Taylor and Nick hadn't left yet for Nick's house when Kevin put his plan to be alone with Jamie away from everything into action.

"Jaim, go pack a bag for tonight."

"What?" she asked, "Why?"

"Nope," he shook his head, "No questions, just trust me. And make sure you have a swimsuit with you." Jamie looked at Kevin curiously, but when he sat back on the couch and said nothing more, she shrugged her shoulders and left the room to do as he asked.

Once everything was packed, Jamie and Kevin got into his truck and started driving. Jamie noticed they were headed south towards the Gulf coast. She asked him once where they were headed, but Kevin refused to answer.

About an hour and a half later, Kevin pulled into the driveway of a large beach house. There were other houses visible, but none were too close to the house. They got out, Kevin produced a key for the house, and opened the door.

"I had no idea you had a beach house, Kev," said Jamie as she walked inside.

He smiled mysteriously, "I don't."

"Whose is this then? Nick's? AJ's?"

"Nope, doesn't belong to any of the fellas. And you aren't allowed to mention them at all, I'm not a Backstreet Boy tonight, and I don't know any of them. I'm just Kevin, and you are just Jamie. No titles, no names, no nothing. Just you and me, and dinner and the beach. Got it?"

"Okay," she agreed, "But please tell me whose house this is. I really want to know."

He gave a mock exasperated look, "All right, if you must know, it belongs to a producer friend of mine. I talked to him this morning while we all split up, and I made arrangements to have it for tonight and tomorrow. Satisfied now?"

She threw her arms around his waist and smiled up at him, "Not at the moment, but I'm sure you can change that." Kevin was surprised at first but then hugged her back. This was his Jamie, and he was glad to see that she had returned to more like her normal self.

"I can, starting with dinner. I'm going to see if Rick did me the favor I asked of him, and you can get settled in, and then see if there is a bottle of wine to be opened, okay?" He hugged her again, kissed her gently, then released her. Jamie picked up the two backpacks, and wandered through the house to find the bedroom.

The house looked exactly like what Jamie thought a proper beach house should look like. Large and airy, each room had a hardwood floor, and furniture made of light wood with comfortable plump white cushions or glass. The rooms were also sparsely decorated because the large windows with white gauze-like curtains gave the rooms all the decoration they needed – a wonderful view of the beach and the Gulf. A wooden deck wound around most of the house, so each room had at least one balcony entrance.

Jamie found the bedroom, dropped the backpacks in one corner and opened the balcony door. Stepping out onto the deck, she leaned on the railing and looked out over the Gulf of Mexico. Sunset wasn't for another hour or so, but the sky was already slowly turning from bright blue to a darker blue, mixed in with crimson and orange and yellow. A few seagulls were overhead, and Jamie could make out a few boats out on the horizon enjoying the perfect sailing weather. She closed her eyes, took several large deep breaths of warm, salty ocean air, and tried to relax. She knew Kevin had gone to a lot of trouble to plan tonight out for them. Jamie vowed to herself that she was not going to spoil it by acting like the bitchy, scared little girl she had been since she returned from Cincinnati. She opened her eyes, stared out to the horizon once more, then went back into the bedroom.

Pulling her hair up into a ponytail, Jamie quickly changed into a navy blue and white swimsuit, tied a sheer white sarong around her hips, slipped into comfortable navy and white sandals, and headed back towards the kitchen. Kevin was standing by the island in the middle of the kitchen, slicing up meat and vegetables.

"Where's the wine, darlin'?" asked Jamie. Kevin looked up from his task, looked her up and down very appreciatively, raised his eyebrows once and said, "Jamie, there's no need for wine, I'm already drunk from looking at you."

Jamie gave him a amused look and said, "I hope you never ever use that cheesy line again. God, who'd you get that from, AJ? Please tell me that never works for him."

"Who is AJ?" said Kevin with a puzzled look on his face. Jamie rolled her eyes, and said, "Kevin. . ."

"I told you, we're not talking about them tonight. It's just you and me, okay?" When she nodded her head, he smiled and added, "But no, actually it is Howie's line and it never works for him either." They started laughing together, and Jamie pulled a bottle of chardonnay out of the refrigerator, and began to open it. Handing Kevin a glass of wine, she wandered over to a side counter, pulled herself up onto it and watched him make dinner. She finally noticed that he had turned the stereo in the living room on, and that an Eagles CD was playing softly in the background.

