by Vivian Wood
She set the phone screen-side down on the table and swung her legs off the bed. Coffee. That was what she needed. Something to help clear her head.
Faith made her way downstairs in a pair of little pink pajama shorts and the matching lace-trimmed cami. A silk robe wrapped around her felt cool and comforting against her skin.
“She lives,” Mae said as Faith entered the kitchen.
Faith offered up a little smile.
“Coffee?”
“You read my mind,” Faith said.
“Hardly. You’re just not the first guest I’ve had who overimbibed the night before.” Mae set down a steaming mug of coffee in front of Faith. “No cream, no sugars?” Mae asked.
“You remembered,” Faith said.
“Hard to forget something like that,” Mae said with a raised brow. “Never been able to drink my coffee black, as many times as I’ve tried over the years.” She poured a spoonful of heavy cream into her own mug along with a lump of white sugar.
“Mae, can I ask you something?”
“You just call me Mama, sugar,” she said.
“Oh, um, okay,” Faith said with a blush. “Do you know George Stephanos?”
“Unfortunately,” Mama said. She didn’t stop stirring.
“Oh. Well, I had been talking to him about renovating the property.”
“I know,” Mama said.
“Well, I called him this morning. Just now. And told him I’ve decided to go in another direction.”
“Oh? You find someone better suited?”
“I guess you could say that.” Faith took a big swallow of the hot rich coffee. How much does she know? Did Alex talk to her about this stuff? “But when I called George to tell him? He got really nasty with me. And I don’t know why. I’m paying him for the work he’s done so far.”
Mama tsked and put down her mug. “Doesn’t surprise me.”
Before Faith could ask her why, Lee and Caleb came into the kitchen. “ʼBout time,” Mama said to them. Lee looked at her with surprise. “Oh not you,” she said.
“Morning, Mama,” Caleb said. His voice was scratchy from the hangover.
“Y’all know what George Stephanos did to Faith?” Mama asked.
Faith looked at her with big eyes. So this is how gossip spreads so fast in the South.
“What’s that?” Lee asked. He sat down beside Mama and leaned in for the gossip.
“Went off on her somethin’ ugly. All on account of her choosing another contractor.” Mama took another sip of her coffee.
“Figured,” Caleb said. “ʼCause of Alex?” he asked as he brewed his own mug of coffee.
Faith pinched her brows together. “I just don’t want to work with anyone who has no integrity,” she said, eager to get off the subject of Alex.
“Integrity’s important,” Lee agreed.
“You bet it is,” Mama said. “Why else do you think I took you in when you were just a kid? I mean, besides you and Alex always bein’ two peas in a pod. Back then at least. But it was ʼcause you had real integrity, even after what happened to your poor parents.”
Lee opened his mouth to say something but snapped it shut as Alex walked into the kitchen. Lee looked at Alex but didn’t say a word.
Faith was reminded of that first day she’d arrived at Greystone, back when she’d thought Lee was just a hired hand. Caleb and Alex had really been going at one another that day, and Alex had been flippant toward Lee. There is a lot more going on under the surface than I know.
She’d pieced together how Lee factored into the equation, but not why he and Alex had killed their friendship. Why Mama had kept Lee on though, she could see. Lee couldn’t have broken any real trusts, or Mama would have kicked him out. So what is it?
There were tensions between all the men, and she couldn’t even begin to unravel them. Clearly, there were still a lot of disagreements happening behind the scenes. She felt Mama’s hands on hers. Across the table, the older woman’s warm blue eyes were filled with concern. “Poor thing,” Mama said. “That’s a nasty hangover, isn’t it?”
Faith just nodded, embarrassed now that Alex was in the room.
“One of y’all should take her to explore the ocean today,” Mama said. Faith’s stomach lurched at the thought of trying to handle sea legs. “Don’t you worry,” Mama said. “The saltwater is known for its healing powers.”
“Lee and I are busy today,” Caleb said. He finished his mug of coffee and rinsed it in the farmhouse sink. “Boat work on the fishing rig. But maybe Alex is free.” It was more of a statement than a question, and Caleb didn’t even bother checking Alex’s expression.
