by Scott, Lisa
I ran up to him and stopped, bracing my hands above my knees. “Building a sandcastle was your big plan for this morning?” I grinned at him.
He laughed and reached his hand deep in the sand, churning up black, mucky goo. He plucked something from the depths and held it up. “I’m having a clam bake tonight and maybe clam chowder tomorrow if I get lucky.” He stood up and tossed the clam in one of the buckets at his feet.
Huh. He was out trolling for mollusks, not women. “How do you know where to find them?”
“You just start digging. It’s easier to find them at low tide.”
“I’ve never been clamming.”
“It’s kind of a family tradition. You can just feel around with your foot, but using a rake helps. Once, I beached my father’s boat in a sand bar and the motor kicked up enough sand to give us baskets of clams. Good eatin’ that weekend, that’s for sure.” He looked like a goofy kid with the grin and his dirty feet.
“Sounds like you’ve had a lot of good times down here.” Not just the hooking up kind either, I wanted to add.
He nodded. “It’s something I hope to pass down to my kids some day, if I’m lucky enough to have a family.”
“I don’t think that’s going to be a problem for you. Are you seeing anyone right now?”
He gave me a look. “I wouldn’t have hit on you last night if I were.” He shook his head. “I’ll admit, I played the field for quite a few years, but now I’m having a hard time shaking my reputation. Everyone just assumes I’m looking for a good time.”
I put my hands on my hips. “I’ll try to spread the word: Finn Donahue is a changed man.”
He copied my move. “I’d be happy if you just believed it yourself.”
Blushing, I looked down and traced the toe of my sneaker along the sand. “But how does a guy like you just change all of a sudden?”
He crossed his arms and looked out over the water. “You see a lot of shit in this job. People lose families. Or they’re injured, and their life is changed forever.” He looked back at me. “It puts things in perspective.” He shook his head. “We lost one of our guys a few months back. Attic fire. He fell through the floor doing a search.” His voice cracked.
I reached out and touched his arm. “I’m so sorry.”
“Thanks. Just makes you realize life is short, you know?”
I nodded. It explained a lot. But if this was all just a ploy to get me to reconsider going out with him, then he was even more of a hound than my friends thought. Though I doubted he could fake the pain I saw in his face. I pulled my hand away.
“Want me to help hunt for clams?” I peered in his buckets. He only had half a dozen or so.
His smile returned. “Sure. Only if you promise to come to the clambake tonight.”
“Can I bring the rest of the girls?”
“It wouldn’t be a party without them.”
He gave me the rake and I knelt beside him, dragging the tines through the sand and pulling up the fist-sized, gray-white shells. Finn plucked them out of the sand and tossed them in the buckets. We took turns, alternating between raking and plucking.
My running outfit was getting dirty from the black mucky sand below the surface. Finn was streaked in dirt, too. “We’re both a mess,” I said.
He reached for my hand and pulled me up. “Let’s wash off.” He pulled me toward the water, and we splashed in together.
I sucked in a breath. “This is freezing!” My teeth chattered.
“It’ll feel good later today when the sun’s blazing.” He wrapped an arm around me. “I’ll keep you warm for now.” My cheek was pressed against his wet shirt, and I could feel the rock hard muscles beneath.
“That better?” he asked.
I nodded, but feeling myself in his embrace only made me shiver more.
He must have felt it. “Let’s get you a towel. My place is close by.”
He kept one arm wrapped around my shoulder as we sloshed out of the water. His big hand felt nice against my skin, but then it slipped away when we reached the buckets of clams. He took one in each hand.
“Let me grab one.”
“It’s not a problem. I could carry the two buckets back to my place with you over my shoulder and not break a sweat.”
“Oh.” I tried to ignore the twinges in my belly as I imagined that scenario.
He winked at me. “Part of my job, gotta keep in shape.”
I followed him to a tidy white house just up from where we had been digging. It was an older home with shrubby beach roses lining the property and a big fire pit ringed with stones and clamshells right in the middle of the yard. Big pieces of driftwood lined the seating area. “Cute place,” I said. It wasn’t one of the ostentatious new builds that dotted the shore of the Cape. The weathered shingles and simple lines of the home suggested decades of casual, family get-togethers.
He pulled a towel off a clothesline near the house and handed it to me. Then he stripped off his shirt, exposing his incredible abs and taut back. Really, how could a girl not gawk? I frowned when he pulled on a new shirt.
“Sorry I interrupted your run,” he said.
“This was more fun.” I forced myself to look away. “What do you have to do to prepare them for the clambake?” Surprisingly, I wasn’t ready to leave. Our morning together had been fun.
“The batch I’m going to steam will stay in the water until later tonight. But we’ve got enough for chowder tomorrow. Come inside and I’ll show you a family secret for kick-ass New England clam chowder. Haven’t even told the boys at the firehouse this one.”
“Are you sure?” I teased. “That’s a pretty big thing to give up so early in the game.” I stopped myself, but Finn grinned at my words that suggested I had indeed decided to give the man a chance. My stomach tumbled at the news. I wasn’t sure when I’d subconsciously made that decision, but there it was.
