Wet: Part 2 (14 page)

“We could go look for ole’ Bob if you want.” Paul pretended to be looking for Mr. Redford. “I’m sure we can find him, no reason to settle for
number three
.”

He seemed a little too serious. She watched him warily—worried he hadn’t taken it as the compliment she’d intended. Who would get offended at being compared to two of the greatest looking men to have ever lived? “No. That’s all right. He had his chance for twenty-four years and totally snubbed me. I can pretend to settle for third best.”

Paul was too quiet for the next few minutes.

“Are you jealous . . . of
Robert Redford
?”

“No.” He sounded pouty. “I can still turn a few heads, you know. I’d be willing to bet, in a contest, I’d turn more heads than even Bob—the old
pud
!”

“I meant it as a compliment!” She giggled, realizing how her comment really bothered him. “Don’t you worry about coming across as conceited?”

“What am I supposed to do? Deny it? ‘Aw shucks. That’s only the third time I’ve been told how handsome I am,
today
, but I’m not good looking. Everyone must be wrong’. Rhees, there’s hardly been a day of my life that my looks haven’t come up, so, am I supposed to pretend like I don’t believe what thousands of people say is true? My whole life, everywhere I go, no matter what I do, it’s just my life. Personally, it’s meaningless to me. Yes, I have a pretty face—” He deadpanned. “I can’t believe I just called myself pretty. Please, don’t ever call me pretty. It’s bad enough to be called beautiful all the time, because I’m not. I’m an ugly person.”

“No, you’re not. Looks aside, you’re—”

“Stop,” he said in a no-nonsense tone. “
You
are true
beauty.”

“Ha!” She scoffed. “You are the only person on the planet who has ever said that. Well, my parents too, but parents have to say that about their kids. It’s a rule or something.”

“Rhees.” His disposition had turned so solemn. “I was born looking this way. I had nothing to do with it. Everything about me that I
could
control, I’ve screwed it up.
You
are
so
beautiful! You are absolutely exquisite, inside and out. You inspire me. I’m trying to be more like you.” He tried to laugh it off, not liking how vulnerable he suddenly felt. “But dang. It’s hard, and I’m not doing a very good job.”

“You’re wrong. You are not ugly, not on the outside, obviously, but not on the inside either. If I’m really as good as you say, and you’re as bad as you—”

“Don’t even.” He put his lips over hers to shush her. It had become his favorite method. “I know where you’re going with this. Don’t feel sorry for me for being even better looking than Robert Redford
and
Paul Newman.” He smirked, but then was serious again. “Don’t feel sorry for me.”

She hugged him and didn’t let go.

“I can’t help that I was born so damned, incredibly good-looking, or that I know it . . . or that I learned to use it to my advantage whenever possible.” 

oOo

Their last day in Utah, they arrived at University Mall at lunch time. They ate Chinese, something they’d both longed for since there were no Chinese restaurants on the island. After lunch, they began exploring the mall in order for Rhees to refresh her wardrobe. She dragged Paul from one store to the next, and he decided he’d finally discovered a flaw. Her method of shopping drove him absolutely crazy.

She had to see every item of clothing in every store, try each item on, and if she liked something, she couldn’t decide if she wanted to buy it until she checked to see what the next store had first. If she didn’t find something better, they had to go back to the first store again.

“I need a drink,” he said. “How about I go find a bar and wait for you there.”

“Good luck with that,” she answered. “I’m sure there are others in the valley, but I only know of one bar, and it’s in Provo, not far from our hotel. Even people I know who drink say they wouldn’t recommend it.”

“Where do people get a drink?”

“They don’t.” She giggled. “Paul, this is Happy Valley, Utah. The majority of the people here don’t believe in drinking.”

“I had a beer at the restaurant. I’ll go back there.”

“You’ll have to order food again. They can’t serve you a drink unless you eat, first.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me!”

“Nope.” She held a skirt up to herself and looked in a mirror on the wall, trying to decide if she wanted to try it on. He had to smile at her.

“Meet me in front of the restaurant in, what, an hour and a half? Two?” He got a better look at the skirt she held. “I like that one.”

“Really? You don’t think it’s a little too colorful and short?”

“No. I like it. You should get it.”

“I’ll have to try it on first, but I
could
buy it and half the clothes in this mall—now that I’m so rich.”

