“Yes, ma’am. I’ll do your back first.” He squeezed the lotion into his big hands and gently rubbed her shoulders and down her back to where her bathing-suit top fastened.
She bit back a gasp when his hands made contact with her bare skin. Sparks that rivaled a fireworks show on the Fourth of July flitted around them, and the chemistry between them was just as strong as ever. No man had ever made her feel what Clancy had, and no one else’s touch had ever make her heart flutter like this. Not that she had any immediate plans to tell him so—or any future plans for that matter.
“Want me to undo this snap and get your whole back, or just reach under it?” he asked, trying hard to keep his voice emotionless so she wouldn’t know how just the feel of her skin affected him.
“Undo it,” she said, hoping he didn’t hear the breathlessness in her voice. Let him cope with his hormones however he could. Turnabout was fair play—another of her grandmother’s sayings—and she was having enough trouble with the emotional roller coaster she was on.
“All done.” He finished slathering lotion over every inch of her bare skin and refastened her top. “Your turn.”
Angel rolled over and took the tube of sunblock from him. She braced herself for the jolt she expected when she rubbed lotion on his muscled back and legs. She walked on her knees until she was behind him, glad he couldn’t see her eyes behind the sunglasses or hear the thumping of her heart over the sound of the ocean.
“Be still,” she ordered when he turned his head to the left and locked eyes with her. She blinked and concentrated on his broad back and tight muscles. “What do you intend to do for two whole weeks? What does this place have to offer that will take all of two weeks to see?” Her voice sounded breathless in her own ears.
“Oh, honey, we could stay here a month and still not see and do everything they have around these parts. We can take a boat trip out to Shell Island. We can do some deep-sea fishing.” Clancy said. “Or maybe I’ll just lay right here and let you rub lotion on me for two weeks. I want to spend time with you, Angel, and get to know you all over again. I don’t care about seeing the tourist sights, but I’ll go anywhere you want to. ”
Angel slapped his shoulder. “Oh, hush. It’ll take longer than two weeks to get to know me. I’m not that naive teenager who thought you hung the moon and stars. I don’t have a trusting heart anymore.”
“Hey,” he said. “You knew what you wanted when I didn’t. I think you missed a spot over there on my right shoulder. If I get a sunburn, you’ll have to put up with my whining,” he teased.
“Heaven forbid!” She rubbed more sunblock on his shoulder. “Now lie down and take a nap, or I can give you a big, thick romance novel to read. Sorry I don’t have anything else to offer. My dear friends didn’t think to send along a thriller.”
“A nap sounds wonderful. Don’t leave without waking me, though. I thought we’d have dinner at a seafood restaurant that I like, and then we’d play a round of miniature golf, and after that we’d get a bottle of wine and come back here to watch the tide come in.” He crossed his arms above his head and rested his face on the backs of his hands.
“Did Patty plan all that too?” she asked.
“Nope,” he mumbled and closed his eyes.
Angel stared at the words in her book but she didn’t see them. She alternated between waves of annoyance and sheer fear. She was still annoyed at her friends for pulling such a stunt, but she was scared to admit that she still had feelings for Clancy—and they weren’t anger. She was as strong and independent as the heroine in the book she was reading. She could spend two weeks with Clancy and then walk away from him without a glance over her shoulder—at least that’s what she told herself. But her heart disagreed.
Sparks continued to flit around her like fireflies on a spring night. Flutters in her stomach felt like dozens of butterflies all circling around a bonfire, knowing if they got too close they would get burned but wanting to feel the warmth of the blaze.
I got over him once before. I can do it again, she thought.
No, you didn’t. Her grandmother’s voice was loud and clear in her head. You’ve never gotten over that boy, and I’m not sure you ever will.
Just watch me, Angel argued.
She listened intently, but her grandmother had nothing more to say.
“Stop it!” Angel whispered aloud.
“Stop what?” Clancy’s eyes popped open.
“I’m talking to my book,” she lied.
