Secrets in the Sand

by Carolyn Brown

  “You know how much I like Kenny’s singing, but the answer is still no,” Angel argued.

  “You need to unwind. There are plane tickets and reservations for the motel, and I took your business papers out of your briefcase and put in three trashy romance novels. You’re goin’ home tonight to pack, and we don’t want to see your face at the office until two weeks from Wednesday. I’ll even drive you to the airport,” Patty told her. “Everything’s taken care of.”

  Bonnie slid the envelope with the plane tickets across the table. “Happy birthday, Angel. Go down there and find a handsome guy to make your eyes sparkle and your heart float. You’ve got all the money you’ll ever need, so you don’t have to look for a rich man.”

  “Thanks a lot.” Angel sighed. There was no getting out of it, so she might as well accept their offer. She’d flown all over the United States and abroad but had never dreamed of doing anything this self-indulgent. Lie on a beach somewhere with a trashy book and read to her heart’s content?

  She started to refuse—just one more time. “Now, you know I love you all—”

  “Good,” Allie butted in. “That’s all the thanks we need to hear. I vote we order a bottle of sparkling wine to celebrate. I can’t drink it, but I can enjoy watching y’all have a glass. And I’ll be taking time off when this baby is born, and I betcha Bonnie’s going to ask for a couple of weeks off for a honeymoon soon, so right now it’s your turn, Angel, and you can’t say no. We love you too.”

  Angel decided to give up arguing. She reached for the envelope and promised herself she would indulge her well-meaning friends and go—but she’d only stay until Sunday and fly back home in time for work on Monday morning.

  “Okay, okay. You’re all wonderful, and I guess you won’t let me refuse,” she said ruefully. “Just tell me that my new gorgeous beach bum will look just like Kenny Chesney. Y’all know how much I love him.”

  “None of that matters. He just has to worship you like you’re a goddess,” Bonnie said and picked up the menu. “I’m starving. I think I’ll have the lasagna, and to hell with my diet for tonight. I may eat fried ice cream afterward too.”

  “Hear, hear!” Allie raised her water glass in a toast. “I’m eating for two even if y’all can’t tell yet. So, I’m having baked ziti and hot bread, and I hope it doesn’t come right back up!”

  Angel’s hunch wasn’t satisfied. Something still wasn’t right with this picture. She and her friends never kept secrets from each other, and yet Susan’s expression told her there was something she still wasn’t telling. Why did they want her out of the office for two weeks?

  ***

  It was after midnight when Patty called Clancy. The phone rang five times before a woman answered in a sleepy voice.

  Anger began to boil up in the depths of Patty’s heart and soul. How dare he pretend to love Angel and then spend the night with another woman? “I need to speak to Clancy,” Patty said through clenched teeth.

  “Who is this?” the woman asked. “Do you realize it’s midnight?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Patty said, “but I still need to talk to Clancy. This phone call involves Angel Conrad?”

  The woman’s tone changed. “Has something happened to Angela?”

  “No, ma’am,” Patty said.

  “Just a minute. I’ll take his phone to him,” the lady said.

  Patty heard the woman walking across a floor and saying, “Some woman wants to talk to you, Son.”

  “Oh!” A heavy weight lifted from Patty’s heart. Clancy must be staying with his folks.

  A few moments later, Clancy answered the phone. “Hello. Did your plan work?”

  “Yes, but it took some fancy work, so you better appreciate it. Angel is flying to Panama City, and a car will deliver her to the Sugar Sands by the Sea. The rest is up to you,” she said. “Get a pencil and take down this information. She’ll fly out of Dallas on Wednesday morning at seven. Got that?”

  “I still can’t believe you are doing this for me,” Clancy said.

  “We want her back—with you if that’s what it takes to make her happy. Or without you, if she can shake you out of her heart once and for all. But all you’ve got is two weeks, and what happens is up to you. We don’t really give a damn about you, Clancy. We just want Angel to be happy, and we think this is the only way we can make that happen,” Patty said. “And if you tell her about this call, I’ll swear you’re lying. And I don’t have to tell you which one of us she’ll believe.”