Faith looked up and saw Alex’s glare toward Caleb’s back. She blushed and looked away. What is Caleb trying to pull? Just the other day, he would have jumped at a chance to flirt with me on a boat for an afternoon.
“What’s going on?” Mama asked. “Y’all better speak up real soon.”
Faith racked her brain for an excuse, but fortunately Alex spoke up—somewhat. “I’ll take her,” he mumbled, barely audible.
“Now that’s more like it,” Mama said. “I swear, sometimes it’s like you boys were raised with no manners at all. And what do y’all s’pose that says about me?”
Faith smiled. “I’ll go get my suit on, then,” she said.
“Make sure you wear a shirt,” Alex called after her. “And shorts, too. And covered shoes!” She ignored him as she raced up the stairs. I swear, sometimes it’s like dealing with a stepfather!
In the bedroom, she pulled out the collection of swimwear she’d eagerly packed back in San Francisco. At the time, she’d envisioned a lazy, leisurely summer of sunbathing and had gone overboard with the bikinis and monokinis. Natalie had gone shopping with her, encouraging her to get both a yellow string bikini and a tropical-print mesh monokini. “You can never have too many sexy swimsuits!” Natalie had said. Faith opted for a skimpy white bikini.
In the mirror, Faith noticed that she’d somehow already turned a golden bronze from the Georgia sun. It was just the right amount of glow to warrant the bright-white bikini that barely covered her. She wiggled into the stonewashed short shorts with pockets that peeked out and kissed her thighs.
At the bottom of the duffel bag, she found the white crop top with the peach graphic across the chest she’d purchased before her trip. It hung off one shoulder, and she could easily make out the bikini underneath. “You have to get this!” Natalie had crowed. “It’s so Georgia!”
Alex had told her to wear shorts and a shirt. He hadn’t specified how modest they had to be. As she pulled on the beat-up black Converse that she’d had since law school, her heart began to race. One more look in the mirror, and Faith had to admit she was a vision. A sliver of taut golden stomach could be seen between the shorts and crop top. She pulled her long hair into a messy topknot and slid the vintage Ray-Bans on.
She couldn’t tell she was hungover at all. If this doesn’t pique Alex’s interest, nothing will.
Chapter 12
Faith
Faith sauntered onto the front porch, where Alex waited. He’d changed, too, into knee-length board shorts and a tight white T-shirt. She took in his muscled chest and broad shoulders before she glanced away.
“Come here,” he said. “I want to show you something.”
She followed him wordlessly, aware of the warm summer breeze that whipped around her thighs and stomach. Alex walked ahead of her but not at that lightning-fast clip he normally took. Still, Faith hung back and admired the span of his back. He’d hoisted a small red backpack over his shoulders. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but there was something about him that was addictively intriguing.
“So,” she said as she approached his side. “What was it like growing up here? I can’t even imagine.”
“Oh?” he asked, though he didn’t look at her. “I thought all these memories were comin’ back to you. But sounds like it wasn’t exciting enough for you to remember much.”
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br /> She faltered. “That’s not what I meant when I said that,” she said. “About forgetting about summers on Saint Rose. I mean, I was just a kid. I don’t really remember kindergarten, either. Honestly? I’m kind of jealous, if you want to know the truth.”
“Jealous?”
She shrugged. “I grew up in Southern California. We had beaches, obviously, but not like this. They were super crowded, unless you wanted to get up at five in the morning. And even then, there were countless surfers who had the same idea.”
“You surf?” he asked, surprised.
“No,” she blushed. “My cousins who I grew up with did. Still do, actually.”
“Oh. Well, a childhood on Saint Rose is great for learning about nature. But it was hard being so far away from everyone else.”
“I guess the grass is always greener,” she said. What she really wanted to ask was who “everyone else” was.
“What about you?” he asked.
She nearly tripped in surprise. Is he really asking about me for a change? “Not much to tell,” she said carefully. “It’s a pretty cliché California story. When I was really young, we lived in Los Angeles. My mom was an actress—”
“Have I seen her in anything?” he asked.
