Under the Boardwalk: A Dazzling Collection of All New Summertime Love Stories (53 page)

"Daddy!" The girl continued to shriek. "Make her stop! She'll make the sharks come!"

"She was watching the shark special on the Discovery channel last night…" Daddy smiled sheepishly, but did nothing to quiet the child.

Jody merely nodded and limped back to her blanket, trying her best to avoid getting sand in the offending cut that left a trail of red splotches across the beach. Plunking her butt unceremoniously on the blanket, she grabbed her water bottle and poured out careful drops to wash the sand away from the jagged wound in the bottom of her foot. Rummaging inner beach bag, she found a tissue, which she held against the cut until the worst of the flow ceased. She took a drink of the now warm water and lay back against the blanket again. Her short battle with the ocean had left her with the ball of her foot throbbing and an irritating sprinkling of sand under her bikini. She shifted uncomfortably and closed her eyes.

The sounds from the blanket to her left—those of a young mother inspecting the morning's collection of shells with her toddler—brought back memories of Jody's last summer as an only child, the summer before her brother Jack was born. Jody had been five that year, and the vision of those days on the beach with her mother returned now with crystal clarity. Jody had had a big yellow plastic bucket, and every morning right after breakfast, she and her mother would comb the beaches for pretty shells and interesting pieces of driftwood that had washed ashore during the night. At the beach, her mother's long, thick, dark brown hair—usually worn loose to fall in unruly curls around her pretty face— would be twisted into a long, casual braid that hung down the middle of her back. Jody had loved to sit behind her mother's beach chair and play with that braid, wrapping it around the back of her mother's head in big concentric circles or just holding on to it to feel its weight, tracing lines down her arms with the fat curl at the end.

It had been a long time since she'd thought about that, Jody realized as the warmth of the sun began to lull her once again. What, she wondered sleepily, had become of all those shells they had collected over the years…

A blast from a passing radio startled her, and she sat up, not quite sure how long she'd been reminiscing, but knowing it must be close to lunch time. Jody debated her options. She could walk up onto the boardwalk and grab lunch—assuring that she'd lose her prime spot on the beach if she vacated it for too long—or she could eat the crackers and drink water. Opting for the crackers, she munched and washed them down with the now
very
warm spring water. Finishing her snack, she decided to read for a while, turning onto her stomach and opening the book. She missed the chatter of her friends, and wished that one of them had stayed an extra day.

Last night they had gone en masse to the House of Crabs for seafood, where they had sat for hours laughing and talking. Tonight Jody had plans for a gourmet dinner at the highly touted Joanna's—reputedly the best restaurant on the island—at the end of the boardwalk. It was said that Joanna's chef had trained in Paris and made a roue like no other. Like all professionals who excel at their craft, Jody couldn't resist comparison, and planned to order one of his specialties tonight.

At least she'd have a great dinner, she sighed. Of course, after dinner, she'd end up back at her room— alone—where she would probably read until she fell asleep with the book in her hand.

Right now, what she really wanted was to cool off. A swim would be perfect, but a second trip to the ocean with its wicked undertow held little appeal. That left the motel's pool, only a short hop away across blistering sand. Gathering her things, Jody dug her flip-flops from the bottom of her bag and started a slow trek, favoring her cut foot, to the steps. Once back at the motel, she brushed off the irritating grains of sand that dung to her since her dip in the ocean and eased herself into the pool, which was surprisingly empty.

The water was cooling, soothing, and Jody floated easily for a few minutes, leaning her head back to allow her hair to fan around her. She began a languid lap the length of the pool, all the while trying to remember the last time anything had felt better than the water that flowed around her body. Soon she found a natural rhythm, and it carried her back and forth, back and forth. Reveling in the easy motions that took her from one end of the pool to the other, Jody swam until her arms began to ache. When she'd had enough, she walked to the shallow end and up the concrete steps. Grabbing her towel from the lounge where she'd left it, she leaned forward to dry off her hair when she sensed that she was being watched.

Jody glanced around the pool area, noticing that most of the other motel patrons seemed to be sleeping in the shade or engrossed in reading their books or magazines. Shaking off the sensation, she dried her legs, then spread the towel over the lounge. She would sit in the sun and allow it to dry her off while she too read. She slipped on her sunglasses, leaned back against the cushion, and opened her book.

She'd read no more than three pages when she felt it again, the feeling that someone's eyes were on her. This time, however, when Jody looked up, there was a man walking toward her. He was tall with dark glasses and brown hair, exactly like the hero she'd been reading about in her book. A shiver went up her spine. Surely he was a hallucination, a mirage born of sun and heat on the smoldering concrete around the pool. It would have to be so, because he looked exactly like…

"Jody?" The mirage stopped at the foot of her lounge.