He was gracious enough not to point it out. He reached into a cupboard over the refrigerator and pulled out a box of cornmeal. “This right here is the Donahue family secret.” He laughed. “Well, not anymore.”
“I won’t tell a soul. But what does cornmeal have to do with clam chowder?”
He set it on the counter and grabbed a big metal bowl from another cupboard, filling it with water. “Ever have gritty clam chowder?”
Grimacing, I nodded.
“That’s because the clams pull in sand when they take in water.” He dumped the rest of the clams in the bowl of water, along with a handful of salt. “But if we shake a little cornmeal in here, they’ll end up spitting out the sand and ingesting the cornmeal. We’re going to change the water every half hour for the next three hours and it’ll taste a lot better in the end.” He shook the box of cornmeal over the clams.
“Very impressive. You could’ve been a chef.”
He shook his head. “Nah, I love what I do. Getting up in the morning and knowing I could save someone’s life is one hell of a feeling. Must be similar to being a teacher. Not saving lives, but making a difference, you know?”
“You’re right. For some kids, school is the only stability in their lives. And art class is a great opportunity for expression.” It was nice knowing that someone understood that feeling. I smiled at him and got caught in his stare. I looked away. “I should get back to the house. The girls will be wondering where I am.”
“Can I walk you back?”
“Sure.”
He closed up the house and got me a new towel from the line, since mine had gotten damp already. I draped it around me, wishing it were Finn’s arm instead. But it was nice just walking with him.
I figured the girls would still be sleeping, but Monica was on the back deck drinking coffee when we wandered up. Her eyes went wide and she ran her hands through her hair; probably some instant primping reflex that kicked in when a hot guy showed up. “I thought you came home last night?” A smirk crept across her face.
I planted one hand on my hip. “I did. Early enough that I w
as able to go out for a jog this morning.”
“And look who you ran into,” she said with a smile.
“I needed some help digging up clams,” Finn said.
“And it looks like you went swimming. Or took a shower…” Monica tapped her finger against her nose, thinking.
“We got dirty and washed off in the water. Finn invited us to a clambake at his place tonight.”
“All of us or just you?” One eyebrow popped up.
I let out an exasperated sigh. “I told you, I came home last night.”
“Not that I didn’t try,” Finn offered.
I jabbed him with my elbow.
“We’ll bring the mojitos. Brooke has this fabulous basil watermelon concoction,” Monica said.
“Great. I’ll see you at six, if I don’t catch you on the beach first.” Finn smiled and then looked at me. “Thanks again for your help, Anna. It was nice spending time with you.”
I just knew I was blushing. “No problem. See you later.”
Monica’s mouth dropped open as he walked away. “Who was that guy? What did you do with the real Finn Donahue?”
Catherine and Brooke wandered out onto the deck wearing nothing but t-shirts. “Finn?” Brooke said, suddenly perking up and looking around. “Finn was here?”
“Yes, walking Anna back from a romantic morning of clam digging.” She rolled her eyes. “But our tiger has turned into a pussy cat. What gives? It was like eavesdropping on a conversation at the sixth grade Sweetheart’s Dance. Didn’t you two hook up last night?”
I sat down at the table and grabbed the rest of Monica’s bagel. “No! He walked me home, and when I told him I wasn’t interested in being another conquest he was a perfect gentleman.” I took a big bite, chewing hard to work off some frustration.
“Finn Donahue? You turned down Finn Donahue?” Catherine asked.
Brooke’s eyes went wide. “And he was a perfect gentleman?”
I looked up at the sky. “I’m not looking for a beach fling.”
“Yet, he’s still following you around.” Catherine took a long drink of her coffee. “Interesting.”
I shrugged. “He said he’s changed. That he’d seen some tough stuff on the job that made him reevaluate things.”
They gave me doubting looks.
“What?” It came out more defensively than I’d meant it to.
Monica narrowed her eyes. “That just might be a very good line. Lure you in with his Mr. Soft-Hearted routine and then eat you up like a lobster dinner.” She nodded, satisfied with her ocean-themed analogy, being on the beach and all.
But that idea actually worried me a bit.
“I hate to say it, but she might be right. A leopard can’t change his spots, isn’t that what they say?” Brooke asked.
“And he was quite spotty back in high school,” Catherine offered.
“Doesn’t matter. We’re just friends.” But that felt like a lie coming out, because there was definitely an undercurrent between the two of us that we’d both acknowledged back in his kitchen. Question was, would I be willing to jump in and find out where that current would take me?
And would I drown in the sea of women castoff by Finn?
After hearing about the rest of the night the girls spent at the bar, and the French guys who tried to pick them up with lines worthy of the cheesiest fondue, we hit the beach around noon. I’ll admit it. I was scanning the shore for Finn as we scoped out the perfect spot to set up our beach umbrellas, coolers, and towels.
“He’s over there,” Brooke said, watching me survey the shore.
I thought about playing dumb, but I’d been found out. “Can’t blame a girl for looking, can you?” I squeezed a handful of sunscreen into my palm, and smoothed it across my skin.
