The Accidental Family Read Online Free PDF Page B

town’s collection of rather dashing lifeboat men (including James) take the boat out for practice runs.
    “You’re taking me out to dinner ? I mean, just you and me?” Sophie asked him. In the last six months, not only had she never stayed the night at Louis’s house, they had never been on a date with just each other. They had spent more time together than Sophie had ever spent with anyone else, but there had always been two other delightful little people tagging along—unless you counted the evenings in front of the electric fire after the girls had gone to bed, which were wonderful but not exactly dates. It wasn’t something Sophie had wondered or worried about, it was just the fact of their situation.
    “Yep, you can put on a dress if you like and maybe some of those high heels you carted down here with you,” Louis said, raising a brow hopefully, which made Sophie blush.
    It was clear to Sophie that Louis was buttering her up for news of his departure, but she didn’t mind. She thought it was sweet that he was so worried about how she would take the news of his impending holiday, and she wanted to dress up. She wanted to dress up because he clearly wanted her to and that made her feel kind of sexy. Louis was probably the first man she had ever known who made her feel sexy. Other men had found her attractive. Jake Flynn, for example, the New York businessman she’d had a near miss witharound the same time Louis and the girls had come into her life. Jake looked at her and she could feel his desire for her, but for some reason it didn’t penetrate through her outer layer despite his square jaw and strong arms. For a long time Sophie had thought that her inability to feel passion had to be because of something lacking in herself, and then one night, on her first visit to the Avalon B & B, back when they still barely knew each other, Louis had kissed her good night on the cheek. It was nothing, his lips barely grazed her skin, but she could not sleep for the rest of that night because of the way his touch had made her feel. Suddenly she’d felt frighteningly, viscerally alive.
    “Mrs. Alexander said she’ll stay over the night at my place if you don’t mind locking the B and B doors at midnight and making sure Mrs. Tregowan gets her cocoa. Nancy will let herself in in the morning to start the breakfasts,” Louis said, directing his gaze out to sea. “I thought I could stay over with you.”
    “Stay over the night with me?” Sophie asked him.
    Louis laughed. “Yes, I don’t know why we haven’t thought of this before; you don’t have to worry about the girls being freaked out and I can finally wake up with you and see if it’s true that you sleep like a princess.” He leaned a little closer to her. “And you and I can make sleepy early-morning love.” Louis saw the hesitation in her face. “Come on, Sophie, don’t tell me you don’t want me staying over with you? That’s what serious couples do, you know, they sleep together, by which I mean actually sleep, overnight and in a bed and everything.”
    “I know, I know.” Sophie covered his hand with her own, suddenly yearning for the warmth of his bare skin against hers. “And it will be great; I suppose I’m just surprised that we haven’t thought of it before.”
    “I don’t know,” Louis said, looking back at her, the promise of what was to come lighting his eyes. “We haven’t really done a lot ofthinking about just us, have we? We’ve got into a bit of a routine I suppose. A lovely, brilliant routine that I adore, but it doesn’t hurt to have a night just for us once in a while, does it? The girls are stoked about it, they reckon they’re going to have a midnight feast.”
    “They can try,” Sophie joked. “But I don’t fancy their chances much. Beware the fool who tries to come down for breakfast any earlier than seven fifty-nine A.M . Mrs. Alexander takes no prisoners.”
    “So I’ll pick you up at eight then,” Louis