Page 2 of Here & Now

The cottage was decorated in various shades of blue and white, complementing the beach theme. It was a modest, three-bedroom home, especially compared to the luxury beachfront homes nearby, but to Bree, it was a slice of paradise.

She wheeled her suitcase through the living room and down the hall to the bedrooms. As a child, she’d always stayed in the smallest bedroom with her sister, Ivy. This time, she had her choice of rooms, including the largest one, which had belonged to her grandparents.

Somehow, she couldn’t bring herself to go in there, though, not yet. She wheeled her case into the second bedroom instead and set it beside the dresser. As she peered out the window into the backyard and lanai, she was flooded with happy memories.

She’d spent hours there, splashing in the pool with her family and lounging beside it as a teenager. The peacefulness of the scene beckoned to her, but first, she needed to bring in the rest of her luggage.

An hour later, after putting away her things and pulling on her bathing suit, she was lying on a lounge chair, with a book in hand and a bottled water on the table beside her.

After the stress of the recent weeks, this was heaven. With the sun streaming in through the screen, the pool water glistening, and the palm trees swaying in the breeze, it almost felt like a vacation, but it wasn’t one. Still, since she was here, she was going to soak up the sunshine while she could.

She opened the book, a summer romance novel she’d picked up at the airport, and tried to immerse herself in the story. She hadn’t slept well the past few days, and after the flight and driving to Sanibel, she was more tired than she’d realized. Soon she gave up reading and set the book down. I’ll just rest for a few minutes.

Sometime later, she awoke to the sound of a loud splash. Her eyes popped open, but there wasn’t so much as a ripple on the surface of the pool. I must have been dreaming, she thought and closed her eyes again.

She heard it again, and shaking off the cobwebs, she stood and walked over to the left side of the lanai to investigate. A variety of bushes and a lemon tree separated her grandparents’ yard from the neighbors’, but she made out a male form swimming across the pool. His arms moved fluidly through the water, and his trim, tanned legs kicked, propelling him forward.

She expected him to turn and swim back to the other end of the pool, and she didn’t want to be standing there when he did. As she started to turn away, he hoisted himself out of the pool, using his own strength instead of the ladder, and she froze, mesmerized by the sight of his wet, hard body. Luckily, he didn’t turn and catch her staring. Instead, he bent over, picked up a towel from a nearby chair, and started drying off.

Trying to peer through the foliage was a challenge, so she kept moving to get a better view.

First, he dried his hair, rubbing it vigorously until it stood on end. Then he moved the towel to his broad shoulders and slid it back and forth, flexing his neck and upper-back muscles.

Next, he propped a leg up on the chair and ran the towel down it. He repeated the process on the other leg, filling her vision with his tight buns in black swim trunks.

She was taking a big risk, standing there and gawking when he might catch her at any moment, yet she couldn’t tear herself away. Besides, what was the harm in it? Eye candy wasn’t just for men, and if she were quiet, he’d never even know she was there.

He wrapped the towel around his waist and started to turn around. She took a step back, forgetting there was a lounge chair behind her and crashed into it. The chair legs scraped across the cement, and she grunted loudly as she stumbled.

“Hello?” he called, sounding much closer than she’d expected.

“Shit, shit, shit!” she muttered as she finally righted herself. She saw a flash of the white towel, and then he was peering in at her through the screen.

“It’s you again,” he said, looking amused.

She grimaced. “Hi.”

His gaze flicked down, and she remembered what she was wearing, her “laying out in the sun in private” bathing suit. It was a skimpy blue and white striped bikini that she never wore in public because she was too self-conscious.

She was desperate to cover up, but her towel was on the lounge chair on the other side of the lanai.

“Are you okay?”

This was the second time he’d asked her that, and she was starting to get irritated by it. Placing her hands on her hips, she said, “Yes, I’m fine. I just bumped into the chair, that’s all.”

His gaze drifted down to her legs. It was one thing to gawk at somebody through the bushes, but it bordered on rude when you were face to face. She cleared her throat loudly to get his attention.

He looked up. “You’re bleeding.”

She glanced down at her legs and saw what he’d been staring at. A thin line of blood trickled down her leg from a cut on her knee. “Shit!”

He chuckled, and she scowled at him.

“Sorry,” he said.

Temporarily forgetting about her bikini, she crouched down by the pool, reached her hands in, and cupped some water. She splashed it on her leg to rinse off the blood and then slowly stood, hoping he might have left. No such luck.

“If we’re going to be neighbors, we might as well introduce ourselves.”