She shook her head. “I don’t think so. Ever since I was Coco’s age I’ve been so focused, so set on a certain course. But lately—and I mean, in the past couple of years, long before all this switched-at-birth business—it’s like the ground has been slowly giving way beneath my feet. I honestly do want a different sort of life now.”
Did he believe her? Not really. No way was she giving up the dazzling career she’d worked so hard to create. She was just going through a tough time. It would pass and she would go back to Hollywood to make another megahit movie and accept a second Oscar to keep the first one company.
He would miss her when she left. Miss her a whole hell of a lot. In the week and a half since he’d first come face-to-face with her, she’d wormed her way under his skin. How had he let that happen?
Not that it mattered at this point.
What mattered now was that it was too late to get away from her painlessly.
He might as well enjoy himself for as long as it lasted.
“Here,” he said. “Give me that beer.”
She wrinkled her nose at him, bratty and contrary, the way Coco got sometimes. “I’m not finished with it.”
“I’ll return it to you later.” He snatched it from her hand.
“Hey!” She tried to grab it back.
He held on. They scuffled over it, laughing like a couple of witless idiots. She got hold of his arm and shook it hard enough that she ended up with beer all down the front of her shirt.
“Now look what you did.” She stepped back and braced her hands on her hips, going full-out Coco in a snit. “Sten Larson, I smell like a brewery.”
He took the bottles by their necks, one-handed, and used the other hand to shove open the screen. “We’ll fix that. Come on.” He set off across the deck.
“Sten!”
He kept walking, aware of her footfalls behind him as he ran down the stairs and across the beach, not pausing until he was a few feet from where the waves slid in and retreated, leaving lacy trails of foam behind. Bending, he twisted the bottles into dry sand so they stood upright, side by side.
Maddy came even with him just as he was pulling off one of his boots. “What are you up to now?” She had her head tipped to the side, her hair blowing every which way, watching him.
“I’m going wading in the ocean.” He slipped off his sock and stuck it in the top of the boot.
“Are you crazy? The water’s got to be freezing.”
“It’s fine. Around fifty degrees this time of year. You’d have to be submerged to get hypothermia and it would take an hour or so for that to happen.”
“Well, aren’t you the expert? And fifty is cold!”
“Don’t be a big sissy,” he said under his breath as he pulled off the other shoe and the sock, too.
She stuck out that obstinate chin at him. “What did you call me?”
He dropped both boots next to the propped-up bottles and crouched to roll up his pant legs. “Your beer’s right there when you want it.” He grabbed his from the sand and waded out into the leading edge of the next wave, not looking back or stopping until the water lapped at his shins.
She was right. It was colder than usual. He wouldn’t last that long barefoot. But he was counting on her to get her shoes off and join him.
His toes were only half-frozen when he heard her splashing behind him, giggling as she approached, shrieking, “Oh! Cold! Yikes! Chilly.”
He turned, whipped out a hand and grabbed her—catching the wrist that didn’t have a beer attached to it. She shrieked again as he pulled her close and kissed her. She tasted so sweet, of laughter and beer.
“Cold,” she giggled against his lips, her hair blowing in both their faces, getting caught between their mouths as she launched herself upward. He read her intention, catching her with his free hand, giving her a boost as she hitched up her legs and hooked her ankles around his waist.
Carrying her now, he forged off along the water’s edge, the waves lapping at him. He had one hand under her fine little butt, the other still clutching his beer at her back, still kissing her as she clung like a barnacle to the front of him.
“Yum,” she said when he lifted his mouth. She opened her eyes and grinned at him as she shoved her flying hair back behind an ear. It quickly blew free and plastered itself across her mouth again. “Suddenly, I feel much better about everything.”
He kissed her again, a quick one that time. “A walk along the water’s edge will do that for you.”