“Oh.” He smiled. “By the way, do the rules say I can’t look at you?”
“I didn’t make the rules. You and my so-called best friends did,” Angel said tartly, turning the page she hadn’t read. “I might warn you. I’m damned good at miniature golf, and I shoot a mean game of pool too. Used to pick up a few dollars on bets in the student union during college days. No one would believe a woman could outshoot those big, tough cowboys.”
“Then we’ll have to play pool before we leave here,” he promised. “Have I told you in the last five minutes how gorgeous your eyes are when you’re angry? They have flecks in them that glitter and glow.”
“You can’t see my eyes. I have on sunglasses,” she pointed out.
“I can see your eyes anytime I want. I can see your body next to mine right now with my eyes closed. Both of them are forever branded into my thoughts. But I’ve got to admit, it’s a lot better when you are really here beside me, Angela. Being with you right now is the most peaceful thing I’ve experienced in a long time. No matter what we’re doing, I just want to be with you.” Clancy kissed her gently on the cheek, then laid his head back down and shut his eyes.
Chapter 9
Angel grabbed the hem of the full skirt of a red-and-white-checked strapless sundress and drew a portion of it through a white plastic loop, showing off her left leg to the top of her thigh. She pulled her curls behind her ears with two long barrettes, slapped on a little bit of makeup, and buckled a pair of white leather sandals on her feet. She was dabbing perfume behind her knees and ears when she heard his knock on the door.
She left the bathroom and threw open the door that led onto the landing. Just looking at him standing there in khaki slacks and a light-blue button-down shirt put another case of flutters in her heart.
“You look lovely.” His deep voice was even more husky than usual.
“Thank you, sir. You don’t look so bad yourself.” The top two buttons of his shirt were left undone, showing a thicker tuft of soft, dark-brown hair than he’d had ten years ago…and he smelled like heaven.
“Are you ready?”
She nodded and picked up her purse. He escorted her to the elevator and out to a silver Cadillac where he opened the door for her. Then he whistled as he walked around the car and settled in behind the wheel. He plugged his phone into a jack and tapped the screen. The Judds began singing one of the songs that her band had performed at the alumni reunion. “They aren’t as good as you are,” he said as he backed the car out and started driving east toward the restaurant where he had made reservations.
“Oh, sure,” she argued. “The Judds are in Nashville making millions, and I’ve sold my bus and broken up my band. You’ve got rocks for brains if you think I’m that good.”
“Then I’ve got rocks for brains. You’re making millions, too, and they still can’t sing as well as you. Remember when you used to harmonize with whoever was on the radio in my Camaro? I remembered that when I looked up there at that stage. You were standing there like an angel appearing out of a cloud of smoke. Lord, I thought I’d die when I realized it was you. When you hopped up there on the table in front of me, my mouth felt like it was plumb full of cotton. I wanted to say something, but words wouldn’t come out of my mouth. Why didn’t you give us all some advance notice of what you’ve accomplished?” he asked.
“I didn’t need to advertise my success to all those
people who never thought I’d amount to anything. Come on, Clancy. I was poor, but I wasn’t dumb—except when it came to you,” she told him. “Now where’s this restaurant? I always get hungry when I’m around water very long. You know, I think this sunblock lotion really does work. I’m not burned at all,” she rambled on, changing the subject.
Clancy pulled the car up to a restaurant with an awning in front. He handed a valet the keys and opened the door for Angela. “I figured you’d marry Billy Joe. You should have seen my face when I read that he was gay. Goes to show how much I knew, huh?”
The waiter showed them to a table for two on a wharf overlooking the water. A salty breeze blew the linen tablecloths and caused the candles, set down in deep crystal sconces, to flicker.
“Nice place,” she commented when the waiter brought two tall glasses of iced tea and left with their orders. He ordered the steak and shrimp special, and she ordered a crab salad, with a side order of fried clams and shrimp with red sauce.
