The Sweetest Thing

Chapter 16

Tara stood alone in the inn’s kitchen in rare blessed silence. She was trying not to think about how many times Ford had taken her-and she him-last night before he’d walked her back to her bed at dawn.

Or how much he was coming to mean to her. Along with Mia. And her sisters. And Lucky Harbor…

It was all those strings that Ford had pointed out, tangling around her heart.

Damn strings. She didn’t want them. She wanted to be able to protect her heart as needed, and that was getting damn hard to do. At least with Ford, she knew what she was getting. A good time. Okay, a really good time. She’d meant for it to be nothing more but it was…

Chloe came into the room just as Tara was staring blindly into the refrigerator. “Hungry?”

“No,” Tara said. “Trying to decide between juice or the vodka.”

Chloe laughed. “Always the vodka. It’s fewer calories. But I’ve never actually considered vodka and OJ to be mutually exclusive. Go ahead, splurge, have both.”

“Hmm,” Tara said and pulled out the eggs.

“You’re probably starving from burning all those calories having wild animal sex last night, right?”

Tara nearly dropped the eggs before turning to stare at Chloe. “What?”

“Well, you came in at dawn with crazy hair and a ridiculously wide smile for someone who hates early mornings.” Chloe shrugged. “I figured it had to be sex. And given that it was Ford, I also figured it had to be a pretty fantastic night. It was Ford, right?”

“Oh my God,” Tara said. “Yes.”

Chloe grinned at the confession.

“Stop that,” Tara said. “We’re not talking about this.”

“Pretty please? It’s so much better than what I have to talk to you about.”

Tara opened her mouth to respond to that but Sawyer came in the back door with his usual long-legged stride. It faltered only slightly when he locked gazes with Chloe, whom he wasn’t used to seeing in the kitchen when he made his early morning coffee run.

Tara pulled out a to-go mug from a stack that she kept just for him and filled it up.

Chloe watched the process, including Sawyer’s quiet but grateful thank you, although she didn’t say a word until he was gone. “Why do you let him steal your coffee?”

“Because he’s a good man with a crappy job, that you make all the more difficult for him, by the way. I feel like I owe him.”

Chloe rolled her eyes. “Back to you, missy, and you’re just-got-laid expression. You should try to lose that. You know, for the children.”

Tara attempted to catch sight of herself in the steel door of the refrigerator. Damn, Chloe was right. She was glowing.

“Oh, and I borrowed your laptop this morning,” Chloe said casually, gathering strawberries, yogurt, and the blender.

“Don’t tell me you were looking at porn again,” Tara said. “You froze my computer last time you opened that See Channing Tatum Naked attachment.”

“Hey, anyone would have clicked on that, and it was a total hoax. I never even got to see him naked. And no, I didn’t do any of that today. I was just getting my mail. Oh, and I accidentally clicked on your Firefox history.”

“So?”

“So I happen to know you went to Facebook, created an account, and voted for Ford.”

Tara went still. “Did not.”

“Okay. But you did.”

Tara crossed her arms. “I’ll have you know that there’s not a single Tara Daniels on Facebook,” she said with confidence.

Chloe looked amused. “And you know this how, Tallulah Danielson? Tallulah? Danielson? Seriously? Because Jesus, if you ever find yourself with the need to go deep undercover again, I’m begging you, ask for help. And never consider a job with the FBI.”

Well, hell. This was embarrassing. Worse, she couldn’t come up with an excuse. Not a single one.

Oh! Temporary insanity. That would work. Or avoidance, Tara decided, and turned away from a grinning Chloe, only to come face to face with the man himself.

Ford. Who was also grinning. “Bless your heart, Tallulah,” he said.

Chloe laughed and walked across the room to hug him. “If you weren’t so totally hung up on her,” she told him, “I’d claim you for myself.”

Ford hugged her back. “It’s true. I’m totally hung up on her.”

Aw. And dammit, he really had to stop doing that, Tara thought, watching them, her heart going all mushy. It was all those little things that added up, like making her a quesadilla in the middle of the night, or the way he looked at her, like maybe she was a better sight than say his first cup of coffee in the morning. Or, in the case of how he was looking at her right now, like she was greatly amusing him. “You might have told me he was standing there,” Tara said to Chloe.

“I might have.”

Tara shook her head and looked at Ford. “I meant to vote for Logan. I hit the wrong button.”

