time, I didn’t want to stink up the shower in the RV. It’s a pretty confined space and I needed to wash Bailey too. This seemed like the best option.’
‘Sensible.’
‘So why the swim team?’ she asked.
‘It was the only sport in high school I didn’t suck at,’ he replied with a laugh. ‘Killian ran track and field, played football and basketball. My idea of working out was turning the pages of a comic book but put me in the water and I was unstoppable.’
Ducking under the water he rinsed off the last of the shampoo and as his head broke the surface and he took a deep breath he swam over to her. He ached to reach for her, to pull her body in until they were pressed tightly to each other as they sank beneath the waves, but he didn’t. He respected her boundaries even if she was the most tempting thing, he’d ever seen in his life.
They splashed and played like kids, laughing like idiots until the sun went down, the temperature dipped, and they were losing the light. Wrapped in nothing but towels, they gathered up their ruined clothes and chased each other up the stone steps to the cliff top, before finally collapsing in the back of Ava’s truck, still wrapped in their towels, with Bailey spread out across their legs as they shared a bottle of Don Julio and watched the stars winking to life in the vast indigo sky.
Neither of them noticed as the front door of the house swung slightly open, nor did they see the small child like footprints and a trail of broken seashells leading into the house.
9
Kelley groaned at the loud thumping sound; his head was splitting as he threw his hand up to protect his eyes against the harsh glare of the blazing sunlight, but merely succeeded in slapping himself in the face.
He murmured a soft Ow and began to half doze once again.
He was aware of the warmth of the sun against his bare skin and the cold hard metal of the truck bed at his back. He swallowed tightly, his mouth dry and still tasting of tequila.
His arm was dead from being pinned beneath another body. He didn’t need to open his eyes to know who it was. She was curled into his side, naked skin pressed to his where their towels had slipped and gone askew during the night while they’d slept or passed out drunk. He wasn’t sure which had come first. At some point one of them had pulled a rough old blanket from the truck bed over them but again he couldn’t quite recall who.
He could feel the heavy weight of Bailey over his legs, her body rocking slightly as her tail wagged, banging lightly against the side of the truck in a steady rhythm.
Aware he should probably move or something, he shifted slightly but Ava mumbled something unintelligible and snuggled closer. Her hair wrapped around him in long fragrant ropes, smelling of the sea, which once again made him think of mermaids, which inevitably led back to him picturing her naked in the dark water of the cove.
He’d move in a minute…
He was just drifting back off when the loud thumping began again. It took him a second for his hungover brain to realize it wasn’t pounding inside his skull but at the side of the truck they were currently sleeping in. Cracking open one bloodshot eye he winced against the bright glare stabbing his eyeball like a thousand tiny sadistic pins.
Damn Don Julio.
He felt Bailey leap up, this time her whole body wagging in excitement as she leaned over the side of the truck. Pulling himself up onto his elbows, Kelley blinked a couple of times as his eyes slowly began to focus and found himself staring at a beige clad chest and an official looking badge. His gaze slowly traveled up the length of a freshly pressed uniform before stopping on a familiar face shaded by a wide brimmed sheriff’s hat.
‘Uh…’
‘Morning Kelley,’ the deep voice rumbled.
‘Hi Dad…’ Kelley swallowed thickly.
‘DAD?’ Ava shot up next to him clutching the blanket to her chest, her eyes wide with embarrassment.
She blinked her gritty eyes a couple of times, but the hallucination wouldn’t clear. There was an extremely good-looking older guy standing at the side of her truck, with the same trademark smile and green eyes as Kelley. His skin was tanned a pleasing caramel color and his gray shot hair was combed neatly