But Luci wasn’t thinking about her fabulous coffee maker.
She was thinking that she would have never considered rough and ready Hap Cunningham to be the kind of man who kissed a woman’s nose.
She’d known him years. It was not like he hadn’t had women around their crew.
It was just that it was rare and they never lasted long.
Travis had teased him about this, but only once.
“If they get to meet you, they gotta earn it,” had been Hap’s firm and somewhat sharp reply that had shut Travis’s teasing right down.
At first, Luci had been offended for all womankind at his words.
But at the look on his face, she realized what he meant from what he said wasn’t what she thought.
Instead, it was the fact that he didn’t bring women around them who did not mean something to Hap. If he didn’t think that there might be a future. As you would not introduce someone to your mother and father or close family who you did not feel was important, who you did not want them to know and perhaps like, and perhaps start to make a part of the family, unless you thought they were special. Unless you thought they had staying power. And you definitely didn’t introduce someone who had not proved to you they were special so as not to foist someone on the people you cared about who was not worthy.
In realizing this, at the time, those years ago, she’d wondered why the few who had proven themselves special to Hap had not gone the distance.
She’d then not thought about it, only wishing eventually he’d find his someone.
Now, that curiosity came back with a punch.
But those few women she’d seen him with, he’d shown affection, for certain, he hadn’t shied away from it.
However, he’d never kissed any of them on the nose, not that Luci had seen.
It was an exquisite feeling. Like a surprise treasured gift. A man handing you a glorious diamond bracelet on any old day . . . just because.
She wanted to touch her nose. Seal the trace of his lips there so she could feel it forever.
Instead, she picked up her espresso and pivoted to face him.
“Do you need help with that?” she asked.
He turned from his stance in front of her coffee maker, holding the filter in his hand.
“Water goes in here.” He stabbed his finger toward where the water went on the coffee maker. “Coffee goes in here.” He snapped the filter up. “Hit that button and then magic.”
“Yes,” she murmured, lifting her cup to her lips to take a sip, but she watched him as she did so.
He pulled the tin of Illy to him and yanked it open with great force.
Hap would be the bull in any china shop.
Luci found it fascinating.
And endearing.
He’d shoved the filter in and flipped the switch when he turned to her. “Babe, you gonna feed me or stand there staring at my ass?”
She chuckled softly but denied, “I wasn’t staring at your ass.”
Well, not the entire time.
“Question still stands,” he returned.
Hap was hungry.
Luci made a move.
She was dropping a dollop of Nutella in the center of some batter on her griddle when Hap called, “Luce.”
She turned to see him sitting at one of the stools opposite her, across the island.
He had his long, thick, blunt fingers wrapped around a white mug resting on the counter.
“Our talk,” he said gently.
She drew in breath, nodded and turned back to the stove, setting the Nutella aside and pouring more batter over the pancakes before she went to the frying bacon.
He didn’t speak while she did this so she told the bacon, “You can start while I cook, caro, if you like.”
She said that, but she didn’t want him to start.
She didn’t want anything to puncture this bubble of bliss they had. He’d talk of the outside world. Of work (and him going back to Bragg, which was not far away, say, like Australia, but it wasn’t right down the street either). Of Sam and Kia. Of things not having to do with the sun shining and the ocean beating into the beach and the pancake batter bubbling and him at her island drinking coffee and his scent on her sheets upstairs.
But they must.
They had a future, she hoped.
She was looking forward to her future with some relish for the first time in a very long time.
They had to get on with it.
“Normally, probably for both of us, we’d give this time, get our feet wet, feel it out, before we brought anyone into it,” he began.
She turned from the bacon, only halfway, but her head moved fully to look at him.
He had his focus fully on her in return.
“Go on,” she urged.
“Baby, I gotta tell Sam.”
She pressed her lips together.
The Code.
She returned to the bacon.
“Luce,” he called.
“Do what you must,” she told the bacon.
“Luciana, honey, look at me.”
She pulled in another breath and did as he asked.
“We give this a couple of weeks, a month, two, then tell Sam, he’ll go apeshit.”
He was right.
“I know,” she replied, and gave the pancakes her attention by flipping them.
“So he’s gotta know. Next weekend. I’ll tell him.”
She again turned to Hap. “Next weekend?”
“Yeah. I’ll come back out, let him know we gotta have a chat, we’ll chat.” He looked down at his coffee and started mumbling to say, “Maybe at Skippy’s.”
“I’ll be with you.”
His gaze lifted to her and he shook his head. “No, Luci.”
“Yes, Hap.”
“That isn’t a good idea.”
“For you? For me? Or for Sam?” she queried.
“For Sam,” he answered.
“And why is Sam the priority in this scenario?” she inquired.
Hap shut his mouth.
Luci continued speaking.
“Kia will be there, as will I. We’ll give him his home turf, as you Americans put it. You can take him out on the deck. Kia and I can stay inside. That way you’ll have some privacy. But I want reinforcements, in the form of Kia, and I want to be there to offer support . . . for you.”
He tipped his head to the side. “You gonna budge on that at all?”
“No.”
His eyes danced with humor and he lifted his mug to take a sip.
“You have to go back today, yes?” she asked.
He nodded his head, lowering the mug. “Yeah.”
“I’d like to see you this week, have more time to, as you say, get our feet wet.”
She wanted to hold her breath when she said that but she didn’t want him to notice her holding her breath, so she didn’t.
“Already figured that out,” he declared. “I’ll see if I can get off a little early on Wednesday, come get you, bring you back. We’ll have dinner along the way. If you can get away from the shop, you stay a couple of days, we’ll come back Friday night or Saturday morning. But I’ll have to work, babe. So bring shit to keep you occupied while I’m at the base.”
She could not be happier he wanted her at his home, and even happier it wasn’t just a night to show her the place, but instead a couple of days.
And she could definitely get away from her shop. She had other people running it, so she wasn’t tied down to it. She went in often when she was in town, but they did all the work, so she was free to live her life.
Regardless of all that, she blinked at him. “That’s hours of driving for you.”