He grinned at how she thought ten thousand dollars made her rich. The tone of her voice still sounded a little irritated, making him recall her reaction when she finally did find the money in her account. They’d fought, and she insisted on giving it back, but he, using all the charm and powers in his arsenal, finally convinced her it was honest wages for the work she’d done the first few weeks at the shop and a well-earned bonus for putting up with Mr.
Meanie-Head
as a boss.

“Are you really going to leave me on my own?” she mocked him. “You never let me out of your sight.”

“This is probably the only place I would dare leave you alone. You’ve been safe here the first twenty-four years of your life.” He noticed something flash across her expression. He suddenly worried she’d have a panic attack if he left her.

“Do you want me to stay? I’ll stay if you need me. I just figured—”

She smiled and shushed him by putting her finger over his lips. “I’ll be fine. Go get a drink—with your appetizers.” She giggled, understanding what visitors from the rest of the world had to put up with in her home state due to the unusual laws regarding alcohol. He moved closer and put his hands on her hips, resting his forehead on hers.

“It’s not
you
I want to get away from, you know that, right?” He kissed the tip of her nose and then grinned. “It’s your shopping habits that make me want to kill myself.” He snickered and moved to avoid her playful slap across his arm.

“Well, my methods are better than yours,” she said. “‘You like it? Buy it. Just buy the whole darn store’!” She imitated him with some exaggeration.

He smiled and gave her a soft, but quick, kiss on the lips. “See you later. Take your time and have fun. Remember, this is all about your birthday.”

“The best one I’ve ever had. Thank you.” She kissed him back.

Rhees headed back to the dressing rooms and Paul headed toward the store’s entrance. On his way out, he noticed a display of board shorts that caught his attention. He realized his wardrobe could use a little refreshing as well. He’d been so focused on Rhees getting her shopping done that he didn’t think about buying anything for himself. He changed his mind about going for that drink and decided to just do some shopping himself—he wouldn’t have to leave Rhees on her own after all.

He glanced back to tell Rhees of his change of plans, but she’d disappeared into the dressing room. He grabbed a few things and headed toward the back of the store.

He walked to the dressing rooms and stood, trying to figure out which stall Rhees could be in so he could let her know he’d stuck around after all. The only attendant he could see busied herself by opening the door for another customer, so he waited.

“You want to try those on?” Another attendant returned from putting unwanted items back on the store floor, and when she got a look at him, her mouth dropped open and she seemed to lose her train of thought.

“Yes, please.”

The woman led him to a stall and unlocked the door. She kept turning back to look at him, and it made him want to roll his eyes. He scowled instead and stepped inside. A few minutes later, he heard someone call Rhees’ name.

“Rhees! Is that you?” he heard a female voice ask. “Oh my gosh!”

“Kylee?” he heard Rhees respond. He remembered the name from Rhees’ story about her
pud
boyfriend who hurt her by sleeping with her best friend,
Kylee
.

He scowled again.

“Oh my gosh! Rhees. It’s been such a long time. What’ve you been up to? I heard you left the country and never came back.” It came out as if Kylee thought the idea contemptuous. “That surprised me
so
much. You were always so darn chicken. When I heard that, I thought, shoot, how did Rhees manage to do something so freakin’ adventurous? But that obviously wasn’t true because here you are.”

“Yeah. It’s been a while. Um, yeah, it
is
true, actually. I have been in the Caribbean. I’m just visiting for a couple of days. I’m going back.”

“Oh my
gosh
,” Kylee said. “I could never do that. Gads.”

Paul almost laughed out loud as he strained to listen. Kylee sounded so much like Rhees. It helped him understand her a little better.

“No. Really. It’s absolutely the best thing I’ve ever done. I’m working as a dive master, and I’m planning to become an instructor. I love it there. This is probably the last time I’ll ever come back to Utah. I see no reason to ever come back again.”

Paul frowned at that.

“Seriously?” Kylee almost shrieked the word. “I might get brave enough to leave Orem someday, but never Utah. Gosh, you never know what kind of thing you’ll run into out there. I could never live away from my family. Well, you’ve always been more,
worldly,
than the rest of us. I guess it makes sense,
for you
.”

That made Paul angry. Kylee was the one who banged Rhees’ boyfriend. He didn’t like the snide undertone he felt from her comment.

“What are
you
doing now?” Rhees asked.

“I work here. Gotta support my little girl . . . after the divorce and all.”

