by Linda Wisdom
“No, you’re obviously a man secure with yourself. I have a male client who thinks he’s Stud of the Year and feels he has to prove it. Luckily for him, he’s all talk. He tried propositioning me once. I then explained what my sharp scissors could do to his precious hair. He’s behaved since then.”
“I would, too.” He chuckled. “So tell me what it was like growing up in such a large family.”
“Chaotic. Noisy. Wild. My dad restores vintage automobiles. He has his garage on the property. All of us can change our own oil, change a flat tire, even replace all the hoses. Except for my brother Brian. He’s a total klutz with a car. Now he uses the excuse that he saves his hands for better things. He’s a paramedic, as is my brother Mark. My brother Jeff is a fireman, and my sister, Nikki, is in her junior year of college and talking about going on to medical school. Brian and Jeff are married. Brian has an adorable baby daughter, and Jeff has twin girls and a baby boy.”
“I have—” He clamped his mouth shut as Lucie’s words slammed their way into his brain. There’s nothing wrong if you take some time away from being Emma and Trey’s dad. He grinned sheepishly. “Twins run in my family. I’m surprised none of your siblings are twins.”
“My mother is a twin,” Ginna replied. “When we were little, none of us could tell Mom and Aunt Peggy apart. Mom said she was glad none of us were twins. One of each of us was more than enough for her. What about you and your sister?” she asked, turning the tables. “Did you two give your mother any trouble during your rebellious years?”
“Nothing that sent her into hysterics,” he admitted. “We’re three years apart. At one point in our lives, we seemed a generation apart.”
“High school, right?” she asked. “When my brothers were juniors and seniors and I was a freshman, the way they treated me, I might as well have still been in grade school.”
“We survived, and some days we figured that was enough,” Zach replied.
“That was us. We never allowed anyone to pick on any of us. We did it well enough on our own.”
Zach chuckled. “We did that pretty well, too. Still do.”
Ginna found herself enjoying both her dinner and the company immensely. They ignored time as they talked their way through dessert. Afterward, Zach suggested a walk along the beach, and she accepted his invitation.
Once they reached the sand, she placed her hand on his shoulder to keep her balance as she slipped off her sandals and he took off his own shoes. She carried them in one hand as they headed across the still-warm sand. A gentle breeze with the tang of salt caressed their faces. Music from the bar drifted toward them.
“It’s so beautiful here,” Ginna declared, lifting her face to the breeze. “It’s as if your body understands the need to slow down and it does exactly that. No rushing around. No feeling the need to be at a certain place at a certain time.” She stopped and turned to face the hotel, then faced him as she held out her arms. “Come on, Zach Stone, dance with me.”
He laughed uneasily. “Uh, dancing’s not exactly my strong suit.”
She moved toward him until her breasts lightly touched his chest. She picked up one of his arms and placed his hand on her shoulder. The other hand she took in hers.
“Then we’ll just move to the music,” she murmured. “You can do that, can’t you? You don’t think about what you’re doing. You just let the music take hold of your soul and your feet will follow.”
“All right, but don’t blame me if I step on your feet,” he warned.
“See, you can do it,” she teased a few minutes later.
Ginna hadn’t believed in attraction at first sight until now. The minute she met Zach, she felt as if she’d met him before. As if there was some connection….
All points considered, she should be thanking Denny, that lower-than-scum subhuman for cleaning out her account. If he hadn’t, she wouldn’t have gotten back not only the money he took but damages, which let her take the vacation of her life.
Who knows, maybe she’d send him a postcard.
She had no idea how long she and Zach remained on the beach dancing. They didn’t stop until the music stopped. Their steps slowed and halted.
She suddenly yawned.
“I’m sorry,” she apologized. “I guess everything caught up with me.”
“I’ll walk you to your room,” he offered.
Ginna could feel the sensual pull as they crossed the lobby and entered the elevator.
They didn’t speak a word as they reached her floor. Zach walked beside her down the hallway until she stopped at a door.
“Here we are,” she said, then silently cursed herself for sounding so inane. She dug her key card out of her bag and inserted it in the slot. When the light turned green, indicating the lock had been released, she reached for the doorknob, but Zach’s hand covered it first. He turned it and pushed the door open. She smiled. “Thank you for dinner.”
“How about tomorrow?” he asked.
She wanted to say yes so badly she could taste it. At the same time, she was afraid to appear overly eager.
Dating etiquette was so difficult at times!
She decided it was time to throw the rulebook out the window.
“I’ll be on the beach in the morning,” she said, taking a middle-of-the-road answer.
He smiled back. “Good night, Ginna.”
She was aware he waited until she was inside.
“Don’t forget the inside bolt.” His low voice reached her ears.
She shot it home, hearing a satisfying click. She strained her ears, but there was no chance of her hearing him leave. If it hadn’t been the sensation that the air pressure around her fell, she wouldn’t have known.
She dropped her sandals into a chair, followed by her purse. She made quick work of undressing and slipping on a cotton nightgown.
It wasn’t until the lights were off and she was under the covers that she allowed herself a moment to reflect on her evening.
Her wide smile as she fell asleep was proof enough that her date had been more than a success.
