“Sure.” Carly paused, not understanding what she’d said that was so wrong. She started to ask, but he quickly disappeared into the crowd before she could say boo.
Had his plans changed? Had he taken up another profession? No, he’d been far too passionate about archeology. Of course he’d been young, too young to etch anything in stone. Anyway, that would be no reason to be touchy.
“Who’s the hunk?” Ginger came from behind, fanning herself. “Damn, I’m hot. I hope that’s for me.”
Carly automatically passed her the mai tai, while continuing to stare into the crowd. “His name is Rick. Rick Baxter.”
“Whoa, you guys are on a last-name basis already. I thought that was a no-no.”
“I know him. I mean, we didn’t just meet tonight.”
“No joke? How bizarre.” Ginger took a huge sip and then used the damp cocktail napkin clinging to the bottom of the glass to wipe her neck. “You know him from school?”
Carly sighed. “No, from back home.”
“Good God, girlfriend, you have guys who look like that living in Oroville?”
“No, he doesn’t live there. He visited his grandmother for two summers. But that was over ten years ago.”
“Wow! Imagine running into him here.”
“He’s the one who told me about this place, or at least these islands.” Carly smiled remembering his enthusiasm. “He showed me stacks of snapshots he and his parents had taken. I knew then I’d come here someday.” She lost the smile. “I just didn’t expect to run into him.”
Ginger muttered a mild curse. “This doesn’t blow things for you, does it? I mean, are you gonna be worried that he’s watching you or something?”
She looked at Ginger and laughed, hysteria bubbling up inside her. Worried? She was terrified.
2
“THIS ISN’T GOING to work, girlfriend,” Ginger said around a yawn as she crawled into bed.
Carly had already snuggled into her own queen-size bed. She’d brushed her teeth but hadn’t washed her face. She’d regret it in the morning, but right now she didn’t have the energy. It had been one heck of a long night.
“I give up,” she said, her eyes closed and the covers up to her chin. she felt too tired to guess what her friend was talking about. “What isn’t going to work?”
“This vacation. The whole idea of doing whatever you damn well please. You were so nervous tonight I thought I’d have to pour a couple of dozen mai tais down your throat.”
“Maybe you should have,” Carly murmured. It was true. After seeing Rick, she had spent a good deal of time looking over her shoulder. Jumping at the sound of every male voice that got too close.
“What are you going to do about it?” Ginger turned off the lamp at her bedside.
Welcome darkness washed over Carly. “I don’t know.”
“Maybe you should talk to him. You know, level with him about what you’re doing here.”
Carly started to laugh and then rolled over onto her side before she choked. “Yeah, right.”
“I didn’t mean you should tell him everything. Just that your being here isn’t something you’d like broadcast.”
“I don’t have to worry about that. He has no reason to go to Oroville or to talk with anyone there. It’s just hard knowing he could be watching me move in on some guy.”
Ginger laughed. “I’d like to see that myself.”
“Go ahead and joke. Your vacation hasn’t been ruined.”
“Oh, God, Carly, I’m sorry. I know how long you’ve waited for this week. There’s got to be something we can do.”
It wasn’t as if Carly hadn’t been thinking about a solution nonstop. Inevitably she’d feel self-conscious just knowing he was at the resort. Always wondering if he was watching her. Wondering if he was disappointed in her. Sure, he’d stayed in Oroville for two summers but he didn’t understand the mentality of the residents. Or how it felt to be under a microscope as the town pastor’s daughter.
“Carly, you still awake?”
“Yep.”
“Did you and Rick ever sleep together?”
“Good grief, no. I was only thirteen the last time I saw him. I think I still believed the stork delivered me.”
“Bet you had a crush on him.”
“Well, yeah. He was the mysterious older man.”
They both laughed, and then Ginger asked, “So what are you going to do?”
“Excellent question.” Sighing, she took her frustration out by punching her pillow into shape, and then went back to staring at the ceiling. “Maybe I ought to seduce him.”
“There you go.”
“I was kidding.”
“Why? He’s hot.”
Carly groaned. “He knows my parents.”
“So? You just said he has no reason to go to Oroville or talk with anyone there.”
“But he could.”
“That’s lame.”
Carly rolled back over and glared into the darkness toward Ginger. “Would you? If a guy popped up who knew you and your parents and where you went to church and shopped for groceries, would you go for it?”
After a lengthy silence, she said, “Well, I might skip the anything goes approach…”
“Then your answer is basically no.”
“I see your point.”
“Thank you,” Carly said tightly, so wide-awake it was pathetic.
“Carly?”
“Yeah?”
“Since you’re not interested, do you mind if I have a go at him?”
Carly’s eyes widened. Why should she care? Yet she had a sudden urge to pull every one of Ginger’s red hairs out one by one.
WET SAND squished between Carly’s toes and the sun beat down on her shoulders. She’d applied a copious amount of sun block all over her body but it wasn’t really the sun’s harmful rays she was worried about. Parts of her that would be exposed once she removed the sarong should never see the light of day.
“I can’t do it,” she said, and came to a dead stop.
Ginger took a couple of extra steps and then turned to glare at her. “Do what?”
“You know what.”
“Are you still fretting over that swimsuit?”
“It’s not a swimsuit. It’s dental floss and two cotton balls.”
Ginger groaned. “For God’s sake, it’s not like everyone on the island isn’t wearing them.”
Carly slid a sideways glance at two young women, both blondes, out of the bottle was Carly’s guess, sprawled on hot-pink beach blankets only a couple of yards from the water. One lay on her stomach, and the other on her side. They both had perfect butts. Round and firm-looking, as if they worked out daily. On them the dental floss looked good.
Too good.
“I’m going back to the room and changing.” She got as far as turning