
    He sent her a smile as she put the pancake in her mouth and watched her face. It was silly, really, but he actually felt privileged that she included him with her sisters, trying something new for him. “How is it you’ve never eaten pancakes before?”
    She chewed thoughtfully, made a face and delicately spit the pancake into a napkin. “I probably did when I was a child,” she admitted. “I got stubborn as I got older. I didn’t like anyone telling me what to do and after a while I just refused to do anything. I got so I liked making people uncomfortable before they trashed me. I figured it was going to happen anyway, so why not? Especially the police. I dealt with them quite a lot when I was younger.”
    “Didn’t anyone recognize that maybe you needed help?”
    She blinked. Drew swirls in her peanut