  “Thanks,” Clancy said. “I’ll catch a plane out of Oklahoma City on Wednesday morning, and I’ll call for reservations in a nearby hotel. And believe me, I’ll do my best.”

  “Two weeks, Clancy. That’s all you’ve got.” Patty hung up the phone and sent up a prayer that she was doing the right thing.

  Chapter 8

  Angel refused to have a car deliver her to the hotel, instead renting a vehicle so she could get around the area. She drove to the Sugar Sands and parked her car in front of the hotel.

  The sky was pure blue, and there wasn’t a single white cloud drifting over the water. The sand was as white as a new bride’s veil, and right then, she was glad she had agreed to a few days away from work, stress, and thoughts of Clancy. She was going to lie on the beach until dark, then soak in the hot tub and read one of the trashy books Patty put in her briefcase from beginning to end.

  “Hello,” she greeted the man behind the desk. “I’m Angel Conrad, and I’ve got reservations for the next couple of weeks.”

  “That’s right.” He smiled. “Room 214, a corner room on the second floor with a nice view of the ocean. Enjoy your stay.” He handed her the key and motioned to the colorful advertising flyers lined up neatly on the east wall. “Let us know if you’d like information about local attractions.”

  “Thank you.” Angel took the key but didn’t stop to pick up any brochures. Playing miniature golf or renting a sailboat wasn’t what this vacation was all about. She was here to say her goodbyes to memories that had haunted her for ten years. Before she left this place on Sunday night, she planned to stand barefoot in the sand and let go of anything that reminded her even remotely of Clancy Morgan. Evidently, she’d been guilty of wearing her heart on her sleeve these past days and her friends had realized she needed some time to straighten out her life. Well, it would be straight come Monday morning, and they would never have to worry about her again.

  Angel ignored the elevator, climbed the stairs to room 214, and opened the door. The suite was far more room than she needed, but she appreciated her friends getting her what was probably the best. She plopped the suitcase down on the bed, then went back down to the car for the rest of her luggage. The office door was open when she returned, and someone else was at the desk. She could hear the clerk telling him the same things he’d just told her with the same intonation, the same smile, the same wave of the hand. The new guest looked vaguely familiar from the back, but she shrugged. She certainly didn’t know anyone in Florida.

  She opted for the elevator that time, then kicked the unlocked door open with her foot and set her luggage on the floor. She opened the door to the bathroom and turned on the hot water, shucked out of her clothes, and took a long shower to ease the tension out of her muscles. When she finished, she wrapped herself in a big white towel and collapsed on top of the white duvet that covered the second queen-size bed and sighed. She propped up on both pillows and grabbed her cell phone to call Patty, but she changed her mind and tossed the phone to the other side of the bed. This was supposed to be a vacation, and she’d vowed on the plane that she would not call Conrad Oil once in the five days she planned to stay in Florida—instead of the two weeks her friends had expected her to be away.

  She closed her eyes but couldn’t sleep, so she got out of bed and opened one of her suitcases. She’d packed too much, but she had never been on a personal vacation and w
asn’t sure what she might need. She found her bright-red bathing suit, a white terry cover-up, and a pair of white leather thong sandals.

  “I didn’t come to the beach to hole up in a room,” she declared. “Maybe that hunky beach bum who looks like Kenny Chesney is out there waiting for me.”

  She smiled as she imagined a tale to entertain the girls about a gorgeous man she’d met on the beach.

  She had the doorknob in her hand and was about to turn it when a loud knock on the other side startled her. She jerked the door open to find a tanned young man with a smile that would make Patty swoon holding a gorgeous flower arrangement in his hands.

  “Delivery for Miss Conrad,” he said and handed her a crystal vase with a dozen red roses interspersed with white baby’s breath. “Have a nice day now and don’t forget your sunblock. Fair as you are, you’d burn in an hour on a day like this.”

