Happier than she’d been in a very long time.
“We’re going to the playground if you want to take a little break.”
“The playground sounds like the perfect place to celebrate.”
“Celebrate?” She quickly guessed, “Are you done with the boat?”
“Adam helped me with a few finishing touches last night.”
“He’s going to be so thrilled when he finds out it’s his. When are you going to tell them all?”
“Soon. Once I return from my trip to Australia, everyone else should be back in Seattle again, too.”
“You’re going to Australia?” She realized, too late, that she sounded like a girlfriend trying to keep track of her boyfriend’s schedule.
“I leave Thursday for a seven-hundred-mile yacht race out of Sydney. I’ll only be gone a week, but I’m going to miss you and Mason like crazy, Grace. If I hadn’t promised my friend a year ago that I’d do this—”
“The race sounds amazing,” she said, ruthlessly pushing away the ache inside of her at the thought of not seeing Dylan for an entire week. Fun, she reminded herself. They were just having fun, enjoying each other while they were working together on her magazine article.
And that was all she could let herself believe it was for now, because fun wasn’t something she needed to overthink. Fun wasn’t something she needed to worry over. Fun wasn’t something she needed to have a foolproof plan or an escape hatch nailed down for.
“I’ll have a little over a week left to finish my story after you return, so hopefully you’ll come back with some good stories for me.”
Just then, Mason threw his giraffe and she knew he was tired of being strapped into his stroller without going anywhere. “We’ll be at the playground right across the street. See you soon.”
And despite not yet knowing exactly how to get a handle on her relationship with Dylan—one that already felt so much more important than any fun fling she’d ever had—it was a thrill to know that she would.
* * *
Fifteen minutes later, Mason was happily tucked into a toddler swing and squealing with joy as she pushed him higher and higher. He was a little daredevil, much like her parents had always said she’d been as a child, and she vowed never to let her own fears hold him back. She would support him in everything, no matter how dangerous or wild. Just as she had learned that Claudia Sullivan had done with her children.
The urge to protect her son from anything that might hurt him was all-consuming. But she knew better, knew that if her parents had still been alive, they’d have urged her to remember that giving him wings to fly was just as important as keeping him safe.
Or, she thought with a little smile, maybe he’d end up choosing a boat in which to sail across the deep blue sea. Lost in her thoughts, it wasn’t until Mason started making happy little sounds that she realized Dylan was walking straight toward them. She heard a collective gasp of female appreciation from the other women in the park as he stepped onto the sandy playground in jeans and a T-shirt that fit him so well her own mouth went dry. Not in the least because she finally knew exactly how good he looked without said jeans and T-shirt.
He grabbed Mason’s swing in midair, and her son puckered up for a kiss. That kiss was always the first thing Mason wanted, and it never failed to move her how easily and sweetly affectionate Dylan was with her little boy.
When Mason looked over his shoulder at her, Dylan grinned and said, “One for him, one for you.”
Setting Mason back to flying in his swing with one hand, he used the other to pull her close, then kissed her slowly and deeply in front of everyone…sending her heart flying, too.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
When they were finally able to take Mason away from the park without too much of a fuss, the three of them headed to the ice cream shop. Playing at the park. Getting ice cream. Sharing hot kisses. See, Grace told herself, we’re just having fun.
Leaving Mason sitting proudly like a big boy beside Dylan outside the ice cream store with his little legs sticking straight out in front of him on the brightly painted bench, she went inside and placed their orders. Five minutes later, she returned with her hands full.
“Here’s your rainbow sorbet, sweet pea.” Mason reached for the cone and immediately shoved it against his lips, bright green, orange, and pink streaks smearing his chubby cheeks. “And our banana split and two lemonades.”
She usually just got a vanilla cone because the split was way too much for one person. But when Dylan had suggested they share the split, it hit her that she wasn’t alone anymore. At least not for as long as whatever they were doing together lasted. Certainly as long as it took her to write the magazine story, she figured. And after? Well…she’d learned a year and a half ago that no matter how much you wanted to predict the future, there were some things you simply couldn’t plan for.
Fun, she reminded herself yet again. That’s all this was. All it needed to be.
Seeing that Dylan had Mason’s sticky face well in hand with the container of wet wipes he’d found at the bottom of the stroller, she sat on his other side. When he’d finished cleaning Mason up, she lifted her lemonade.
“Congratulations on your newest creation.” He clinked his cup against hers, and then she leaned over to kiss him softly, as natural a move as it had been to walk down the street from the park to the ice cream shop with her baby playing happily in his stroller in front of them.