“You’re divorced?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s a good thing. Now I can find someone who will take me to the temple. I should have known Brady would never go to church.”

“Brady Bird? Yeah, I wouldn’t imagine.”

“Yeah, I thought after we got married he’d change, but he wasn’t interested in even pretending to get religious. How about you? Did you ever get married?”

Paul imagined Rhees didn’t want to talk about marriage and relationships with this particular girl. He didn’t hear her answer and assumed she’d just nodded.

“Of course not, I can just imagine the kind of guys you’d meet out in the world. Brady’s a good guy. We just want different things. You and him would have been a better match, you know, since you’re not worried about going to the temple either.”

Paul grew livid with this girl and her stupid mouth.

“Um . . . there are some really good people outside of Utah, too,” Rhees said. “Well, I need to finish shopping. I’m supposed to meet someone.” She sounded anxious to get away from the girl.

“Yeah. Gosh. It was so nice to see you.” The pleasantry in Kylee’s voice sounded fake to Paul. “Don’t get eaten by a shark! Imagine that. Rhees, of all people, in the Caribbean.”

“Yeah, I know. I won’t get eaten, I promise.” The conversation was over.

Paul finished trying on the clothes and walked out of his stall. He took a minute to figure out which girl had spoken to Rhees. He heard her voice talking to another customer and zeroed in on her.

“Oh my gosh. Isn’t that shirt just so stinkin’ cute? We just got those in this morning.”

Kylee was the same obnoxious dressing room attendant who couldn’t take her eyes off him earlier. He waited for her to return from letting her customer into a dressing room.

“How did those work for you?” she asked, a little too enthusiastically at seeing him waiting for her.

“I’ll take these,” he answered, holding up the items he wanted. He returned her annoying gaze with a smile, letting his eyes twinkle. It had the effect he’d hoped it would. She seemed flustered and dropped the clothes as he passed them to her.

He reached down to pick them up at the same time she did. He smiled at her again, letting his eyes twinkle some more.

“Can you ring me up or do I have to have one of the other clerks do it?” He hoped his right eye would twitch as it often did when he smiled the way he smiled at Kylee. It did. He’d learned, for some reason, the twitch, more than a real wink, endeared flirty women to him.

“Sure.” Kylee practically salivated. She led him out to the storefront, turning back to look at him several times as she walked. She checked out his ring finger while she folded and bagged his purchases. “Not married? How is a good looking man like you not married?” she flirted when he shook his head in answer to her question.

He smiled with a shrug and took a quick glance around the store, looking for Rhees. She must have gone back into the dressing room—another thing he didn’t understand. You go through a store, find what you want, try on a few things if you absolutely need to, pay for them and get out. The thought of her made him smile again, genuinely.

He turned his attention back to Kylee and handed her his credit card. She appeared to assume he smiled because of her and he did nothing to dissuade her assumption. She smiled back and didn’t take her flattered and hopeful eyes off of him until the card was in her hand, but then she froze, staring at it like her eyes were about to pop out.

“You can’t have one of these without an invitation. They’re rare.”

“That’s right. So rare, I’m surprised you know what it is.”

“The last time—
only
time—I’ve ever seen one, the uppity woman using it bragged nonstop to make sure I knew how important she thought she was.” Kylee blathered away as she swiped the card. “She was demanding and threw a tantrum over every little thing. She went on and on about how rich—” Kylee stopped as if her voice caught on something in her throat, and then she looked back up at Paul, her mouth hanging open. She started gushing over him, even more obviously than before.

“I’ve never seen you in the store before.” She actually batted her eyes.

“My first time in Orem,” he said. “It’s a nice place.”

“Oh my gosh.” Her eyes brightened as if she’d just hit the jackpot. “You need a tour guide. There’re so many cool things to see that you wouldn’t know about unless you have a native Oremite to show you around. I could show you, after work.” Kylee’s gaze moved to something behind him and the expression on her face cooled. Paul turned to see why.

Rhees slowly inched her way to the counter. Her eyes shifted uncertainly between Kylee and Paul. She appeared hesitant as she set her own purchases on the counter. Paul noticed the skirt he’d said he liked and it made him smile again.

“Did you really like that or are you buying it because I did?”

“I don’t think it’ll fit you,” she said dryly. Rhees’ gaze moved back and forth between him and Kylee again.