Editor's Choice Volume I - Slow summer Kisses, Kilts & kraken, Negotiating point

by Stacey Shannon, Spencer Pape Cindy, Giordano Adrienne

  She sighed and shifted in her chair. “I’m bored.”

  And there it was. He’d known it was coming, even if he’d tried to pretend it wasn’t. The fun, new things shine had worn off her little vacation and she was getting the itch to return to her real life. “What do you want to do?”

  “There’s nothing to do. No movie theaters. No malls. No bowling, not that I’d even remember how to do that. Nothing.”

  “We could throw a line in the water. See who catches the biggest fish.”

  “You’re a funny guy.” She shook her head, her gaze fixed on some distant point. “I’m not very good at this relaxing thing.”

  “How about we go sit on the dock and I’ll fish and you can knit.”

  It wasn’t much—it wasn’t what she wanted—but it was all he had to offer.

  Chapter Six

  Cam wasn’t opposed to technology. He had a computer and a cell phone and he’d bought his mom one of those digital readers for Christmas. When it came time for a new truck he was thinking about getting one with satellite radio.

  But Anna’s cell phone was about two seconds from going for a swim.

  “What about this one?” Her phone chirped out some electronic rendition of what sounded like the chicken dance song.

  He grunted, having figured out about twenty sound clips ago that her questions were mostly rhetorical and she was going to keep sampling until she found one she liked or he threw her phone in the lake.

  They were sitting on the dock, supposedly fishing. He’d baited her hook and shown her how to cast, since she hadn’t done it in years, and she’d sat for maybe three minutes before she got bored and pulled out the stupid phone. When he snarled at it, she reminded him that, after years of sedate and professional chimes, finding fun ringtones was on her to-do list.

  “Do you have your phone with you?” she asked. “I need you to call me.”

  “No, I don’t have my phone. I’m fishing. And I’m sitting right next to you.”

  “I think I have it set so it plays a certain song if you call me, but I’m not sure.”

  He turned his head, scowling at her. “A certain song? Which song?”

  “Call me and you’ll find out.” She stopped playing with her phone long enough to flash him a smile.

  “Whatever. If I want to call you, I’ll yell out the window.”

  “For now. Once I go back to work, maybe you’ll want to call me.”

  Jaw clenched, Cam started reeling in his line. “Why would I want to do that?”

  Anna was still for a few long seconds, and then she shrugged. “Maybe I’ll forget something and you can call to get my address so you can send it to me.”

  “I’d probably just send it to Betty. I have her address already.”

  “Fine. I’ll delete you when I leave.”

  He laughed at her snippy tone, but his mind was working on trying to figure her out as he gathered his fishing gear. Did she really expect him to call her once she left to go wherever she ended up going? More importantly, what did she think was going on here? It was a question he’d asked himself a few times in the week since they’d first slept together but, not knowing the answer, he was content to just go along for the ride.

  “It’s getting hot,” Anna said. “And you’re not catching any fish.”

  “Because that crap your phone’s playing drove them away.” He reeled in his line and set the pole on the dock. “If I go get you another iced tea and a hat, will you put the phone away?”

  “Yes, but only to keep you company. I’m not into the fishing.”

  Shaking his head, he shoved himself out of his chair and headed up to the house. She was still playing with the damn phone, but he’d give her until he got back before he called her on it.

  He’d grabbed an iced tea and a beer out of his fridge when he saw his cell phone sitting on the counter. Just for grins, he set the drinks down and took the phone out onto the back deck, so he’d be able to hear the certain song she’d chosen for him. He scrolled through his contacts until he found the number she’d insisted he put in his phone and hit the send button.

  From the dock he heard the quickening organ notes familiar to anybody who’d been to a ballpark and then an announcer’s voice belting out, “And here are your World Champion New…York…Yankees!”

  Oh, hell no. “It’s going in the lake,” Cam bellowed.

  He snapped his phone closed and was halfway down the stairs when she started running up the dock, her phone clutched in her hand. She was faster than he’d anticipated and, instead of intercepting her on the beach, he had to go through the tree line. He tripped over a root, giving her the precious time she needed to get to her house ahead of him, but not enough time to lock the slider.

  They played tug-of-war with the glass door for a few seconds, but Anna was laughing and out of breath and he won.

  “Give me the phone.”

  She shook her head, still laughing and clutching the phone to her chest as she backed away from him.

  “Don’t make me take it away from you.”

  When she reached down the collar of her shirt and tucked the phone into her bra, Cam felt a rush of heat that made him grin. That wasn’t going to stop him. But it was going to make it a lot more fun. “You think that’s going to stop me?”

  “I have a plan.”

  “If you think me having to feel you up is going to save your phone, it’s not a very good plan.”

  Her smile was naughty, with a hint of mystery. “Trust me, it’s an ingenious plan.”

  Cam moved forward and was surprised when she neither backed up nor dodged to the left or right. She stood her ground and let him grab the hem of her T-shirt to haul her in the last foot. And she lifted her arms when he dragged the shirt up and pulled it off.

  The phone was half-tucked inside a satiny pink bra that made his mouth water, but he tried not to think about what was under the shiny fabric because she was up to something even if he couldn’t put his finger on what it was.

