Page 44 of The Beachside Rental

“I’ll just grab his leash.”Simon strode away.In the dark, he ran into the edge of the end table.“Ouch.”

“Are you all right?”Concern rang out in Jenna’s voice.

“Yeah.I’m fine.”He was going to have a nice bruise come the morning light.

Simon ignored the pain and kept moving toward the kitchen where he last remembered seeing the leash.Using his flashlight app, he scanned the island and found out he was right.

He grabbed the red lead and headed back to the living room, where Gus was now leaning against Jenna.If Simon didn’t know how much Gus disliked thunderstorms, he’d think the dog was putting on an act just so he could get doted on by Jenna.

After hooking up Gus’s lead, they headed for the door.Gus put on the brakes at the open doorway.

“Come on, boy,” Simon said in a cajoling tone.“We’re just going next door.Just a few steps.You’ll be safe.I promise.”

Gus whimpered.It was getting to the point where Simon was starting to wonder if he’d need to pick Gus up and carry him next door.

Simon gave one more gentle tug on the lead to see if Gus would budge.The dog took one step outside their place.As soon as Gus had all four feet outside, Simon hurried to close the door behind him.

A flash of lightning sent Gus into a scramble.He took off like a shot for Jenna’s open doorway, which was illuminated by a soft glow.Simon tightened his grip on the lead as he was pulled behind the dog.

Once inside, Simon shut the door just as thunder shook the house.Gus let out another whine.This was going to be a very long evening.

He knelt down next to Gus.He wrapped his arm around him and pulled him close.He could feel the dog’s whole body tremble.“Sorry, buddy.Hopefully, the storm will be over soon.”

“Is there anything I can do or get to help him?”Jenna asked.

“No.He’ll be fine.As long as I’ve known him, he has been afraid of storms.”

When Simon straightened, he looked around and found the place lit by candlelight.It seemed she’d thought of everything.Of course, she’d lived on the island her whole life, so she was prepared for these events.

The candlelight certainly made for a cozy atmosphere.It almost, dare he say, seemed romantic.Wait.It was romantic.It was like he’d just walked onto the soundstage of some sort of romantic comedy.And that would make him the lead male character and Jenna the lead female character.His heart started to beat faster.He’d seen enough of those movies to know where this candlelit dinner would lead.

His gaze moved to her.Lucky for him, she wasn’t looking in his direction.She was busy putting dinner on the table.It was like she didn’t even notice what a romantic scene she’d created.

Probably because it wasn’t meant to be romantic.It was a power outage during a big storm.Nothing more.So, why was he freaking out?

He had to pull himself together before he let on that he was starting to feel more for her than he should.Because he wasn’t going to open up to her.He wasn’t going to make himself vulnerable again—he wasn’t going to let her get close enough to hurt him.

“I hope you like spaghetti pie.”Jenna’s voice interrupted his thoughts.“I had some leftovers in the fridge so I reconfigured them into this.”

He stepped closer to the table and found a pie plate with a crust of spaghetti and the center was filled with tomato sauce and cheese.“I’ve honestly never had it.”

“If you like spaghetti, you’ll like this.”

His stomach rumbled its approval.“I can’t wait to try it.”

He assured himself that as soon as dinner was over—as soon as he helped her clean up—he was heading back to his place.Because being around her for too long was messing with his mind.It was starting to make him think there was no way his past could repeat itself.

This was nice—very nice.

Jenna wasn’t talking about the weather, because it was awful outside.Her phone still worked and her family had been constantly checking in.They were all worried because this was her first major storm since she’d moved into the beach house.

She’d assured her mother and siblings that she was fine.And she let them know she wasn’t alone.Maybe she shouldn’t have done that, because she could imagine that they were going to read far more into the statement than was meant.Oh well.She’d deal with it later.

Dinner went well.She was pleased when Simon went back for seconds.Perhaps she’d make spaghetti pie for him again sometime.The thought appealed to her.

He’d insisted on helping her clean up.So, by candlelight they cleared the table and with hot water still available, she hand washed the few dishes while he dried.It was all very domesticated.In fact, it was something she could get used to.

After the last dish was cleaned and put away, he said, “Thank you very much for dinner.It was delicious.Now we should be going.”