Finn spotted us right away and left the volleyball game he was playing with some other guys. The girls must have officially given up on him, because they were busy scoping out his friends instead of watching him walk up to me.
I finished applying the lotion to my legs as he walked up. “Don’t want to burn,” I told him.
His voice got all sultry and smooth. “Don’t forget, you have a firefighter on hand to put the flames out if things get too hot.” We both broke out into laughter.
“You must come up with some pretty good lines in your profession,” I said, hating to think about women swooning over him at fire scenes. Women probably set small fires hoping he’d arrive to save the day.
“I can make you scream louder than my siren,” he said in a deep, husky voice.
I sucked in a breath, then forced a laugh, remembering it was a cheesy line, not an actual come-on. I’m sure it would be effective, though. “Clever,” I managed to say.
“Yeah, me and the guys try to outdo each other when we’ve got time to kill. Way too many jokes about fire poles and hoses.” He knelt down in the sand next to me and my stomach rolled again, just looking at him. “Need some help putting that on your back? I’m also a certified EMT, so I imagine preventing a sunburn would fall under my duties.”
I stared at him and couldn’t hold back my smile. “I suppose that qualifies you for the job.” I lifted my hair off my neck and handed him the tube.
He squirted the lotion in his hands and rubbed them together. He spread the cool cream across my shoulders with slow, broad strokes. His fingers slid up my neck, gently rubbing in the cream.
I swallowed the soft moan that was working its way up my throat. I hadn’t really thought this one through.
He squeezed out more sunscreen and worked his way down my back, slipping his fingers under my bikini string. He was thorough, I had to give him that. Then his fingers curled around my waist and down to my hips. That gasp I’d been holding back finally slipped out.
“Too cold?” he asked.
“No,” I said. “A little too hot.”
He laughed, and came closer, nudging my ear with his nose. “But did you like it?”
I turned around and looked at him. I could only nod.
Reaching for my hand, his fingers twined between mine and he squeezed. I squeezed back. I felt myself leaning in for a kiss, but he pulled me up instead. I looked at him, surprised.
Then he picked me up in his arms and ran toward the water.
I squealed. “What are you doing?”
“I promised to cool you off if things got too hot, didn’t I?” His grin would have buckled my knees if he weren’t holding me.
I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and hung on. I looked back and saw the girls watching. Catherine flashed me a thumbs up.
Finn splashed into the water and finally set me down when we were waist deep. He put his hands on my waist and kissed my forehead. “Are you okay with this?”
I looked up at him and nodded. He reached down and brushed his lips over mine. The sound of the surf filled my ears as the world around me disappeared.
Then I heard the hoots and hollers from my friends on the beach. “I’m never going to hear the end of this,” I said.
“You’re right. I should have made sure our first kiss was in private, but I couldn’t help myself.” He pulled me against him and then whispered in my ear, “Later.”
“Absolutely,” I finally managed to say.
He grabbed my hand and led me out of the water. “Come on, let’s see if you and your friends kick ass on the volleyball court.”
***
We did not kick ass on the volleyball court, mostly because my girlfriends were too busy checking out the competition’s asses. We lost three games and a bet, which involved promises of a risqué hot tub game of strip poker later that night.
“But not you,” Finn told me after the game. “It’s just you and me tonight.”
To say that scared the hell out of me is putting it mildly. Mostly because I thought it sounded absolutely perfect. How had I changed my mind so completely in just twenty-four hours?
“In the meantime, want to help me get ready for the clambake?”
�
��I’m sure I can’t match your cooking prowess, but I make a good assistant.” I followed him up to the house, which earned another round of catcalls from my friends and now his friends, too. I didn’t even bother flashing any dirty looks their way.
I kicked off my flip-flops on his patio, and he opened the door for me. He led me into the cool, dark refuge of the family room. “Truth is, there’s really not much we have to do to get ready.” He pulled me toward him.
“I kind of figured that.”
He ran a hand through my hair and gently tugged a handful of it, raising my face to his. “Then you’re probably thinking what I’m thinking.” His lips brushed mine, and I rested my hands on his hips.
“And what’s that?”
“That this kiss is at least a day overdue.” His lips parted and his tongue danced across mine.
I glanced out the big back window, wondering if anyone could see us. He must’ve sensed my worry, because he picked me up, never breaking our kiss, and carried me to his bedroom down the hall.
I could definitely get used to being carried around by this guy.
He kicked the door closed behind him and laid me on his bed. My suit was still damp from the water. Sand sprinkled off our skin onto the crisp white sheets as he climbed in next to me, running his hand along my hip and under the string of my bikini bottom.
The ceiling fan whirled overhead as we stared at each other.
“I can’t do this with you yet,” I said, betraying my antsy heart. “I just know I’ll look guilty at the party, and then everyone will know.”
“I’m in no hurry,” Finn said, smoothing my hair out on the pillow behind me. “I’d be happy spending the rest of the afternoon just looking at you.” He smiled and kissed my nose.
I wrapped my hand around the back of his head, and brought his mouth to mine. “I’d rather spend the rest of the afternoon kissing, if you don’t mind.”