“Totally hot,” she said, and kissed him again to prove her point.
While Whelan uncorked and poured the wine, Traci sorted out the contents of the picnic lunch that had been packed at the restaurant.
She opened a waxed paper packet and examined the sandwich, which was on a brioche bun. “Looks like turkey, Havarti, and fig jam. Also arugula.” She looked over at Whelan. “Do you have strong feelings about arugula?”
“Nope. I’m arugula neutral.” He took the sandwich and bit into it, nodding approval.
She doled out bags of chips and a container of crudités with hummus, then unwrapped another sandwich. “This one’s chicken, Swiss, and avocado.”
“All for you, my sweet,” he said, handing her a plastic cup of wine.
She ate her sandwich and at one point he leaned over and dabbed a bit of mayonnaise from her lower lip, letting his fingertip trail down her neck until she shivered with pleasure.
“This is the classiest picnic I’ve ever been on,” Whelan commented. “We should do this more often.” He clicked his plastic wine cup against hers.
“And last, but not least, we have brownies,” she said, lifting a box from the bottom of the cooler. “Felice makes the most decadent desserts ever.”
He took a brownie, broke off half, and gave it to her. “I am a huge proponent of decadence. Desserts, and otherwise.”
Traci was about to bite into her half of the brownie when she heard her cell phone ringing from within her beach bag.
“Oh God.” She rummaged through the towels, cover-up, water bottles, lip balm, and sunscreen before unearthing it from the depths of the bag. “This should be my lawyer.”
“Traci? I think I have some good news for you,” Plankenhorn said.
“How? What?”
“It’s too complicated to discuss on the phone. I’m actually headed your way.”
“Right now? I’m at the beach, but I can be home and showered in about half an hour.”
“No rush. I’m bringing someone with me, and I need to go pick them up first,” Andy said.
Whelan was already standing, folding up his lounge chair. “I take it we’re leaving?”
“Sorry. That was Andy Plankenhorn. He says he’s got good news and he’s on the way to my place, and he’s bringing someone with him.”
“We can have another picnic soon, to celebrate your good news,” Whelan said. He leaned over and kissed her again, then began repacking the cooler.
CHAPTER 58
“Can you do me a favor?” Traci asked Whelan as she pulled the golf cart into her driveway. “I need to shower off really fast before my lawyer gets here.”
“And you need me to scrub your back?”
“Not today,” she said, laughing at the hopeful expression on his face. “But if you’ll unload the golf cart and put everything in the garage, that would be great.”
“Consider it done,” Whelan said.
When she emerged from the shower dressed in jeans and a T-shirt with her hair still damp, she found him standing in the kitchen, still bare-chested, with a beach towel slung around his hips. He was unloading the remnants of their picnic from the cooler.
“Just take the rest of that home with you,” she told him.
“Even the brownies?”
“Maybe leave me just one?”
“You got it. I hosed off the beach chairs and umbrella and stashed them in the garage. I also tried to bribe Lola with a treat, but I think she’s still highly suspicious of me.”
