Chapter 47
Drivingwith an enormous cooler occupying her entire backseat, Sam was drumming on the steering wheel as she waited for Natalia to open her ostentatious gate. She’d been singing at the top of her lungs since she woke up before sunrise, jet lag put to excellent use.
Once beyond the threshold, Sam parked at the front door. She’d intended to get down and pick Natalia up, but she was already walking out in heels and a dress. Sam looked down at her board shorts and tank top and realized that she should have given Natalia a dress code.
Jumping out of the car, Sam jogged toward Natalia, kissing her cheek. “I should have told you to wear rubber-soled shoes.”
Natalia narrowed her gaze, unamused.
Sam grinned, exhilarated at the sight of Natalia, even if she’d annoyed her. Especially because she’d annoyed her.
“Will you tell me where we’re going then?” Natalia propped her hand on her hip.
Sam couldn’t stop smiling. “To my midlife crisis.”
Natalia waited expectantly, unsatisfied with the clue.
“Okay, okay. I guess you’ll find out in a bit, anyway.” She ran her hands through her hair, already damp from sweat after being outside of air conditioner range for a few minutes. “I want to take you out on the boat.”
Natalia pursed her lips. “You could have told me that before I styled my hair,” she complained, but didn’t refuse to go.
Without a word, she turned and started inside. In the foyer, Natalia opened the small drawer in a console table. She tossed an unprepared Sam a key before pulling off her shoes and going upstairs. “Can you drive a stick?”
Sam’s jaw dropped in exaggerated offense. “Can I drive a stick? Have you even met me?”
Natalia didn’t look back at her while she strode upstairs. “Go take it out of the garage.”
As if she was supposed to know where anything was, Sam made her best guess where the garage was in a house the size of an apartment complex. She was starting down a corridor on the far side of the front of the house when something familiar snagged her attention.
On display in Natalia’s vaulted-ceiling great room was a small painting among the likes of Carmen Herrera and Frida Kahlo. A contribution from the UK Sam had selected with great care.
Charged with so much energy she practically bounded down the sun-drenched hall, Sam’s chest stretched to snapping. Promise and possibility were the break-neck rhythm of her pulse as she tried two doors before finding the garage.
“No shit,” Sam muttered to herself with a laugh because she needed somewhere to put all of her excitement before Natalia re-emerged.
The last thing Sam expected to find in Natalia’s garage was a pristine, vintage, white Jeep. All at once, she felt the overwhelming desire to know everything about Natalia. To understand all the parts she kept hidden from the world and guard them jealously.
She neared the unexpected sight, a heavy door slamming shut behind her. Without the top, the two-door Jeep was effortlessly cool. Its upholstered beige interior was in the same perfect shape as everything else. There wasn’t a single blemish on any part of the relic. It was so perfect, Sam wasn’t even sure the thing would run.
She hit the button for the black glass garage door and jumped into the driver’s seat. Running her hands over the supple beige leather on the steering wheel, she was Alicia Silverstone cruising through the Southern California hills.
With the garage rumbling open, Sam stepped on the clutch and turned the key in the ignition. The engine roared to life, sending a giddy jolt through Sam’s body. She almost regretted her midlife crisis choice and wished instead she’d gotten a Jeep.
It had been a decade since she’d driven a manual car, but the moment she put the Jeep in gear, it rolled forward with only a tiny stutter. She did a few circles around Natalia’s enormous driveway before feeling sure that she wouldn’t embarrass herself by scratching the transmission in Natalia’s presence.
Pulling on her sunglasses, Sam climbed out of the Jeep and starting transferring stuff from the Subaru to the Jeep’s open trunk. She was tossing in the last thing, a tote bag with supplies, when Natalia reappeared.
Dressed in pale blue linen shorts and a white long-sleeved linen shirt, Natalia looked like a movie star behind her dark sunglasses and wide-brimmed hat. In her relaxed state, she was even more stunning than usual.
“I see you managed to get it out of the garage,” Natalia said with something like approval.
“We might even make it to Key Biscayne,” she replied with a wiggle in her brows. It took every ounce of willpower not to scoop Natalia up and kiss her, but she had to play it cool. Her emotions were already slipping from her grasp.
Sam started toward the passenger door to open it for Natalia before she stopped her. Reaching for something in a large purse too nice to subject to sea water, Natalia pulled out a bottle of sunscreen.
“I don’t want to hear you whining like a little baby or looking like a bruised tomato,” she said instead of anything nice.
