Summer Rental

by Mary Kay Andrews

  “It was at number seventeen,” she said proudly.

  “I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Ty said. “I’ll call the Sea Turtle Patrol hotline and let them know you found it, and they’ll cordon it off and monitor it. Sometimes, if they find a nest in a high-traffic area, they’ll even move it to a safer place, where it won’t get disturbed.“

  Ellis’s face glowed with excitement. “We could go back now, couldn’t we? And just shift the sand a little, to see if there are any eggs?”

  He gestured towards the deck. “In this rain?”

  She looked out the window and saw that the rain was coming down in sheets now.

  “Oh,” she said, sounding deflated. “I guess maybe not.”

  She looked down at the floor, where a small puddle of rainwater had formed beneath her feet, and shivered.

  “You’re cold,” he said, and he ducked into the next room. When he came back, he was holding a faded, navy blue terry cloth bathrobe.

  “Here,” he said, handing it to her. “You’re soaked. Get out of those clothes, and I’ll put the kettle on. And,” he said, sternly, “don’t give me that look. I’m not gonna jump you, for God’s sake. I’m not that kinda guy.”

  Ellis laughed despite herself. “How do you know I’m not that kind of girl?”

  “Some things you just know,” Ty said.

  She went into the adjoining room, his bedroom, and closed the door. She looked around with interest. The walls here were the same bleached-out cedar as the exterior of the apartment. The wooden floors were painted battleship gray, covered with a faded red-and-white-striped rag rug. The bed was a double with a lumpy mattress, but it was tidily made up with a quilt of blue-and-red patchwork stars. A standing fan in the corner stirred the air in a desultory way.

  Ellis stripped off her wet clothes. She went into the adjoining bathroom, found another towel, and finished drying herself off before folding herself into the oversized bathrobe, inhaling its perfume of aftershave. The bathroom was tiny, with a scarred linoleum floor, a miniscule wall-hung sink, and a commode. She gazed into the cloudy mirror and fluffed her damp hair, finger combing it away from her face. She squeezed a dollop of Ty’s toothpaste onto her index finger, and scrubbed her teeth as best she could.

  Tonight, she thought, shivering in anticipation. She placed her wet clothes on the towel rack, belted the robe snugly, and padded barefoot out into the living room.

  “Here,” Ty said, handing her a heavy china mug. “I don’t have any milk or anything. How about some honey?”

  “Honey would be good,” Ellis said. She watched as he pulled a plastic bear-shaped bottle from the shelf of the Hoosier cupboard and drizzled honey into the cup. And before she could stop him, he added a healthy slug of Jack Daniel’s from a bottle he had standing on the counter.

  “Hot toddy,” he said, handing the cup back. He picked up his own mug, and steered her towards the sofa.

  She sat down and took a sip of the steaming tea, enjoying the sweet burn of the whiskey. Ty sat beside her. She propped her bare feet up on a coffee table made from a battered ship’s hatch, and snuggled into his arms. The robe slipped open at the hem, but Ellis decided she didn’t care. Tonight.

  “Long night,” Ty said, as he yawned.

  “Long day. All that drama with Julia burglarizing Madison’s room. I really thought she was gonna tear Julia limb from limb,” Ellis said. “I think maybe we’re okay now, though.”

  “Good,” Ty said, yawning elaborately again. “I saw you guys dancing together. It looked like you were having fun with the Electric Slide.”

  Ellis blushed. “It was all those Pucker-Uppers you kept sending over.”

  “Just trying to keep the ladies happy,” Ty said nonchalantly.

  She turned and looked at him. “You did.” After a moment she said, “Ty?”

  “Hmm?” He kissed the top of her head, and they yawned in unison.

  “This is kinda nice,” Ellis said, after a long, companionable silence. His hand found its way inside the neckline of the robe, and he was stroking her bare collarbone. She closed her eyes, savoring the warmth of his skin on hers. This, this was what she’d been missing all these years. She felt warm and safe and … cared for.

  “Mmm-hmmm,” Ty said. “Ellis?”

  “Mm-hmm?”

  “Do you think this could be our do-over date?”

  “Kind of a weird date, don’t you think?”

  “Yeah, but it’s nicer than our first one.”

