It took a couple of minutes for Lilly to realize she was being drawn away from the crowd, Alec walking through the water while towing her toward a small bubble in the pool’s lagoon shape. In the meager light, she couldn’t make out his expression—or intention.
“What’s this about?” she asked, as he slipped into his own float. His hand found hers, securing them close together as they bobbed gently, their own small oasis. “What are you doing?” It definitely felt isolated, with the rest of the people grouped at the other end of the water, their collective attention centered on the movie.
“Trying to keep you on your toes,” he said.
“I’m on my ass in the water,” Lilly countered.
He laughed. “It’s part of my plan to keep you off guard, if you must know the truth.”
“Why?” she asked, suspicious.
“Because of that wary face of yours, is why.” He squeezed her fingers. “For once, just relax. Enjoy the warm pool, the company, the stars coming out overhead.”
At that, she tipped her head back and saw them just beginning to wink through the palm fronds that quivered in the light breeze.
“Isn’t this nice?” he said. “It makes one wonder what more one needs out of life.”
“Mmm,” Lilly said, squinting upward to see if she could identify Orion’s Belt or the Big Dipper.
“What is it you want, Lilly?” he asked, in a musing tone. “Out of life, that is.”
“A hefty retirement fund, a mortgage I have a hope of paying off someday, good, affordable healthcare.”
He had no immediate response, the only sound the water lapping against the sides of their flotation devices and the soundtrack of the film droning on, far enough away that she couldn’t distinguish actual dialogue.
“You really aren’t a romantic,” Alec said a while later.
“Didn’t I make that clear?” Because paradise, to her, wasn’t people, or a particular relationship, but financial security. The certainty that she’d have a roof over her head and food to eat was the only thing she’d marry, if she could.
“Some guys in high school and college must have tried to put you in that frame of mind.”
“I didn’t spend time with guys unless it was at my part-time jobs or in study groups.”
“And now that you’re part of the working world?”
“I told you from the beginning. I don’t have the time or the inclination for romance.”
“That’s just plain sad, sugar.”
“Why? It’s okay for you. Why isn’t it okay for me?”
He let the question lie and she thought a smug, gotcha.
“I’m beginning to think it’s just plain sad for me, too,” Alec finally said.
Ignoring the sentiment and the weird clutch in her chest, she settled lower, resting her head on the inflated edge of the ring. Her eyes closed. Alec’s hand kept her from drifting away and she allowed her fingers to rest in his, for the first time in his presence her nerves almost settling.
“This is nice,” she heard herself say.
“Agreed,” he said. “You know what else is nice? La Casa Blanca. The Mexican place around the corner from Carol’s Coffee. We should meet there for California burritos next week.”
Lilly tensed. “We’re not going to do that,” she said. His hand tightened as she tried to pull her fingers free of his. “After we leave the resort, we’re never going to see each other again.”
“You can’t imagine you’re going to be all alone for the rest of your life, Lilly.”
But she had imagined that! Oh, there would be Audra and Audra’s husband someday and Audra’s kids after that, a family of sorts—a family who would never be totally hers, but that would be enough. “Alec—”
“What’s it going to take for you to fall in love?” he asked.
The question hit her with the power of a rogue wave. Instantly, she felt like a swimmer on the verge of drowning, her heart thrashing and her lungs ready to burst. She couldn’t put voice to her panic. There would be no falling. Definitely there would be no falling.
Because that led to crashing. Shattering. Sticky residue dripping down a wall. Shards of glass strewn across the floor.
This is how Durands love.
Alec’s voice lowered, but she could still hear it over the thundering of her pulse in her ears. “You know what I think? I think, deep down, you know exactly what it’s going to take.”
Anxiety knotted in her belly. “I don’t…there isn’t…”
He talked over her babble. “And sooner than later, Lilly Durand, you’ll trust me enough to tell me what it is you truly need—or maybe I’ll just figure it out for myself.”
Her throat seized as she tried to force words through it. Why was he saying these things? This had to stop. This had to stop now.
Suddenly Alec’s attention jerked away from her. His head craned in the direction of new sounds.
Raised voices, coming from the direction of where those landlubbers of the anniversary party had elected to stay in their poolside lounge chairs.
Lilly glanced that way too, taking in raucous tones and hair a belligerent shade of red not found in nature. Aunt Mariellen, she thought, on another flood of panic.
“Christ,” Alec muttered. “I don’t see my dad. I better go rescue my mom. You stay here.” He twisted out of his float and then vaulted from the pool in a single powerful move.
As he hurried off, Lilly tipped from her own device, then rushed through the water toward the steps, only to halt as she realized that it wasn’t her aunt who was talking in an over-loud voice to Miranda Thatcher, but someone Lilly didn’t recognize. A stranger.
Though massively relieved, she stayed on the move, snatching up her sarong, donning her flip-flops, grabbing an oversized beach towel from the stack on a nearby table, then making for the nearest exit. It would be best to get away from Alec and his strange and alarming turn of conversation. What’s it going to take for you to fall in love?
Cringing all over again at the question,
