by J. D. Faver
~*~
“I think he likes you,” Cassie said.
Sky frowned at her baby sister. “Why would he like me? I’m a complete mess.” She had shown Zach out and locked the sliding glass door after he’d installed the ceiling fan over her bed.
Cassie grinned. “Yeah, but he doesn’t know that yet.”
“He seems to be a nice guy,” Sky admitted. She was nervous about going to his house for dinner. Her stomach had been tied in a knot since she had first gazed into his eyes and accepted his invitation.
“He’s gorgeous.
Sky grinned back at Cassie’s reflection in the mirror as she brushed her long hair. “That he is. His eyes are beautiful. Green with gold around the iris.”
Cassie laughed. “So you did notice.”
Sky tied her hair at the nape of her neck with a blue ribbon. “Couldn’t help it. And he’s tanned. Even with all his freckles he looks golden.”
“Outdoor type. His hair is sun-streaked. I never knew red hair could come in so many colors.”
Skyler slipped a pair of clean jeans on over the knee brace. “The best thing is, he can cook.”
Cassie laughed. “Not necessarily. He might be ordering in.”
“Trust me. I saw him setting up his grill. The man can cook.”
Cassie feigned disbelief. “You were spying on him?”
Skyler laughed. “Yes.”
“Good. It’s time to get your mind off the bogey man and onto someone yummy.”
Sky’s stomach caught. She pressed her lips together to keep them from trembling.
Cassie sobered. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to ruin the moment. You need to stop worrying about the stalker.”
“He’s tried to kill me twice. He ran over my dog. How can I forget that?”
Cassie slid an arm around Sky’s shoulder. “I know and I’m so sorry. But we’re here now and he’s not. Whoever he is, you left him behind.”
She pressed her lips together to keep them from trembling. “I hope so. I keep worrying that he’ll be able to track me somehow.”
Cassie gave her a squeeze. “I don’t see how. Everything here is in my name. The house, the utilities, even the truck we used for the move. For all purposes, Skyler Danforth evaporated.”
Skyler suppressed a shudder. “Then how did he track me to Springhill from Austin?”
Cassie took a sable brush and swiped it across the blush before applying it to Skyler’s cheeks. “You didn’t know you had attracted a stalker. You didn’t take any precautions. This is different. You have me with you.”
Sky shuddered. “We can’t assume that he’s not out there. It would be foolish to think that he can’t find me.”
Cassie closed the blush with a snap. “Just for tonight, can you forget about him and focus on the golden boy next door?”
Skyler forced herself to smile. “Yes, I’ll try.”
They walked across the sand to Zach’s house. Skyler climbed slowly up the stairs, taking them one at a time.
On the deck, Zach’s grill was smoking and a pair of French doors stood open.
“Come in ladies,” he called, motioning them inside.
Sky looked around. The room was comfortably decorated with no particular style. Several bookcases were filled with books and memorabilia. Photos of individuals and groups of red-headed people, mostly male, peered out from the shelves and mantle. She recognized Calvin and the twins. There was a strong family resemblance among all the Baileys.
Zach stood behind a counter, chopping salad veggies. “I have some chilled white wine, if you like. I also have water and soft drinks.”
Skyler felt a squeezing sensation in her gut. “I can’t drink.”
“You don’t have to,” he said, grinning at her. “It’s just that you don’t have far to walk if you can’t hold your alcohol.”
“No, that’s okay.”
“Help yourself to a soda or bottle of water from the fridge.”
“Thanks,” Cassie said and snagged two sodas. “What’s for dinner?”
Zach emerged from behind the counter bearing a large bowl of salad. “Grilled fish and shrimp. Hope you like seafood.”
Skyler grinned when Cassie looked at her and gave her an enthusiastic thumbs up sign. “That sounds great,” she called to Zach.
“I thought we could eat outside. It’s a beautiful night.” He led the way through the open French doors and placed the salad in the middle of a table set for three.
Skyler felt a little flutter when she saw that he’d even placed a bowl of flowers in the middle of the table.
“Please be seated ladies and I’ll put the fish on. It cooks really fast and I didn’t want it to get dried out.”
Skyler stood for a moment, gazing at Zach as he opened the grill and a wall of smoke rushed out to envelop him. He carefully placed fish and skewers of shrimp on the grill, then closed the top.
Zach glanced at her. “How did you hurt your leg?”
Sky caught her breath.
Cassie gave her a pointed look. “What kind of fish is that?”
Zach quirked a smile at her. “Am I not supposed to ask about your injury?”
Sky swallowed and held up her hand as Cassie started to intervene. “No, it’s okay. I was in an automobile accident.”
“Sorry. I hope you’re recovering quickly. I didn’t mean to pry.”