Ford burst out laughing. He wore a T-shirt and Levi’s that were faded into a buttery softness and doing some nice things for his bod. He had a day of scruff on him and looked so utterly delectable that she found herself just staring.

He looked right back, that small smile still hovering at the corners of his mouth.

Chloe cleared her throat. “Well. This is cute and all…” She looked at Tara. “But I actually do really need to talk to you. Got a few?”

“Actually, not until later and neither do you. The guests are going to want breakfast.”

“This is a quick thing,” Chloe said, “but an important one.”

Oh hell. It was something big, Tara could see it in Chloe’s eyes. “Don’t tell me you got arrested again, because I’m pretty sure Sawyer’s going to throw away the key on you this time-”

“No. Jeez,” Chloe said, tossing up her hands. “A girl gets arrested one time-”

“Three times.”

Chloe sighed. “This is about you.”

“What about me?”

Chloe glanced uneasily at Ford, who clearly wasn’t budging, then sighed and pulled a white plastic stick from her pocket. “I was in the downstairs bathroom setting up a basket full of lotions and soaps, cleaning up, emptying the trash, that sort of thing.”

“I emptied the trash just this morning,” Tara said.

“I know,” Chloe said. “I saw you. Which means you were the last one in there. So I figured you’d want me to give this to you so no one else could come to the wrong conclusion.”

Tara looked down at the thing in Chloe’s hands in shock. “That’s a pregnancy test stick.”

“A negative one,” Chloe said. “Probably a relief for you guys, right?”

Tara nearly went into heart failure. “What are you talking about? It’s not mine.”

Ford’s face was utterly blank as he stared at the stick. After a beat, he lifted his head and met Tara’s gaze, his eyes completely shuttered.

Because he knew what she did. They’d used a condom. Every time. It was an unspoken, very serious thing with them, and they both knew it. So undoubtedly his mind was now leaping to the next possibility, that she’d slept with… Logan?

“It’s not mine,” Tara said again and grabbed Chloe by the arm. “Excuse us a minute?” she said to Ford, then without waiting for an answer, yanked Chloe into the pantry and slammed the door.

“Yeah,” Chloe said, looking around at the small but cozy space. “I can see why you pull Ford in here whenever you can. It screams ‘do me.’ ” She tested a shelf. “Does this hold?”

“Chloe, how could you?” Tara demanded in a harsh whisper.

“I don’t know. I guess I’d hop up right here, and then he’d stand between my legs and-”

“I meant how could you give this to me in front of Ford? My God, that was the most irresponsible, rude, grossly negligent sisterly thing you’ve ever done, and you’ve done a lot!”

Chloe paused a moment, clearly startled by Tara’s fury, as if she sincerely, honestly hadn’t given anyone else’s feelings a thought. As always, though, she rebounded with an excuse for herself. “Hey, if you’re close enough to need a pregnancy test with him, then he’s close enough to go through the worry with you. For the second time.”

“It’s not mine!”

“Well, it’s not mine,” Chloe said emphatically. “I haven’t had sex all damn year. Not since that hot Cuban guy in Miami, which landed me in the ER. A bit of a post-coital downer, I should add.”

“Oh my God,” Tara said. “It’s Mia’s.”

“What?”

“The pregnancy test! It’s Mia’s.”

Chloe contemplated this, then let out a slow breath. “Oh boy.”

Tara gritted her teeth. “I’m going to kill Carlos-”

“It’s not Mia’s. It’s mine.”

Tara and Chloe looked at each other, and then at the door, which had spoken to them. Chloe pulled it open and there stood Maddie.

And Mia.

They stood side by side, Maddie looking sheepish. “I thought I wrapped it up so no one would see it,” she said.

Tara stuck her head out into the kitchen and looked around for Ford.

“He left,” Maddie told her.

Mia still hadn’t said a word. She stood staring at Tara with barely veiled resentment. “You thought the stick was mine.”

Tara opened her mouth but Mia shook her head and took a step back. “I have to go,” she said and moved to the door.

“Mia, please.” Tara rushed to her. “Wait-”

Mia whirled back, her eyes swimming. “You thought it was mine,” she repeated. “You think I’m having sex and being stupid enough to do it without protection. You think I’d compound that stupidity by taking a pregnancy test here and then leave the stick where it could be found.” She winced and shot Maddie a look. “No offense.”