“Probably not. She died when I was a baby. I don’t even remember her, and the movies she was in were mostly really small parts or made for television type of things.”
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“It’s okay, it was a long time ago,” she said. “She gave up acting when she got pregnant with me—well, gave up acting and drinking, or so I was told.”
“Did she . . .”
“She was an alcoholic,” Faith said simply. “That’s not exactly the word my dad used, but it was obvious. Any money she made with her acting, it went to lavish parties and expensive liquor.”
“And what about your dad?” Alex asked. They’d reached a small cliff where the tall grass tickled their bare legs and the view of the water was magical.
“He worked a lot,” she said. “Attorney. I guess that’s why I went into law, too. He was pretty distant, like a lot of men from his generation were. And I don’t know. It’s hard to say how much of it was because of my mom. A lot of people tell me I look just like her.”
“Well. At least you had a father,” he said.
It stung when he said that, like it all circled back to Alex no matter what. “I guess that’s true,” she admitted. “Though, him dying when I was a teenager wasn’t exactly easy. Sometimes . . . God, this sounds bad, but sometimes I kind of wish I’d never known him, either. So you know some of my darkest secrets. Tell me one of yours.”
“Like what?” he asked. She couldn’t read his eyes through the sunglasses perched on his aquiline nose.
“Like what’s the deal with you and Lee?”
Alex was quiet so long she thought he planned to ignore her entirely. “Lee and I were best friends. For a long time, all through childhood.”
“Yeah, I gathered that. And then?” she asked as she navigated around an abandoned sandcastle.
“And then I found out he was in love with my wife.”
“I’m sorry.” Now it was her turn to apologize, though it sounded fake. The shock reached all the way to her marrow.
Alex sighed. “I didn’t know until after Rebecca died,” he said. “And it’s not like Lee ever said it to me. They didn’t have an affair or anything. But I could tell, you know? That he was into her. And then, afterward, it just became obvious. And I started thinking about all these little times when I saw Lee sit up straighter when she walked in. I think she was oblivious. But Lee . . . he still blames me for it.”
Faith’s breath caught in her throat. Blames him? What happened? But she didn’t want to push.
“I mean, hell, I can’t blame Lee for that. For him thinking it’s my fault, at least.” Alex walked on in silence for a few more feet. “I blame myself, too. That night. Christ, I should have stopped her. I knew she’d been drinking.”
She wanted to thank him for trusting her with this, but the shock at the revelation stole her words. Divorce, sure, she’d assumed that. She’d never thought his wife had died.
Faith searched for something to say, the right thing to say. “Get undressed,” Alex said suddenly. He shrugged the backpack off and pulled off his shirt.
She was shocked at the forwardness, but she felt a jolt of excitement shoot through her. As if she couldn’t resist his commands, she hooked her thumbs into her shorts and bikini bottoms—then realized Alex just meant for them to strip to their swimsuits.
Embarrassed, she pulled off just the shorts and shirt. “Here,” he said to her, and held out his hand for her shorts and shirt that were wadded up in her fist.
She suddenly felt too naked, too exposed, in the tiny white bikini. Alex stuffed their clothes into the backpack.
“Come on,” he said, and headed toward the water. She tried not to stare too obviously at his body as he scrambled down the steep sandbank. Faith realized he was wearing rubber-bottomed water shoes, perfect for climbing and handling the beachy terrain. Her own feet felt heavy and waterlogged.
He was already waist-deep in the jewel-colored water by the time she made it to the frothy shore. She bent over and pulled off her shoes. The warm water tickled her feet while the sand pulled at her toes. She was surprised by the warmth of the water, nearly bath temperature though it was before noon.
Alex turned and looked at her. She couldn’t read his expression behind his aviators. “Hurry up!” he said.
With every step, the water licked higher up her legs and reached toward her thighs. When she was an arm’s length from Alex, he held out his hand.
“Come on,” he said. “We can wade all the way there.”
“Wade?” she asked in disbelief.