  “That’s true.” She put her head on his shoulder and yawned sleepily.

  “So, that would make this, like, our third date, if you count the first do-over.”

  “Whatever.”

  Her eyelids drooped, and he gently removed the mug from her hand.

  A lifetime later, she stirred, and turned her head because the sun was shining in her eyes. She stretched luxuriously, and then, startled, sat up. She was stretched out on the sofa, with the blue-and-red patchwork quilt tucked around her, and sunlight was streaming in through the slats of the wooden blinds.

  She walked to the bathroom, washed her face, and squeezed another line of toothpaste onto her finger and applied it to her teeth. The clothes she’d peeled out of the night before were laid out on a wooden bench at the foot of the empty bed, still damp. She shrugged. So much for her big plans for last night. What a dud she was. Tightening the belt of the bathrobe, she went back to the living room. The computer was on, and there was a stack of papers and books beside it.

  Ellis opened the screen door to the deck. Ty was looking out at the ocean, his back to her, with the wind blowing his sun-streaked blond hair. His baggy white boxers rode low on his lean, tanned hips, and his bare shoulders gleamed in the sunlight, muscles rippling just beneath the skin as he lazily raised his arms and did a full stretch. Oh God, he was so gorgeous. She could see the outline of his butt through the thin white cotton of his boxers, and she was so aroused, and so surprised by how aroused she was, it took her breath away. And then he turned, caught her watching him, and his lips did that slow, secret-smile thing. Just for her.

  “Mr. Culpepper?” Ellis said.

  “That’s me,” Ty said, opening his arms. “What can I do for you?”

  “I’m sorry about last night,” she said, snuggling up to his bare chest. “Please don’t take it personally. It was all that booze. I can’t believe I just passed out on you like that.”

  “Entirely my fault,” Ty told her. “But I think I know how you can make it up to me.”

  He took her hand and led her into the bedroom. “I’m gonna need that robe back,” he said, stretching out on the bed.

  “Right now?”

  He nodded solemnly. “Afraid so.”

  Her fingers fumbled as she tried to unknot the belt. Damn it! She could do this. She’d been ready to do it last night. Why was she so nervous now—in the daylight? She had done it before, hadn’t she? Ty tugged at the belt and pulled her down till she was sitting on the edge of the bed beside him. “Allow me,” he said. “I have some experience with this type of thing.”

  “I bet you do.”

  He had the grace to blush. “I meant, it’s my robe. That’s all. It was a high school graduation present.”

  “From Kendra?” She regretted it the minute the words were out of her mouth.

  But Ty seemed unfazed. “No, from my nana. Mrs. Culpepper.”

  “Ohhh,” Ellis said.

  Ty unknotted the robe and slipped it from her shoulders, running his hands down her shoulders, to her bare hips, pulling her closer. He cupped her breast in one hand, lowered his head and kissed it delicately. Ellis shivered, and he gathered the other breast and did the same. Was this really happening, at last?

  He looked down at her and smiled. “You’re beautiful, you know that, Ellis Sullivan?”

  She shivered again, and felt suddenly shy. “You’re just saying that.”

  “No,” he shook his head. “I’ve thought it since the first time I spotted you
the day you moved in here. You’re gorgeous. Especially now. Especially naked. Naked, you’re a goddess.”

  She laughed, and then his face grew serious. He pulled her down beside him, and his lips found hers. But then his hand inched lower, touching her between her legs with feather-soft stokes, and she grew dizzy as her body remembered long-forgotten pleasures. He touched her, and she arched up to meet him, and her body throbbed in a way she was sure it had never done before.

  Ty flicked his tongue across her nipple, and she heard herself gasp. She trailed her fingers down his chest, lightly, lightly, until they rested just below the waistband of his boxers. She felt him shudder, and she slid her hands down his hips and effortlessly rolled the boxers down to his ankles. He kicked them free of the bed, rolled to one side, and fumbled for something in the nightstand beside the bed.

  He held the foil-wrapped package so she could see it. “Ellis Sullivan, are you usually the kind of girl who does this on a fourth date?” he asked, his gray-blue eyes twinkling.

  “Not usually,” she told him truthfully, taking the condom from him and ripping the foil. “But in your case, I’m willing to make an exception.”

