Summer Lovin'

Scared of how an emotion as intense as love could change her life and threaten the freedom she held so dear.

He'd just have to take her fears as a challenge to overcome.

* * *

ZOE STRETCHED OUT on the lounge chair by the pool at Ryan's parents' house. She couldn't say she was comfortable with his mother and grandmother sitting beneath an umbrella on the opposite side of the patio, alternately staring and whispering. She felt like a pariah at a party.

But then she'd turned and looked at Ryan, who lay beside her in swimming trunks, and decided life could be much, much worse. His tanned chest was a magnet for her hungry gaze and she devoured him from behind her sunglasses.

Only she knew she'd spent the night in his bed. He'd managed to coax her into forgetting their intense conversation and making love, not once, but twice last night and then again this morning. Each time he'd come inside her, he'd shuddered and whispered her name, soft and low in her ear. He'd made her insides turn to mush, made liquid trickle between her thighs so she could clasp him in moist heat. Zoe crossed her legs and felt that sensitive spot tingle and shoot desire straight to her core.

As a distraction, she tried to focus on the afternoon sun, which beat down hard, but her mind strayed back to their too-serious conversation last night. What he was coming to mean to her, and her to him. And why she needed to back off.

Zoe shivered despite the hot sun. She grabbed for the sunscreen and slathered lotion on her arms and chest. All the while, she felt Ryan watching her, too.

'Hey, Zoe!' Sam yelled.

She glanced up, shielding her eyes with her hand so she could better see the teenager's antics.

'Cannonball!' Sam yelled and jumped, grabbing her knees midair prior to hitting the water, which splashed over all the chairs drenching everything in sight.

Thanks to the heat Ryan generated, Zoe didn't mind the cold shower. His mother, on the other hand, rose from her seat and shook her arms in fury.

'Samantha, there are other people in the vicinity!' Vivian chided.

'Sorry, Mrs. Baldwin.' Sam said the words in a singsong voice that failed to sound sincere.

The older woman, clad in a too-formal summer dress, glanced at Ryan. 'Does the child have to call me that? I sound like a stranger.'

'You are,' Zoe muttered beneath her breath.

'What would you like Sam to call you?' Ryan asked.

That question seemed to stump his mother and she grew oddly quiet.

'How 'bout I call you Grandma?' Sam asked, stepping out of the pool.

Zoe chuckled. The kid might not want anything to do with Ryan's family, but she definitely knew how to push all the right buttons to annoy them.

'Why don't you just call her Vivian?' Ryan suggested.

Any replies were interrupted by shrieks from the side of the house.

'Oh, no.' Zoe ran, Ryan ahead of her, and the others followed.

They rounded the corner and Zoe nearly barreled into Ryan who'd stopped short. His grandmother stood on a white wrought-iron bench, pointing at the ground and shrieking.

'Mother, what's wrong?' Vivian asked.

'It's…it's…there's a rat in my roses,' she screamed loudly. 'Call Hilton,' she said. Hilton, Zoe now knew, was the butler.

Nobody pointed out that, even in her panicked state, Grandma Edna directed that the butler be called to help when there were perfectly capable family members standing around uselessly. Meanwhile, Grandma Edna still gesticulated wildly with her hands.

'Have him call a terminator,' the older woman shouted.

'I think you mean an exterminator.'

Zoe turned to see Uncle Russ had joined the fray.

'I'm sure it's not a rat,' Vivian said, calming her mother and helping her down from the bench.

Zoe met Ryan's gaze.

'I'm quite sure it isn't,' he said, somehow keeping a straight face.

Despite the insanity around them, they shared intimate eye contact, causing her insides to curl with warmth.

'I thought we told you to keep the pig caged in the shade on the other side of the house,' Zoe whispered to Sam who stood wrapped in a towel behind her.

'I dunno what happened. Maybe I didn't lock the cage good enough,' she said, too innocently.

Zoe cringed and waited for the fallout while Ryan dug around the garden for the pig. Zoe vividly recalled the moment in her own mother's garden when he'd de scribed the prized roses, and decided all hope of keeping the peace, and Ryan on their side, was lost.

He might have found the situation amusing at first, but he couldn't possibly find humor in the repercussions. So much for attempting a pleasant afternoon that would please Sam, Zoe thought.

'There it is!' Grandma Edna yelled and pointed to the ground just as Ima made her escape from the roses and ran across the lawn, Sam in hot pursuit.

Vivian reached into her pocket for a vial that Grandma Edna referred to as her smelling salts, though Zoe didn't see why she needed them when she hadn't passed out.

Ryan rose and brushed off his hands, then bent to check on his grandmother.

'Care to explain that, that thing?' Vivian asked through tightly clenched teeth.

'That's Sam's pet,' Ryan explained.

'If it wasn't a rat, then what was it?' Grandma Edna asked as she fanned herself with a magazine Uncle Russ had held in his hand.

'Could I convince you it was a dog, ma'am?' Zoe pasted on her broadest smile.

Nobody laughed, especially after Zoe launched into an explanation of the Vietnamese potbellied pig.

As a group, they trudged back to the pool area. Although Ryan wanted to pack up and leave and Zoe was all too happy to agree, Uncle Russ insisted they stay. He'd just returned from the Boston store. An emergency, he'd said, and he wanted his share of time with both Ryan and Sam.

Zoe couldn't help but feel excluded, but she reminded herself it was an omen of things to come. She'd better get used to it now. She wasn't a member of this family, didn't want to be, and would never fit in, anyway. She was here for Sam and when Sam no longer needed her for the transition, and it was safe back home, they'd have to talk to Social Services, say their goodbyes and…

And would Sam return here? Zoe's insides roiled.

'So I thought that since you're a member of this family, you would want the same piece of jewelry both Vivian and Grandmother Edna have,' Uncle Russ was saying to Sam.

Zoe hadn't realized the teen had returned from rescuing Ima, but she had the pig packed safely in her carrier.

Russ held out a small jewelry box with the word Baldwin's inscribed on top and Sam accepted the gift.

'What is it?' she asked.

'Take a look.'

'I can't believe he bought Sam a gift,' Ryan said under his breath in awe. For all Uncle Russ's support, even he hadn't yet shown this kind of compassion for Faith's child.

With cautious excitement and shaking hands, Sam opened the gray box. 'It's a B,' she said slowly. 'A necklace.' Her voice dropped, the enthusiasm gone.

'I thought having it would make you feel more a part of us,' Uncle Russ said.

'I already have a necklace,' Sam said dully.

Ryan's mouth grew dry.

''Thank you' would be more appropriate,' Zoe coached her and Ryan nodded in appreciation.