“It’ll be fine, I promise.”
“Where?” She grabbed his hand and he pulled her to his side. “Where are we going? I thought there was a boat—”
“You’ll have to wait and see,” he said with a grin. Alex pulled the backpack as high onto his shoulders as he could with one hand, but didn’t let go of his grip on her.
Faith was stunned by him. He was almost playful. It was a side she hadn’t seen before.
As they splashed onward, she was surprised that the depths of the water seemed to have stabilized. They were no longer going deeper into the water but seemed to be on a level surface that led them into the unknown. “Ready?” Alex asked.
She didn’t know how to answer and couldn’t have responded if she’d wanted to. Suddenly, the sand took a dip and the water was at her chest. She gasped and he let out a laugh. Faith looked up at him and the blazing white smile that spread across his face. He was gleeful, in his element, and the beauty of it stole her voice.
As quickly as the sand had deepened, it began to rise. The land started to slope upward again, and the water was back at her hips. She was aware of the wet swimsuit fabric that clung to her chest, and how her nipples had hardened in response to the wetness followed by the breeze. Faith glanced down to see just how transparent the suit had become. That was one thing I didn’t check on in the Neiman Marcus dressing room! But she couldn’t tell.
Alex led her onto dry ground. “A sandbar!” she exclaimed. It was a big one, too, nearly a tiny island. Faith laughed. She hadn’t known what to expect, but certainly not this. “How do you know about this?” she asked.
He smiled at her. “I know all the island’s secrets,” he said. “Actually, this has been my spot since I was a kid. I’ve never seen anyone else here.”
She marveled at the secret spot. It looked completely untouched by humans. At the water’s edge, perfect sand dollars and gorgeous shells peppered the white sand.
Alex let the backpack slip off and pulled out bottled water and sunblock. “Here,” he said as he tossed the sunblock toward her. “I didn’t want to have you do this until we were out of the water.”
She stole glances at him while
she rubbed the lotion up her calves and along the span of her hips. Faith covered her belly, chest, and arms in the thick SPF and handed it back to Alex.
“Hey,” he said as he finished coating himself in the lotion. “Get my back?”
She bit her lip as she began to work his back. He was warm, wet, and the feel of his muscles beneath her hands was almost too much to bear. Faith finished in a hurry so she wouldn’t be tempted to drool too much.
“Thank you, ma’am,” he said. “Want me to do you?”
A flurry of flirtatious comebacks came to her, but she simply turned her back instead and tucked stray strands of hair into the knot.
She closed her eyes as he began to work the lotion into her back. Alex started at her shoulders and slid a finger underneath the strip of her halter top. He worked his way down, across her shoulder blades. She let out a moan as he hit a tense muscle in her lower back.
Alex paused, and a flicker of embarrassment washed over her. She expected him to stop, but instead he did it again, deeper. She moaned again, and the rest of her body started to respond.
His touch didn’t just release that tight muscle in her back. It started a fire throughout her entire body. Damn, she thought. She could drift away, let this man touch her all over like he was touching her right now.
His thumbs expertly glided across her lower back as he worked out the kinks. Faith’s breasts tightened, and she felt her nipples pebble. She sucked in her breath, head bowed, and could see her nipples as they responded to him.
A warm wetness began to spread between her legs. Normally she’d get flustered. She shouldn’t be getting turned on right now, but how Alex touched her . . . it had been so long.
She arched her back and pushed back against him. Faith could hear his breath right behind her. His shadow fell over her.
He stopped rubbing her back so suddenly that she nearly fell backward. Alex stood up and waded into the water alone. He tried to play it cool, like it was natural, but the awkwardness was obvious.
Faith watched him, aware that the tiny window of time to let seduction take over was rapidly closing. If only I were bold enough, she thought. She had been before, with other men. But that was different. It was clear they’d wanted her, and she’d been equipped with liquid courage. Seduction was easy in the dim lights of a big-city bar. But here? On this secret sandbar with a man she sometimes felt hated her? The risk of getting embarrassed or worse, turned down, was too much.