Maddie sighed. “None taken.”

“Mia,” Tara said, and heard the emotion in her own voice. “I’m sorry. It was a knee-jerk reaction, and I’m sorry.”

Some of the tension drained from Mia’s shoulders, but not all, as she nodded.

“So you’re not having sex?” Chloe asked her.

“No!” Mia said, hugging herself. “Jeez!”

“Good,” Chloe said. “Because I really didn’t want to be the only one not getting any.” She turned to Maddie. “And you. You really thought you might be pregnant?”

Maddie nodded, backed to a chair, and dropped into it. She confiscated Chloe’s coffee and sipped. Making a face, she added three heaping spoonfuls of sugar and then sipped again and nodded.

“So since you’re not preggers, you’re what, going for diabetes?” Chloe asked.

Tara gave Chloe a dark look that had Chloe miming zipping up her lips and throwing away the key. Tara still wanted to strangle her, but even more than that, she wanted to go find Ford and make sure they were okay. Or as okay as they could be when they were…

Hell. She had no idea what it was they were doing exactly, except spending a lot of time making each other moan the other’s name. In any case, she needed to see him, needed to make sure he knew it really wasn’t her. Unfortunately, Maddie appeared to be half an inch from meltdown so Tara pulled a chair up in front of her.

“Jax wants to get married,” Maddie whispered without prompting, then let out a shuddering breath, as if a huge weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

“And?” Chloe asked.

“And I think that’s just the pregnancy scare talking.” Maddie lifted huge eyes to her sisters. “I don’t want to get married just because of that.”

“It’s more,” Tara said. “He loves you.”

“And I love him. But I don’t need the piece of paper.”

“How about the diamond?” Chloe asked. “Don’t you need the diamond?”

“No. Well, maybe.” Maddie let out a watery laugh. “But we haven’t been together all that long, really.”

“Six months,” Tara said.

“Yes, and we’re committed,” Maddie agreed. “And that’s enough for me. Shouldn’t that be enough?”

“Are you trying to convince you, or us?” Chloe asked. “Because I’m still on the diamond thing. It’d be pretty hard to turn down a big, fat diamond. And then you get a big party, a cool trip, and use of his credit card.” At Tara’s slight shake of her head, Chloe rolled her eyes. “And fine. More importantly, you’re wild about him. I know you are. He makes you smile. And he thinks your OCD is cute.” She smirked at Tara, like see? I can so be supportive.

“I’m not OCD,” Maddie said. “Exactly. And I am crazy wild about him. Maybe if I had been pregnant…”

“You’re just lucky the pregnancy scare happened now,” Tara said, extremely aware of Mia soaking up this sisterly exchange. “At a good age with a guy who loves you as much as Jax does.” She met Chloe’s sharp gaze. “What?”

“You say that like you don’t have one of the greatest guys we know wanting you.”

“Want is not love,” Tara said.

Chloe rolled her eyes again.

“If you don’t stop doing that,” Tara said. “I’m going to pop them in a jar and roll them for you.”

“And here I always thought that you were the brightest crayon in the box.”

Tara felt her eyes narrow. “And what does that mean?”

“Hey,” Chloe said, lifting her hands. “If you don’t get it, I’m not going to explain it to you. But his name starts with an F and ends with an O-R-D, and hello, he’s as head over heels for you as Jax is for Maddie.”

Tara stared uncomfortably at Mia, who was nodding. “Okay,” Tara said. “It’s true, we might have married all those years ago, but seventeen-year-olds shouldn’t marry.”

“Maybe not,” Chloe said. “But Ford’s all grown up now, and a pretty damn fine man if you ask me. He’s financially stable, hot as hell-sorry, Mia-and would probably die before he hurt you. So what’s the hold-up?”

“I’ve asked the same thing,” Mia said. “Minus the hot part, because ew.”

Tara sagged. “Me. Okay? The hold-up is me. The last time I was with him…” She glanced at Mia. “I didn’t handle things well.”

“You were a kid,” Maddie said and smiled at Mia. “No offense.”

“None taken,” Mia said politely.

“What a cynic you turned out to be,” Chloe chided Tara. “Not believing in the power of love.”

“Says the woman who can’t even say I love you,” Tara shot back.

Chloe clammed up, face closed now. “This isn’t about me.”

