Page 16 of Patio Lanterns (The Blue Canoe Cottage #1)

“Geez, can’t two old friends just grab a beer?” Robin asked. “Last time I checked, we were on Lake Whippoorwill, not Love Island. ”

Wait a minute. What the heck was going on here?

After putting Robin down all evening, now her sister was trying to set her up with Aidan?

Rick was dizzy from trying to keep up. His eyes bounced from Robin to Aidan and back again.

He had definitely picked up on a closeness between them.

A history. Feelings. He called her Robbie for Chrissake.

Maybe there really was a potential to be something between them.

Which made Rick the dense old fool who had gotten in the way.

“You know, maybe Lark has a point,” he said.

Robin’s head whipped around. “I’m sorry, what?”

“I’m just saying, you’re both young, good-looking, and single.” He shrugged. “Who knows?”

She shot him a deadly glare. If her eyes were daggers, he’d have been gutted from stem to stern.

“Right? Who knows?” Lark laughed.

They all walked outside to say their final goodnights.

Robin said nothing to Rick, instead freezing him out with a cold shoulder and icy stare.

Well, she might’ve been mad now, but surely by morning, she’d come around.

She would be better off with someone much younger than Rick, and he’d be wise to move on from their one-night stand.

Dove and Robin went back inside with Mutt, and before Aidan walked to his truck with Lark, he asked Rick if he wanted a ride. Rick declined, needing the fresh air to help clear his cotton-filled head. He was in a daze over how so much had happened in so little time.

Rick turned in the opposite direction and set off for home when Robin popped out from around the corner of her cottage, scaring the shit out of him.

“Jesus!” he gasped, restarting his ticker. “I thought you went inside.”

“What the hell was that? Me and Aidan? Really?”

“Trust me, I’m doing you a favour,” he said. “You really ought to be with someone closer to your own age. Someone like Aidan.”

“You know, I’m really sick and tired of people telling me what I should do with my life.”

“I’m not trying to tell you what to do, Robin. But you and Aidan obviously go way back and have more in common. It makes sense.”

“Not to me.” She stepped out of the shadows. “Rick, I told you that our age difference doesn’t matter.”

“Oh, but it does,” he said. “You’re far too young for me, and I’m certainly old enough to know better than to get involved with you.”

Her bottom lip protruded into a pout. “I don’t believe it. And I saw it in your eyes tonight that you don’t believe it either.”

“Look, I think you’re an incredibly exciting and very desirable woman. I’ve felt more alive with you in the past twenty-four hours than I have in years. But it would be reckless to think that what we had was anything more than a wildly impulsive one-night stand.”

“Wildly impulsive, yes,” she agreed. “But you and I both have had our share of hook-ups, and you know as well as I do that this wasn’t like the rest. We connected on a different level, didn’t we? We fit together so perfectly. We couldn’t get enough of each other.”

“I can’t deny any of that,” he huffed, trying not to think about it. “What happened between us was incredible, but it can’t happen again. Things are different now.”

“Because I know Aidan? Because he’s your son?”

He nodded. “And that’s never going to change.”

“But can’t you see that Aidan wants you to be happy? He said so himself that he wants you to get out and make friends and date people.”

“Pretty sure me dating a twenty-eight-year-old friend of his was not what he had in mind.”

“That doesn’t mean he wouldn’t eventually come around to the idea,” she said.

“Can’t you see what a mess this would make of both our lives?

It could damage your relationship with your sisters, and would certainly sever whatever trust Aidan and I have managed to build.

” He took a deep breath to steady the shakiness in his voice.

“That’s why I think it’s best if we try to stay away from each other the rest of the time you’re here. ”

Fearing she might try to sway his stance, he tore himself away from her and started walking.

“No,” she said. “Not until you give me five good reasons.”

Dammit. He stopped in his tracks and turned back. “How about because I don’t want to see you get hurt?”

“That won’t happen,” she said flippantly. “Next.”

“Okay then, how about because I don’t want to get hurt?”

She tilted her head. “You really think I’d ever want to hurt you, Rick?”

“Maybe not, but I think you could,” he admitted. “I think I could very easily fall hard for you. Then one day, you might wake up, regret getting involved with a man twice your age, and tell me you don’t want me anymore. I’m not so sure I’d recover from that.”

She shook her head, laughing. “It’s been one day. I’m not asking you for a ring.”

It irritated him that she found this so amusing. Did she think he was a fool for being a realist? “Please don’t laugh at me.”

“I swear I’m not, but I think you might be getting ahead of yourself,” she said. “All I want is half a chance to see if this connection we have could be something.”

“I really wish we had that chance too, Robin. But I’m afraid we don’t have that luxury with so much at stake.”

She smoothed her hands up his chest. “You know, Rick, you just may be the sweetest, most thoughtful man I’ve ever met. And that only makes me want you more.”

He grasped her wrists. “Look, it’s not just about us. Other people won’t understand.”

She smiled up at him. “Do you really think I give a shit about what other people think?”

“I think you definitely give a shit about what Lark thinks, otherwise she wouldn’t be able to get into your head like she does,” he said, releasing her hands. “What was that celebration of life party you just planned on the spur of the moment? Was that just to piss her off?”

Robin smiled while her finger drew a bullseye around Rick’s nipple through his shirt. “It’s definitely a bonus.”

Rick inhaled deeply, his chest inflating with the courage he needed to ask his next question and the strength to brace himself for whatever came back in response.

“Do you really want to be with me, Robin? Or do you just like the shock value of being with me because you know Lark would lose her shit?”

Her eyes narrowed. “This has nothing to do with Lark. She wasn’t there last night. Hell, she wasn’t even part of this equation until you made her one.”

He sighed. “You know, Robin, you could probably get her off your back if you just went out with Aidan.”

“But I don’t want Aidan. I want you.”

“Goddammit, I want you too,” he growled back, unable to keep the words from tumbling out. His heart thumped quicker. “Why can’t you see that you deserve so much more, Robin? You’re young and beautiful, and you have your whole life ahead of you.”

“And yet, the only thing I want is standing right in front of me,” she breathed.

She reached up and pulled him down to her lips, fusing their mouths with heated urgency.

As she pressed herself to him, burying her fingers in his hair, he succumbed to a deeply sensual, soulful kiss that melted his resolve until he surrendered the fight.

She had extremely persuasive lips. He’d never known any woman whose raw sexuality overpowered him so easily.

“Dream about me tonight?” she whispered against his lips. “Because I’ll be dreaming of you. And when I touch myself, it’ll be your fingers, your lips, and your cock that make me come.”