Meant to Be (11 page)

Heather nodded forcefully. “Oh yes.
She sure did.” Then she got serious and spoke in a low voice.
“She’s married to a senator now and has a big house and a
high-paying job at CNN.” She stretched her legs out in front of her
and shook the sand off her toes. “If you don’t mind my saying so,
she got the poor end of the bargain.”

Lauren was silent for a moment, trying
to picture the type of woman who would throw away the affection and
generosity of a man like Rad for money and power. Then she decided
to change the subject. “Wynn and Rad seem really close.”

“
Yeah, they are.
Inseparable.”

“
So you’ve known Rad a
long time too?”

“
I started dating Wynn
about four years ago. It didn’t take me long to learn it was a
package deal.” Heather laughed. “Rad is part of the
package.”

Lauren smiled. She could feel that
warmth and love from everyone here. It seemed like a very
tight-knit group. If you loved one, you had to love them
all.

“
Same would be true of you
if you stick with Rad.”

Lauren glanced up at Heather with a
questioning look, not understanding.

“
Wynn and I are part of a
package deal.”

That made Lauren laugh. “Sounds good
to me. Three for the price of one.” She turned over on her side and
propped her head on her hand. “So is this get-together celebrating
something in particular or do you do this all the time?”

Heather hesitated, as if figuring out
what exactly to say. “No, it’s not exactly a celebration. The guys
are leaving for… some training, so it’s kind of a
send-off.”

“
That’s nice.” Lauren lay
back on the blanket and put her hands behind her head. “It seems
like everyone gets along… like you’re one big family.”

Heather grinned. “Yes, some of them
can get a little temperamental at times, but we’re still pretty
tight-knit.” She pointed to some of the other women sitting around
the fire. “I don’t know if you met Molly, the redhead there in the
middle. That’s Tork’s girlfriend. And the brunette on the end is
Connie. That’s Bipp’s better half. They came late.”

“
Thanks. It’s nice to know
who goes with whom.” Lauren stopped and blinked at her own words.
Why did it matter to her who went with whom? She was leaving in the
morning and would never see these people again. For the first time,
she felt a tug of regret.

They were both silent for a moment,
listening to the laughter and the low hum of voices around the
campfire as they combined with the gentle pounding of the waves on
the shoreline.

“
How about you and Rad?
Where’d you meet?” Heather grabbed a towel and threw it across her
legs for warmth. “You two really seem to click.”

Lauren swallowed hard. “Yeah, we do,”
is all she said.

“
You seem so comfortable
and at ease with each other.” Heather paused and looked over at
her. “Like you know what the other one is thinking.”

“
Well, he knows what I’m
thinking, that’s for sure.” Lauren got up and grabbed a beer. “The
other way around, not so much.”

Heather chuckled. “Yeah, Wynn is the
same way. Pisses me off sometimes.”

“
Maybe we knew each other
in another life,” Lauren said musingly.

“
Sometimes it feels like
that.” Heather’s gaze shifted out into the darkness where Wynn and
Rad had disappeared. “It seems like I’ve known Wynn forever. I
don’t know what I’d do without him.”

“
So when’s your
wedding?”

“
Next Spring. April…
hopefully.”

Lauren didn’t have time to question
Heather about what she meant by hopefully.

“
Hey, girlfriends! What’s
going on?” Annie came up from behind them, carrying her flip flops
in one hand and a small cooler in the other. “I see the guys
deserted us.”

“
Yeah, they should be back
soon.” Heather patted the chair. “We saved your seat.”

Lauren smiled. She worked
almost exclusively with men and did not recall ever having any
female acquaintances she would call
friends
. The women she did come in
contact with were, for the most part, catty, spiteful, and shallow.
Yet these two women were not like that at all. They appeared
intelligent, sensible, and kind, and had accepted her as one of
them—part of the family.

Annie sat down and opened the cooler.
“How about a wine cooler, girls? I’m sick of beer.” She gave one to
Heather, but Lauren shook her head and held up her bottle. “Still
working on this, but thanks anyway.”

Lauren had lost count of how many
beers she’d had. She hoped it was only two, but it may well have
been three. In any event, it was more alcohol than she had consumed
at one time in her entire life. Was it the alcohol causing this
sensation of security and comfort? That made her wish she could
feel like this forever?

Annie leaned back in her chair and
propped her feet up on the cooler. “I had lots of emails, Heather.
We should have at least a hundred pairs of shoes to pack when we
get home.”

“
That’s great. Biggest
shipment yet.” Heather smiled, and then looked down at Lauren. “I
guess Rad told you about his shoe thing.”

Lauren gazed up with a blank stare,
making Heather bite her lip. “Or maybe he didn’t.”

Annie touched Heather’s arm
as if to say,
I’ll handle this.
“Well you know how Rad is,” she began. “He bought
a couple of pairs of shoes for kids who didn’t have any, and then
his church back home heard about it, and now it’s kind of taken
off. This will make about five hundred shoes we’ve collected
altogether.”

Lauren sat silently with
her eyes closed. Y
es, I know how Rad
is.
Generous
.
Thoughtful. Strong. Easy-going.
Perfect. And I’m leaving in the morning.

When she opened her eyes, Rad was
walking up the beach in the moonlight between Wynn and Pops, his
arms moving in conversation, all their faces showing deep
concentration. When his gaze fell upon Lauren, he paused and
studied her with an expression of solemn contemplation for a moment
as if losing his train of thought. Then all three of them stopped
and huddled as Rad picked up the conversation again. He spoke
intently in hushed tones for a few more moments before all three
headed toward the women. If ever there was a more complete specimen
of vigorous, manly strength, she had never seen it.