Sam laughed, her heart soaring to alarming heights. Instead of teasing Natalia about her thoughtfulness, Sam pulled off her tank, remaining in her thin-strapped sports bra. She turned and allowed Natalia to spread the thick, white sunblock that had to be at least SPF 10,000. It took Herculean effort not to turn around and kiss Natalia. To cancel their plans and take her upstairs.
When she’d been coated in the most uncool layer of protectant, Sam held the door open for Natalia. “Sure you don’t want to drive?”
Natalia hesitated before closing the small, windowless door. “If you ever tell anyone this, I’ll never forgive you,” she started with dramatic intensity.
Sam crossed her heart and pretended to zipper her mouth shut.
“I hate driving,” she confessed before reaching for her seatbelt.
Sam laughed, unable to pull back the grin she was sure was too broad. “Well, good thing I love driving. I don’t know why you even bother with the Jag. If I had this thing, I’d never drive anything else.”
“And yet you insist on that thing,” she replied, finger pointing to Sam’s car.
“Well, maybe the stick would get a little old in stop-and-go traffic,” Sam conceded, before starting up the car. “How long have you had this?” She noticed the relatively low miles on a car that had to be from the 1990s.
“Ten years or so,” Natalia replied as they neared the gate. “I wanted an older model, but this one was so expertly refurbished I couldn’t pass it up.” Instead of stopping there, she added, “As a kid, all I wanted was a badass Jeep and a pair of Doc Martens.”
“Get out.” Sam chuckled, skin warm from the sun and breeze starting to whip her hair around when she shifted into third gear and picked up speed. “You had a crush on a girl with one, didn’t you?”
Sam couldn’t see her eyes behind the dark lenses, but she felt Natalia’s gaze land on her. Stealing a glance, it was impossible to miss the ghost of a smile tugging at her lips.
“There may or may not have been a senior when I was a freshman,” she said noncommittally, voice louder to combat the noisy wind cutting through the open Jeep. “Her name was Stacy, and she was the coolest girl I had ever seen in my life.”
“Hey,” Sam feigned offense. “I’m sitting right here.”
Natalia shook her head and leaned it against the backrest, her energy buoyant and alight with threads of nostalgia. “She was absolutely gorgeous.”
“And your little gay heart had it so bad,” Sam guessed.
“So bad,” she agreed instead of denying it.
Exhilarated when Natalia turned up the radio playing an 80s freestyle classic, Sam sang along, feeling drunk on the new energy sparking between them. The drive over the bridge and into Key Biscayne was disappointedly short so early in the morning. Passing the line of trucks and trailers waiting their turn to launch into the water, Sam continued on to Crandon Park Marina.
“I was a full adult before I learned that not all beaches are coarse sand and broken shells,” Sam said while waiting her turn to get into the Marina. “We always went to El Farito.” She pointed behind her, where the only road on the island continued to the distant point where her family went on lucky Sunday beach days. It was all seaweed and artificial reefs and she’d loved every second of it as a kid.
“My father thought going to the beach was pointless,” Natalia divulged to Sam’s surprise.
“Pointless?” Sam tried to wrap her head around the hot take.
Natalia shrugged. “I’ve come to understand he was a small, angry person. He was probably jealous of the sun for shining and the fish for swimming.”
“Jeez.”
“And the Earth would stop its rotation if my mother disagreed with him, so I was seventeen the first time I took several buses to see the beach.” She said it was like she lived in a landlocked state rather than Miami.
“You never went with your friends? School trips?” Sam treaded lightly.
Natalia’s cold laugh was heart-wrenching. “I couldn’t go anywhere if he didn’t go, and he would never have taken off work for something as frivolous as a field trip.” She shifted her hat when they rolled into a shady patch under the Banyan covering the park entrance station. “I’m not sure if it’s ironic or just fucked up that he was the same person who had no qualms about throwing me out onto the street. Maybe I’ve inherited my all-or-nothing sensibilities from him.”
“That was really unfair of him and?—”
“I don’t want to sour this not entirely unpleasant morning,” Natalia said before turning up the volume on a Whitney Houston ballad.
Sam smiled and didn’t push it further. “Well, I’ll bring you to the beach every weekend.”
Natalia shot her the briefest smirk, the top of her eyebrow flashing over the top of her sunglasses. “Haven’t you been listening? I’ll take my damn self to the beach, Professor.”
