Horizons

by Catherine Hart

  “Go ahead and joke. Just make sure you aren’t the main entree for the fish, instead of the other way around,” she stressed.

  The gleam in his eyes changed to something less humorous, more predatory. “Don’t fret, Kelly. I’ll do my utmost not to let anything happen to ruin my plans for making love to you.”

  Kelly’s jaw dropped, and she stared at him, wide-eyed and dumbfounded. Stunned that he would announce such a thing so abruptly, and right in front of the others. “Now wait just a blamed minute,” she sputtered. “I think I have something to say about that.”

  He shrugged. “Don’t get your Irish up, sweetheart. I’m just stating my intentions.” His tigerlike gaze now swept the others, leveling warningly on Earl and Gavin. “Simply staking my claim, so there won’t be any misunderstandings later. I trust I’ve made myself clear, fellas.”

  “Yeah,” Earl grumbled. “Clear as glass.”

  Gavin held his hands up, as if surrendering. “Aye-aye, Captain. I got no problem with that, as long as she doesn’t.”

  Kelly glared at them all. “She will make up her own mind, in her own good time, thank you all very much. Good Lord! It sure didn’t take you Neanderthals long to revert back to the law of the jungle, did it?”

  Again, Zach lifted his shoulders in a nonchalant motion. “When in Rome, green eyes. When in Rome.”

  “It’s your big innocent eyes,” Alita sniped. “And that fake blond hair. Just wait until all those dark roots start to show. “I’ll bet Zach won’t find you so appealing then. He’ll be sorry…”

  “Sorry for what?” Kelly interjected nastily. “That he didn’t choose you? The Crowned Princess of Pop Rock? The Mistress of the Macarena? Hasn’t it occurred to you that the man might like your music, but he has a little more class than to want to hook up with a woman who wears clothes so skimpy and tight that there can’t be a square yard of material covering her boobs and her butt?" Kelly surveyed Alita’s bright red skin-tight mini-dress with disgust. “What did you do? Spray paint that thing on?”

  “Reeoow!” Blair rendered a fair imitation of an angry cat. “You two sound like you ought to be on a back fence somewhere, sharpening your claws and fighting over a horny tomcat. Furthermore, I was under the impression that you didn’t appreciate Zach’s comment back there, Kelly. If that’s the case, I fail to see why you’re so upset that Alita might want the man.”

  Kelly’s facial expression echoed her confusion. “It’s not that I don’t want him, Blair. In fact, I find him extremely attractive. It’s just his high-handed manner that made me so mad. He as much as issued a proclamation, not an invitation, and he’s taking an awfully lot for granted, especially on such short acquaintance.”

  “In other words, if he wasn’t so bossy, you’d be happy to jump his bones,” Blair deduced with a knowing grin.

  Kelly laughed. “Yep, that just about sizes it up.”

  “Hey, girl. Go for it,” the librarian advised. “Don’t let a little thing like too much pride keep you from a good thing.”

  “Aren’t we supposed to be looking for food?” Alita reminded them irritably. She pointed toward a nearby tree, from which hung numerous greenish globes. “Isn’t that more of those bland breadfruit things?”

  They collected a few that had already ripened and fallen to the ground, and continued their search. A few minutes later, Kelly discovered a papaya tree. Soon after that, Blair tripped over a trailing vine and unearthed, of all things, a large sweet potato! A bit of digging unearthed several others.

  “Oh, this is a marvelous cache!” she declared delightedly. “And look there! Unless I miss my guess, that’s another lime tree! Now we have vegetables, fruits, and if Zach is successful we’ll have meat, too.”

  “Good. Something from nearly every food group,” Kelly assessed with satisfaction. “A nutritious balance for our mother-to-be and her baby. And for Sydney.”

  “For all of us,” Alita said. “You don’t suppose we could find some coffee and chocolate on this sandy rock, do you?”

  “Hang a left at the ice-cream stand,” Kelly snickered.

  Blair laughed, too. Then, ever handy with the trivia, she added thoughtfully, “It isn’t totally beyond the realm of possibility, you know. There just may be coffee growing somewhere on the mountain.”