While Kevin made dinner, a beef and chicken stir-fry, they drank their chardonnay, talked, and made jokes about ordinary things. Any tension that had been there in the previous two days had not accompanied them on the trip to the beach house, something for which Kevin was very grateful. He had no idea what would have happened if Jamie hadn't trusted him enough to come here and leave their problems behind in Orlando.

Jamie looked and felt as happy as she had been when she first arrived in Florida, before everything had gone wrong. She could almost believe that Kevin hadn't been arrested and he was not about to be on trial in a week, almost. Jamie pushed the thought firmly to the back of her mind, and told herself to just enjoy the evening alone with Kevin.

Jamie heard a coughing sound. She looked up to find Kevin standing in front of her, his hands lightly on her thighs, and looking at her with an amused and contented look.

"What?" she asked.

"I've been standing here for a couple of minutes now and you didn't even notice until just now. And I can almost see the wheels turning in your mind. What were you thinking about?"

Since she didn't want to spoil the mood, she replied, "Oh, nothing much. Just wondering what else you have planned for me tonight. Besides a burnt dinner, that is."

"What? Oh no!" He whipped around quickly and went over to the stove. Flipping meat and vegetables around in the skillet, he rescued the food.

"I think it's done now anyway," he said sheepishly, while Jamie laughed. "Next time don't distract me."

"Uh, I didn't distract you, and next time we let Taylor cook, how's that? She's an awesome cook." He nodded, and divided the meal between two plates before bringing it out to the dining room table. They ate slowly, finishing the bottle of wine and talking about random things.

Jamie finally leaned back, "Not bad, Richardson, even if it was slightly crispy. Had no idea you can cook." He grinned.

"I can make a few things, but I'd be better at it if I had more chances to cook. But there are a few other little things in my life that seem to take priority."

"Hmm, let me guess what they are. . . sumo wrestling?"

"Uh, yeah, that's it," he laughed and rolled his eyes, "That's me all right, Kevin the sumo wrestler."

"Well you did say that I can't talk about. . ."

"I know, I know," he cut her off quickly. "So, you want dessert?"

She perked up, "Dessert? Did somebody say my favorite word?"

Laughing, he went into the kitchen, and returned with a Boston Creme Pie. He set it in the middle of the table with a flourish, while Jamie oohed and ahhed. They scarfed down half of the pie before deciding they were full.

Jamie cleared the dishes while Kevin disappeared into the bedroom. He came back a short while later, dressed in black swim trunks and a black button down shirt which he hadn't bothered to button at all, and carrying a couple of blankets. He told her to worry about the dishes later, because they had the end of a sunset to catch.

Opening the balcony door in the dining room, they stepped out onto the deck and made their way down to the beach. Kevin walked down close to the edge, and laid the larger of the blankets out on the sand. He sat down, and pulled Jamie down so that she was sitting in between his legs and leaning up against his chest. He wrapped his arms around her, she folded her arms over his, and the two of them silently watched the last of the sunset.

As the sun finally disappeared over the water, and darkness began to settle over the beach, Kevin leaned forward slightly, and began kissing Jamie on the side of her neck. She shivered once, then turned enough that she could kiss him in return. They sat there like that for a while, holding on to one another and kissing when Kevin finally pulled back and grinned at Jamie.

"What? I don't think I like the look in your eyes. . . Kevin, no, wait, don't. . . Kevin. . . ahhhh!" He had pulled her up to a standing position, then picked her up, ran down to the water's edge and tossed her into the Gulf. Jamie surfaced, glaring at Kevin, who still stood by the edge of the water, laughing.

"You think that's funny huh?" She came charging out of the water. Kevin turned and ran down the beach. She chased him, caught up to him, and tripped him so he landed face down in the sand. Unfortunately for Kevin, he had run closer to the water. As he laid there a large wave washed over the beach, drenching him and Jamie, who had fallen next to him. Now completely wet, Kevin decided that a swim wasn't such a bad thing after all, so he carried Jamie into the water and the two of them played in the surf, each trying to dunk the other.

Eventually the two crawled out of the water and dropped back down on the blanket. Kevin had also brought out towels so they dried themselves off as best they could. The air had gotten slightly colder and being in the water didn't help, so they took the other blanket and pulled it over themselves as they laid there on the beach. Kevin folded the towels up so he could use them as a pillow, and Jamie laid with her head on his shoulder and stared up at the night sky.

He bent down and kissed her, "I love you."

"I love you too, Kevin," she replied.

"Do you know that's the first time in days you've said that to me? I was beginning to wonder, Jaim," he said. She shook her head, "No, I've told you that."

"Not so I could hear you."

