The Big 5-OH!

by Sandra D. Bricker

“Then you won’t come earlier than nine?”

  “No earlier than nine. Got it.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Yeah,” he grunted. “You want to swim with me some morning?”

  Liv cocked her head like a dog who heard a whistle two blocks over. “I’m sorry. What?”

  “Swim with me,” he snapped. “Maybe get some lunch.”

  The old guy wiggled his eyebrows at her, and Liv took an instinctive step backward. Was he flirting with her?!

  “Um, no. Thank you. But … no.”

  Turning on his heel and stomping away from her, he shot one curt wave into the air and back at her from above his head.

  Liv started to comb back her hair with both hands, then froze, staring at them in midair. With a second thought, she dropped her arms to her sides and headed into the house to give those hands a good scrub.

  Liv wondered when it was in history that bathing suits went from the knee-length shorts and tank-top versions to a couple of patches of fabric held together by a few strings. Stretching her very white leg across the length of the lounge chair, she looked down at the one-piece alternative she’d hardly been able to find in the sea of midriff-bearing options in Hallie's summer closet.

  “I am not wearing a bikini,” she had told her friend in no uncertain terms.

  “I don’t even own a bikini,” Hallie had retorted. “These are just two-piece bathing suits. They cover more skin than your bra and panties.”

  “But I would not go out in public in my underwear.”

  “Where are you planning to swim? Silver Key?”

  “What's that?”

  “The nude beach. But you’re not going there, Liv. You’ll be completely alone, just you, the water, and the sun in my mother's very private backyard!”

  Very private, she laughed to herself now as she recalled her conversation with Hallie. Nothing private about this particular backyard !

  But with that false promise of privacy in mind, Liv had borrowed a bright red one-piece with ruching across the top and large gold buckles holding the straps in place.

  She said a silent prayer that Clayton, or worse yet … Jared! … didn’t stop by, as she took a long draw from the glass of lemonade on the table beside her. Boofer had found a little circle of space to curl into beside her on the chair, and Liv ruffled the only patch of the dog's fur in sight.

  “We really need to get you out of that ridiculous T-shirt,” she remarked, and Boofer lifted her head hopefully. “Would you like that?”

  In response, the dog rose to her feet and seemed to smile.

  “Princess-in-training,” she read with disdain before trying to pull the pink T-shirt over the lampshade. “Well, that's not going to work, is it?”

  Liv unfastened the collar and laid it to rest on the tile floor beside her chair.

  “Don’t get too excited. You’re only paroled from this thing long enough to get this ridiculous shirt off of you.”

  But the moment the Princess-in-Training turned back into a dog again, Boofer made a break for it. She flew through the air and toward the slider, then whimpered when she discovered she’d been closed off from the inside of the house.

  “Come on, girl. Come back here.”

  Liv approached the dog slowly, lampshade in hand but tucked strategically behind her back, and then she lunged toward her. Boofer took off running around the rim of the pool.

  “I understand, I really do,” Liv empathized on her second lap of pursuit. “But it's for your own good. You just need to wear this collar for another week or so, and then you’re free.”

  Liv soon realized they could circle the swimming pool for days, and she doubled back in hope of catching the dog on the other side. Boofer, however, was not to be outsmarted, and she just turned and ran back in the opposite direction too.

  “Oh, come on.”

  “Need some help?”

  She stopped so quickly in her tracks that she stubbed her toe, and she winced as Jared came through the screen door.

  “I’ve got a runner,” she told him, nodding toward Boofer in her doggie standoff at the other side of the pool.

  “You take the east road,” Jared teased. “I’ll take the west.”

  They each followed the rim of the pool, closing in on Boofer, who still looked as determined as ever to make her escape. She wiggled a bit when Jared picked her up, but then she eased into his soothing voice and the warmth of his gentle hand petting her fur.

  “Thank you,” Liv said as she clamped the collar back into place. “You’ve saved me from the stigma of being outsmarted by a dog.”