  “Hopefully, we won’t be here long enough to find out.” Kelly shrugged out of her stained linen blazer and bundled a portion of their foodstuff into it. “I’m going to start back to camp with this load, and see if I can find something better to use to carry some more.”

  “Going to weave a quick basket or two?” Alita taunted.

  “I’d consider it, if I could make one big enough to stick you and your big mouth into and set you adrift,” Kelly snapped back. “And I can promise you, I wouldn’t bother trying to make it water-tight.”

  Kelly was almost back to camp when she heard excited shouts coming from the shore. Immediately, she dropped her bundle and sprinted toward the beach, sure that her brash would-be lover must be in terrible trouble to be yelling so loudly. Half expecting to see him being eaten by a shark, Kelly skidded to a halt midway across the sand, and stood gawking.

  Still knee deep in the surf, Zach was clutching the blanket to his chest, wrestling with the fish caught within its folds. “Get hold of an end!” he bellowed at Gavin, who was wading out to him. “Quick! Before he wiggles loose!”

  “What am I supposed to grab? The fish or the blanket?” Gavin hollered back.

  “I don’t care. As long as it’s not my balls! This sucker is slippery, and all muscle!”

  Gavin gripped the edge of the blanket just as the finned tail poked through the gap. Between them, the two men hauled their writhing burden to within a few yards of Kelly before the fish squirmed loose and plopped out onto the sand. Zach quickly tossed the blanket overtop the fish, and straddled it.

  “Get a knife, or something to use as a club,” he told Gavin breathlessly. “We don’t want this beauty flopping back to freedom.”

  Kelly was feeling a bit breathless herself at the moment. When Zach had tossed down the blanket, she’d caught her first full look at him. Her initial thought was to wonder where he'd gotten a pair of swim trunks. In the next instant, she’d realized he wasn’t wearing bathing trunks at all. He’d stripped to a pair of form-fitting navy blue briefs—and brief they were! Cut high along his hips, amounting to little more than a swath of clinging polished cotton and a few bands of elastic, they left very little to the imagination— especially the way he filled them out!

  “Oh, my!” she murmured.

  Zach looked up to find her staring at his crotch. A broad grin creased his face. “See something you like?” he asked.

  Her head jerked up, her cheeks flaming as she met his teasing gold gaze. “Uh… what?”

  “You’re drooling, babe. Do I pass inspection?”

  She faced him squarely, denying her urge to run, primarily because she couldn’t decide which way to go—toward him or away from him. “I can safely assume there’s no conceit in the rest of your family. You obviously inherited it all.”

  He laughed. “Along with other attributes.” His pause was significant, allowing her time to ponder which traits he might be referring to. Then he elaborated, his eyes dancing with mirth. “My nose, for instance. The cleft in my chin. The color of my eyes. And the slight wave in my hair, complete with a very stubborn cowlick. I’ve often wondered if that kid who played Alfalfa was Jewish.”

  Gavin chose that moment to come running up with his pen knife in one hand and a big stick in the other. “Got them both, Zach.”

  Kelly retreated a couple of steps, quickly mustering her lost composure and sense of humor. “I’ve got to get back to the others. I’ll leave you and Buckwheat to your chores, Alfalfa. I’m sure Spanky, aka Earl, will be along soon to lend a hand.”

  Gavin, totally baffled by her comment, threw her a dark look. “Hey! Watch the name calling, Blondie! What do you mean by that crack, anyway?”
>
  Kelly gave a little wave of her hand. “Ask the guy with the cute cowlick.” She walked away, chuckling.

  Kelly was almost content as she sat by the campfire later that evening. For the first time in two long, horrendous days, she was finally clean and relatively free of sand. That was to say her body was, and at least part of her clothes. She had sponged out her panties, which had dried in no time, and her camisole top. But her linen slacks were still soiled and looking more than a little ragged at the hems. And she’d been forced to don her dirty blazer again, since her camisole was still damp enough to be fairly translucent. She’d also washed her hair, replaiting it in a neat French braid while it was still wet.

