Page 70 of The Summer that Changed Everything
They’d lost Lucy’s top, but Ford plucked his shorts out of the surf while Lucy snagged her bikini bottoms, which shecouldfind. Then they raced up to the house before someone could come across them. Being discovered wasn’t likely, given theveryearly hour, but it was better to be safe than sorry, Ford supposed. The last thing he wanted was for Eddie to come bounding down the beach with Chet right behind him, which had happened before, although well after the sun came up.
Once they reached the house, they used the outside showerhead to rinse off before climbing the stairs to the deck. Ford took Lucy’s wet bottoms as soon as they went in and dropped them in the washer with his shorts before tugging her into the bathroom in his room, where he turned on the shower. Although they’d gotten most of the sand off before coming in, he doubted she’d want to sleep with salt water in her hair, and she certainly didn’t complain.
After they got in and were standing beneath the warm spray, Ford enjoyed soaping Lucy’s body before washing her hair.
She didn’t say much, but neither did he. Maybe, like him, she was afraid one wrong word would destroy the dreamlike quality of this night. He’d fantasized about being with her so many times over the years, but the reality of holding her again was even better than what his mind had conjured up.
She took the soap when he was through with it and scrubbed him in turn, using her nails to scratch his back through the thick lather. As the water grew hotter, steam filled the bathroom. Butthey didn’t hurry. They lingered, kissing and touching and holding each other until their fingers began to wrinkle.
“It’s almost morning,” she murmured when he finally shut off the water.
He swung open the heavy glass door and reached for towels. “I don’t want this night to end,” he said.
Their eyes met as he turned to face her. “Neither do I,” she responded.
He should’ve let her go to her own bed. He felt she might sleep better there. But as she started to leave his room, he stopped her. “Sleep with me?”
She hesitated briefly, as ifthatmight be the line she’d refuse to cross. He feared it was. Curling up with him was an entirely different kind of capitulation. It had nothing to do with hormones or sexual satisfaction. It was a decision made with a clear head, and it might even have more ramifications than what’d happened in the ocean, some of which they probably couldn’t foresee.
He tilted her chin up so he could gaze into her face while she thought it over—and felt the most amazing thing he’d experienced yet when a sweet smile curved her lips, she dropped her towel and took his hand.
Chet had been hoping to bump into Ford again. He’d walked down to their private beach from the public beach twice, but his old friend wasn’t out. He would rather have seen him there—speaking to him would’ve come off more natural, more casual that way—but when the beach remained empty, Chet resigned himself to going to the door. He hadn’t heard a word from Lucy since he’d run into her on the street before she went into the Zampinos’ house. Had they told her anything new, anything he had to worry about?
He didn’t think they had. The gossip around town certainlydidn’t reflect it. But he needed to be sure. If he was to have any chance of sidestepping the devastating consequences that could be heading his way, he had to see them coming.
Picking up the Frisbee he’d been tossing for Eddie, he called out to his dog and trudged over to Coastal Comfort. He’d just climbed onto the deck and kicked the sand off his flip-flops when he looked up, intending to knock, and saw Lucy through the glass doors wearing nothing but Ford’s T-shirt, which hit her bare legs at mid-thigh.
His stomach twisted into painful knots. This was even worse than he’d thought it was going to be. Ford wasn’t wearing much, either, just a pair of loose-fitting khaki shorts as they talked and laughed and drank what Chet assumed to be coffee. With Ford’s hair standing up on one side and Lucy’s tangled and uncombed and falling around her shoulders, it looked as if they’d just gotten out of bed.
Chet would’ve hurried away and tried to speak to Ford another time. But Eddie whined and scratched on the glass, causing Lucy to look up and see him.
“Shit,” Chet muttered as she dashed into the bedroom, out of sight.
Ford pushed away from the granite slab that formed the kitchen island, where he’d been leaning as they talked, to answer the door.
“Hey, man, what’s up?” he said, stepping out onto the deck instead of inviting Chet in.
Chet felt clunky and uncoordinated as he moved back. He wished he hadn’t come to the door, but now that he had, he decided he might as well try to do a little damage control. Because if Ford and Lucy everreallygot together—beyond a meaningless summer fling—Ford would leave no stone unturned when it came to appeasing her. And Ford wasn’t a man who was easily denied. “I just... I was out walking Eddie and thought I’d say hello, see if you wanted to grab breakfast in town.”
Ford lifted his coffee. “I’m covered this morning. But text me next time. We’ll set something up.”
There was a hint of dismissal in his friend’s voice. He obviously wanted to get back to Lucy. But Chet didn’t leave. He had to figure out where he stood. “Was thatLucy McBrideI saw in the house a minute ago?”
Ford walked over and rested his elbows on the banister facing the sea. “Where’s Kira this morning?” he asked without answering. “How come she never visits the beach with you?”
Ford wasn’t happy that he and Lucy had been interrupted, and he was feeling protective of her. Chet could tell that much, or he wouldn’t have changed the subject without addressing the question.
Trying to do all he could to appear genuine, nonthreatening and not too heavily focused on Lucy, Chet smiled. “Kira likes having an hour or so to herself while I walk the dog. That’s when she does her yoga.”
“The beach is a great place to do yoga.”
“Yeah, but not so much with a dog. And definitely not with a baby. After Kira feeds Kenzie, and I play with her for a bit, we put her in her bouncer and Kira gets her exercise while I walk Eddie.”
“Teamwork.”
“It takes both of us,” he said with a weak chuckle.
Ford sipped his coffee. “You got a good woman.”
