Linda Randall Wisdom - Two Little Secrets

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 fallen. 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.”