“He’s a red-hot mess,” Kara said, smiling warmly at her husband.
“Can’t help it. Look at her.”
“She’s perfect,” Stephanie said. “Open your gifts, Kara.”
Kara oohed and aahed over the embroidered tote bag and the oatmeal-colored sweater with Dylan’s name on them. They’d known what her name was but not whether she was a boy or a girl, so she’d gone with neutral colors. She’d also included some staples like onesies and a few toys.
“These are great, Steph,” Kara said. “Thank you so much to both of you.”
“We’re so excited for our babies to grow up to be best friends,” Dan said.
“We are, too,” Grant said.
“What if they end up getting married someday?” Steph said.
“On this island,” Kara said, “anything is possible.”
* * *
After dinner, Sierra and Morgan moved to the bar to listen to Julia Lawry’s performance. She opened with “No One” by Alicia Keys and then went right into “Someone Like You” by Adele.
Morgan put his arm behind Sierra’s chair, trying to decide whether he dared to actually touch her. It’d been a while—years, in fact—since he’d debated such a thing when it came to a woman. Usually, the path forward was obvious to him. But with her, he was uncertain. Not because he thought she wasn’t into him. He sensed she was having as good a time tonight as he was. No, it was more about the rare feeling that this could be something special if he handled it right.
Did he want something special right now? Not even kind of, but he couldn’t deny it was happening regardless of whether he was ready for such a thing. After a few hours with her, he already knew he’d regret letting her slip away. Not only was she stunning to look at, but she was easy to talk to. That last part had been a problem in the past. He hated having to pull information out of a potential partner.
Sierra gave it up willingly. She told him stories about her life and was refreshingly blunt about her own shortcomings, which apparently included math, anything mechanical and sometimes a lack of tact.
“That one gets me in trouble with my friends,” she confessed, “because if I think they’re doing something stupid, I don’t hold back.”
Refreshing, he’d thought.
As they listened to Julia’s beautiful performance, he wanted so badly to raise his hand from the back of Sierra’s chair to her shoulder, which was bare since she’d removed her sweater during dinner, revealing her stunning sleeve tattoos. Would she welcome him touching her? Almost as if he conjured him, he heard Billy’s voice saying, Why don’t you just ask her? You like that she’s straightforward, so why don’t you be, too?
He sat riveted, feeling as if Billy was standing right next to him.
Sierra looked over at him. “Are you okay? You just got all tense.”
“Did I?”
She nodded. “What happened?”
“I was having an internal argument with myself, and I heard Billy’s voice telling me what to do, as if he were standing right here.”
“What did he say to do?”
“He said I should ask you if it’d be okay if I did this.” He moved his hand from the back of her seat to cup her shoulder, moving his thumb over her soft skin. “Is it?”
She flashed a cute little grin that revealed a dimple he hadn’t noticed before. “I was wishing you’d do something.”
“Why didn’t you say so?”
“Why didn’t you ask?”
“Because Billy hadn’t told me to yet.”
“Thank goodness for him moving things along for us. Otherwise, we might’ve wasted a lot of time.”
Morgan grinned at her, and since he had permission to move things along, he leaned in to kiss her, hoping she’d kiss him back.