“Best I could do on short notice. I’ll see if I can come up with something a little more elaborate for tomorrow night. There’s a dinner cruise aboard a ship that goes out to Shell Island, but it was fully booked tonight. We can go another time. Takes most of the afternoon, then we’ll eat dinner and spend an hour on an island before we return. Sounded kind of romantic. Then there’s another restaurant the clerk said was good that I thought we’d try too. Unless, of course, you want to decide…”
Angel looked out at the setting sun’s reflection on the water and thought she could probably come to this place every night for two weeks. Even if Clancy decided where they would eat every night, they’d probably still get on their separate airplanes to go back to Oklahoma. If at the end of their time Clancy Morgan asked her to go to Tishomingo and eat at the Dairy Queen in front of all his hometown friends, she would be really impressed.
“Surprise me,” Angel said without looking at him. Two dolphins arched up out of the ocean and made graceful dives back into the water. “Did you see that?” she gasped. “It was absolutely beautiful.”
***
“Not as beautiful as you,” he said honestly, having a hard time taking his eyes from her bare shoulders and graceful neck. He would love to nuzzle in the softness below her ear, but he knew it would take several days before he could even begin to think in terms of a physical relationship, no matter how badly he wanted to feel her warmth next to him. Hell, he might finish two weeks of heartache and long, cold showers, then fly back to Oklahoma without a single kiss. The only thing Patty had promised was two weeks; she hadn’t seemed to be promising any miracle.
“You’re blind,” Angel snorted.
Clancy looked like he might reach across the table to touch her hand but then drew back.
Angel turned her head back to the sunset and the water. What would they talk about for two whole weeks? Clancy wondered.
He would be content just to spend time with her, but she deserved a vacation. They’d shared something special ten years ago, but how could two adults build even a temporary relationship on the past?
He had known that she wanted more than just waiting for him at the creek. He would drive up, get out of his car, and find her right there, no questions asked, and they would make love under the tree branches. Afterward they usually went skinny-dipping in the warm water, sometimes to return for another session of insatiable teenage sex, sometimes to dry off and go home. He would drive her home, always by the back roads but never down Main Street, because someone might see him with her and report it all back to his folks.
“Penny for your thoughts.” He dug in the pocket of his slacks and put a shiny copper penny at her fingertips.
“Cost you more than that.” She cocked her head to the side in a gesture that had always been endearing to him. “You better eat hearty and get ready for the big golf match, because you’re goin’ to lose. And did you already buy wine? If not, get two bottles, because I really like good wine.”
“I’ll buy enough to fill the bathtub, my lady, for just one pretty smile.”
She pasted on a smile and said, “Let’s talk business, as in why you aren’t working for Red.”
“First you tell me about Conrad Oil Enterprises again. There’s not an oil well anywhere near that lonesome old pumper on your property.” He tipped the glass of iced tea back and guzzled more than half of it before coming up for air.
“Everyone thought I was crazy as old Cletus.” She laughed. “Remember him? He used to walk up and down the streets in Tishomingo, and he wore at least five watches on each wrist and blue plaid shorts.”
“And a yellow checked sports coat and a big, wide tie with purple polka dots,” he finished for her. “Gee, I hadn’t thought about him in years. Remember how he used to hang around in front of the Armstrong Clothing Store? One day I asked him why he just stood there doing nothing, and he told me it was so everyone in town could see him. I didn’t even crack a smile. I just nodded and went on.”
“Everyone thought I was crazy to sink a well on this land.” Her eyes sparkled in the candlelight. “Allie was ready to throw me out in front of a semi on a four-lane highway, and she was my best friend. She said that I could dig to China with a teaspoon and not find a tablespoon of corn oil, let alone crude. But I followed my hunch and it paid off. The president of the bank in Denison told me the only reason he was loaning me the money was because he’d always wanted a little place in the country, and when the bank foreclosed on my mortgage, he was buying it.”
“Good Lord!” Clancy exclaimed. “You sure had a lot of adversity.”
“Yep.” She nodded.