  Instead he snagged the phone and held it up in front of her. “Hell of a plan.”

  Any further gloating died in his throat when she reached behind her back, unclasped her bra and let it fall to the ground. Damn, she was beautiful and no matter how crazy she drove him or how often they fell into bed together, his body couldn’t seem to get enough of her.

  He had just enough presence of mine to tuck her phone into the cargo pocket of his shorts before he put his hands on her. The Velcro closure would give him a heads-up if she got sneaky while he was busy getting busy.

  “I like this plan,” he murmured against her neck before he nipped at the soft flesh where her pulse throbbed.

  “I told you, ingenious.”

  She was as hungry as he was and within a few minutes they were on the well-cushioned throw rug with their clothes scattered around them. Anna gave a throaty laugh when Cam paused in kissing her long enough to move his shorts out of her arm’s reach before going back to tasting every inch of her skin until she squirmed and pounded her fist on his shoulder.

  Slipping his hand between her legs, he stroked her until he could tell she was about to come, and then stopped. “Tell me the Red Sox are going to win the World Series this year.”

  Her eyes opened and she stared up at him, obviously confused. “What?”

  He brushed his fingers over her heated flesh—just enough to keep her on the edge, but not enough to push her over. “Say it.”

  “No.”

  “That’s too bad.” He let his hand fall away, trailing his fingertips down her thigh.

  “I’ll just do it myself.”

  He caught her wrist just before her hand slid in to replace his. “As much as I’d like to see that sometime—and, damn, do I—that’s cheating. Say it.”

  “Okay, fine. They will.”

  He bent his head and sucked her nipple as he moved his fingers back, tantalizingly close to the sweet spot. “Say it.”

  “The Red Sox might win the
World Series,” she hissed.

  That was close enough for Cam because every second he teased her was a second he felt as if his balls would explode. He grabbed his shorts to get the condom he’d stuck in his pocket and, once he’d taken care of that business, settled between her thighs.

  He’d just sucked in a breath, bracing himself for the feel of her sweet body enveloping him, when Anna put her hands on his hips and stopped him.

  “Promise me you won’t ever throw my phone in the lake.”

  It took a few seconds for her words to make sense to his sex-addled brain. “Are you freaking kidding me?”

  She rolled her hips, sliding against him while her hands still held him still. “Promise me you won’t ever damage my phone or I’ll get up and walk away.”

  She would, too, just to be a pain in his ass. “I promise I won’t hurt your stupid phone.”

  When she moved her hands, he slid into her with one long, hard thrust. A few more and she was arching under him, her fingernails raking his back.

  He groaned as he came and dug his fingers into her hips, holding her close to him, before collapsing on top of her. Trying to catch his breath, he enjoyed the warm feel of her body under his until she nudged him off to one side. She probably wanted to breathe, too.

  Her phone, from the pocket of his shorts, blared out “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,” making them both jump.

  “That’s Gram, so be quiet,” she said, stretching her arm out enough to snag his shorts by the hem and drag them closer.

  He cursed and tried to stop her. “I should throw that—”

  “You promised,” she said. Just before she hit the button to answer the call, she flashed him a smile. “I told you it was an ingenious plan.”

  * * *

  The refrigerator door was getting awfully bare. Anna stood in front of it, looking at the growing number of magnets that had nothing to hold up and fighting off the familiar silent panic. The to-do lists had dwindled down to a few items that could be summed up as three words. Get a job.

  She’d never expected to stay at Askaskwi Lake for a month. A week, maybe two at the most, and then she’d step back into the professional world. She’d keep it a little simpler this time around, like renting a much smaller apartment, and put less stress on herself. That was the plan, anyway.

  Instead, here she still was, running out of things to do to keep her mind off the fact she’d only gotten two calls and neither of them had progressed past a telephone interview. She’d painted everything that could be painted. The containers were overflowing with gorgeous blooms that only required watering and a few minutes of attention each day. Digging into an interior redecoration appealed to her but, besides being outside her skill set, it wasn’t her camp to redecorate.

  The low, constant drone of a lawnmower ceased and Anna forced herself to shake off the anxiety. Her blood pressure was in a more healthy range, her stomach didn’t feel like it was being eaten alive by acid, and she was having orgasms on a fairly regular basis. Why ruin that by stressing over things she couldn’t control?

  When the lawnmower didn’t start up again, Anna hurried through the house and out to the back deck, just in time to see Cam walking down the dock in his boxer briefs. They were navy blue this time, and the tantalizing view wasn’t in any way diminished by knowing what that thin cotton concealed. On the contrary, she had an even greater appreciation for those lean muscles.

  After he surfaced, Cam looked her way and then waved her down. She held up a finger, then rushed inside to get into her swimsuit. Her beach towel was draped over the deck railing and she grabbed it on her way out.

  When she reached the end of the dock, Cam lifted himself enough to prop his forearms on the wood and shook his head. “Do you like wasting time and doing laundry?”

  “I’m not stripping down to my underwear outside, Cam. And swimsuits are for swimming.”