Sam chuckled, her chest expanding with an unstoppable buzz. “Yeah, you will.”
When they were through, Sam found a parking spot in the lot that was already half full so early in the morning. People who were serious about fishing would have arrived hours ago, but Sam was in the group that wanted to get out on the water to have a little fun and come back before the sunset crowds jammed up the waterway.
Sam grabbed the cooler, extending the handle to tip it onto its wheels while Natalia grabbed the other bags. Together, they walked in the bright, almost-too-hot sun toward her slip. After gaining access with a key card, Sam led them down the long cement walkway toward her boat.
Natalia stopped when Sam did. “Sol Searcher?” She read the white letters scrawled on the back of the navy-blue boat. It was one of the smaller boats in the marina, but it was more than enough for Sam. She’d wanted something only as big as needed to hold a small cabin and a shower tall enough for her to fit in.
“I got her used and it’s bad luck to change a boat’s name,” she replied, trying and failing not to sound defensive.
“Superstitious?” Natalia held her hat when a gust a wind tried to snatch it.
Sam raised both brows and shook her head in disbelief. “Obviously.”
“What made you get a boat?” Natalia asked while Sam lowered herself onto the deck.
“I turned fifty and decided I’d stop dreaming about things I wanted and start doing them.” Sam grabbed one end of the cooler and lowered it into the boat while Natalia held the other. “So I got a full sleeve of tattoos and this lovely lady.” Sam chuckled before divulging the next part. “And I pay way too much money to keep it in a wet slip because I’m fifty and risk-averse and fully terrified of backing a trailer into the water and losing my car to the watery depths.”
Natalia bit back a smile and handed her the bags. “And again, you accuse me of being the control freak.”
“That’s not being a control freak,” she objected.
“Isn’t it?” Natalia handed Sam her purse. “You don’t trust the current because you can’t predict it.”
Sam turned her head to the side, never having thought about it like that before. “Shit, you might be right.”
“Are you going to state the obvious all day, or are you going to invite me on?” Natalia crossed her arms over her chest.
Clearing her throat, Sam extended her hand. “My sincerest apologies, Ms. Flores. Would you please come aboard?”
Natalia ignored Sam’s chivalrous hand and put one white sneaker-covered foot on the edge before placing the other on a seat carved around the outer edge of the deck. Instead of waiting while Sam unfastened the cover protecting the non-fiberglass parts of Sol from the salt and sun, Natalia found the cushions locked in the cabin and put them in the right place before guessing correctly where Sam secured the cooler. With Natalia’s help, they were ready to go in minutes.
“Do you have a boat?” Sam asked while opening the sunshade that covered the helm and the bench seat to the left of the captain’s chair.
“No,” Natalia replied without explaining how she knew her way around, and then pulled out her sunblock before storing her purse in the cabin. “Off with it,” she demanded, pointing at Sam’s shirt.
Sam obliged, but not before hooking her finger in the loop of Natalia’s shorts and pulling her in. “You’re an exceedingly good crew member.”
Natalia’s face didn’t betray her thoughts. “Professor, I’m beginning to think you’re not paying very much attention. I’m good at everything.” She kissed her before Sam could react and then yanked off her shirt and slathered her in a redundant layer of protection.
The trip to Sam’s favorite spot was an easy hour over smooth waters. It was a secluded spot far off from a popular sandbar, but close enough to be surrounded by clear, blue water that was perfect for swimming.
“There’s no reception out here?” Natalia asked while glancing down at her phone.
“I know,” Sam replied with a mischievous grin. “Isn’t it amazing?” She plucked the phone out of Natalia’s hand and tossed it onto the captain’s seat. “You have no choice but to relax,” she added, revealing her master plan.
“Are ambushes relaxing to you?” Natalia couldn’t sell her feigned distress. There was too much flickering joy in her tone.
“It depends.” She started unbuttoning Natalia’s shirt to reveal a white bathing suit. “Are you the one ambushing me?”
“You think you’re so cute.” Natalia took over peeling off her clothing to reveal a mouthwatering, stylish one-piece with the sides cut out. Sleek and elegant and expensive, like Natalia.
Stunned into silence exactly like Natalia probably intended, Sam was helpless to do anything but receive the discarded clothing Natalia handed her and watch her move like liquid glass stepping out onto the platform covering the propellers and diving smoothly into the water.
A grin crept onto Sam’s lips. She tossed the clothes on one of the bench seats, tore off her shirt, and dove into the cool water after her.