SIX
“LUNCH!”
Second time around was just as startling.
Zane closed his laptop and dumped it on the couch to pounce onto his feet. “We’re going Mediterranean today… I saw the ciabatta proving last night.”
She sank back in her seat. “If I eat with you, will I get back to this desk today?”
On his way over, he pushed his linked fingers away from his body, cracking his knuckles. “Probably not, I have a whole bunch of questions lined up for you.”
As he came around the desk, she turned her chair his way and didn’t argue when he bowed to pick up her hands to ease her onto her feet.
“I have work to do.”
“Me too,” he said, linking his fingers between hers. “Something we have in common.”
Funny.
On the terrace, the chaises remained in the same position as the day before.
“We should’ve fixed this before we left.” Though she had been the one to rush out in a hurry. “It’s not our place to rearrange the furniture.”
“No one cares about that,” he said. “Do you want wine? I can have them bring a selection.”
Laughing as he directed her down to her chaise, she kicked off her shoes and raised her legs to the soft, warm cushioning beneath.
“You’re determined to get me drunk in the middle of the day,” she said. “My boss would kick your ass.”
“Nah,” he said, settling on his own chaise. “I can be charming.”
“Anika is not the type of woman to be charmed… no matter how good-looking the guy doing the charming is.”
He stopped straightening the table to make eye contact. “You think I’m good-looking?”
Pushing her shoulders back, she wriggled deeper in her seat. “I think you’re a goofball.”
The large parasol next to his chaise offered shade that protected hers too. The one on her side, which had been there the previous day, was gone.
He laughed. “Can’t say I’ve been called that in a while.”
“Where’s my parasol?” she asked, looking around.
Zane pointed up. “What’s wrong with this one?”
It wasn’t like there was anyone around to steal it. “If it blew away, it would be our fault.”
“I think we’re safe, no storms last night. Can we get back to you thinking I’m good-looking?”
Yep, a goof.
“You don’t need me stroking your ego, Mr. Humblebrag.” Forgetting the parasol, she shifted to rise. “You know exactly what you look like.”
He braced, tossing a leg off his chaise like he intended to leap up. “Where are you going?”
“I’m going to get my bag,” she said, heading inside. “Is that okay?”
Without waiting for his response, she went in to retrieve it. Outside, she donned her sunglasses and left her bag between the chaises to go to the wall again.
“And now you’re ditching me,” he said. She flashed him a smile over her shoulder then climbed up onto the wall. “Whoa, where are you…”
Jumping off the other side, she made short work of running down the grass bank and into the sand. Scrunching her toes in it, the heat of the grains seeped up through her. When she heard what sounded like someone landing on the grass behind her, she started to move again. Running the width of the beach, she didn’t stop at the water’s edge. Gathering up her maxi skirt, she waded in until the water lapped her thighs.
Spinning around, her co-worker remained at the edge of the tide.
“Makes me feel better!” she called back to him.
Since arriving, all she’d wanted to do was dive into the water. With work and Alessia and Zane and everything, there hadn’t been time. The horizon appealed. She was so small in something so vast, yet, somehow, it made every breath seem vital.
The sound of movement in water preceded a hand sliding onto her shoulder. It kept on going along her clavicle until it hooked around her other shoulder. His forearm felt good, solid and secure, resting on her body.
He pulled her back and must have crouched because he murmured above her ear. “Your boss would let you do this at work?”
Her skirt was still in her fist, but with the other hand, she touched his wrist. “My boss isn’t here.”
“No one is here.”
That bassy truth vibrated through her. Why did his voice get deeper like that?
Relaxing the weight of her head, her cheek made contact with his hand just above hers when she pushed up her shoulder.
“Don’t you feel better?” she asked. “Out here, in the air, surrounded by life.”
“I sure feel something.”
Were those words for her? Closing her eyes, she inhaled through her nose. Her head went back, bumping against him, but he didn’t retreat. If it was up to her, they would stay out there all day. But, sigh, that wasn’t possible. She couldn’t ask him about getting back to work and then not even let the guy eat lunch.
“I’ll need a vacation after this,” she said, patting his wrist, then easing his arm away to head back to shore.
“Where are you going now?”
“The Mediterranean,” she said without looking back.
As she walked up the beach, sand stuck to her feet. That was okay, the grains would fall off as her legs dried. Still holding her skirt at her hip, she got as far as the wall, and then… huh. It was higher than she’d thought, would she be able to reach it? With greenery all around the rest of the building, getting back without footwear might be difficult.
“Didn’t think about that, did you?” Zane said, coming to her side.
She grabbed his shoulder. “You can give me a boost.”
Laughing again, he bent down to offer her a foothold. “Here to help.”
Slipping her foot into his linked fingers, she whooped when he did as she asked and boosted her up. He was strong. Damn, the guy was maybe too capable. Her skirt dropped, probably over his head, as she grabbed the wall and hauled herself up onto it.
