Chapter 15 #2
With a restless sigh, she sat and hugged her knees to her chest.
“Wow, look at that, you can relax.” Sam’s long legs appeared at her side.
“Should take a picture of this,” he said.
“No, wait, scratch the picture.” Hunkering at her side, he smiled into her face.
“Because you’re the only person I know who can kick back while wearing such a fierce frown.
” He sprawled his lanky body on the sand next to her and stretched out.
“Oh, yeah, this is good. Should have been a beach bum.”
With his shoulder-length, sun-streaked blond hair and a rangy build suggesting he was ten years younger than his thirty-five, he’d have made a good one. Plus she’d seen him surf after a long day in his office. He looked perfectly at home in the waves. Actually, he always looked at home.
A feat she’d never managed. But then again she hadn’t been born bored, with a silver spoon in her mouth and more family than she knew what to do with.
Sam hadn’t had many bumpy roads in his life, but he was one of those startlingly well-adjusted people who just wanted to give back. And he did, in spades. He gave everything to Hope International, and all he asked for in return was the occasional hour to surf when the conditions suited him.
She wished her life could be so simple.
“What is it?” He cocked his head. “What’s making you so sad?”
“I’m not.”
“Well, you’re something.” He nudged her shoulder with his. “You’ve been something ever since you came back from Mexico two days ago. What happened down there, anyway?”
“Nothing.”
“Uh-huh.” He eyed her. “That was the most defensive nothing I’ve ever heard. Did you have a problem with the volunteer you flew down?”
She stared at the waves. They were good today, four- to six-footers.
“The firefighter…Griffin Moore, right?”
A picture of Griffin crossed Lyndie’s vision: tall, gorgeous, and tortured. “I remember his name.”
Sam cupped his hand to her jaw and made her look at him. “He try something?”
“You know I have no problem punching their lights out if it comes to that.”
“Did it?”
“No.”
Sam relaxed marginally but he was still watching her. “I had you scheduled to take a dentist down to San Robledo, but he cancelled until next week. Now I’ve got you scheduled to fly a pediatrician and an optometrist to Baja tomorrow. Then you’ve got another trip back to San Robledo.”
“With supplies?”
“Some. The fire’s still contained, but there’s problems with the weather. They’re expecting trouble tomorrow when the winds are due to kick up.”
She knew this. She’d called Tom every day to check. “Fine.”
“Same guy is going down. He’s called several times checking on the status of the fire. When he found out they needed help with the suppression, he said he’d go back.”
She stared at the waves. So Griffin had offered to go back.
Which meant she’d be seeing him again. No big deal, really.
Maybe they’d shared a little more of themselves than they’d intended, but that was to be expected given the situation they’d found themselves in.
Whenever adrenaline, adventure, and danger got all mixed up together, things got accelerated.
And things had gotten accelerated.
But they were adults. They could handle it.
God, she hoped they could handle it.
Sam was still looking at her. “Are you going to tell me what’s going on?”
“It’s not in my job description.”
“Screw the job description, Lyndie. I thought we were friends.”
Not having many, she valued the few she had managed, by sheer good luck, to cultivate. “We are.”
“Friends tell.”
Lyndie sighed. “Fine. I kissed him.”
He stared at her with his dark, dark brown eyes. And then he laughed. “You did not.”
“I did.” She winced. “Look, we got caught up in this whole situation, okay? The fire was hot and dangerous and far too close. We were alone, together, afraid…”
“Ah. The danger thing.” He nodded. “I know.”
“You know?”
“Hey, I flew for five years before I hired you.”
“Right.” She sighed.
“That bad?”
No, that good. “I really don’t want to talk about this, and I sure as hell don’t want to see him again.”
“No problem.” Joking aside now, he touched her arm. “I’ll get someone else to fly him.”
“No,” she said too quickly, far too quickly, and Sam slowly lifted a brow. “I’ll do it, it’ll be fine.”
“You just said you didn’t want to see him again—”
“I also said I’d do it.” Surging to her feet, she dropped her towel and headed toward the waves. She needed a hard, fast swim.
“Maybe I should come along on this one,” Sam said, appearing at her side as she walked to the water. “Just to make sure you don’t do something stupid.”
“Like what?” she asked, annoyed now. She never did anything stupid.
Except kiss Griffin. That had been really stupid. Wonderful, hot…but really, really stupid.
Sam dove into the water ahead of her, and then resurfaced, tossing back his hair as he turned to face her. “Like actually let yourself feel for someone.”
She opened her mouth, then slowly closed it, because what could she say? He’d nailed it on the head.
She rarely let herself feel for anyone.
She never let herself feel for anyone. Things were better that way; cleaner, easier. Safer.
Sam splashed her. “Am I right?”
She offered him her middle finger, then dove in the next wave and came up near him. “And just so you know, I feel for plenty of people.”
“Really? Name two.”
“You.”
“Two.”
“Okay, you and…”
“Yeah? Me and…who?”
“And everyone in San Robledo.” Pleased, she ticked them off on her fingers. “Tom, Nina, Rosa…”
“Oooh. Four whole people.”
With a frown, she dove into another wave, and when she came up, Sam was bodysurfing next to her. “You know, I changed my mind, it’s only three people,” she informed his cocky grin. “Tom, Nina, and Rosa.”
Sam laughed and shook his head at her, spraying saltwater in her face before he went for the next swell, his long, sleek body taking the water like he’d been born for it.
She went for it, too, and prided herself on the fact she rode the wave better than he did. She liked to be the best, it made her world right for that one moment, and she came up with a smile.
“That’s such a classic Lyndie move,” he said.
“What is? Looking better than you out here?”
“Pretending you don’t give a shit when you know you do.”
“I give a shit. The waves are perfect.”
“That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about people.”
“Oh.” She patted his cheek with her wet fingers. “Don’t worry. I give a shit about you too. A little, anyway.”
“You know what, baby?” He floated on his back, arms spread wide. “Someday you’ll admit you want me. You know you do.”
She laughed good and hard over that one, then splashed him. “I’m not getting in line for a piece of you. I don’t compete for a man. Ever.”
“Too bad. You don’t know what you’re missing.” He dove under again, but when he came up, Lyndie was waiting.
“I care about people,” she said, unable to let it go. “I just don’t always feel like wearing my heart on my sleeve, that’s all.”
“Hey, we all have our little quirks. Some are more stupid than others.”
With a sigh, she dove back into the water. She sure wouldn’t be wearing her heart on her sleeve in a few days’ time, when she picked up Griffin. Even if she had wondered how he’d fared after his first fire in a year; wondered if he’d had any trouble thinking about it.
Wondered if he thought of her, or even cared.