  “I’m sure you would have prevailed,” he commented, setting Boofer down on the tile to scamper off toward the house, “just by virtue of having thumbs and all.”

  “Well, I don’t know,” Liv replied with a laugh. “My thumbs weren’t doing much for me.”

  “Were you going for a swim?”

  Time probably didn’t really stop, but it felt to Liv as if it had. Clenching her jaw, she glanced down at herself and then clamped her eyes shut. “Would you … mind … turning around?”

  Jared chuckled. “What?”

  Liv's head popped up and, with her hands firmly planted on Jared's shoulders, she turned him. “Please. Turn around?”

  “All right, all right,” he said in surrender, raising his hands in the air like a man taken prisoner.

  “Thank you,” she said, backing away from him. “Thank you. Just stay that way for—” Liv scampered on tiptoe around the pool toward the sarong folded across the back of the chair. “—just one more minute.” Even tied into place, one of those long, pasty legs of hers poked out, and she felt only a little less naked.

  “Can I turn around now?” Jared asked, and the amusement in his voice was unmistakable, even before he chuckled.

  “Laugh it up,” she told him as she re-tied the sarong. A little lower on the hip might cover more leg. “You have no idea what a favor I’m doing for you. The glare alone from my lack of tan could easily blind you.”

  “Olivia. I’m turning around now.”

  She yanked at the hem of the sarong as he did, and found herself feeling very much like she’d gone to that Silver Key beach after all.

  “Liv,” Jared said as he approached her, and then he took her hand into both of his and planted a soft kiss on the knuckle of her middle finger. “You’re stunning.”

  “And white,” she added.

  “Lovely.”

  In a downcast whisper, she added, “Completely devoid of muscle tone.”

  “Liv.”

  “Sorry.”

  The reality of her own self-deprecating insecurity began to settle in on her, and Liv was sinking into the mortifying tide.

  “I’m not usually this … this …” She paused and then couldn’t help but smile. “Well. Not this bad, anyway.”

  “Look,” Jared said, “I’m sorry I intruded. I didn’t mean to embarrass you, or catch you at a moment when you didn’t want to be caught. I really just stopped by to invite you out for dinner.”

  “And instead you got a heaping serving of my neuroses.”

  He laughed. “Would you like to have dinner?”

  “Y-yes,” she managed. “I would.”

  “Great. I’ll pick you up at the front door at six-thirty. Is that all right?”

  “Perfect.”

  “I’ll be going now.”

  “And I’ll just be hiding here in this big hole I’ve dug for myself.”

  “I’ll leave you to that then.”

  Liv didn’t move a muscle as she watched Jared stride across the patio. He turned back and gave her a smile before heading out the door, and then he was gone.

  She waited until she heard the clank of his screen door on the other side of the wall, and then she sank to the chair and buried her head in her hands.

  “What, are you in the eighth grade?” she whispered to herself. “You’re forty-nine years old, not twelve. And he didn’t just ask you to the prom!”
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  Still, Liv was on the phone with Hallie in nothing flat, asking about the best place to find a new dress for dinner, and what to do about her pasty white legs.

  “Liv!” Hallie gasped. “What if you two fall in love? Will you move there?”

  “Goodness, no,” she laughed. “Can you see me living down here?”

  “Kinda.”

  “Well, you’re insane. I’m not moving to Florida, and I’m certainly not falling in love.”

  “All evidence to the contrary,” Hallie said.

  “I’m just exercising some new muscles, that's all. I haven’t been asked out on a date in forever.” Unless you count Jared's twenty-six-year-old son, of course. “It's just so nice that someone, somewhere actually notices that I’m still a woman.”

  “Where's he taking you?”

  Liv bit her lip. “I forgot to ask.”

  “Well, that's okay. Everything in Florida is pretty laid back and casual. You don’t want to overdress. What about that sundress you packed?”

  “Nope. I wore that to the barbecue.”

