Secrets in the Sand by Carolyn Brown

            “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.

            “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.”