ZACH’S FIRST THOUGHT that something wasn’t right was the fact that he woke up on his own. He wasn’t grunting as small bodies jumped on top of him with high-pitched demands for breakfast.
He couldn’t hear that annoying honking of a car horn out front as the neighbor’s teenage daughter’s boyfriend liked to do when he picked her up for school.
There were no sounds of Sesame Street in the background.
All he could hear was…nothing. Blessed silence.
For a full five minutes, Zach luxuriated in the peace and quiet that he couldn’t remember the last time he’d enjoyed. And when the five minutes were up, he felt intense guilt that he felt any joy.
He missed his kids with all his heart and soul, but a part of him admitted this moment of quiet was very nice.
“Not that I’ll ever admit it to you, Luce,” he muttered as he tossed the covers back and got out of bed. “You’d gloat too much about how right you were in talking me into taking this trip.”
A little while later as he ate breakfast in the hotel restaurant, he looked for Ginna. Unfortunately he didn’t see the now familiar figure. His food didn’t taste as good as it had the previous night, which he put down to the lack of company.
An hour later, as he walked along the beach, he kept a lookout for Ginna but still didn’t see her.
“If I didn’t know any better, I’d probably start thinking she was nothing more than a dream last night,” he muttered, seeing a variety of bikini-clad women but none that resembled one particular woman.
Then he heard a laugh-filled scream from somewhere out in the water.
At first, he thought of all those shark movies, then he realized the owner of the scream was not being attacked by any sea monster, but merely battling the waves and straining to remain upright on a sailboard. She was quickly losing the battle as the sail went one way and she went the other. He waited, watching the spot where she’d fal
len. She seemed to pop up out of the water.
“Hi!” she yelled, waving in his direction.
He waited at the water’s edge as she swam toward him.
“I just learned sailboards and I aren’t a good match,” she said, walking up the sand a little ways. She snatched up a towel and rubbed her face, then blotted her hair. She combed the unruly strands back from her face with her fingers. “Have you ever been on one?”
“Not recently.” He couldn’t keep his eyes off her. Her bronze-colored one-piece suit covered the essentials and definitely wasn’t as revealing as the barely-there bikinis he noticed other women wearing. But it sure caught his attention. Even with wet hair streaming down her back and no makeup, she looked lovely. She also had the grace to make fun of herself.
“Well, that was my last time,” she declared. “The next time I might get dumped a lot farther out.”
Zach looked down the beach to where a hotel employee oversaw the sailboarders. He was in the midst of instructing a guest.
“Be fun to get out there again,” he said. “I haven’t done it in years.”
“Go for it,” she urged. “Show me how it’s done.” She laid her towel back down on the sand. “I’ll even sit here and cheer you on.”
“I’m not trying any fancy moves,” he warned her. “I’ll probably be lucky I don’t fall off and break something important.”
“Then I’ll go with you to the emergency room and mop your fevered brow,” she cooed.
Zach grinned. “As good as your offer is, I hope you don’t mind if I try to avoid that kind of trip.” He left his belongings behind before he headed down the beach.
Ginna noticed she wasn’t the only woman watching Zach’s progress. He didn’t have the chiseled body that comes from long hours at the gym. But his lean athletic build told her he didn’t spend all his time in an office, either.
A man wearing a bright-green Speedo walked past her. He slowed and flashed her an inviting grin.
“Oh, hon, I wouldn’t if I were you,” Ginna said, affecting a sultry Southern drawl. “My husband is the jealous type, and he knows about a thousand different ways to kill someone without leaving a mark on their body.”
Unsure whether to believe her or not, the man opted to move off at a faster clip.
She sighed as she picked up her bottle of sunscreen. After applying a coat of lotion, she slipped on her sunglasses and settled back on her elbows with her long legs stretched out in front of her. She looked outward and easily picked Zach out of the surf riders battling the waves.
The attraction between them was already sizzling. She couldn’t remember ever experiencing anything this quickly.
She should be scared to death. The attraction between her and Denny had been fast. Something she’d regretted once she’d regained her sanity. They’d gone from a few dates to living together to marrying, and then, after he pretty well told her she was defective, they divorced.
They both wanted kids. Except she couldn’t conceive. All she remembered after countless tests was that pregnancy wasn’t possible. At first, Denny said it didn’t matter. But he’d lied. He wanted a child of his own seed and refused to consider any other options. Since she couldn’t give him one, he couldn’t forgive her for her imperfections. He married his pregnant lover the day their divorce became final. Ginna wanted to slink off into a corner to lick her wounds, but her family and friends wouldn’t allow her to hide. Initially, she hated them for their warfare tactics to get her out of her shell, but later on, she appreciated their concern.
As a result, she hadn’t dated much since her divorce. She preferred keeping herself busy with lots of bookings and spending time with family and friends. What with Brian’s wedding and Abby and Jeff having a baby, family parties were plentiful. The salon and day spa had also been busier ever since word got out that their Blind Date Central bulletin board had been successful in matching up the right women with the right men since its conception two years ago.