  39

  Ellis was relieved to see that the red van was gone. She unlocked the front door and tiptoed into the house. She’d almost made it to her bedroom when Julia’s bedroom door opened and she popped her head out.

  Julia’s glance took in Ellis’s disheveled appearance, the borrowed bathrobe, and the armful of Ellis’s own, damp clothing. “So,” she grinned approvingly. “It finally happens. Ellis Sullivan does the walk of shame. Wish Dorie were here to enjoy it with me.”

  “Shut up,” Ellis said happily. “Where is Dorie?”

  “You won’t believe it,” Julia said. “Remember that bouncer at Caddie’s last night? Ty’s friend Connor?”

  “Ty mentioned him, but I didn’t get to meet him,” Ellis said.

  “No, but Dorie apparently did get to meet him at some point last night, and make a favorable impression,” Julia said. “He ‘dropped by’ a little while ago, allegedly to check on our security, but actually to check out Dorie. You should see this dude! Six-four, and bald as a billiard ball.”

  “Allegedly?”

  Julia’s lips pressed together with barely suppressed mirth. “I realize that you’ve been a little, ahem, preoccupied today, but yes, if you’d seen the way he looked at her, you’d know he’s definitely interested in Dorie.”

  “Oh, come on, Julia,” Ellis said, leaning on the bathroom doorjamb. “Does everything always have to be about men with you?”

  “Me!” Julia said with a wicked cackle. “I’m not the one who snuck out after midnight and came strolling home at noon wearing nothing but a smile and her boyfriend’s bathrobe.”

  “Ty’s not my…” Ellis stopped in midsentence. If Ty wasn’t her boyfriend, what was he, and what did that make her, since she had just spent the whole delicious morning in his bed?

  “You still haven’t told me where Dorie is,” she said, changing tack.

  Julia rolled her eyes. “You haven’t been listening. She’s gone off with Connor Terry. He was driving his county unit, and even though he’s off duty, there’s some kind of rule against civilians riding in a cop car. Unless they’re under arrest. So she was following him in the van. Of course, they left here three hours ago, so God knows where they’ve gone now. Or what they’re up to,” she added hopefully.

  “You have a one-track mind, Julia Capelli,” Ellis said primly. “A smutty one-track mind. And I, for one, am headed for the shower.”

  “What?” Julia said mockingly. “You and Ty didn’t shower off together?”

  Ty had, in fact, strongly suggested a communal shower. But since the garage apartment’s shower consisted of a tiny wooden stall on the deck overlooking the beach, with only a slatted wooden door separating a bather from the beach, and said beach was already teaming with summer sun-seekers, Ellis had firmly assured him that she would just as soon shower at Ebbtide, thank you very much.

  “Next time,” Ty had said, reluctantly, his hand just barely brushing her breast as he handed her the robe. “It’s got hot water and everything.”

  Ellis shivered with delight at the thought of the next time. And the next. How had she gone this long without sex? And how could she have mistaken what she had with Ben for what she had with Ty? And when could she have it again?

  * * *

  Ellis was slipping a clean T-shirt over her head when her cell phone rang.

  “Hey,” she said, feeling unaccountably shy.

  “Hey,” Ty said. “Listen, I completely forgot we were supposed to go check on that sea turtle nest you found last night.”

  “Oh, my gosh, you’re right,” Ellis said. “I guess, uh, with everything else…” Looking in the mirror over her dresser she saw that her face was in flames.

  “Yeah, I guess you could say something came up,” Ty laughed. “And now, damn it, I’ve got to go in to Caddie’s. I can’t afford to turn down a shift right now. So, if I give you the Turtle Patrol number, can you call them and tell ’em where to find it?”

  “Absolutely,” Ellis said, scrabbling around in the drawer of her nightstand for a pencil and paper.

  “Great,” Ty said. “I’ll call you later, okay?”

  “Okay,” Ellis said.

  “You doing anything tonight?” he asked.

  “Only if you want to,” Ellis said.

  “I want.”

  * * *

  Julia and Ellis were sitting on the porch when Madison came pedaling down the driveway towards Ebbtide.