Mia looked outside as Carlos pulled in, her entire demeanor perking right up. “I gotta go,” she said, and vanished out the door.

Tara sighed, then turned to Maddie. “Back to you.”

“I’d rather not get back to me.”

“Tough,” Tara said. “Because I’ve had enough of me. Are we happy or sad the test was negative?”

“Aw,” Maddie murmured, her eyes going suspiciously damp. “You said we.”

“Hey, you said we were a we,” Tara reminded her. “About six months ago, when you pretty much demanded we all stick together and act like sisters, remember?”

“Yeah,” Chloe said, adding her two cents. “That’s true, Mad. You were all about the we. Hardcore we, actually.”

“Since when do either of you listen to me?” Maddie asked.

“Since you made us all hug and kiss and take the blood oath,” Tara said, then found herself being squeezed nearly to death by Maddie, who’d pulled her and Chloe in close.

“I love you guys,” Maddie whispered.

Tara sighed. “I love you too.”

Chloe merely endured the hug and the sentiment.

Maddie pulled back and, still holding their hands, sniffed. “I’m sorry about this. When I didn’t get my period on time, I panicked. It’s silly. I love Jax so much. And we’ve talked about getting married, about doing the whole wedding and dress and cake-”

“And dancing,” Chloe added. “If you’re going to make a production out of it, let’s have dancing.”

Maddie laughed. “Yeah. And dancing.”

“So… panic over?” Tara asked her.

“Yeah.” Maddie rubbed her chest. “I mean none of us exactly had the typical childhood. And Jax didn’t either. I couldn’t picture-I just couldn’t imagine being a parent, I don’t know how. We don’t know how.”

“You’re the warmest, sweetest, kindest person I know,” Tara said. “And Jax is smart and sharp as hell. What you don’t know, you’ll figure out. You’ll make great parents.”

“Oh,” Maddie said, “that’s so sweet.” And she sniffed again. “But I really just want to be alone with him for a while first. Is that selfish?”

“Hell, no,” Chloe said. “If I was going out with Jax, I’d want to be alone with him all the time. Day and night. Naked-”

Tara slid an arm around Chloe and covered her mouth. Chloe freed herself with a laugh. “So if you’re done panicking now,” she said to Maddie, “maybe you can explain how it is you might have gotten pregnant. Thought you were on the pill.”

Maddie winced. “Yes, but apparently they’re not effective when you’re on antibiotics. Remember last month when I got bronchitis?”

“You were having sex with bronchitis?” Chloe asked. “You weren’t supposed to tax yourself.”

Maddie bit her lower lip and blushed. “I didn’t tax myself. Jax did all the work.”

Chloe sighed in jealousy. “Bitch.”

“So,” Tara said, squeezing Maddie’s hand. “Let’s recap. Panic is over, and we’ve established you’re madly in love.” Which would mean she could go talk to Ford now…

“I’ll be better when I get my period,” Maddie said. “I’ve been so distracted. I mean, I ordered full sheets instead of queen-sized for the guests’ rooms. I tried to put diesel in my car instead of regular gas. And let’s not forget not checking the bilge pump on the houseboat and nearly killing Logan.”

“Eh,” Chloe said with a playful shrug. “He’s an ex. Not such a loss.”

“Chloe!” Tara exclaimed.

Maddie laughed, then clapped a hand over her mouth. “Sorry. But admit it; that was a little funny. And we need to get breakfast going.”

“Yes,” Tara agreed. “But first I have to go face a man about a pregnancy scare, thank you very much.” She sent Chloe a long look.

“My fault,” Chloe said, raising her hand. “I’ll make breakfast.”

“No,” Maddie and Tara said at the same time.

“Hey, I can totally do this. I want to do this.”

Tara stared at her, then nodded. “Okay, but I’ll be back if you need me.” With that, she went searching for Ford, but though his car was out front, he wasn’t anywhere in the inn.

Or the marina building.

And then she discovered that his Finn was gone. He’d headed out on the water. She boarded his Beneteau and sat on the hull, stretching her long legs out in front of her to catch the rays of the early sun, hoping it would warm her while she waited. Dropping her head back, she closed her eyes and tried to relax. Between the near sinking of the houseboat, the emotional talk with Mia the night before, getting even more emotional-and naked-with Ford, then Maddie’s pregnancy scare, she was plum done in, all before eight in the morning.