Who would have thought that a group of women lamenting the lack of available men would turn into Blind Date Central? Blind Date Central was a success from the first day. Women posted pictures of and information about available men they knew but weren’t interested in romantically on the board. The women were willing to share, and the men they “sponsored” had an even better chance of meeting the lady of their dreams.
As a result, permanent matches had been made.
She’d helped her sister, Nikki, post their brother Brian’s picture on the board, which was promptly snapped up by Gail Roberts, a pediatrician who was now his wife and mother of their baby girl. Another success story.
Ginna had checked out the board a few times but didn’t see anyone who rang her chimes, as she liked to say.
If she didn’t know any better, she’d think that fate had stepped in and tossed Zach her way.
And she wasn’t about to toss him back.
“YOU DID VERY WELL,” Ginna told Zach for about the fifth time. “Definitely better than I did. I think the only reason I didn’t immediately fall off was I wanted to wait until I was in deeper water so the fall would look more logical.”
“Yeah, I did great all right. A ten-year-old kid was telling me what to do,” Zach grumbled good-naturedly, wincing as he gingerly lowered his battered body to the sand. “He was out there managing that sail as if he’d been doing it since he was in the cradle.”
“It’s all that time they spend with their video games. Their hand-eye coordination is miles ahead of ours,” she said, even as she asked a waiter to bring them two piña coladas and a bowl of pineapple spears.
Zach grinned sheepishly. “You’re doing a good job of soothing my ego.”
“Good. And once you have your piña colada, you’ll feel even better.” She reached for a broad-brimmed hat and plopped it on her head to protect her face. A stripe of aqua-shaded zinc oxide graced the bridge of her nose to save it from burning in the strong sun. “Even better when you dip a pineapple spear in it and then eat it.”
“Too bad I didn’t hurt anything. Maybe I could have talked you into kissing my booboos.”
His provocative comment hung heavily between them.
Ginna sat up on her knees. She leaned forward to whisper, “Then I guess the next time you fall off a sail-board, I’ll have to do just that.”
He stared into her eyes. “Be careful, sweetheart. I just might hold you to that promise.”
Her lips pursed in a kissable pout. “Don’t worry, Zach,” she murmured, “I always keep my promises.”
Zach stood up and started walking back down the beach.
Ginna looked up, startled by his quick retreat.
“Where are you going?” she asked.
“Where do you think I’m going? I’m getting back on that damn sailboard!”
In an instant, her surprised laughter followed him as he made his way back to the sailboards. One of which, he knew, had his name on it.
Ginna lost track of time as she watched Zach head out to the water. The bright blue-and-white sail was easy for her to track. She picked up a pineapple spear, dunked it in her piña colada the way a doughnut was dunked in coffee. She took a bite of the fruit, enjoying the slight coconut-and-rum taste that had soaked into it. In no time, the pineapple spear was gone and she was munching on a second one.
“If he stays out too long, I’ll have to get another bowl of pineapple,” she told herself, already eyeing a third spear. “And if he’s lucky, I’ll save him one.”
“YOU’RE A VERY STUBBORN man,” Ginna told Zach as they returned to the hotel.
Ginna walked. Zach limped.
“I wasn’t going to let a piece of lumber win,” he groused.
“And it didn’t,” she said happily.
“It only took me about three hundred tries to get it right.” He straightened up, then groaned. “It was easier when I was younger.”
“When you were more agile and flexible?” she said, tongue tucked firmly in cheek. She flashed h
im a blinding smile when he glared at her. “Younger bodies bounce better. Softer bones,” she went on blithely. “At least you landed on water. It’s a lot softer than if you landed on, say, cement.” She patted his shoulder.
“Small comfort, Ginna,” he growled.
“All you need is a good massage and a hot shower, and you’ll feel like a new man,” she assured him.
He brightened at her suggestion. “Are you going to give me the massage?”
“Not my line of expertise. But I understand the hotel has a lovely spa and a couple of massage therapists. I hear the one named Stan is excellent.”
Zach winced and not just because his muscles were protesting every move he made.
“I don’t think so,” he muttered. “I’ll just stick with the hot shower.” He stopped at the bank of elevators. “There was a time when I didn’t end up looking as if I was ready to fall apart at any second.”
Ginna smiled at his confession. “Ah, a man of the millennium.” She pushed the call button. “Does this mean you don’t want to play tennis this afternoon?” she teased.
“Right now, I wouldn’t even play golf if I could swing the club from a golf cart,” he told her. He stepped into the elevator after the doors opened. “Still have pity for an old man and have dinner with him?”
“Okay. I’ll see you at seven,” she said.
He was smiling as the elevator doors closed. A smile that disappeared as soon as the doors slid shut. He leaned against the wall.
“Oh, yeah, you gave the lady a great impression,” he muttered. “And on the first day, too. She’ll probably wait and call later with an excuse for why she can’t meet me tonight, and I can’t blame her. I thought chasing after the kids kept me fit. Obviously that fitness routine isn’t very reliable.”
Zach took his time in the shower, savoring the hot spray as it pounded down on his battered body. By the time he got out and toweled off, he was feeling more like himself but could still feel some stiffness in his arms and legs.