  “Those girls!” Angel sighed as she set the flowers on the bar separating the living area from the kitchen. Then she opened the envelope attached to the red satin bow around the vase.

  Yesterday, today, forever. The card wasn’t signed.

  “Well,” she said aloud. “Allie always was one for mystery. Probably trying to make me think there’s someone here who’s after my heart. Maybe he’ll be a dark-eyed, gorgeous model who can wiggle out of a tight Speedo so fast he’ll make my head swim.” She picked up her tube of sunblock, threw it into her beach bag, stopped long enough to inhale the fragrance of the roses, and headed out the door to the beach.

  Once there, Angel dropped her bag on the warm sand and took out an oversize towel. This end of the beach was quiet, and the sand was as fine and white as granulated sugar. She sat down on the towel and scooped up a handful, letting it slip through her fingers. Then she remembered the delivery boy’s warning and dusted the fine grains from her hands, slid her sheer cover-up off her shoulders, and smoothed sunblock cream over her arms and legs.

  A picture of the two entwined hearts she had drawn in the sand at the edge of Pennington Creek in Tishomingo ten years ago popped into her mind. Using her finger, she drew two hearts in the sand beside her beach towel. This time they weren’t even touching.

  She rolled over on her stomach and took one of the romance novels out of her bag. A picture of a handsome cowboy in tight jeans and a gaudy western shirt decorated the front. A woman with improbably deep cleavage was draped over his arm, and the smoldering look in his eyes promised the reader a love story beyond all expectations. Patty probably didn’t even know the author and had picked it for the cover art. But whether the author could write or not didn’t matter one bit to Angela. She intended to read the book from prologue to epilogue and enjoy every overheated page just to keep the thoughts of Clancy at bay.

  ***

  Clancy changed into swimming trunks and put on a tank top and a pair of sandals. He threw a towel over his shoulder, took a deep breath, and started toward the beach. He had planned to just take a walk and clear his mind. He’d been able to get a room in the same hotel, found out which room Angel was in, and deliberately booked his room in the second tower on the third floor. He hadn’t expected to see Angel so quickly. He hadn’t even figured out how to approach her, but there she was, wearing a red two-piece bathing suit, a floppy straw hat, and huge sunglasses, propped up on her elbows reading a paperback book. But he would have known her if she’d been decked out in a gunnysack tied up in the middle with a length of twine. A young man strolled past her, and Clancy could tell by his posturing and the way he slowed down that if she had looked up, the guy would’ve started a conversation, but she seemed to be oblivious to everything except the book.

  “I guess there’s no time like the present,” he whispered as he flipped his towel out right beside her and sat on it, looking out over the ocean.

  ***

  It took Angel a moment before she realized Clancy was sitting beside her, but there was the same tightness in her chest and a catch in her breathing that she’d had when he showed up at the dam back when they were teenagers. She jerked off her sunglasses and looked right into Clancy’s eyes. And all the pieces of the puzzle tumbled into place. She couldn’t decide whether to fire her friends and watch them starve to death or simply shoot them and get it over with quickly. But one thing was for sure: when she got back, every one of them would be facing her wrath, and it wasn’t going to be a pretty sight. All five were going to see her breathe fire before Monday morning was over.

  “Small world, isn’t it?” Clancy flashed a bright smile.

  “Which one of them called you and told you I was here?” She reached over and smudged the two hearts. She was here for closure, not to reunite with her old flame.

  “Don’t know what you’re talking about.” He didn’t blink, but there was a twinkle in his eyes that made her heart flutter even more.

  “Yes, you do.” Angel was so mad she could have chewed up driftwood and spit out toothpicks. She quickly gathered her things and stuffed them into the beach bag. “I’m checking out of the motel right now and driving my rental car back to the airport. I’ll be home by morning and my so-called friends will be facing the firing squad.”

  “Sit down, Angel.” He patted the towel before she could yank it up. “You can’t run from me forever. Stay and get to know me. I’m a man now, not the scared young boy who didn’t know his own heart. I come down here for a few days in the summer every year, just to relax. Please give me a chance to show you that I’ve changed from that young stupid boy who walked out on you. Let me show you around town, and then, when we go home, if you don’t ever want to see me again, I’ll stay away.”

