“I do,” he said as he took the steaks out of a bag.
“Thank you,” she whispered. Then she reached for the steaks and began unwrapping them.
“Is there a place I can use to change?” Kel asked.
“I didn’t see you bring in a suit.”
Kel reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a little scrap of material. “Got it right here.”
Laura stared at the tiny Speedo that hardly covered his palm. Her throat went dry and she knew her eyes had betrayed her when he chuckled.
“It’s bigger than it looks,” he said, then realizing what it was that he had just said he corrected himself. “I mean it stretches.” Realizing that that wasn’t much better, he simply added, “I like the European-styled suits, more freedom of movement.”
“Uh huh,” she replied, tongue-in-cheek. “You can change in that powder room over there if you like. There’s a hook on the back of the door where you can hang your things.”
“I neglected to bring a towel.”
“I have plenty. I’ll take one out to the pool for you.”
“Should we plan on eating now or later?”
“Later, if you don’t mind. I already fed Kayla. She’s not much for steak and since her bedtime is rather early, I don’t think she wants to waste time watching us eat. We can eat after she goes to sleep if that’s all right with you?”
“Sounds great. I’ll just put this on,” he waved his hand with the suit in it, “then I’ll head out to the pool.”
“We’ll be right out. It won’t take me but a minute to change.”
Leaving his clothes on the countertop in the hall bathroom, Kel opened the door and listened. Hearing no one moving about, he stepped out of the bathroom and headed for the pool, his bare feet softly padding on the hardwood floors.
He unlocked the sliding glass doors and stepped out onto the patio. The pool looked inviting. His trained eye checked out the perimeter, scanning the nearby beach and zeroing in on the path beside the house that led beachgoers down to the water.
He was surprised. This was not the kind of place he would have thought a mother would retreat to after having had her child taken from her. It was far too open and accessible and he wondered if he should advise her to find a more secured place. Then his eagle eyes spotted the trip sensors and the tiny stanchions for infrared receivers. He started counting them and realized that when the alarms were set, this place was a virtual fortress, barring a power blackout.
He walked over to the pool, ignored the sign at the deep end about diving, and took a shallow dive that propelled him halfway across the pool. The water felt refreshing and his body became energized. He began swimming laps. Slowly, leisurely, he exercised his body, letting the tautness of his muscles play out. He was on his fifth set when he heard voices on a turn. He stopped and stood and tossed his head back to move the hair out of his eyes.
Laura and Kayla stood at the edge of the pool smiling down at him.
Laura smiled and he felt a little self-conscious. She was wearing a cover-up over her suit and all he could see of her body was her legs, but they were gorgeous, long and shapely. She could hide her slim figure under terry cloth, but his memory had no trouble filling in the blanks.
“You swim beautifully,” she said. “Like an athlete.”
“I was on the swim team in school. I still enjoy doing laps whenever I can.”
“Well, don’t let us stop you.”
“Oh, no. It’s time for this one to learn the cannonball.” He grabbed Kayla by the ankle and jerked her toward him. She screamed and laughed as she landed in the water in his arms.
“That wasn’t a cannonball!” Kayla said.
“No, that was just to get you wet. Now we have to get your mother in.”
They both looked expectantly over at Laura.
“I think I’m just going to take this time to relax in this lounger and watch you two have your fun.”
“Party pooper,” he taunted.
“I don’t want to get my hair wet.”
“That’s probably something you shouldn’t have told me. Too much of a challenge to put in front of me.” He sat Kayla on the side of the pool and instructed her on the finer aspects of the cannonball, then he climbed out of the pool to show her.
Laura watched as water sluiced from his body as he lifted himself out of the pool. Dark hair, flattened into lines by the water filled his broad chest. Strong arms hoisted him effortlessly over the side, while muscled thighs pulled him out. When he was standing, dripping on the patio, she was so impressed with his physique that her hand went reflexively to the base of her throat. Not wanting to be betrayed by her reaction to his body, she fumbled with the collar of her short terry robe. In the motel room, she’d felt his large body moving on top of her, but she hadn’t visualized him looking as good as this.
She watched him as he walked to the deep end of the pool, called to Kayla to watch carefully, and then lifted his body off the side. Up he went, arms straight, legs pulling forward until his arms clasped his knees and he tucked his head. When he hit the water, huge walls of water spewed up and then surged back, soaking Kayla in their wake. When he surfaced, she was laughing herself silly. “Do it again! Do it again!” He tousled her hair on his way back to the deep end and gave Laura a sheepish smile.
“I’m duly impressed,” she called over to him.
He stopped in his tracks, eyeballed her, then the pool, then her again, before adjusting his point of entry. Before Laura could move, he ran into the pool, tucked his body and sent a flume of water cascading over her.
When he came up, she was wiping water from her cheek and pulling a wet strand of hair from her neck. Kayla was laughing so hard she didn’t notice when he swam alongside, snaked over, and toppled Kayla in beside him.