Sky shrugged and sat down. “It’s a normal question, given the circumstances. My sister is a little over-protective.”
Cassie reached for a piece of celery and used it to gesture. “Sky’s been in rehab for the past couple of months. She’s been working very hard.”
Zach smiled and leaned back against the railing. “We’re talking about the kind of rehab where you do exercise and not the one where you overcome addiction. Right?”
“What?” Sky and Cassie spoke in unison.
“Well, you said you couldn’t drink alcohol, so I thought maybe you were in a twelve-step program, or something.”
Sky frowned and shook her head. “Not that kind of rehab.”
“The beach is a great place to rehabilitate oneself." He grinned and took a sip of wine. "Walking in the soft sand and swimming in salt water is good for you.”
Cassie smirked at him. “I didn’t realize you were a doctor, Zach.”
“Well, I am.” He laughed at her expression. “I have a doctorate in marine biology. I’ll probably teach someday, but for now, I want to conduct research and write about it. I do manage a group of interns during the spring semester.”
“Wow! That is so cool!” Cassie said.
Sky gazed at him with renewed admiration. He was so young and unassuming to have earned a doctorate. He caught her looking at him and raised his glass to her. She felt her cheeks color, glad it was getting dark.
Zach grinned at her, his gaze warm. “Tomorrow morning, Sky.”
She felt a tingling along her spine. “What happens tomorrow morning?”
“I’m taking you for a walk on the beach.”
Fear clutched at her gut with his softly spoken words. “I—I...”
“She can’t.” Cassie supplied.
He regarded them both with an amused expression.
Sky cleared her throat. “I can. I just...”
“I won’t let anything happen to you.” His deep voice wrapped around her like a shield.
When he looked at her so sincerely, she could almost believe him. She swallowed the big lump that had formed in her throat and heaved a sigh. “Okay. I’m supposed to walk every day.”
“Seven too early for you?”
She had to grin at him. “Seven is fine.”
Zach lifted the grill hood and began turning the fish. “How about you, Cassie. You up for a walk?”
“Thanks but I’ll pass. I prefer to catch up on my beauty sleep.”
Sky cast a disbelieving glance at Cassie, who was always up before sunrise. She caught the little smirk playing around her little sister’s mouth.
�
�So it’s just the two of us?” Zach gave her a wink.
Sky nodded, trying to control the herd of butterflies racing around her stomach.
He removed the fish and shrimp skewers from the grill and lined them up on a platter. He served them with the salad and an assortment of grilled vegetables. Zucchini, plum tomatoes, baby onions and new potatoes had been drizzled with olive oil and pepper and placed on the grill to smoke.
Cassie closed her eyes and inhaled the aroma. “Wow!”
“Dig in, ladies.” Zach held the platter so they could fill their plates.
Sky met his gaze across the table. “This is great, Zach. Thank you for going to so much trouble.”
“No trouble at all.”
The food was delicious and Zach kept the conversation going with bits of local information and stories about growing up as the middle of seven Bailey brothers and one sister, Darla.
“Poor Darla,” Cassie said. “It must have been tough for her to hold her own with seven brothers.”
Zack guffawed. “Not so. She still rules us. Treats us like her own personal slaves.”
When they had eaten, they sat for a while, watching the tide come in and admiring the dark starry night. Zach, of course, knew all of the constellations in the heavens, pointing them out for his guests.
When Skyler yawned, he gave her a sympathetic look. “I’ve kept you too long,” he said. “You must be exhausted after your move.”
“No, really, I’m fine.”
“Go home and get some rest. I’m going to knock on your door at seven sharp.”
Sky stifled another yawn. “Let us help you clean up.”
“No clean up duty. You’re a guest in my home. I’ll walk you to your house.”
Over her protests, Zach insisted on walking with her and holding her arm as she hobbled down his stairs and in turn when she hobbled up her own set. Cassie had run ahead and opened the door, but Sky knew her little sister was leaving her alone with their hunky neighbor. Very subtle, Cass.
At her door, she felt suddenly shy. “Thank you, Zach, for everything. Dinner was great and the conversation was even better.”
The look he gave her stirred up feelings she hadn’t experienced in a long while.
“Glad you enjoyed it. We’ll do it again soon.”
“And the ceiling fan. Thanks for putting it up for me. I’m afraid Cassie might have electrocuted herself rather than admit she didn’t know what she was doing.”
“I hope it helps you sleep. See you tomorrow morning. Wear a swimsuit and some shorts over it. We might get in the water if you’re up to it.” He leaned forward and kissed her cheek.
The softness of his kiss left a tingling on her skin. She felt a pang of longing, wondered how his lips would feel pressed against hers. She forced that thought from her head and nodded shyly, ducking her head as she escaped inside.