  She glared at him. “Did you send the roses?”

  “No, I didn’t send flowers.” He shook his head. “I wouldn’t do that or be here either, since you accused me of stalking, but your friends think we need to get this thing between us settled, and if we don’t, neither of us can ever really move forward with our lives.”

  “All right, then.” She nodded. “You’ve never lied to me, so I believe you.” She plopped back down, not because he told her to, but because she’d be damned if she let his presence run her away.

  “Thank you for that,” he said.

  They sat in silence for a full five minutes, and then her phone rang. Expecting it to be Patty, she had a fiery speech ready, but it was her old friend Red.

  “Good mornin’, Red,” she said.

  “You ready to let me buy you out, or else at least sell me back the building you’re in?” he asked. “I’m willing to give you fifty percent more than you paid me for it.”

  “Not in your wildest dreams,” she answered.

  “Then I guess I’d better go lookin’ for another building.” He sighed. “Hey, I hear that you and my friend Clancy are taking a little vacation together.”

  “Not together, but at the same time and place, thanks to my best friends,” she told him.

  “I’ll give you until you get home to make a decision about selling to me.” He chuckled. “You and Clancy have a good time. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

  “That leaves me a broad range, now doesn’t it?” Angel smiled. “So you know Clancy?”

  “I hope so.” Red chuckled. “Ask Clancy about our history if you want to know. Bye, now.” He ended the call.

  She laid the phone beside her and turned to Clancy. “That was Red. Just how do you know him, anyway?”

  “He grew up in Milburn and was my dad’s best friend. Dad owned a chunk of stock in Texanna Red Oil Company. He’s been after me for years to come work for him instead of teaching high school,” Clancy answered.

  “He knew we were both in Florida. Is he in on this too?” Angel asked. “Did he tell you where I was?”

  “No, he’s not in on it, but I imagine he and your girls have been talking,” Clancy answered. “But I don’t mind who knows that we’re here for a couple of weeks.�
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  “Anyway, you’re here for two weeks, but I’m on my way out of this place as soon as I can pack. Won’t be too hard because I haven’t really unpacked,” Angel told him. “I came here to clear my mind, not to make more mistakes.”

  “Just let me take you to dinner and show you around the place for a couple of days, please. I’ve been here before. I know where all the good restaurants and the fun places to go are,” he begged.

  Angel had faced a pregnancy without a husband. She had worked like a dog to get an education. She had carved an oil business out of a hunch. She had buried the last living relative she had and helped her friends through so many hard times she couldn’t count them on her fingers and toes.

  She had never run from anything in her life, but she sure wanted to light a shuck, as her grandmother used to say, out of Florida right then. Still, maybe spending time with him would be the answer. Trying to ignore him sure hadn’t worked.

  “All right, dinner, but I bet when this vacation is over, it’ll be you who’ll be in a hurry to get back, Clancy,” Angel said.

  She found her book in the bag and threw the tube of sunblock lotion at him. “You might be tanner than me, but you’ll still burn in sun like this. Help yourself. If you get a sunburn, I’m not going to play nurse for you.” She flipped the romance novel open to the page where she had been reading and began to read—or, at least, try to read.

  “I can’t reach my back, and it looks to me like you didn’t get enough on your shoulders. Do you think we could call a truce long enough to help each other out?” he asked.

  “Why not?” she said indifferently. She closed her eyes and remembered those two hearts drawn in the sand with baby written on the overlapping part. Her life had been shattered when she told him her secret that night, but by the end of two weeks, she might be over Clancy Morgan once and for all. That would sure be worth sticking around the beach the entire time for. Granny used to say the way to not crave chocolate bars was to eat them until you got so sick you upchucked. Angel changed her plan to fly home on Monday to staying for two weeks. She would spend so much time with Clancy that she would be sick of him in the next few days.