  “We’re gonna go grab some lunch,” Julia said casually. “Wanna come?”

  “No thanks,” Madison said, mostly out of habit. And then, “Oh, hell. Who am I kidding? I’m starved. Where did you have in mind?”

  “Let’s just cruise down the main drag and see what looks good,” Ellis suggested.

  “That place,” Madison said, when they’d driven a couple miles north on Croatan Highway. She was pointing at a roadside diner. BOB’S GRILL, the sign said in large letters, and in even larger letters, EAT AND GET THE HELL OUT.

  “I’ve been riding my bike past that joint for two weeks, laughing my ass off every time,” Madison said. “Breakfast all day. Let’s check it out.”

  They ordered Diet Cokes and perused the menus. Ellis decided on the Southwestern omelet, with sour cream, extra salsa, and bacon, Madison ordered a club sandwich, and Julia, reluctantly, asked for scrambled eggs, one slice of dry whole wheat toast, and a bowl of melon. “I got an e-mail from my agent, and he’s booked me for a JCPenney catalog shoot the first week of September,” she said gloomily. “Holiday and midpriced resort wear. Week after next.”

  Ellis felt a pang of panic. Only one more week of August. One more week of Ebbtide. One more week with Ty.

  “You don’t sound too excited,” Madison observed.

  Julia shrugged and sipped her Diet Coke. “It’s work. I’ve got to make a living. It’s as simple as that.”

  “Not really,” Ellis said. “You hate modeling. You told us yourself. Booker wants to marry you. He makes a good living, and he’d support you no matter what you decide to do next.”

  Julia looked over at Madison, who was busy shredding her paper napkin. “Would you tell her, please? Tell her what happens when you get married to somebody just to keep a roof over your head? What happens when you sell yourself?”

  “Julia!” Ellis said sharply, her face burning with embarrassment for Madison.

  But Madison didn’t look angry or embarrassed. “Is that what you think I did?” she asked, rubbing her bare arms absentmindedly.

  “Didn’t you? That was the impression you gave us when you talked about Don Shackleford,” Julia said.

  “My mistake wasn’t in marrying Don,” Madison said. “It was in falling in love with him. My mistake was lying to myself about what he was, and then, when it became painfully clear what he was, in telling myself that I could chang
e him. My timing really sucked,” she said, laughing ruefully. “I didn’t decide to leave him until the minute he decided he would never let me leave.”

  Julia sat back in the diner booth and looked blankly at the woman opposite her. The woman who’d been living in their third-floor bedroom for the past three weeks, an enigma personified, was suddenly baring her soul as casually as she’d just ordered lunch.

  “Deep down, I knew Don for what he was,” Madison went on. “And if I’m being brutally honest, I probably suspected he was married when we met. Even though I always talked the talk about not dating a married man. The signs were there. I just chose to ignore them.”

  “That doesn’t make you a bad person,” Ellis said, feeling suddenly loyal.

  “Nope, just an incredibly stupid one,” Madison agreed. “I think Amy Shackleford was probably ecstatic I took Don off her hands. She got the money, and she didn’t have to live with him. Smart lady.”

  Madison stopped fiddling with her paper napkin. She leaned across the table and stared directly at Julia. “You’re a smart lady too, Julia. If you love this guy, if you want to be with him, and make a life with him, do that. Stop worrying about your mother’s marriage, or mine, or anybody else’s. Life is too damned short.…”

  “I’m only thirty-five,” Julia protested. “I’ve got plenty of time.”

  Madison raised one eyebrow. “And how old is Booker?”

  The waitress arrived with a tray full of food. She set their meals down. Julia took one look at the scrambled eggs and dry toast and handed it back to the waitress.

  “Sorry, but I changed my mind,” she said. “I’ll have the breakfast burrito with cream cheese and crabmeat, a side order of country sausage. And a biscuit. A big ol’ biscuit. With butter and jelly.”

  She looked at Ellis and Madison.

  “I decided you two might be right,” she said simply. “Life’s too short to eat dry toast. I’m still working on the rest.”

  Ellis waited as long as she could, and then took a bite of her omelet. “I’m sorry,” she said. “It’s terrible, with all that’s happened. But I can’t help it. I am truly about to faint from hunger.”