  The others had also availed themselves of the pool, their overall appearance vastly improved, discounting miscellaneous bandages and multicolored bruises. The primary advantage for the men was that they were able to discard their shirts, and now lounged around the fire wearing only their trousers. Even Sydney was dressed only in her panties. Of course, being all of two years old, the toddler could get away with such things, whereas the women could not. Everyone, however, was barefoot, having gratefully shucked their socks, hose, and shoes. A little sand between one’s toes was immeasurably preferable to having one’s skin abraded by thousands of individual granules grating between flesh and leather.

  After two days of nothing but coconuts and bananas and breadfruit, supper had seemed like a feast. The fish and sweet potatoes had been wrapped in wet palm leaves and roasted in the coals of the fire. Though lacking seasoning, they’d still been tender and tasty. The papaya was delicious. Kelly had even concocted a new drink for the group, consisting of combinations of papaya and lime juice and water. Sipping it from coconut shells still rendered a tinge of coconut flavor to it, but even Alita had liked the new beverage.

  Even with their disappointment over missing the plane, and their assorted aches and pains, their situation was vastly improved. Zach’s shoulder and ribs still ached, but Kelly had checked him over and he hadn’t yanked anything else out of place. Gavin had found that he could still use his left hand, despite the discomfort of a broken bone or two and a jammed finger. Kelly’s fuzzy vision had improved with her headache, which was now merely a dull throb. Blair was hobbling along fairly well on her ankle, and the swelling was beginning to subside. Frazer was worst off, with his mangled leg, yet he still refused to let Kelly tend it for him. And Alita, with only the scabbed-over laceration on her calf, complained more about her puny injuries than any of the rest of them.

  Now, however—clean, tired, and replete—they were all feeling quite mellow. “A little Hawaiian music, a few leis, and a couple of hula dancers, and I’d think I was back on Oahu at a luau,” Gavin remarked lazily. “There are a few perks to being stationed in Hawaii, even if the cost of everything is totally outrageous.”

  “It’s because of the tourist trade,” Frazer said. “They hike the prices, knowing visitors will pay it. They do the same thing in all the popular vacation spots.”

  “Trouble is, unless you know where to shop, a resident ends up paying the same amount,” Gavin groused. “Not that I’m actually a resident. My time’s up in four months. Then I’m back to Chicago. I only joined up to get the VA benefits for college, since I missed out on a football scholarship due to a torn ligament that put me on the sidelines most of my senior year.”

  “Chi-town, huh?” Zach responded. “I’ve done some work there. I heard the whole town celebrated when the Bulls won the basketball championship last year.”

  Gavin grinned. “Yeah. It’s sure good to have Michael Jordan back. Where you from, Zach?”

  “Seattle. At least that’s my home base between jobs.”

  “With all the rain I hear you get up there, I guess it’s the extreme opposite from Phoenix,” Kelly mused.

  Zach arched a dark eyebrow in her direction. “That where you live?”

  “Now, I do. I used to live in Houston.”

  “With the ex.”

  Kelly nodded. “He still lives there, but even as large as Texas is, it wasn’t big enough for the two of us. Not to suit me, anyway. I hired a competent manager for my health club there, and relocated to Phoenix, where I’d just opened a new club six months before.”

  “How many do you own?” he asked.

  “Me and the bank?” Kelly joked. “The new one in Sydney is the third, and that only because one of my most affluent clients moved there and swore she couldn’t live in such a foreign locale without one of my specialty salons. She put up half the financing herself, and helped arrange the other half. I just hope the salon goes over as well as the first two, for both our sakes.”

  “I’m confused,” Blair said. “I thought you ran a beauty shop.”

  “I’m trying a new concept,” Kelly explained. “I’ve combined several operations into one. There’s a health club, complete with exercise machines, aerobics classes, a small pool, a whirlpool and sauna, and a massage room and showers. Connected to that is the beauty salon, where ladies can get the full treatment: nails and hair done, facials, hair removal, classes on applying make-up, the whole ball of wax. Then, the piece de resistance—a very exclusive boutique—with the most luscious lingerie you could ever want, a line of fabulous perfumes, and a section devoted to scented candles, wine, caviar, fresh flowers, bath oils, nearly anything you need to create a romantic atmosphere. The idea being that you can walk in one door looking and feeling like a real frump, and exit the other as an entirely new woman, ready for a night on the town or a private evening for two. We’ve even incorporated classes on how to flirt, since it seems to be becoming a lost art these days, believe it or not.”