She must have drifted off because the next thing she knew, the boat was shifting as someone stepped onboard. She didn’t look. She didn’t need to. She recognized the buzz along her nerves.

Ford didn’t speak, and neither did she. Not when he motored them out of the marina, and not when he took them out of the bay as well, to a secluded area offshore. He dropped anchor and sat beside her, mirroring her pose so that he was sprawled out, face tipped up, the sun gilding his features.

Because she needed to see him for this, she sat up, reached over and pulled off his sunglasses.

He lifted his head and looked at her.

“The pregnancy test really wasn’t mine,” she said. “I’d have come to you.”

His eyes met hers. “Or Logan.”

“You really think I’d sleep with both of you?”

He hesitated. “If it were any other guy, I’d say hell no. But there’s this little voice inside my head that keeps reminding me that you have strong ties to him. And you were married. I really hate that little fucking voice.”

“Logan and I have been apart nearly two years now.”

“And we’ve been apart seventeen.”

“I’m thinking the amount of time isn’t what matters,” she said.

Ford was quiet a moment. “You know, back inside, for just a minute when I saw that stick, a bunch of things hit me.”

“Yes. Abject terror.”

“And confusion,” he said. “And maybe… excitement.” His eyes met hers. “I never regretted Mia. Not for a minute. I only regretted what happened to us.”

Her chest squeezed. “I hate that I hurt you.”

Again he was quiet. “I feel something for you, Tara,” he finally said. “You feel it, too. I see it in your eyes when you look at me. I feel it in your touch when you let me in close.”

She let out a breath and watched the water. “Yes.”

He tugged her onto his lap and stroked a thumb along her jaw, waiting until she opened her eyes.

“I feel it,” she said, giving him the words. “And I feel it for only you. Whatever ‘it’ is. But-”

“No buts,” he said. “That sentence was perfect without any buts.” He slid his hands beneath her skirt and cupped the cheeks of her bottom in his big hands, yanking her in even closer, letting her feel what this position was doing for him. Kissing his way along her jaw to her ear, he made her shiver in anticipation.

“Here,” he said. “Now. With me.”

The words weren’t spoken with a question mark at the end, but he was asking.

“Here,” she agreed, cupping his face. “Now. With you. Only you…”

With an agreeing growl rumbling in his throat, he pushed up her sweater and down the cups of her bra, baring her breasts to him. “You drive me crazy,” he said against her skin. “Crazy.”

“Ditto,” she gasped, then again when he slid his hand between her thighs. She fisted her hands in his hair and cried out, rubbing against him, needing the friction, needing him inside her with a wild abandon and desperation she couldn’t control.

“I think about you day and night.” His voice was raw. “And Jesus, the image of you in my T-shirt and those heels, that’s going to be fueling my fantasies for a good long time.”

“How about doing it on your boat while anchored just off shore in the light of day?” she asked breathlessly. “Is that fantasy worthy?”

His eyes darkened. “Oh Christ, yeah.” He pulled off her sweater and yanked her body flush to his, raining open-mouthed kisses down her throat to her breasts. He flicked a nipple with his tongue, causing them both to groan when it pebbled in his mouth. He was pushing up her skirt when she freed him from his jeans. “Please tell me you have a condom,” she murmured when he slipped beneath her panties and unerringly touched her so that she writhed for more.

He pulled out a little packet that nearly made her weep for joy. “Now,” she said. “You promised now.”

Good as his word, he guided her down onto him, inch by glorious inch. “God, Tara. When I’m inside you, I feel like I’m home.”

Before she could recover from the beautiful but shocking words, he roughly covered her mouth with his, and gripping her hips hard, gave a slow grind that had her gasping for more. Then he rolled them, reversing their positions. With the warm sun overhead and the pull and thrust of the ocean tide rocking them, Ford moved inside her, taking her to a place no one else ever had. It was the most erotic thing she’d ever experienced, and afterward, they lay side by side, hands entwined, staring up at the clear blue sky as they struggled to catch their breath.

Eventually, Tara rose to dress, and Ford did the same. In comfortable silence, they sailed back to the marina. After Ford had tied up at the dock, he turned to her.

She looked at him, his last few words still in her head. I feel like I’m home. “Ford?”

“Yeah?”

“Me too.”