"I'm sorry, darlin'." She thought back over the previous couple of days, "I guess I thought I did. I know you've said it often enough. Guess I have been acting a little crazy lately."

"You could say that." He cupped her face and looked into her eyes. "I know I said we weren't going to talk about anything that's been happening lately, but I think we need to."

She shifted slightly, and sighed, "Yeah, I know. I'm sorry for the way I've been since I came back from Cincy."

"It's okay, baby."

"No, it's not," she insisted. "You are going through a rough time, and I haven't been supporting you nearly as well as I should."

"I'm really not going to disagree with that."

"I think I should explain, now that I think I know why I've been acting like this."

"Okay, what's your explanation."

Jamie sat up, clasped her arms around her drawn up knees, and stared out over the water. Kevin sat up as well, and put an arm around her shoulders. She drew a deep breath and began.

"The easiest explanation is that everything in my life can be put in one of two places. It's either personal or professional, and the two never mix. Until now.

"Professionally, I am very strong, capable and mature. I have to be for the type of clientele I have, otherwise I'd lose my case load. There is no room for anything other than strength and confidence, and for those clients I can do that. And at first, I thought I could do that for you. I thought I could handle this as just another case. I realize now that I was wrong about that.

"The difference is that it's both personal and professional for me. Don't misunderstand, I care about all my cases, but the outcomes never affect me personally. I mean, if I don't win, I feel badly for my client, but it doesn't mean the same to me as it does to the client. The decision affects them directly, and me only indirectly. And it has to be that way. If I cared deeply for every client and let it affect me, I would be useless as an attorney after my third or fourth case. So professionally, the outcome of a case doesn't get to me. It can't.

"But this is different. The outcome does affect me directly. If we lose, we lose everything. Your freedom, our future, everything. I never took into account how closely I was tied to all this. I thought I could handle it all. I know differently now. It's now more personal than professional, and that's my problem."

Jamie stopped and looked at Kevin. His arm around her tightened and he gave her a quick hug. She let go of her knees to hug him back. She held on for a minute, then loosened her hold on him. She looked back out over the water again before speaking.

"The personal me has never been that confident or strong, not like the professional me. People who know both sides of me sometimes think it's bizarre that I can't handle my own life, but I can manage everyone else's really well. I don't know why I am like that; I've always been that way. I've learned to accept it, but I guess I've never actually dealt with it." She looked away from the water and up into his eyes. He gave her a small smile, to encourage her, and she weakly smiled back at him.

"Do you know that this is the first healthy relationship I've ever had? The first time I've actually looked to the future and seen one with someone, with you, in it? Things between us have been so wonderful that I've been afraid something would happen to ruin it. And now there has, this whole mess." She took another deep breath.

"I know I kept telling you and Nicky and everyone else that this will all work out, that Taylor and I will straighten this all out and everything will be fine. The professional side of me believes that, and has never stopped believing that. The personal me however, finds it a lot easier to believe the press and public opinion. I guess I don't have faith that it will all work out the way it should. I know that's wrong and completely unfair to you, and I'm sorry. Maybe it's better for me, for us right now, if I act like I'm 'Kevin's attorney' rather then 'Kevin's girlfriend.' I know you need me as both, but I don't know if I can do it. Not without blowing up again like I did last night. I'm sorry, Kevin, I don't know what else to do."

"Don't you think that's being a little too hard on yourself? You've never acted as if you weren't strong or confident before. Unless I've always been with the lawyer. . .?" She laughed weakly, and shook her head.

"No, it's always been me, not the lawyer. I guess I shouldn't say that I can only be one way or the other depending on what mode I'm in. That's too general. If I haven't handled one kind of case before, I'm not very confident. And there are times in my personal life where I have been in control and strong. You think I'm always that way, because you make me secure enough to be strong and stable. I probably should have warned you that I'm not always, eh?"

"You should know by now no one always acts one way. I certainly don't, and you know that and accept me for who I am. I accept that about you. I won't lie and say it didn't shock me though. Now that I know, I can learn to deal with it. I'm not going to change how I feel about you because of it, if that's what you're worried about. I still love you," said Kevin.

She gave him a real smile this time. "I know, and I love you. I guess I was afraid you wouldn't, because of what I thought you needed in a girlfriend."

"All I need right now is you, the rest can take care of itself later. I told you tonight is just you and me, and I mean it now. No more about what's been going on, okay?" She nodded.

He laid her back down onto the blanket, and followed her so that he was on top of her. He murmured, "I love you, Jamie." Her response was lost as he began kissing her. As their passion rose, everything else in the world became lost as they concentrated solely on each other and what felt right at that moment.