  “Well, look for something casual and pretty like that.”

  “Where do I go?”

  “I’ll talk to my mom and call you back in ten.”

  “Thanks.”

  Ten minutes turned to twenty, but Liv made the best of the gap by touching up the polish on her fingernails and toes. By the time Hallie called back with the names of two local boutiques and a department store exclusive to Florida, Liv had changed clothes and was ready to go shopping.

  She wasn’t even out of her car yet when she spotted the dress she knew she was going to wear. A sleeveless black crepe shift with subtle beading detail on the high neckline, and it would go perfectly with the black open-toe pumps that she hadn’t worn once in the two years since she’d bought them.

  It took five minutes to grab the dress in her size and try it on. Ignoring the price tag took a little longer, but not much. While standing in line behind another customer at the register, Liv grabbed a bottle of wave-enhancing liquid that promised to make her spiral curls glossy and fresh. A bottle of bronzer for her colorless Ohio legs made it to the counter just in time as a last-second impulse purchase.

  She was back home again in under an hour. Unlike every other woman on the planet, Liv had never been a big fashionista, or much of a fan of the whole shopping experience. But this was a record even for her.

  With just three hours between her and Jared, Liv decided a long soak in the tub might soothe her frazzled nerves. This would be her first date since Robert had died more than five years prior, and she couldn’t help asking herself why she was taking this turn. While she and Rob hadn’t had some great love affair for the ages, they’d been happy and content and in sync. When she lost him, Liv grieved his passing for a long time, and she told herself that she’d had love in her life. Now she would enter a new phase and find out what it was like to strike out on her own. She went back to nursing, and she took some art classes, and she even battled cancer and won. Coupling again was the farthest thing from Liv's mind—until she boarded the plane to Florida and met Jared Hunt.

  Just the thought of him made her feel a little like the heat had been turned up beneath her bathwater. The mirror and windows were all steamed up … and so was Liv.

  “What's going on with me?” she said aloud, and Boofer opened her eyes and looked up from the nap she was taking on the fluffy bathroom rug.

  She wondered for a moment if she’d made a bad decision by accepting his dinner invitation. After dinner, then what? Where could they realistically go from there? Jared was settled in Sanibel, and Liv's life was anchored to Cincinnati.

  “Olivia,” she sighed, dipping down low in the water until her shoulders were completely covered with bubbles. “What are you doing?”

  7

  The stallion swaggered toward Prudence and shook his magnificent mane.

  “Have you trotted around the pond yet?” he asked her. “It's beautiful scenery.”

  But Prudence didn’t answer. She just put one hoof behind the other and backed away from him slowly.

  “Where are you going?” the beautiful black horse inquired. “There's so much to see in this valley.”

  Prudence picked up backward speed and, in doing so, she got her back hoof tangled in her tail and fell down flat with a thump. Embarrassment crept over her like honey from a tree on a hot summer day, and she pulled herself up and took off at a full gallop.

  “Where's she going?” the stallion asked Horatio.

  “To lick her wounds,” Horatio replied with a crooked owl smile.

  “Did I wound her?”

  “No. Prudence does that all on her own.”

  Liv crossed one leg over the other and leaned back in the supple leather seat. Beside her, Jared rested a hand over the slope of the wheel while he accelerated with the other. Gliding across crayon-green water in the twenty-eight-foot boat Rand had hoped to borrow from his father for their lunch date, Liv couldn’t help but wonder what Rand would think of her dating his dad instead.

  “Are those shells on the beach up there?” she asked. “There must be thousands of them.”

  “Sanibel Island runs east to west,” Jared explained. “But Gulf tides run north to south, pushing and pulling at the beaches. As a result, a ton of small feeder fish and seashells are forced up to the shore. This is one of the most popular areas of the whole state for shell collectors.”

  Liv sipped from the plastic cup of sweet tea Jared had poured for her just before they set out on their cruise.

