Sea Haven 01 - Water Bound

late. I have a hard time sleeping as it is.”
    Lev watched her go out through the front door. She hadn’t even walked through the kitchen with the dirty dishes on the table. And she wouldn’t eat.
    He had to find a way to get her comfortable with the idea of eating together.
    He thought about solutions as he did the dishes and cleared the table. He made her a peanut butter sandwich, chopped up a few pieces of raw broccoli and added a spoonful of peanut butter to the plate. Adding a glass of water, he took the plate out to her, sending up a silent prayer that she’d accept her meal on her precious dish and not get even more upset with him.
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Chapter 12
    RIKKI swung one foot back and forth as she swayed gently in the swing, staring out into the gathering darkness. She had no idea what to do with Lev. She’d made up her mind he could stay, but she didn’t know how to share her life. She needed a certain environment to live in peace, and yet if she was allowing Lev into her world, it wasn’t fair to expect him to conform to her needs. She sighed. She was definitely intrigued by the man, and she felt for him. He was lost and trying to find his way, just as she had been. She couldn’t do less for him than Blythe and the others had done for her.
    She sighed again. Maybe she’d started out helping him because she felt he needed it, but now she wasn’t as certain of her own motivation. She was becoming fascinated by him, almost obsessed—and she could really fixate on something if she was interested in a subject. So far, the subject had never been another human being, but her weird connection to Lev seemed to be growing. She thought about him way too much.
    “That’s your third sigh.”
    A million butterflies took flight in the pit of her stomach. She brought up her hand and shook her fingers, blowing on them as if putting out a fire.
    Realizing what she’d done, she dropped her hand quickly. It had taken years of concentrated effort to stop that childhood pattern of shaking her hands and blowing on her fingers repeatedly. The act was mesmerizing and allowed her mind to focus on the repetitious pattern rather than deal with what was new and uncomfortable. She glanced at Lev’s face. Yeah. He’d noticed.
    “I wasn’t counting,” she replied.
    “You worry too much.” He held out the plate with the sandwich. “I brought you something to eat.”
    Her stomach lurched. Her sandwich was on one of the plates her sisters had given her. This was the second time he’d used them and she couldn’t do it again. She folded her hands in her lap. “I don’t ever use those plates.”
    “Why?”
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    There was curiosity in his voice, but not anything else she could detect.
    She frowned, trying to think of what to tell him. She didn’t use the dishes because she loved them and she was afraid something might happen to them.
    It sounded stupid when she thought about admitting the reason aloud. Her sisters had given her the dishes to use and yet, for four years, she’d just looked at them. Keeping the dishes in mint condition seemed very logical until she tried to say it out loud. Even Blythe had objected to her not using the dishes.
    She looked up at Lev’s face. There was no expression on his face, just a gentle understanding in his eyes. That look set off another round of flying butterflies. She wanted to reach out and trace every line on his face. “I know it sounds silly, even to me it does, but no one ever gave me anything, not after my parents died, and I didn’t want to risk chipping or breaking a single dish.”
    He smiled. Her heart jumped. His smile wasn’t amused or teasing or even mocking—it was almost tender. “That makes perfect sense to me. I’ll put this on a paper plate for now, and we’ll buy dishes we don’t care about breaking or chipping. You could put this set in a display case. They’d look beautiful.” He looked down at the rim of the plate with the shells and starfish surrounding it, all in white, but obviously handcrafted. “Actually, the entire set is a work of art. It would be a shame to see them ruined.”
    The knots in her belly unraveled and she could breathe again. She hadn’t even realized she was holding her breath. She blinked at the sudden burning in her eyes and turned to stare out at the rain coming down. It was soft still but beginning to fall harder. The storm front was coming in off the ocean and bringing a lot of water—which was needed. Her body felt more