They played until Laura said it was Kayla’s bedtime and Kel was mildly shocked when Kayla didn’t protest. She simply swam to the edge of the pool where Laura lifted her out and wrapped a towel around her. Kayla turned to look back at him as she was being led away. “Will you come back?” she asked.
“Certainly,” Kel answered as he used the steps at the end and walked out.
Kel watched as Laura took Kayla’s hand and led her into the house. He heard them talking softly as they went through the door and up the stairs. He grabbed a towel from a bistro table and started drying himself. When he finished, he wrapped the towel around his hips and finger-combed his hair. He listened as he heard birds rustling in the hedges, and watched as a sea breeze fanned the palmetto grass on the dunes. When he heard tiny clicking sounds, he turned to see the red infrared dots flicking on. Laura was setting the alarms on the outer perimeter, at least some of them. In another hour, the automatic lights would come on, too. When you lived on the beach, you couldn’t have lights on all the time because it disconcerted and disoriented the wildlife, especially the turtles, so the alternative was sentry lights. Laura wouldn’t be taking any chances, he knew she’d keep the sentry lights burning bright all night. What could the police possibly say if they came to her door to ask her to turn them out? Her reason for having them on was better than the turtles’ for having them off.
He heard the door open, but not close. No, she wouldn’t be closing that door either, not as long as Kayla was on the other side of it. He wondered how long it would take for Laura to relax her guard. From what he’d seen so far, Laura wasn’t going to be beyond the area where the low hum of the child monitor could be heard for quite some time. He should mention to her that she should get some help. She could benefit from some counseling on how to recover from this.
He turned to see her walking toward him. She tossed her cover-up on a chair as she went by. God, she was beautiful. The flattering one-piece didn’t need anything but classic, simple lines to show o
ff her body. The high cutout legs showed off her slim hips and made her long legs impossibly longer. The plunging vee neck highlighted a deep line of cleavage. He doubted that he’d ever seen a woman so graceful and so sure of herself in a bathing suit.
She walked down the steps and into the pool, then disappeared into the dark, shadowed water. When she came up, she arched her back and tilted her head so she could slick her hair back.
“I thought you weren’t going to get your hair wet?”
“Well, you took care of that now didn’t you?” she said with a wry smile.
“Sorry.”
“I’m not. This feels delightful. What a beautiful night,” she murmured as she stared up at the stars. She walked to the edge of the pool where she crossed her arms on the cement before placing her head down. She stood there staring over at him, looking dreamy and content.
God, you’re delightful, he thought to himself. Her expression told him that she was comfortable and pleased, captivated by the night and maybe a touch woozy from days without sleep. “If you’re hungry, I can start the steaks now.” He couldn’t take her looking at him like that. She was sending him messages that he was sure he was misreading.
“That would be wonderful. I’m starved, how about you?”
“I could eat. I can’t remember my last meal, so I suppose I’m due.”
Lazily, she lifted her head, forced her body away from the edge, and slowly climbed the steps out of the pool. The way the water ran down her arms and legs in the faint light made her look ethereal, she glowed.
As she stood on the apron toweling her hair, the interior pool lights came on.
“Must be nine o’clock. Do you always eat this late?” she asked.
“No. It’s been an unusual day.”
“And I thank you for that. I know how hard you’re working on this.” She pulled on her wrap and tugged it close. He saw her shiver. But it wasn’t because she was cold.
He uncovered the grill, adjusted the propane, and lit it. Then together they walked into the house where he worked on getting the steaks ready for grilling and she made a garden salad.
“Is Kel your real name or is it short for something?”
“Kel? It was my grandmother’s idea. She was French. Originally it was supposed to be Q-u-e-l, French for ‘how.’ Quel Vain. Get it? ‘How Vain?’ She thought I’d inherit my grandfather’s dashing good looks and like him, I’d be vain about it.”
“Interesting.” She stood back like an artist, eyes squinting, assessing. “Yes I can see dashing good looks. Can’t see vain though.”
“Looks get you in the door, but they don’t do the work for you.”
“So you’d rather be known as brainy?”
He smiled over at her as he shook spices on the meat. “I am known as brainy.”
“Oh. Sorry, I didn’t mean to be insulting.”
He laughed and took the steaks out to the grill.
As he tended to the steaks, she poured wine out of a crystal decanter into matching wine glasses then handed him one.
This was significant, he thought. She had planned ahead. The wine was nice and cold. It touched him that with everything going on with her, she had thought to chill some wine for them, unless of course she was the type who always had a bottle chilling.
“Tell me about your ex. I can’t see you two together. He’s not very nice.”
“Oh, at one time, he was quite charming. I smack myself in the head everyday for not seeing his ambition.”
“He hurt you?”
“Not physically. But I never knew how much it could hurt to be ignored. Then I found out it hurt a lot worse to be ignored because something better came along.”
“Not something better. Just different, maybe.”
“Thanks. It shouldn’t have hurt as much as it did, it wasn’t like my heart was broken. I guess it was a matter of pride more than anything else. I apparently hadn’t learned the ‘womanly arts’ to his satisfaction. I was always an ‘A’ student in everything else. I thought I’d learned my lessons well. He thought not.”