“Got it?” he called out.
“Yeah, I’m good.”
On her knees, she brushed her hands together, catching her breath. It took him seconds to not only get onto the wall, but over it. She was still kneeling there when he returned to his seat and raised a large plate of food.
“Lunch is here.” He picked up a bottle of wine next. “Sure you don’t want some?”
“We had sake yesterday and never got back to our work,” she said, climbing off the wall to go to her chaise. Sitting on the side, she curled her legs beside her. “You think people will get mad if I get the chaise sandy?”
With two glasses in one hand, he used the other to pour the wine. “No. No one will get mad at you, Wanderer.” Holding the glasses toward her, he let her take one and put the wine back on the table. “You want to drink to something? Your imaginings?”
Smiling, she held her glass to his. “I say we drink to the possibilities. To everything that came before us and to everything that will come after.”
“That’s a lot of possibilities,” he said, touching his glass to hers. They drank and he pushed the plate toward her. “You see it all. See the good in everything.”
“I try to be optimistic,” she said, picking up a bruschetta. “It’s better than the alternative.”
“So I have a question for you,” he said. He hadn’t even looked at the food. Her mouth was full, so all she could do was raise her brows and nod. “Why aren’t you married?”
Swallowing the mouthful, she put the rest of the bruschetta on the edge of the plate. “I’m twenty-seven, think I’d count as a spinster?”
He laughed. “That’s not what I was… You seem like the kind of woman who’d attract men like flies.”
“To dung?”
Another laugh. “Or to light. That’s what you are, Thea. You’re light. You light up everything around you.”
Unsure if he was teasing or hitting on her, she just topped her shrug with a smile. “Life happens, I guess. How come you’re not married?”
“How do you know I’m not married?”
She nodded at his hand. “No ring.”
“Maybe I lost it in the sea.”
“Maybe you did,” she said. “Is that why you were out there in the dark? Looking for it?”
“It gets dark early around here.”
She sipped her wine, trying to subdue her ridiculous disappointment. “What’s she like? Does she live here on the island with you?”
The slant of his lips climbed again. “I’m not married. I’m not involved at all… yet.”
“Relationships aren’t easy to navigate… I think to make one work, we have to find our equal. Too many people think that means equal in society or in salary or having things in common. Sure that helps, but you don’t have to be the same as someone to be their equal.”
Interest narrowed his eyes. “What makes two people equal?”
“Values. Respect,” she said. “You have to find someone who respects your outlook the same way you respect theirs. Someone who wants the relationship to work as much as you do. Doesn’t mean running out and getting married or rushing anything, just that you both understand what the relationship is. That you both place the same value on it.” Conscious of her rambling, she laughed. “Though, if I had a foolproof way to make relationships work, I wouldn’t be single, would I?”
“Guess we’re all learning as we go.”
“Exactly,” she said, presenting a hand to him. “That’s what I mean. Two people have to want to learn together. They have to appreciate mistakes will be made and want to fix them together. The commitment should be real.”
“And you haven’t found a guy who wants to learn with you?”
“I’m not always the easiest woman to be in a relationship with,” she said. “I’m headstrong. I have a habit of sharing my point of view… I can be quite demanding.”
“Now I am intrigued,” he said. “What do you demand?”
“Respect. Communication.” She pointed at him. “I’m big on communication.” She shrugged and drank some wine. “I’m in no hurry to get to the end. When it happens, if it happens, I’d rather wait to be in a relationship that made me happy than be in one that made me unhappy just for the sake of it.”
“And you don’t have any qualms about telling a guy that.”
“Right,” she said on a single nod. “Somewhere…” She swept her wine around in the direction of the ocean surrounding them. “Out there in the world, there’s a guy who will put up with me calling at three a.m. to tell him something trivial… who won’t care that I love karaoke, even if it is embarrassing when I insist on standing up. A guy who won’t mind that I run into the ocean without notice. A guy who’ll kiss me, even if there are people watching… A guy who will laugh with me, even when no one else gets the joke… A guy who’ll let me breathe, even though I need him with every breath…” She sighed and looked at him again. “Sorry, I’m rambling.”
“I like rambling,” he said. “All of that is coming from someone… someone who hurt you.”
She shook her head. “I’m not hurt. Not anymore. But there’s a bit of everything from the men in my past, I guess. Like I said, I’m not easy to be in a relationship with.”
“I didn’t hear anything unreasonable on your list…” He peered closer. “Though, I guess it depends… what kind of karaoke?”
Zane always eased the tension, always relaxed her, made her laugh. She was a bold woman, not too easy to handle. She knew her own mind, and definitely knew her heart. Some men were intimidated by her confidence. Some sneered at it. She wouldn’t apologize for being who she was, and it didn’t seem Zane wanted her to either.