  Cam dropped back into the water to get out of the way as Anna executed a shallow dive into the lake, pushing off with her toes for distance the way Cam had taught her when they were kids. They swam for a while, splashing each other and stealing a few kisses, then hauled themselves onto the dock and flopped down.

  When he reached over and covered her hand with his, Anna closed her eyes and let the warmth of the sun and the wood soak into her. The quiet was kind of nice and she let her body relax, even if her mind had a hard time following suit.

  Her relationship with Cam was a puzzle she couldn’t solve. No matter how she moved the pieces around in her mind, they didn’t fit, and that meant there was no big picture to suddenly become clear.

  How he could be attracted to a woman who couldn’t stand being still and who supposedly drove him crazy was just as inexplicable as her being attracted to a man who thought a good time was sitting in a folding chair for hours, watching for his fishing line to twitch. But she was attracted to him—there was no denying that—and she was becoming more and more aware of how much she enjoyed his company when they were fully clothed.

  She couldn’t make sense of it, and she told herself not to add any stress to her life by trying. The only thing she could do was enjoy it while it lasted and try not to get so attached to him she’d have a hard time leaving him behind.

  “Jesus, woman, don’t you ever relax?”

  Anna opened her eyes and squinted against the sun. “If I relax any more than this, I’ll be sleeping. I don’t think I’ve ever been this relaxed before.”

  “You’re drumming your fingers on the wood and you keep sighing. That’s not relaxed.”

  “Well, it is for me.” Since Cam had been the one to break the silence, she took that as an opening for conversation.

  “Are you starting to get worried? About the whole job thing, I mean.”

  “A little. I thought I’d have an offer by now and I’ve had a few nibbles, but not a serious bite.”

  “It’s a rough time to be looking for a job. What will you do if nothing comes up?”

  And wasn’t that the million-dollar question that kept her up at night? “I’ll start making sacrifices, like a location I don’t like or less money or something like that. Or maybe I’ll shift my focus. I can be a bank teller if nothing else comes up.”

  “Sometimes the sacrifices aren’t worth it.”

  He said it casually, but she knew him well enough to know it was something he felt pretty strongly about. “Is that why you ended up here? The sacrifices weren’t worth it?”

  For a minute, she didn’t think he was going to answer her and that didn’t surprise her. He wasn’t much of a talker, especially about himself.

  “I was becoming my dad.” And he’d lost his dad to a heart attack, which she’d learned from Gram at the time. She squeezed his hand. “I wasn’t happy. I couldn’t sleep and my relationships suffered. So I got out before my mother had to bury me, too. My wife chose not to join me.”

  He said it so matter-of-factly, but she couldn’t imagine it had been an easy decision for him. Or maybe it had been. She knew it wouldn’t have been for her. “There was nothing in between full stress and Askaskwi Lake?”

  “Maybe if my wife had been willing to compromise and cut back, I could have made it work.” He paused for a few seconds, his thumb rubbing idly over her knuckles. “I thought my stay here would be temporary, until I figured out what would make me happy. Turned out, being here made me happy.”

  She almost laughed, trying to imagine how cranky an unhappy Cam would be, but she didn’t want to ruin the moment. “My stay definitely is temporary. It’s nice to relax for a few minutes, but I can’t walk away from my career like you did. You went to law school, for Pete’s sake and you just…”

  “Threw it all away?”

  “Yeah. I can’t imagine doing that.”

  “I can’t imagine my life if I hadn’t done it.”

  She didn’t know what to say to that. It wasn’t something she could wrap her head around—just walking away from years of education and climbing rungs on the professi
onal ladder—to do odd jobs and build chests out of old barn boards. And she knew that, no matter how long they talked about it, they wouldn’t see eye to eye. They were too different and she’d do well to remember that. She could want him. She could have him. She could even enjoy his fully-clothed company. But she couldn’t get attached to him.

  Chapter Seven

  Three weeks later…

  “I never should have taught you how to drive.”

  Anna laughed and merged her car into highway traffic. It was a bright red, late-model Honda Civic Cam had helped her pick out the weekend before and she was madly in love with it. It was a lot easier to drive than his pick-up and definitely better on gas. It was quick and agile—zippy, she liked to call it—and it suited her perfectly.

  “You must be a good teacher, since I have a shiny new driver’s license in my purse.”

  “I shouldn’t be surprised since you threw yourself into passing that test the same way you throw yourself into everything—throttle wide open. You can probably quote entire passages from the driver’s manual.”

  “It was nice of them to put it online. I could carry it around on my phone.” She put on her left turn signal, glanced over her left shoulder and shifted lanes, accelerating at the same time. “We should do something to celebrate. Think of something.”

  “For starters you could slow down and get back in the right lane.”

  “I don’t want to be behind that truck. It smells.”

  “I could drive.”

  “Or you could walk.” That was the nice thing about having her own car. She was the boss of it and, therefore, the boss of her passengers. “I can’t take all day if I want to get back in time for knitting club. Now that my scarf is long enough so I’ll have to start calling it a really skinny blanket soon, Pearl’s going to teach me how to bind it off.”

  “And a lovely scarf it is,” Cam said.