He gave her a hard look. “You are worse than any ten-year-old.” But then he couldn’t help grinning. She was so beautiful, standing there dripping water. Some of the seawater had splashed upward on impact, dampening her blouse so that it was transparent in places.
He thought about taking up where they’d left off. He was pretty sure she would be amenable. Or she might make him chase her again.
She leaned over to wring out her skirt, and he did the same with the hem of his shirt. Everything from his hips down was soaking, but the evening was warm and his pants were lightweight cotton, so they would dry quickly. He checked his cell phone to see if it had been damaged, but it had stayed dry in his pocket.
Reece located the shoes he’d kicked off just before chasing Sara, and Sara found her straw bag where she’d dropped it in the sand, but her shoes were missing.
“Those were my favorite sandals,” she lamented.
Reece tugged on his own shoes. “We’ll find them.”
But after a few more minutes, they had to admit defeat.
“They were Mexican huaraches,” she said glumly. “I bought them in Taxco for three dollars. They were just getting good and broken in.”
He was tempted to offer to take her to Mexico to buy new ones-that was the effect she had on him. But she quickly shook off the misfortune, her ready smile returning.
“Let’s go party,” she said, taking his hand.
They had to clamber over the big rocks used to build the jetty. Reece climbed ahead of her and offered her a hand to balance, which she accepted, though he suspected she could climb the jetty perfectly well without his aid.
On the other side of the jetty, the beach was littered with broken shells. Sara paused, her teeth tugging at her full lower lip.
“Come on, I’ll give you a piggyback ride.”
“Okay.”
He squatted halfway down, and she climbed up, looping her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck. It was the perfect solution. He got to feel Sara’s body pressed against his, her warm breath tickling his ear. And she got to save her feet.
Once they reached the smooth sand, Reece didn’t put her down. He continued to carry her along the beach-she was as light as a kitten-and she let him. He could carry her like this all night. Well, if she didn’t offer an even more attractive position.
That thought startled him. He’d already made the decision that it was wiser if he and Sara did not become any more entangled. But unless she was some kind of major tease, she would welcome his advances. Every move she’d made tonight seemed part of a giant seduction.
They’d left behind the houses and shacks that lined the beach closer to town.
“Why has no one built up this area?” Reece asked.
“This section of coastline is part of a shorebird sanctuary, so no one can develop it. Technically no one’s supposed to build a fire here, either, but the local police never check. So long as we put out the fire when we’re done and leave the beach clean, the cops look the other way.”
They soon saw the glow of the fire ahead of them. Strains of rock music reached them next. When they drew closer, Reece saw thirty or so people gathered around the fire, sitting on logs or beach chairs or right on the sand. A half-dozen boats of every size and description, from dinghies to yachts, anchored just offshore, and more boats were arriving. He guessed that was how most people arrived, because they hadn’t seen anyone else walking the beach.
“Sara, you made it!”
Reece set Sara down, and she ran up to throw herself into a hug with a shirtless man who bore a surfer’s bleached hair and perpetual tan.
Reece felt a twinge of jealousy. He wanted to claim Sara, throw her over his shoulder caveman style and put every man here on notice that she was his, hands off.
But Sara would never belong to him or any man. Trying to tie her down would be as futile as trying to keep a wave on the sand.
“Good to see you, Josh,” she said, releasing him.
A curvy little blonde bounced up wearing shorts and a bikini top. “Hey, Sara.” They hugged, too.
Sara dragged Reece forward. “This is Reece. He’s…visiting from New York,” she said carefully. “Reece, this is David and Tracy. Tracy is my yoga instructor, and David…what are you doing lately, David?”
“As little as possible,” he said. Then he shook hands with Reece. “Nice to meet ya.”
“Did you all go swimming with your clothes on?” Tracy asked.
“By accident,” Sara said with a laugh. She opened her big straw bag and, to Reece’s amazement, pulled out a bottle of wine. “Who do I give this to?”
“I’ll take it,” David said with a grin. “My brother is the one who popped for the keg and the brats.”
Sara held the bottle away from him. “If I give this to you, your brother will never see it. Point him out.”
“The guy in the red shirt.”
Sara moved through the group with the skill of a public-relations executive working an event. She greeted people she knew with hugs and kisses, introduced herself and Reece to people she didn’t even know. She delivered the wine to the host, grabbed a handful of potato chips, then headed for the keg.
“I’ll get it,” Reece said, belatedly jumping forward to do the honors. All the people, the frenzied talking and laughing and the music, had momentarily distracted him from doing his gentlemanly duty. He was terrible at parties, particularly parties at which he didn’t know anyone.
He filled a plastic cup with frothy beer for Sara, and one for himself. He wasn’t a big drinker, but he enjoyed an occasional beer, and this setting seemed the place for it. Lots of these partygoers were clearly well on their way to inebriation.
Someone was cooking brats over the fire; they smelled wonderful and Reece wished he hadn’t already eaten.
Reece was about to suggest they find themselves a place to sit when he spied his cousin Max, dancing with a redhead who had her back to Reece. He shouldn’t have been surprised to see Max here. If there was a party to be found, Max found it. He was a purely social animal-hated spending the evening home alone. Back in New York he had lived in a noisy apartment building full of other singles who were always hanging out by the rooftop pool. If he wasn’t attending the opening of a new club or entertaining clients at a hot restaurant, he hung with his neighbors or invited people over to watch a sporting event.
“Oh, there’s Tandy,” Sara said. “She has her baby with her!” And Sara was off, like a honeybee lured by the scent of a new flower.
Reece didn’t want to follow her around like a puppy. He headed for Max, whose redheaded partner turned out to be Allie, who was soon to become a part of the Remington family by marrying Cooper.
“Did you steal Cooper’s girl already?” he asked when he reached the dancing couple.
“Reece! I didn’t expect to see you here.” Allie stopped dancing long enough to give Reece a kiss on the cheek.
No, a party was usually the last place anyone expected to find Reece, the family stick-in-the-mud. “I came with Sara.” Just in case Max had any ideas about poaching.
Max looked a bit perplexed by that declaration, but Allie grinned widely. “Too cool. Wanna dance? Cooper’s all tied up with boat talk.” She nodded toward the ocean, where a group of men, including Cooper, were eyeing a beautiful cruiser that seemed to be made of more glass than anything.
“Sure, I’ll dance.” Dancing wasn’t his thing, either, but he took a fortifying gulp of beer and made himself do it. Tonight he was Party Man.
Allie shooed Max away. “Go ask her,” she said in a loud stage whisper. “I know you’re dying to.”
Reece set down his beer, anchoring the cup in the sand and hoping it didn’t get kicked over, then took both of Allie’s hands in a proper, sisterly dance. Someone had put an oldies CD in the boom box, so they hammed it up, pretending to do the jitterbug when neither of them had a clue how.
He watched Max from the corner of his eye, though. His cousin approached a raven-haired beauty who sat alone in a lawn chair, a darling, blond-headed toddler playing in the sand at her feet.
