Page 13 of Beach Cottage Kisses

Oh, God. “And that’s the case her lawyers are bringing in.”

“Yes.”

She had no words of wisdom. Or even of encouragement. Except, “You aren’t God, Scott. You’re an officer of the court. Only one part of the vast legal system. You do your job to the best of your ability, and the rest…the outcome… You have to trust the system to make the final choice.”

He nodded. “I know,” he said then, sounding as though he had no problem with that aspect of the situation.

So, what was his struggle?

When he stopped walking, turned to her, she had a feeling she was about to find out.

And suddenly wasn’t sure she wanted to know.

“Motive is everything, Iris,” he said, looking her straight in the eye,and while he wasn’t touching her, it felt as though he was. He wasn’t telling her anything she didn’t already know about him, though. She stayed silent until she knew where he was going with the conversation.

“I screwed things up between us the other night. Kissing you. It has to go away.”

Her heart sank. But she rallied. “It already has.”

“Yeah, that was über-obvious last night.” His words didn’t need to drip with sarcasm for her to get his point. The tone just made the hit a little sharper.

“And tonight,” he said then, surprising her. She’d been out as normal. He’d been late getting home, but had come down the beach, just in case. Them. Completely.

“I saw you out. I stayed in.” His words hit her like a death sentence.

“I need us to be what we were,” he said then, still looking right at her.

Angel’s front paws hit her legs right before the small, cold and wet nose nudged the inside of her palm. Iris petted the top of her girl’s head but didn’t take her gaze from Scott’s. “I do, too,” she told him.

“Yet…we’re failing.”

Death, all right.

“I think that if you understand my motive for needing to keep things platonic and unencumbered between us, then you’ll be able to trust that when I say what happened the other night won’t happen again. It won’t.”

“I do trust you.”

Mostly. It was herself she was struggling with. The way she’d reacted the other night…she’d never ever have believed she’d react that way. Had never felt like that before. So, if Scott did get close to kissing her again, could she trust herself not to respond?

Or even invite the gesture?

His look, even in the darkness, was clear. They had a problem. It had to be fixed.

Motive was his solution.

Except that…she couldn’t give hers. No way was she opening up the box she’d closed. Not even for Scott. She’d moved. Reinvented herself.

“Other than the affair, I was that guy.”

For a second, she let the sound of the waves carry his words away. But they repeated, clearly, in her mind.

Frowning, Iris took a step back, but continued to watch Scott. “I don’t understand.”

“My divorce,” he said as though that explained everything.

“You want me to believe that you had a prenuptial agreement that stipulated that your wife lost everything if you divorced?” She paused, and when he just watched her, she went with the thought and said, “If you brought the money into the marriage, and she agreed to the prenup…”

Iris stopped midsentence. The prenup would be no motive for Scott’s unwillingness to take on a life companion—other than Morgan. Who was happy to sleep all day, without contact. To be fed by others when Scott couldn’t be there.