“She is the mermaid goddess,” Dauphine said with a happy sigh, drawing our attention. “She rules over this whole kingdom.”
“Does she now?” he humored his daughter. He looked back at me. “You should have rented some beach chairs and an umbrella to get out of the sun,” he said, then frowned. “I apologize. I didn’t think of that. Also that my meeting ran long.” He pulled his wallet out and flagged down a beach attendant who was jogging past with an ice bucket. “Where’s your stuff?”
I pointed over my shoulder behind us and he went to pick my beach bag up.
“It’s fine—”
“Dauphine.” He spoke over my head. “Swim with me and let the mermaid goddess rest in the shade?”
She dropped the handful of wet sand and went shrieking into the water.
“Hey,” I called. “A little help here?” I struggled to get loose in the sand, and when it was clear Dauphine hadn’t heard or simply ignored my plea, her father was suddenly crouching next to me and digging the sand from around my legs. God. He was far too close. His hand brushed sand and then skin as he dug me out. He froze for a moment, then took a breath and continued.
I quickly took over and brushed enough off that I could finally wiggle free.
He stood and gave me his hand. And in moments Dauphine’s kingdom was destroyed as I was pulled upright.
“Here.” He dropped my hand and went around and brushed sand from my back before abruptly stopping and stepping back, thinking better of it.
“Thank you,” I said and hurried past him into the water. “I need to wash off.”
As soon as we had a place to sit, he gave me his wallet to put in the beach bag and draped his linen shirt over the chair next to me. I traded his wallet for a towel I handed him for the second chair. He laid it out and then perched on the edge and applied the sunscreen I handed him to his face and shoulders.
From behind my sunglasses I feasted on watching him. His hair was unruly where he’d obviously dragged a hand through several times over. Maybe when he’d run out of coasters. Somehow, I’d never taken him for a nervous person. It didn’t jive with his business reputation. And I found seeing the vulnerable side of him did strange things in my belly. I sighed softly.
It didn’t escape me that the three of us on the beach looked a lot like a family. And how much I liked it. Really, really, liked it.
“Thank you for lunch,” I managed in a strangled voice to fill the silence. I looked around, desperate to look at anything rather than at him, and noticed the beach had emptied out somewhat. Dauphine tried to do a handstand in the water and tumbled sideways.
He cleared his throat, and I braced myself for him to ask me to put sunscreen on his back. My hands itched. I might die or accidentally moan out loud if I got to run my hands over that body. He didn’t ask, just tossed the cream back in the bag.
“You’re welcome. I hope it wasn’t too tedious.”
I lifted a shoulder. There were so many things I wanted to ask him. Like why he seemed so strained around his father. And about that Morosto character. “Tedious? No. Tense? Perhaps. Forgive me saying, but you … weren’t yourself.”
He tilted his head slightly.
“I’m sorry. Perhaps I was wrong,” I backpedaled. “I don’t know you. I don’t know how you normally act—”
“No, you’re right.” He let out a sigh and looked toward Dauphine who was now trying and failing to do cartwheels in the shallow waves. “I don’t see much of my father. And he wants me to invest in something. And of course, he chose the most high profile place to meet.”
“Yeah. It’s a nice beach club. Seems like it’s been there a while.”
“Since the fifties. Before that the only exciting thing to happen were the allies landing right here.
“Wow, really? We only hear about the beaches at Normandy, but I guess they came from all sides.”
He grinned. “There wasn’t much here. A local family built some small bungalows. Then they added a community table in the sand and invited passersby to join them. Brigitte Bardot … you know her?”
I nodded. The sexy French actress of many a black and white movie.
“She was filming here. The movie Et Dieu …Créa La Femme. And God Created Woman.” He chuckled