Lauren had to struggle to suppress the
panic building in her heart as she watched this larger-than-life
man stroll toward her. She had no idea what time it was, but she
knew it was late. Without thinking, she pulled his shirt more
securely around her. Time was slipping away.

“
You three being
anti-social or what?” Pops came to a stop in front of Annie’s
chair. “Why don’t you join the party by the fire?”

“
We’re just sitting here
waiting for three knights in shining armor to come riding up,”
Heather said. “Figured we had a better chance over
here.”

“
We’re here, my lady.”
Wynn bowed deeply, and Rad grabbed Lauren’s hand.

“
My horse is lame, but
I’ll carry you to the fire if want.”

Everyone laughed except
Lauren.

“
I don’t think that will
be necessary.” She stood and followed him toward the now-raucous
crowd.

“
Something wrong?” he
asked when they were halfway there. “You look upset.”

“
Really?” Lauren forced a
smile. “Just missed you, I guess.”

Rad put his arm around her waist.
“That’s what I like to hear.”

Chapter 9

The laughter emanating
from around the fire was loud and contagious, and made Lauren wish
to join the high-spirited group. But then again time was running
out, and she selfishly—and unexpectedly—wanted to be alone with
Rad.

As they approached the light from the
flames, she gazed at the dark shadows that still sheltered and
surrounded them. “Too bad it’s so dark. We could go for a jog on
the beach.”

“
That’d
be fun.” Rad nodded. “I’d even jog
slow
, so you could keep
up.”

Lauren turned her head toward him,
knowing he was trying to stir up her competitive nature. “Really?
You’d do that for me?”

By the time he answered, “Yup,” she
had taken off at a full run down the beach.

Lauren ran as fast as she could,
headlong into the night, and thought for a moment Rad had not even
taken up the chase. But suddenly from out of the darkness, almost
in front of her, came two strong hands that wrapped around her
waist like steel vices. She went down in the sand, half-laughing,
half-screaming from the surprise of the capture. She had not even
heard his footsteps.

“
How did you do that?” She
was still laughing as she found herself pinned on her back in the
sand, looking up into his serious face.

Rad relaxed his grip slightly. “You’re
really beautiful when you laugh. You know that?” He leaned down
still closer and studied her intently. “I get the feeling you don’t
do it very often.”

Lauren’s smile disappeared. “What are
you? Some kind of super-athletic psychoanalyst or
something?”

“
Just an
observation.”

“
Well stop observing—and
get off me while you’re at it.”

Rad continued to stare deep into her
eyes as if trying to read her thoughts, and for a moment she
thought he was actually going to lean down and kiss her. He
apparently thought better of it and helped her to her
feet.

Lauren stood and brushed the sand off
her jeans. “Okay, maybe jogging in the dark wasn’t such a good
idea.” She shook out her hair and turned back toward the party, but
Rad grabbed her hand and tugged her down the beach in the opposite
direction. “Don’t you hear it? Hurry up. They’re playing our
song.”

“
Our song?” She looked up
at him. “I didn’t know we had a song.”

He led her closer to the source of the
music that emanated from the balcony of a hotel room and pulled her
into his arms for a slow dance just as the words from John Denver’s
“Sunshine on My Shoulders” reached her ears.

“
I guess we do have a
song,” Lauren murmured as she put her arms around his neck and
relaxed into him.

Lauren tried to concentrate on the
words, but she couldn’t stop her mind from racing. Who was this
disarming, courteous man with his strong arms and his soft voice—a
man with whom she felt no awkward strangeness, but only
companionship and understanding. It was as though she had known him
always—known him a lifetime ago and for an eternity.

When the song came to an end, Rad’s
embrace seemed to tighten.

“
We should go back.”
Lauren didn’t really want to return to the real world and end this
dreamlike fantasy in which she was living. But neither did she want
him to feel how fast her heart was racing against his.

“
Yeah, I guess we should,”
he said without making a move to leave.

At last, with apparent effort he
released her and turned back in the direction of the party. He did
not speak, perhaps did not trust himself to do so, and neither did
Lauren. Instead she walked slowly in silence, knowing each step
took them closer to the party—and closer to the end of the night.
When she saw the light of the fire up ahead and heard the sound of
the party being carried on the breeze, she touched his hand. “Let’s
sit a minute.”

Rad nodded and led her to a quiet,
dark spot without saying a word. Sitting down, he patted the space
in front of him. “Here,” is all he said.

Lauren sat down between his legs, and
leaned back into him. “This is cozy,” she murmured. “Hope I don’t
fall asleep.”

“
Not sure what that would
say about me.” Rad sounded sullen as he wrapped his arms around
her.

Lauren laughed. “It would say that
you’re comfortable.”

“
Just what every man
dreams a woman will say about him. ‘He was so comfortable that I
fell asleep.’”

Lauren jabbed him lightly with her
elbow. “All right. If it will hurt your male ego that much, I’ll
try to stay awake.” She sighed as they both watched a ship’s light
twinkle on the horizon.

Once it disappeared from sight, Rad
remained quiet and contemplative. Lauren leaned her head back and
stared up at the stars.

“
My grandmother and I used
to bring a blanket down here and stare up at the night sky.” She
adjusted her position to get comfortable. “She’d tell me
stories.”

“
Oh, yeah?” Rad leaned his
head back for a better view of the sky, which was sprinkled here
and there with stars. Clouds had begun to roll in and now covered
the moon and bits and pieces of the night sky. “Like
what?”

“
Well, see all those
stars?”

“
Um-hmm.”

“
She would tell me they
aren’t really stars at all. They’re eyes.”

“
Eyes?” Rad looked down at
her.