Secrets in the Sand by Carolyn Brown

            Angel practically choked on the hash-brown patty. “Are you seriously inviting me to go home with you? To Tishomingo—as a house guest in your mother’s home?”

            “Yes, I am.” He nodded. “Or I’ll get you a room at the only motel in town for the rest of your vacation if you’d be more comfortable there. Better yet, we’ve got a guesthouse out by the pool. It’s got two separate rooms with two outside entrances. You can stay in one, and I’ll stay in the other. That way Mom and Tom can have a little bit of privacy in the house. It is their honeymoon, remember?”

            “Can I think about it for a while?” Angel wasn’t going to make a big decision like that on the spur of the moment.

            “Sure. I figure we might get in by tomorrow evening if the rain lets up,” he said.

            Angel called Patty about the time that the office opened. She got voicemail and left a message telling her friend that she was in a world of trouble, that the storm hadn’t blown her and Clancy away, and she’d call again in a couple of days. Then she ran back to the car in the driving rain and hopped into the backseat. By the time Clancy opened the door to his side of the car, she was opening a suitcase, taking out clean underwear, a dry shirt, and pair of shorts, and jerking her wet shirt over her head.

            “Keep your eyes on the front window,” she told him when he dove for the front seat. “I’m changing clothes back here, and then I’m crawling over the seat. You can do the same when I’m finished. Unless you’re too damned tall and old to crawl over the seat. Lord, it feels wonderful to wear dry clothes. I’m glad I brought these old sweatpants and this shirt. They’re soft and warm. I may sleep all the way to Oklahoma City in them.”

            “Why do I have to keep my eyes front and center? There are windows all around you in this vehicle,” he reminded her. “Anyone can see inside.”

            She dried her hair with a beach towel and then threw it over the seat. “Want to use this to get the water out of your hair? Anyone would have to press his nose to the window to see inside in all this rain. Then he’d break his neck to cop a peek because I can dress faster than the speed of lightning.” She wiggled into her dry things. “Now”—she shimmied over the seat—“your turn.”

            “You don’t have to keep your eyes on the front.” Clancy opened the door and quickly went from the front to the backseat where he opened his suitcase. “I don’t mind one bit if you turn around and stare at me.”

            “I’ll just look forward,” she declared, but she didn’t tell him she could see him from the chest up in the corner of the rearview mirror.

            He finished dressing, then crawled over the seat with as much agility as she had. “I haven’t been wet like that—”

            “Since early last night, but it didn’t feel the same then, did it?” She finished the sentence for him. “That was voluntary.”

            She curled up in the seat, leaned her head against the window, and fell asleep by the time he had started the car and pulled out into the traffic. When she awoke, she rubbed her eyes and yawned. “What time is it?”

            “After two,” he answered.

            “Look!” She pointed out his window, just missing his nose by an inch in her excitement to show him. “That’s the most beautiful rainbow I’ve ever seen. The colors are so bright. Look at that purple, Clancy!”

            “I can see it, Angel, honest. Want me to stop the car so it won’t get away before you’ve looked your fill?” he asked.

            “Look at the blue. And I can see the whole arch. Do you think there’s a pot of gold at the bottom?” She was so excited that her words came out in a tumble.

            “You’re the one with the hunch power, Angel. What do you think is at the bottom of the arch? A pot of gold or an oil well?” he asked.

            “A motel with hot water and big, fluffy towels,” she answered.

            “Your wish is my command,” he said as he pulled under the awning of the Holiday Inn. “One room or two?” he asked before he got out of the car.

            Her heart screamed one, but her mind knew better. “It doesn’t matter. One if it’s got two beds. Two if they’ve only got a bed in each. I’m not afraid of you, Clancy, but we’re sleeping in separate beds tonight, and that’s a fact.” She crawled out of the car and headed into the motel lobby with him.