because she didn’t feel entirely comfortable revealing herself in a swimsuit. His older sister had insisted on layering a t-shirt over her swimsuit for just that reason while they were growing up, and though he’d hated what it said about how she saw herself and disagreed with her reasoning, he’d understood the impulse.
That didn’t make sense in Tess’s case, though, not when she’d already been running around the beach in a bikini. His conclusion: She probably just wanted an extra layer available in case another swimsuit went MIA. A disappointing but wise decision.
Since she might not appreciate a reminder of her topless state during their first meeting, he kept his answer neutral. “I figured maybe I’d missed out on a fashion trend. Wouldn’t be the first time.”
“I have a swimsuit beneath.” She tugged the neckline of her dress to the side, revealing a thick, red strap over her shoulder. Then her lips lifted in a brief smile. “Not that damn bikini, though. Even if the top weren’t sleeping with the fishes right now, I wouldn’t have worn it again. Halter tops are not designed for women with my overflow of chesticular bounty.”
She’d brought it up. She couldn’t blame him for pursuing the topic.
He grinned at her. “I was very fond of that halter top.”
“You never saw it.”
“Exactly.”
She gave him a companionable smack on his arm, and then they settled once more into silence. The hem of the dress swirled in the water again, dancing around her round thighs, and this time she let it.
“My parents didn’t worry much about sunscreen when I was a kid, and the effects of that are showing up now.” A quick sidelong glance his way. “That’s not an attempt to use my age as a weapon against you. Just a fact.”
Nope. Not commenting on that.
“Anyway, Belle was sleeping when I left this morning, and getting sunscreen on all the tough spots is even harder when you don’t have anyone to help.” She lifted a shoulder. “So I decided not to risk it. I figured I’d just wear my cover-up into the water. That way, I’d only have to slather sunblock on areas I could easily reach.”
Watching her reaction carefully, he reached beneath the water and loosely interlaced their fingers. “That makes sense.”
To his pleasure, she didn’t pull away. In fact, her grip tightened, until their hands were locked together.
Her fingers were long and strong and warm between his. Perfect.
She chewed her lower lip for a moment. “In your profession, you probably have to be careful about sun exposure too.”
Finally. She was seeing him, not some construct of her imagination or his. Thinking of ways they might be similar, rather than different.
“Yeah. My dermatologist is already looking pretty closely at a few places.” He rubbed the hair—still thick, to his relief—covering his crown. “He wants me to wear a baseball cap when I play, but that’s not something you can change after so many years. It just feels…wrong. I’ll wear a sweatband during a match, but a hat? No way.”
Her cute little ski-jump nose wrinkled. “Then how do you protect your scalp?”
“I mostly just spray a little sunscreen there in the mornings and call it good enough.”
She shook her head. “I’m sure your dermatologist is thrilled when you dismiss his advice.”
Lucas laughed. “He doesn’t mince words. Every time I see him, he delights in telling me how much older I look than my actual age because of sun exposure. Then he tries to sell me some sort of laser treatment that would require way too much recovery time out of the sun for a man in my profession.”
In his memory, he’d never discussed his sun damage with a woman who wasn’t his mother or his sister. The sexiest of topics, it was not. But Tess wanted honesty, and he was trying to give it to her.
“You mentioned wearing sweatbands during a match.” Her voice had turned soft. Tentative. “Do you still play? Competitively, I mean?”
He guessed they’d spent enough time dancing around the subject. “How much do you know about my history?”
“I spent some time Googling yesterday. So…” She shrugged. “A lot, I guess. The parts that played out in public, at least.”
He’d figured as much. The woman was a former teacher, for God’s sake. Discovering that he was a retired pro had taken her a while, but once she knew, she was going to do some research.
“Why don’t you tell me what you discovered, and I’ll fill in any missing pieces?” Stretching out his legs