  “Wow! I love it!” Blair exclaimed softly. “If you ever decide to open another one, please consider doing so in Quebec. I know at least a dozen women who would sign up immediately.”

  “Not I,” Alita declared adamantly. “Her salon in Sydney did not impress me.”

  Kelly smirked. “Oh, can it, Alita. You’re just miffed because we don’t carry aerosol fashions by Sherwin Williams!” Kelly reached for her oversized canvas carry-on bag. “I’ve got a brochure in here someplace,” she told Blair as she started rifling through the bulging bag.

  After a few frustrated seconds of trying to wade through too much in too little space, Kelly began unloading it, item by item. First came her purse, chock full to bursting with all her normal day-to-day paraphernalia. Then a small tote, the kind designed to hold toiletries. A travel steamer for clothes. A mini hair blower, and a fold-up curling iron. A small plastic spray bottle. Several intriguing bits of satin and lace and a pair of panty hose, which she hastily wadded into a ball and stuffed out of sight again. A four-cup coffee pot.

  “Oh! I completely forgot this was in here!” she exclaimed excitedly. “Hey, guys! We now have a container for water or whatever, and two plastic cups and a plastic spoon! I think there’s even a packet or two of sugar left in here, but I used the last of the coffee. Sorry.”

  The others sat gaping in amazement. “Good grief, woman!” Zach declared. “I can’t believe this! What all did you manage to cram in there? It’s like the bottomless pit!” Kelly ignored him and continued to unpack. Out came a small ring-binder notebook, a paperback novel, an instamatic camera and six rolls of film, a bottle of suntan lotion, two scarves, a battered box of tampons, which she hastily hid. A beach towel, a small stack of postcards, and a travel alarm clock.

  “If you’ve got a carton of cigarettes stuffed away in there, I’ll buy them off of you,” Earl proposed hopefully.

  “Sorry, I don’t smoke. But I do have a couple of these.” Kelly pulled forth three tiny airline-courtesy liquor bottles.

  Gavin let loose a whoop. “Boy, when this lady packs, she does it right!”

  Blair leaned in closer, peering in awe-filled expectation at the bag. “I’m waiting for the genie in the magic bottle to appear.”

  “I’d settle for some soap,” Frazer admitted.

  “Done.” Kelly tosse
d him a minuscule bar with the name of a hotel on the wrapper. “You should have said something sooner. I’ve already shared some of my stuff with Blair and Alita, but there’s plenty to go around.”

  Zach reached over and snatched up her toiletries bag. “I’ll bet you’ve got a toothbrush and some toothpaste in here,” he surmised. “And some deodorant.”

  Kelly tried to grab it back from him, but he held it out of reach. “Hey, you big galoot! Where are your manners? It is my property, after all.”

  “No, as of right now, it’s community property,” he corrected.

  “Fine, but there are some things that I consider personally mine and mine alone. Like my one and only toothbrush,” Kelly stressed, shooting Zach a warning look.

  Zach had already unzipped the bag and was searching through the contents. He replied without bothering to look up. “Don’t quibble over the small stuff. What’s a toothbrush shared between lovers?”

  “We’re not lovers,” she reminded him tartly.

  “Soon. Don’t be so impatient, sweetheart,” he ribbed. Then, “Jackpot!” He held up a packet of disposable pink razors and a small can of scented shaving gel. “We’re in luck, fellas.”

  “You can’t use those!” Kelly objected. “They’re for shaving my legs.”

  He grinned back at her. “You’ve got that backwards, honey. You women can’t use them, because we men will be using them on our beards. Can’t have you dulling the blades, can we?”

  “So what are we supposed to do?” Alita complained loudly.

  “Go hairy and pretend you’re wearin’ a pair o’ tights,” Earl suggested wittily. “We won’t care.”

  “We won’t care if you idiots have to grow beards to your knees, either,” Kelly countered.

  “Okay, we’ll draw straws for them or something,” Frazer submitted.