Chapter 28

They lay side by side on the beach for the next two hours, soaking up the sun and enjoying being in each other’s company. Keira was surprised by how comfortable it felt to be by his side again, as if they hadn’t missed over a decade of each other’s lives.

As a teenager she’d been drawn to him from the very start, and not just because he was good looking. She had felt a connection with him, and as their relationship progressed, she knew he felt it too. Love was new and overwhelming. They were both such passionate people that every emotion they experienced together seemed explosive and larger than life. Everything they did together was intense; they flirted outrageously, drove each other wild experimenting with sex, clung to one another as if they’d never let go, fought like cats and dogs, and then spent days making up with love notes and gifts and tears. Whenever they were together, the sparks flew. It was such a wild roller coaster ride that Keira simply couldn’t imagine it ending. But then it had ended, and after the haze of heartbreak lifted, she’d convinced herself that she’d been naïve and that they’d never had a bond after all. She wondered if everyone’s first love was so tumultuous.

Being with him today, after all these years, she began to wonder about the way some people seem destined to be in each other’s lives. She wondered about the way fate worked; how some people struggled for years to stay together, while others tried to stay apart but found themselves returning to one another again and again, regardless of how much time or distance had separated them. She glanced over and her heart clenched at the sight of him, and she wondered if maybe this was the way it was meant to be all along.

He smiled lazily at her. “Penny for your thoughts.”

“You’re a multi-millionaire and the best you can offer is a penny? I’m insulted. My thoughts are worth far more than that.”

He winked at her. “I’ll give you a dollar for the dirty ones.”

She propped herself up with one elbow and looked down at him. “You’d make a lot of women very rich if you gave them a dollar for every dirty thought they have about you.”

He grinned. “Yeah, but most of them are willing to tell me for free. Or better yet, show me.”

She kicked sand onto his towel and he laughed. They were quiet for a few minutes, and then the next question out of his mouth surprised her.

“So do you really only have one of my albums?”

Keira weighed her thoughts carefully before answering. She was feeling sentimental, and decided that the truth wasn’t going to hurt anything at this point. “I guess I just…didn’t want to know what I was missing.”

His eyes met hers. “So the song in the car…?”

“Yeah, I always change the channel. It’s a habit. Interviews, TV spots, news reports…I would always change it. Every now and then I’d inadvertently hear something. I knew when you got married. I knew when you cut your hair.” He groaned at this, and she laughed. “But you know what little news snippet bothered me the most?” she asked, feeling brave enough for a confession.

“What?”

She reached over and traced his Superman tattoo with her fingertip. “When you got this. Remember how we always talked about getting our first tattoos together, but we were too chicken to do it? Well, when I heard that you did it, it got me right in the gut for a few seconds.” She smiled at him to show that the hurt was no longer there.

He didn’t say anything for a minute. When he looked at her, she could see regret in his eyes. That was enough for her. “I wish you were there with me, Kath. And I know you might think you missed a lot, but there was a lot of bad stuff in the early days, and it’s probably a good thing that you missed that.”

But I didn’t want to miss any of it. The thought came out of nowhere and shocked her. Apparently she’d become so adept at ignoring all things Jon that she'd also managed to ignore the fact that she still had feelings for him. Ignorance is bliss.

“You know what else I heard that bothered me, way back then?” Keira asked, figuring she might as well lay it all out there. “When you and Dorothea broke into the skating rink in Central Park and got arrested. That sounded like something we would have done. I miss that crazy shit.”

“We can do our own crazy shit now that we’re friends again.” He sat up and brushed the sand off his towel. "I'm hot. Want to go for a dip?"

"Aren't you afraid of being noticed?" she asked, concerned.

"If I worried about that I'd never be able to leave my house." He got to his feet and reached for her hand, pulling her up with him. They walked toward the water with Jon keeping his head lowered to avoid making eye contact with anyone.

"Why aren't you wearing sunglasses?" she asked out of curiosity.

"I'm more recognizable with sunglasses on than without 'em."

They made it to the water's edge and Keira gasped as the foamy, frigid Atlantic rushed over her feet. "Holy crap! I think this is as far as I'm going."

"Oh come on, you said you wanted to do crazy shit. I'll race you in," Jon said, nudging her. "On your mark...get set..." he took off running before saying go, and she followed two steps behind him, shouting, "That was NOT FAIR!"

Laughing like little kids, they ran as far as the shallow water would allow. As soon as it was deep enough, they both dove under and came up still laughing. She splashed water into his face with both hands. "You cheated!"

He smirked. "Get used to it. Playing by the rules all the time is no fun." He dove back under the water and grabbed her by the ankles, yanking her down with him. She came up sputtering and hardly had any time to recover before his mouth came down over hers in a kiss that made her forget all about the ice cold water. Stunned by the heat that coursed through her, she snaked her arms around his shoulders and brought him closer, pressing her breasts against his chest and opening her mouth to him. There was nothing gentle about the kiss; it was hard and urgent and primal. He drifted lower into the water and she brought her legs up to wrap them around his waist. Playing by the rules all the time is no fun.

When they finally came up for air, she looked at him in disbelief. Even he looked dazed by the way all rational thought had disappeared when the kiss began. "I can't trust myself with you," Keira murmured, still clinging to him.

He laughed and put his forehead against hers. "I don't know what it is about you, Kathy, but you're the one I've never been able to shake."