Sea Glass Island (Ocean Breeze) - By Sherryl Woods Page 0,32
change how I face it. Should I accept that roles aren’t going to be there and move on, or do I keep knocking on doors and getting turned away more often than not?”
Ethan was shaken by a perspective he’d never before considered. Okay, her life wasn’t all glamour. It wasn’t free of pitfalls and obstacles. That made her more appealing in a way he hadn’t expected. As if he needed her to be more appealing, he thought wryly.
“It seems to me you’re handling it okay,” he told her.
She laughed then. “You think so? You haven’t looked into my freezer in New York. It’s stuffed with so many containers of Ben & Jerry’s, it’s astonishing I’m not the size of a blimp. That’s how I’m handling it.”
He tried to imagine her with an extra ounce of weight on her and couldn’t. “Why aren’t you? The size of a blimp, I mean.”
“I may eat more ice cream than I should, but I also go to the gym. I run. Because even when I’m at my lowest, I keep fighting to stay in shape. Tomorrow might bring the juicy role of a lifetime my way, and I need to be ready. So far, thank goodness, I haven’t let the defeats steal my last shred of hope. Isn’t that exactly what you want for those kids? Hope?”
He didn’t want to acknowledge that she’d nailed it, that she understood things he hadn’t expected her to get. Instead, he looked her over, allowing his gaze to linger on the long, shapely legs revealed by a pair of formfitting capris. “You run, huh?”
“Every day.”
“Want to go running with me tomorrow?” he asked impulsively. Asking was a risk, he knew, not only because it meant spending more time with her, but because there’d be no way to disguise his prosthesis. With his running shorts, it was right there for all the world to see. It had been a long time since that had bothered him, but in front of Samantha? He was risking a lot by opening himself up to the possibility of her pity and ultimately her rejection.
She looked startled by the invitation. “You want to spend time together? Are you sure you’re up for it?”
Ethan nodded. He knew it was probably foolhardy. He knew it would lead to speculation that neither of them wanted, but he hadn’t been able to help himself. Seeing that one little glimpse of a woman who had her own share of vulnerabilities, rather than the out-of-reach golden girl he’d imagined her to be, had chipped away at his defenses. At the rate that was happening, he figured he was pretty much doomed. He might as well enjoy the experience.
* * *
Samantha was no slouch when it came to running. She took it seriously. She’d raced in a couple of half marathons and hadn’t embarrassed herself. She doubted Ethan knew that. Even if he did, she hoped he didn’t think she’d cut him any slack out of pity. Her competitive spirit wouldn’t allow it. And losing must not take too bad a toll on him. Hadn’t he admitted just the other day that he’d lost a bet with Greg, who’d beat him on a run? Of course that loss had been to someone he knew well and obviously respected, not to a woman. She wondered if he was the kind of man whose ego could take that.
She was waiting in the driveway when he arrived just after dawn. It was a shock to see him exit the car in running shorts that exposed his prosthesis. But then her gaze traveled to his muscular shoulders and flat abs and her mouth went dry. The artificial limb didn’t detract from his masculinity in the slightest. That fiancée of his must have been a complete idiot if she’d looked on him as damaged goods.
Ethan met her gaze and she saw the hint of uncertainty in his eyes as he apparently awaited her pity or judgment. Instead, she gave him a beaming smile.
“You sure you’re up to this, Cole? I run to win.”
His uncertainty faded at the challenge. “So do I.”
Without so much as a hint about what she intended, she took off, then called over her shoulder, “I don’t fight fair, either.”
They ran for the better part of an hour, Ethan guiding the way, the lead changing hands a few times. Mostly, though, they ran side by side in companionable silence.
As they turned back toward Cora Jane’s however, Samantha deliberately pushed herself to another gear.