“I’m sure you learned your lessons just fine. Some men just can’t be satisfied, unless it’s with variety. And even that doesn’t always satisfy some.”
“Are you one of those men, Kel?”
Suddenly, an ear-piercing siren came from a speaker mounted inside the house. Laura spun around and dropped her wine glass. It broke into hundreds of shards against the concrete of the patio. Kel took off running for the house, Laura following right behind him.
As Kel ran past the bathroom, his hand snaked under his clothing on the countertop and he grabbed his gun. As he ran up the stairs, he released the safety. At the top of the stairs, he nearly bowled Kayla over. Unable to check his momentum, he grabbed her and tumbled with her.
When Laura reached the top of the stairs, he was sitting, legs splayed with Kayla in his arms, his gun in the air.
“I had to go to the bathroom. I forgot about the alarm,” the little girl cried.
Laura bent and gathered her into her arms. Kel staggered to his feet and tried to figure out where his towel went, while asking where the control board for the alarm was.
Laura pointed back to the kitchen and he ran to shut it off.
“Does that relay?” he called up to her.
“Relay?”
“Call the alarm company, who in turn call the police?”
“Oh, yes, it does. I need to call them!”
He climbed the stairs again and took Kayla from Laura’s arms and whispered to her, “Still need to go?”
When she just nodded, he walked back into her bedroom and then into the bathroom. He checked the room and then waited outside the closed door until she was finished. Then he carried her downstairs to where her mother was talking on the phone. He set her on the counter in front of Laura and went into the bathroom to change into his clothes before going out to the garage to find a broom for the shattered wine glass.
By the time Laura had changed, tucked Kayla back in, and reset the alarm, Kel was using a hose to rinse the wine and whatever miniscule particles of glass that remained into the mulch under the bushes on the edge of the patio.
“Everything all right?” he asked.
“Mmmmhmp,” she said tiredly. He couldn’t help but notice she hadn’t taken the time to put on a bra under her sweatshirt. Soft, full mounds moved freely as she heaved herself into a lounger. He wondered if she’d taken the time to put on any panties under her jeans.
“You stay there. I’ll move the table away so there’s no chance of anyone getting cut on a piece of glass, then I’ll set the table for dinner.”
“No, no, I couldn’t possibly let you do that.”
“Stay!” he ordered, brooking no argument. “I’ll take care of it. You rest.”
He moved the chairs, set the table, and retrieved the steaks he had barely rescued in time, along with the salad that was in the refrigerator. Then he walked over to the lounger, offered his hand, and pulled her up.
“C’mon and eat, then I’m going to go so you can get some rest.”
While they ate, he asked how she thought Kayla was doing and if there was anything she had remembered since last night.
“She seems fine. She doesn’t want to talk about it though. Sometimes I catch her staring into space, like she’s in a daze, it worries me.”
“That’s normal, she needs time to adjust and to get back into her regular routine. I know how your meeting with your ex went, did your parents get in today?”
“Oh yeah. Did they ever. It was quite a reunion. They left half an hour before you arrived. Dad is furious that I didn’t get help from the police. Little does he know,” she said with a wicked chuckle. “And he p
ractically insisted that I hire a bodyguard for Kayla, but I finally talked him out of it. And Mom, Mom just couldn’t stop crying. Over and over again, ‘My sweet little Kayla.’ Stroking her head and crooning, ‘Baby, baby, baby, oh you poor dear!’ I thought it would never end. One was chastising me, and the other was crying and moaning, unable to move on. It was terrible. I was so glad when they finally left.”
“And the repercussions?”
“Too soon to say, but they are mighty upset. When they start getting out around town, the Hilton thing is going to be the capper. I don’t think my parents are going to be able to deal with that very well.”
“And how about you?”
“It’s probably time I back away from the social thing anyway. I want to do some volunteer work at the hospital and at the library. Let someone else do the fundraising while I help out in other ways. I can’t see purposely putting myself through the repeated embarrassment being out in public would cause right now. Not that I’m afraid, mind you, I just don’t need to deal with that right now. Maybe later, after everything settles down some.”
He hated the thought that she was backing down and going into hiding. But he had to agree with her, there was nothing to gain right now by being out and about where she would undoubtedly be the main topic of conversation in the hushed circles of the ladies rooms, men’s rooms, country clubs, and restaurants.
Kel helped Laura clear the dishes and lock down the pool area. Then Laura went inside to load the dishes in the dishwasher and he cleaned the grill tools. Both were yawning by the time she saw him to the door.
“Thank you for making Kayla’s day. She’ll remember her first cannonball and who taught it to her.”
“I enjoyed spending time with her. She’s a very sweet kid, you’ve done a good job with her.”
“Thanks.”
“Well, good night,” he whispered.
“Good night, Kel.”
They were both reluctant to end the evening without some promise of a future meeting, but neither said anything.
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