Chapter Six
HAVE FUN AT the beach? How could she have fun at the beach after he’d been such a gentleman and stuck around and cleaned up her mess knowing she was going someplace with Carey? She glanced at the passenger seat, where Pepper was fast asleep on top of the clothes he’d brought. And washed. And looked up how to remove the stain. Ugh. She’d never understand men. If he was interested in her, he could have asked her out or said something. Maybe he wasn’t interested. Maybe she’d misread all of his signals. And his physical reaction? No way. Not a chance. That much she understood about men. Leanna followed Carey’s van in her own on the way to Cahoon Hollow Beach and decided that she couldn’t change what had already happened, and she might as well enjoy the beach before the sun went down.
The sand was still hot from the afternoon sun. Leanna and Carey tossed their towels in the dry sand and ran toward the water with Pepper barking alongside them. Carey dropped his shirt and shorts along the way, and Leanna threw her shirt and shimmied out of her skirt, thinking about what the girls had said about her bathing suit. She’d have to watch Carey and see if they were right. She ran into the icy water with a squeal. Pepper followed her in.
“Cold!” She crossed her arms over her chest.
Carey popped up from under a wave and shook his hair like a puppy shakes its fur. “You’ll get used to it. Come on.”
She followed him deeper into the ocean, hoping she’d get used to the icy water. They rode the waves until their bodies were numb. Leanna loved the ocean, the bay, the beach, the mountains, snow, rain… There wasn’t much Leanna didn’t love about life. Maybe that’s my problem. I want to be in the thick of it, and most jobs make me feel like I’m missing something.
“Your lips are blue. We should get out,” Carey said with a wide smile.
He walked beside her as they made their way back to their towels. He was lean and fit and so tan that he looked like he lived on the beach, though Leanna knew he didn’t. He, like Leanna, moved around a lot, but unlike Leanna, he often slept in his van.
“That was awesome.” He wiped his face with the towel, and Leanna noticed his eyes lingering on her chest.
Yup, the girls were right. The bathing suit is a killer.
“So refreshing.” She sat down on her towel and slipped her T-shirt over her head.
Pepper plopped down beside her in the sand.
“Hey, so how do you know Kurt?”
Just hearing his name made her feel bad again. She wondered if he was writing, bare chested, sitting on the deck. She wondered if he was thinking of her. She liked the feel of his chest. A map of muscles and smooth skin, with that interesting tattoo. And those bright blue eyes that always seemed so focused and intense. He was…perfect. Oh my gosh. What am I thinking?
“Pepper got caught in the ocean the other night in the rain and he rescued him.” She shrugged, as if it were nothing, when in fact it had been the one thing all summer that had stuck like glue in her mind. Or more specifically, he had been the one thing that stuck like glue. She glanced at Carey and felt guilty for wishing he were Kurt.
“Cool.” He looked out over the water. “You wanna grab a beer?”
No, I want to go see Kurt. She was torturing herself. Kurt hadn’t asked her out, and he’d basically kicked her out the other night. Then she’d kicked him out. Ugh. She thought about the moment on the deck when she’d thought he might kiss her, and now she wondered if she’d imagined it. Though she knew she hadn’t imagined his obvious physical arousal. It was no use. She sucked at everything having to do with men. She was too outspoken, too uninhibited, too unsettled, which was why she never tried to pick men up, and forget knowing how to show she was interested. She turned into a fumbling, klutzy nimrod when she liked a guy.
A few drinks might be just what she needed to get Kurt out of her head.
“Sure.”
After taking Pepper back to the cottage and putting away her flea market supplies, she joined Carey on the deck of the Beachcomber, overlooking the water. The Beachcomber was built at the crest of a bluff with a large covered deck that overlooked the ocean. Loud music, alcohol, and laughs were staples at the Beachcomber. Carey loved to dance as much as Leanna did. They danced, shared a burger and fries, and danced some more. They met a group of women and men who were vacationing from Canada and talked with them for an hour. By the time they headed back to their vans, Leanna was too tipsy to drive.
“Are you pretty sober?” she asked.
“I only had two beers. I’m good. But you were really putting them down. You okay?”
“Do you mind driving me home?” She leaned against his van, wishing she hadn’t had the last two drinks. She’d been trying to distract herself from thoughts of Kurt, but nothing seemed to help. She kept picturing him at the flea market, feeling the intimate touch of his finger holding hers when he handed her the jar of jam and how quickly he’d let go when she told Carey she’d go to the beach with him.
“No prob.” He opened the door and she climbed in.
They rode in silence down the main drag, and Pepper greeted them with a loud bark as they pulled into her driveway.
“That was fun. Thanks, Carey.”
He narrowed his eyes and leaned across the seat. Before she could register what he was doing, his lips were on hers in a hard kiss. When he pulled back, she was still blinking away the surprise, but his hand resting on her thigh definitely registered.
He leaned in close again, and Leanna shook herself out of her stupor and splayed her palm on his chest with a little shove. “Sorry, Carey, but I’m not really…”
“Oh come on. Really? We have a great time together.”
They did have a great time together, but she didn’t feel that type of attraction to Carey, and if she’d been at all confused before, that absolute-zero-spark-inducing kiss had proved it.
“We do have fun. I love hanging out with you, but I’m not really looking for…” She looked down at his hand on her thigh. “More.” Liar.
He sat back and put his hands up. “Hey, it’s cool. No worries. I just thought we were both on the same page with you asking me to drive you home and all.”
“I’m sorry. I really did have too much to drink.” Leanna hated making anyone unhappy, and she genuinely liked Carey as a friend, but her mind had already drifted to Kurt, and then she felt even worse. She was leaving a wake of unhappiness everywhere she went, and it was so unlike her that she sobered up quickly and stepped out of the van.
“I’m sorry, Carey. You’re great, really. I’m just…Ugh. I’m sorry.”
“Hey, no sweat. I had fun tonight.”
She watched him drive away and wondered if she should have said something else, but she’d never been good at this type of thing. She headed inside. The flea market wasn’t open tomorrow, maybe she’d sleep in and work on new recipes. No, she should get up early and have one of the girls take her to get her van before they went out for the day. With that settled, she took Pepper for a walk, then took a quick shower and climbed beneath the sheets, wishing it had been Kurt’s lips pressed against hers instead of Carey’s.