Idiot! If I’d raised my chin, Zach would have kissed me. Is that what I want? Yes. No. I don’t know.
She drew back the curtain and watched him walk back to his house with his hands shoved deep in the pockets of his cargo shorts. Sky huffed out a little sigh and let the curtain fall.
~*~
CHAPTER THREE
Initiation
In the morning, Zach loped up the stairs of the house next door and raised his hand to knock, but before he could do so, Skyler slid the glass door open. She was dressed and waiting, clad in a sleek, one-piece black bathing suit with a pair of nylon shorts over it.
"Morning," he said, trying not to ogle her trim figure.
A faint blush colored her cheeks as she smiled up at him. "I'm ready," she said, her voice low, almost a whisper. She glanced both ways down the beach and stepped quickly outside the sliding glass door, locking it behind her.
He wondered what demons made both women so edgy. “You can leave it unlocked. People around here won’t bother you.”
She gave him a nervous glance. “Habit. I wouldn’t want to leave Cassie alone with the door unlocked.”
Zach nodded. He held her arm as she took the stairs one at a time. He sensed that she found it difficult to allow him to help her, but he hoped that she saw the wisdom in preventing another accident when she was unsteady on her feet. “How did the ceiling fan work out for you? Did you sleep well?”
She smiled up at him. “I was so stuffed after the delicious dinner you prepared for us, I fell asleep right away. Slept like a dead thing, thank you very much.”
He felt a warm tingle spiraling in his stomach as he gazed into the depths of her Caribbean blue eyes. “De nada.”
“What does that mean?”
“Sorry. Everyone born around here speaks Spanish as well as English. It just means that no thanks are necessary.”
“De nada,” she repeated. “I guess I’ll have to brush up. Cassie took a year of Spanish in high school and another in her undergraduate program. She used to try to practice on me but I ignored her as all big sisters do.”
“Too bad you didn’t apply yourself. It’ll come in handy for her down here. Shall we get started?”
“Might as well. I hope I can keep up with you.”
“It’s not a race. We’re just going for a walk on the beach. We can look for shells. Fill our lungs with the fresh offshore breeze. Enjoy the sunrise.” Zach gave her a smile and pointed to her sneakers. “You might want to leave those behind. Walking in the soft sand is part of the therapy.”
She looked doubtful. An attractive tinge of color crept up her pale cheeks.
“Trust me. The beach will give you what you need. Athletes train by running in the sand. If you don’t like it, I’ll carry you home piggyback.” He squatted down to untie her shoes and she held onto his shoulder to slide out of them. He saw a long scrape on top of her foot and ankle. “What happened here? Was this part of the injury from your car accident?”
Skyler bit her lip. “No. Someone tried to run over me with a car a week ago. I jumped out of the way, but...he killed my dog.” Her lips quivered and she quickly blinked away the tears that gathered.
He pulled himself erect, frowning. “You seem to be experiencing a run of bad luck. Didn’t the driver see you?”
Sky dropped her gaze. “He saw me all right. He sped up and left skid marks, but I jumped behind a parked car. My dog wasn’t so lucky.” Her face had taken on a flushed tone and tears rolled down her cheeks in twin rivulets. She brushed them away with the backs of her hands.
A twisting in his gut stirred some emotion within Zach. He recognized it and took a deep breath. Too soon after his doomed relationship with Chloe to take on the role of protector to another damsel in distress. “Sorry about your dog. I’m glad the driver missed you.” Zach picked up her sneakers and placed them neatly on the lowest step of the wooden stairs leading up to the front door, handy for their return.
She nodded and looked up and down the beach once more.
Zach stepped onto the sand and led Skyler toward the water. “If we stay near the shore line, the sand is more packed, but it still has some resilience.”
They began walking close to the water line. Waves lapped at the shore and frizzled out in the soft sand.
A grin played around her mouth as the water frothed over her feet. “Oh, my! Is that a real sand dollar?”
Zach smiled down at her. “It’s your lucky day.” He picked it up and placed it in her palm.
Sky straightened her shoulders and lifted her head. “I need a lucky day.”
He allowed her to set the pace, glancing down from time to time to see her smiling.
The streaks of salmon and gold faded as the sky overhead turned to an azure blue almost as intense as the color of Skyler’s eyes.
They walked for some time until Sky reached out to Zach, stopping him with her hand on his arm. “I need to rest. I’m having a foot drop now.”
Zach slipped off his faded cotton shirt and spread it on the sand. “Let’s sit here.” He held out his hand and helped her lower herself and then knelt beside her.
She looked up at him with her incredible blue eyes. “Thanks, Zach...for everything.” She looked around and took a deep breath.