“I did,” Grey said as she slipped into the banquette at the table opposite Lauren.
“In college?”
“High school.” Grey grinned. “I grew up swimming competitively so the lifeguard thing was a natural fit. And, as an added bonus, I got paid to ogle all the girls in bikinis. Win-win.”
“Sounds like it,” Lauren chuckled. “You’re lucky. I waited tables at the local country club through high school. Not a bikini in sight, there. But, well, I probably wouldn’t have wanted to seethe old women who came into the club’s dining room in bikinis. Were you any good?”
Grey smirked. “At ogling girls?”
“At swimming.” Lauren rolled her eyes. “We’re all good at ogling girls, Wells.”
“I was all right.” Grey shrugged modestly. “Made zones pretty much every year, but once I got to San Diego, I realized I would rather spend my free time sailing rather than swimming laps, so I gave up racing.”
“Do you still swim, like, just for fun?”
Grey nodded and let her attention drift back toward the water. “I usually hit the water in the morning before everybody wakes up. I just haven’t these last few days because… Well, you know.”
“Yeah,” Lauren murmured, casting an apologetic look in Grey’s direction. “I’m sorry about that.”
Grey waved off the apology. “It’s not your fault. It was just a lot for me to wrap my head around.”
“I’ll bet,” Lauren agreed.
“Yeah.” Grey ran her hands through her hair and sighed. “You look so much like Emily that it just kind of threw me for a loop. Ya know?”
Lauren nodded understandingly. “How did you guys meet?”
“Kelly Kipling set us up.” Grey smiled at the memory. “She threw herself a birthday party at the Schooner, one of her family’s hotels on Saint Thomas, and I was on my way to the bar to get a drink when I saw Emily. I remember thinking to myself how beautiful she was, and then when Kip introduced us...that was it for me. I was hooked.”
“Love at first sight,” Lauren said, smiling wistfully at Grey’s story.
Grey nodded. “Pretty much. Anyways, after about a year of seeing each other whenever I was on the island, she quit her job as an advertising rep for Kip and became my first mate.”
“How long were you two together?”
“Three years, four months, and thirteen days.” Grey’s gaze grew unfocused as she stared out over the water, and she cleared her throat softly. “Can we, uh, talk about something else?”
“Of course.”
“It’s not that I don’t want to tell you about her, it’s just that it’s…”
“It’s fine, Grey,” Lauren assured her gently. “I get it. This whole situation is pretty strange.”
“You could say that again.”
Lauren nodded. “So…what’s your favorite movie?”
Grey arched a brow at Lauren, clearly passing judgment on her choice in conversational topics. “Wind.”
Lauren chuckled. “I should have known that you’d pick a movie about sailing.”
“Have you ever even seen it?”
“Um, yeah, Jennifer Grey is in it.”
Grey smiled. “Okay, how about you? What’s your favorite movie?No Reservations?”
“Ha, no.” Lauren shook her head. “I mean, I’m always up for some Catherine Zeta-Jones, but no. That movie was awful. Um…I’d have to go withThe Cutting Edge.” She saw the smirk that tweaked Grey’s lips before the brunette covered it with her hand and looked away, and she pointed a warning finger at her. “Don’t laugh!”