The waiter brought their food and refilled their glasses, then disappeared again as Angel continued. “I was fresh out of college and no one offered me a job, so I took my savings and hired a driller. That’s how I started Conrad Oil. I could’ve gone to work for Red and Anna after that. Red said he’d pay big bucks for me to sit behind a desk and tell him when I had a hunch, but I wanted more than that. I wanted a business so all my friends could work together. I worked hard, and now I’ve got my dream. The next year we incorporated Conrad Oil Enterprises. I hold the majority stake in the company and the girls all own shares too,” she said between bites. “This is good food. I told you I was hungry. I can eat like a field hand, and I’m not one bit bashful about it,” she added.
“Good.” He nodded. “I like a woman who isn’t afraid to chow down.”
“What about you? Are you happy teaching? Funny, I always thought you’d go into the oil business somehow. When we talked, you were going to be an engineer, or a geologist just like I wanted to be.”
“Red’s been after me for a while to work for him. Says I shouldn’t waste my science degree. I thought about it, but I don’t know. Teaching is fun. I like the kids and I like having summers off so I can fool around.” He winked at her. “I don’t have to depend on a salary for my major income, thanks to the investments my dad left me. Do you want me to go to work for your competition?” he asked.
“Do whatever you want to do,” she said. “Right now, I just want you to finish eating so we can play golf and drink wine,” she told him.
It was after eleven when they finished the second round of golf. True to her word, Angel won the first round. Clancy barely came out the victor of the second game, and he prided himself on both his miniature and golf games. His ex-wife, Melissa, had hated both. She had never wanted to learn any game that took her outside where it was hot—where she might chip a nail or break a sweat.
But comparing Melissa and Angel wasn’t fair to either of them. They were as different as two women could be. His mama called that kind of thing measuring one person by another’s half bushel. He glanced over at Angel. She was smiling, so she was evidently pleased with her win, but she didn’t say a word the rest of the way back to the motel.
Clancy parked the rental car in the spot marked with
his room number, reached over the seat, and picked up a brown bag.
***
Angela smiled when she heard the tinkle of crystal glasses. She’d whipped him at golf, and if he was still as poor at drinking as he used to be, she might whip him at drinking too.
“Wine on the beach,” he said when he opened the door for her. “Two glasses, one bottle. Half a glass and I’ll be snoring, so there will be plenty for you.” He took her hand and led her across the road to the sand.
He sat down and pulled her down beside him, then let go of her hand to take off his shoes and socks. He rolled up his khaki trousers haphazardly until they could go no further, just below his muscular thighs. “Got another one of those white thingy jigs?” He tapped the plastic ring that held one side of her dress high. “Tie up the other side and take off those shoes, and we’ll go wading before we have a toast to the moonless night.”
“I’m not afraid of getting my dress wet,” Angel said.
“Oh, yeah?” Clancy scooped her up in his arms as if she weighed nothing and waded out into the ocean. “How much is it worth to you to keep it dry?” He pretended to almost let go of her.
“Clancy Morgan, if you drop me, I swear you’re going to get wet too. Don’t forget that summer at the dam,” she taunted.
“How could I forget that summer?” He kissed her on the neck.
“Oh—” She pushed his face away and flipped out of his arms. Just as she hit the water, she grabbed both of his legs and brought him down beside her, dousing both of them.
“You are one bad, bad lady,” he blubbered when he surfaced in the knee-deep water.
“Don’t threaten me if you don’t want to get wet.” She backed up until she was sitting in water so shallow that she could feel the sand shifting under them every time the waves swelled in and ebbed back out. “I’m a grown woman now, Clancy, and you might not like me when you get to know me this time. Do you just feel guilty about our baby? You never knew him, not even for the nine months he was mine. I don’t want you to feel like you’ve got to pay for your mistakes. You can’t change the past and neither can I. And like you said, you thought I would probably give him away.” Angel had come to grips with that much. Maybe she and Clancy could be friends.
Secrets in the Sand Page 8