Later she would recall thinking that, for a mirage, its voice was awfully deep and rich, much like the hot fudge on the sundae she and Natalie had shared the night before.

"Jody?" Her hallucination repeated, and she smiled, thinking how wonderful fiction was, how it could take you away and almost make you believe that…

The mirage grabbed her by the toe and gave it a tweak. She slid her glasses down onto her nose and looked up.

This had to be a dream.

"Aren't you going to say hello?" He asked, looking mildly amused.

"Jeremy?" She gasped. "Jeremy Noble?"

"Ah, so you do remember me. I was beginning to get a little worried there for a minute." He grabbed a nearby chair and swung it around so that he could sit next to her. Which was, in his estimation, preferable to standing there and looking down on that long, lean body.

Whatever had made him think that Jody was all angles? In her little bikini, she was all curves.

Jeremy sat.

"I hope you don't mind if I join you…"

"No. Of course not. I'm just so surprised to see you."

Had she said
surprised
? Perhaps
dazzled
said it better. Or possibly
incredulous
…

"What are you doing in Ocean Point?" Jody forced a nonchalance she wished she felt.

Jeremy leaned forward, his clasped hands falling between his knees, and he wondered if he should tell her the truth, that he had followed her. Just then she sat up and removed her sunglasses completely, and those amber eyes seemed to swallow him whole.

"I'm on vacation," he told her. That was the truth.

"Why, so am I!"

If she blinked, would he disappear? Was he in fact really there? Were her fellow loungers at this very moment exchanging nervous glances as she leaned forward and addressed what was, in reality, an empty chair?

"And it's been years since I've been to the New Jersey shore…" Also true.

"Me, too. I spent every summer growing up in Ocean Point."

"So did I."

"Why, that's unbelievable! Did we talk about that at the inn?" She frowned. Surely she would have remembered that, even in the midst of the craziness that had colored his stay there in June.

"No, we didn't. I just found myself with a few days off, and I decided to spend them at the inn." He stopped, feeling awkward. "Actually, the truth is that I just wanted to see you, Jody. Laura told me where I could find you. I hope you don't mind that I followed you here."

"
You followed
me here?" Had he really said that?

"I'm sorry, maybe I should have called you first. To see if it was okay with you. To see if maybe you had other plans. If you don't want me to stay, I can…"

"No. No. No other plans. Of course you should stay. Why shouldn't you stay?" She was totally flustered at the thought that this man had followed her from Maryland. "You should definitely stay."

"Great" He smiled and her heart did a flip-flop. "What are you doing for dinner?"

It was almost eight o'clock when Jeremy knocked on Jody's door.

"I'll just be a minute," she told him.

Just until my hands stop shaking and I figure out a way to keep my knees from knocking together.

It had taken Jody almost an hour to decide what to wear. The red silk didn't seem appropriate, so she'd had to run out to one of the stores along the boardwalk and find something suitable. She hadn't planned on having to dress for dinner with the man or her dreams. The short blue sundress that she found at one of the little boutiques had been just right.

I wished him here
, she thought, and the possibility filled her with a sort of power she'd never felt before.
I willed him here
.

One last glance in the mirror had her feeling like Cinderella about to set out for the ball on the arm of her prince.

"Hi," she said as she opened the door. The look in his eyes made her feel all the more like a princess.

"You look beautiful," he said simply, making her feel that it was true.

"Thank you," she blushed under her makeup and bit her tongue to keep from adding, So
do you
.

"Your hair…" He reached out a hand to touch the long curls that bore a pale shade of moonlight and drifted around her like a halo.

"I had it highlighted," she nodded, as if he couldn't see that for himself.

"It looks great." He slid his hands into his pockets, the urge to crush those soft ringlets was so strong. He cleared his throat. "Joanna's is just down the boardwalk, isn't it?"

"Yes." She grabbed her purse and checked to make certain her room key was inside, then stepped through the door that he held open for her. "I called and changed my reservations to a table for two. The receptionist here at the motel told me it was only a ten-minute walk."

It was a pleasant stroll along the boards to Joanna's and a picture-perfect night. Gulls cried here and there as they raced each other and the tide for the bits of marine life that landed unceremoniously on the shore, dumped by one wave, carried back out to sea by the next. Tanned children raced by, their parents hot on their heels, anxiously trying to keep them in sight lest they fade into the crowd and disappear before they reached the amusement pier at the opposite end of the boardwalk. A sunburned couple strolled by, their faces looking red and uncomfortable.

"Cute shop," Jeremy nodded to the storefront where large shells and all manner of kitschy things crowded the windows.

Jody glanced at his face to see if he was kidding.

"Might have to stop there on the way back and pick up something suitably hokey for my partner." He grinned.