  “Look over here,” Jared said, and she leaned over the side just in time to catch a glimpse of two dolphins arching alongside the tip of the boat.

  “Oh, look at that!” she exclaimed. “They’re so beautiful.”

  Liv pressed against the edge for several minutes, watching them dance in and out of the foaming waves in the path of the boat. In the distance, passengers on another craft waved at them from beneath a brilliant gold and orange sail that looked to Liv to be a hundred feet tall.

  When she sat down in the leather seat across from Jared, he smiled at her. She couldn’t help herself, and she beamed back at him.

  “What are you thinking?” he asked, and she gulped around the lump in her throat.

  “The truth?”

  “Of course.”

  “I was thinking that you always look like someone in a toothpaste commercial when you smile.”

  Jared's laughter bellowed against the backdrop. “I think that's probably a compliment.”

  “It is,” she reassured him.

  “Do you want to know what I think of when you smile?” he asked.

  “I … think so.”

  “Every time you smile at me, from the first time in the terminal at the airport in Ohio, all the way to right now,” he said, “I’m reminded of that one moment each morning when the sun comes up for the first time.”

  Liv swallowed again and just stared at him. She couldn’t even blink.

  “Too much?” he asked, and as she gulped for a third time, he confirmed his own suspicions. “It is. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to embarrass you.”

  “You didn’t embarrass me,” she told him once she found her voice. “You stunned me.” No one had ever said such a lovely thing to her before. Not even Robert in all the years that they were married. Her smile had just been compared to a sunrise.

  Is this guy for real?

  In Liv's experience, which was admittedly somewhat limited when it came to men with pearly white smiles and glistening brown eyes, or really just men in general, those who said such romantic and wonderful things were certainly after one of two things: Sex, a lofty pursuit which would end in the ultimate thud of disappointment; or money, which would turn out to be about as fruitless as her bank account. Liv wasn’t poverty-stricken or anything, but cancer had robbed her better than any gold-digging man ever could.

  “I’m not a drinker,” Jared told her when they were seated at the restaurant.
“But if you’d like some wine—”

  “Oh, no, thank you. I’m not a drinker either.” She hoped he wouldn’t laugh, but … “You know what I’d really love, though?”

  “Your wish is their command.”

  “A big, cold root beer.”

  “You know what?” he said with a glint of amusement. “That sounds really good.” Glancing up at the waiter, Jared inquired, “Do you serve root beer?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Excellent. Two frosty mugs of it, my good man. And keep ’em coming.”

  The waiter hardly cracked a smile, which made Jared and Liv both laugh right out loud, punctuating his exit.

  Jared was such a lot of fun to be around, and once again Liv found herself wondering when the other shoe might drop.

  If something seems too good to be true, she thought, it usually is.

  Perhaps this would be Liv's greatest birthday disappointment of them all. Finding out that Jared Hunt was flawed and deceptive beyond the façade of a dazzling smile and general perfection would leave pneumonia and broken bones and various birthday calamities strewn in the dust.

  But she didn’t have to find out just then, did she? She could at least enjoy one early evening cruise and a seafood dinner with him before the shoe broke through the clouds and hurled out of the sky toward her.

  “I’ve never been to a restaurant where you could arrive in a boat instead of a car,” she told him.

  “I never had either before moving to Florida. The lifestyle takes some getting used to, but now I can hardly remember the bitter-cold winters of Chicago.”

  “Cincinnati's not as cold as Chicago,” she admitted, “but winter is engrained in me. Of course, I was just shoveling out of two feet of snow a couple of weeks ago.”

  “Give it time. The Florida sun will melt the memory away in no time at all.”

  The waiter set down two mugs of foamy root beer on the table between them, and Liv opted for a straw.

  Lifting his drink into the air, Jared toasted. “Here's to warm hearts and melted snow.”

  “And forgotten frozen tundra,” she added with a grin.

  “Ohhhh-ho-ho,” Jared hooted at first taste. “I haven’t had a root beer in ten years.”