She locked the door, then paused on the front porch and reached for Reece. She thought she saw a flare of something in his eyes as she pulled out his tucked-in shirt, but she wasn’t sure.
“There. Much better.” Then she reached up and mussed his hair for good measure.
“Sara!” He finger-combed it back into place.
“Sorry. Sooner or later I was going to do that.”
Reece’s cell phone rang. Honestly, his phone rang more than any other person’s Sara had ever known.
“Reece Remington. Oh, hi, Bret.” He listened patiently as Sara checked his watch, then indicated with sign language that they should hurry. “Let me call you back about that tomorrow, okay?”
After he completed the call, Sara smiled at him. “Why don’t you turn that thing off?”
“Turn it off?” He sounded shocked, as if she’d asked him to tear up his tax return.
“Just for one evening. Can’t the world turn without you for a few hours?”
He smiled back at her sheepishly. “Sure, why not.” He switched off the phone and stuck it in his pocket.
They walked along at a good clip down Magnolia Street toward the ocean. The old-fashioned trolley ran along Second Street, parallel to the beach but one block inland.
“The trolley is already there,” Sara said. “We better hurry or it’ll leave without us.” She grabbed Reece’s hand and they ran down the sidewalk. “Wait!” Sara called as the trolley started to move. Benji, the conductor, usually waited for stragglers, but he must not have seen them. “Hurry, Reece, we can still make it.”
“What? No, we can’t.”
Ignoring him, she ran faster, dragging Reece with her.
A group of people already riding on the car urged them on. Reece, with his long legs, ran ahead and jumped on. The trolley was picking up speed and Sara damn near didn’t make it. But Reece grabbed her arm and hauled her on board. They collapsed, laughing and gasping for breath, on the first seat they saw while the other passengers cheered their effort.
“You are crazy!” Reece said, still laughing.
Her heart skipped a few beats. Reece was handsome no matter what expression he wore, but seeing him laugh took her breath away.
“You should laugh more,” she said.
“If I spent more time around you, I’m sure I would.”
“Am I that funny?”
“You’re crazy-funny.” He ran one finger down her bare arm and she shivered with anticipation, hoping he might kiss her again or at least take her hand or put an arm around her shoulders. But he pulled away and gazed out the window.
Sara felt like she had in junior high with her first crush. With most guys she knew exactly what signals to send and how to interpret the ones she got back. But with Reece, she was never sure. He kept his cards close to the vest.
The trolley lumbered down the center of Second Street through the renovated downtown filled with ice-cream parlors and T-shirt shops, antique stores, a movie theater where they screened old movies for two bucks-which included free popcorn-restaurants, a couple of funky little hotels and more bed-and-breakfasts.
Palm trees towered over the brick streets and restored nineteenth-century buildings. Sara viewed it with new eyes, taking a sudden pride in her adopted hometown.
“It’s a nice town,” Reece said, as if reading her mind. “I haven’t spent much time checking it out.”
“It wasn’t always this nice. When I first moved here eleven years ago, downtown was run-down and kind of creepy. But once plans were in place to get the trolley going, the place got a face-lift. Port Clara is starting to be a real vacation destination again, like it was a hundred years ago.” That was both good and bad. Good for anybody in the tourist industry, like Allie and Miss Greer. But sometimes Sara missed the sleepy backwardness of the old Port Clara.
“Why did you move here?” Reece wanted to know.
“I was really just passing through. I had it in my mind I would go out to California and make my fortune, maybe become a movie star or something. But I saw that Help Wanted sign in Miss Greer’s front window, so I stopped on a whim, and that was it.”
She realized her whole life was pretty much lived on a whim. That was how she liked it, but it probably gave Reece hives.
She punched him lightly on the arm. “You probably had your whole life mapped out by the time you were twelve.”
He grinned. “You really do know me better than I thought.”
They rode the trolley all the way to the end of the line. They stepped off the old wooden car. Sara waved to Benji, who began the process of reversing the car for the trip back.
“Where is this party, anyway?” Reece asked.
“It’s on that undeveloped stretch of beach toward the north end of the island, past the jetty. There’s no road- we’ll have to walk along the beach.”
“Whose party is it?”
“Um…I don’t know. But I heard about it from my friend Tracy, who heard about it from her boyfriend’s brother. I think it’s some friend of his.”
Reece skidded to a stop. “So we’re crashing?”
She smiled indulgently at him. “This isn’t the kind of party where they send out engraved invitations. Someone just decides to have it, and word gets around. There will be a keg and maybe some hot dogs, but people bring their own food and drink if they feel like it.”
“Should we bring something?” Reece asked, nodding toward the convenience store that squatted where Second Street dead-ended.
“Got it covered.” She patted her straw bag.
It was only a block to the beach. They crossed the dunes using a rickety boardwalk, then Sara paused to take off her sandals, leaning one hand against his shoulder.
“Don’t you want to take off your shoes?” she asked. “No sense walking on the beach with shoes on.”
“I guess. Aren’t you worried you’ll step on something? It’s kind of dark.”
“This beach is very clean,” she said, unconcerned. “Oh, look how pretty it is with the moon shining on the water.” She ran toward the ocean, holding her arms wide as if she could hold the whole thing in her embrace.
When she realized a wave was barreling toward her, she did an abrupt U-turn and ran the other way, holding her skirt up so it wouldn’t get wet.
Reece was just standing there, watching her.
She squealed in delight as the cold water hit her lower legs. “Hey, come on!” She ran back to him and took his hand, urging him to join her in playing tag with the waves.
“I don’t want my pants to get wet.”
She sighed, then stooped down to untie his shoelaces and roll up the legs of his cargo pants to just below his knees. “There. Now catch me!” She took off and, moments later, she heard footsteps slapping in the wet sand behind her. She quickly changed direction, ducking when Reece reached out for her and heading toward the waves, where she was sure Reece wouldn’t follow.
But she’d underestimated him. He pursued with single-minded determination and caught her right at the water’s edge, pulling her close until they were chest to chest.
“Tag.” He closed in for what she was sure would be one helluva kiss-they’d been leading up to it all night. She felt his warm breath, then the subtle intake, and…
A wave chose that moment to hit them full force.
Chapter Seven
Sara shrieked in shock at the cold onslaught, then ran to drier ground, laughing. Reece was more sputtering than laughing. He didn’t much appreciate having their moment interrupted in such a rude fashion.
“You’re all wet!” Sara said through her giggles.
