Lady's Man (5 page)

He stood finally, grinning down at her.

The wind whipped her hair into her face and he reached out to brush it away, but didn’t actually touch her. “I think it’s the other way around at this point … I’d say Lady’s a bit of a third wheel. Think she’ll mind?”

Annie felt confused by the unfamiliar sensation of intimacy. She laughed a little uncomfortably. “Why don’t you ask her … she’s practically on your rear.”

He chuckled and teased, “Damn! I was hoping it was you, but I should have known ‘cause you’ve got your arms crossed tighter than a sailor’s knot. Come on, let’s get you some clothes on.”

Annie wasn’t sure how to acknowledge the compliment, or even if she was supposed to. Luckily, he didn’t seem to care if she did. He walked on ahead of her, once again paying attention to her dog, picking up a piece of driftwood and tossing it for her.

Nothing about this was familiar territory for Annie. It required a whole new set of rules … rules she would have to make up as she went along. She hurried after them, sandwiching Lady between them. “So where are we going?”

He turned to wink at her and declared, “It’s a surprise.”

CHAPTER FOUR

Life is all about risks, Annie.

Sometimes it requires you to jump.

The words rang like a litany in Annie’s head. It was as though her grandmother had sent Jamie to whisper in her ear and she couldn’t quite determine if it was serendipity … or simply annoying.

In her room, she finally took the time to unpack while Jamie gave Lady a much-needed bath. He’d offered, and since Lady would likely end up in her bed tonight, Annie wasn’t about to refuse.

At the bottom of Annie’s suitcase sat a blue velvet satchel.

Gingerly, she took it out and laid it upon the bed, leaving the gold drawstring tightly drawn. Within the satchel, inside a silver urn, were her grandmother’s ashes. Annie had brought her home. But this wasn’t just a tribute to her grandmother. Somewhere deep down she understood the importance of letting go and it was the one thing she knew her grandmother wanted desperately for her—independence from her past. The bad relationships. Memories of her parents. All her plans. It was partly why she’d chosen July Fourth to do the deed, and when she’d spotted the house in the ad, with the bright blue house numbers in sync with the holiday, it seemed meant to be. It was time to live in the moment and the spreading of her grandmother’s ashes was a symbolic act of freedom for her—except that she hadn’t quite come to terms with it all.

No matter how she worked at it, she still seemed to need to control her world. But it wasn’t so much the rigidity of her life that bothered her most. It was the natural counter-response to it that was daunting. Even Lady was responding to it: The instant Annie gave her a bit of freedom she attached herself to someone else. And if the truth be told, if Annie looked back on her past relationships, they all began well enough and then slowly deteriorated. But it was never really that Annie tried to control them … it was more that she couldn’t let herself go. Regardless, it seemed to have virtually the same effect. They couldn’t wait to go—and that inevitable result only made Annie want to hold back even more. It was a dysfunctional cycle she desperately wanted to end.

Maybe Jamie was the perfect place to start?

Really, who cared where it all went, right? For once, she could simply allow herself to enjoy each moment, without stressing about where everything was going or holding back out of fear that it wouldn’t go anywhere at all.

She was still contemplating that question as she made her way downstairs, wearing a bright orange button-up halter dress and a pair of white short-heeled sandals. The sun on her face, and a little artfully placed makeup hid the blossoming bruise on her cheek.

“Wow!” Jamie said when she descended the stairs. He peered down at Lady, talking directly to the dog in a conspiratorial tone that made Annie smile. “Suddenly, I feel we should have used fancier soap!”

Lady cocked her head, trying to understand and whined pitifully.

Annie rolled her eyes and laughed. “You’re a silly man,” she told him. “But thank you.”

She marveled that he never really stopped to think better about anything he was about to say. There was an easy sense of charm that went along with that attitude. Annie envied it.

He took her to a little spot on Bowens Island, a tiny island not far from Folly. The restaurant was, as most people would describe it, a dive, but with some of the most amazing food Annie had ever eaten. They sat outside by the creek where food was literally dumped onto their table—no plates, no forks, but thankfully, lots of napkins! She tried something called Frogmore stew, which, as far as Annie could tell, didn’t contain a single frog. But she would have devoured it anyway. It was so good.

Jamie taught her how to shuck oysters like a pro—which to toss and how to open the ones that guarded their prize like Fort Knox did its gold—by shoving her oyster knife just under the hinge and turning as though jimmying a key. It was more fun than she’d had even at the beach—particularly for Lady, who’d had her share of food smuggled under the table—not so covertly—by Jamie.

Although none of it was part of Annie’s original plan, the three of them spent nearly every waking moment together.

On Monday, she went shopping, leaving Lady at home to nap reluctantly while Jamie tested the surf. The winds kicked up and he didn’t want to miss the opportunity to “catch some air.”

In one of the little Center Street shops, Annie bought a chime made of seashells (without any idea where she would put it), a pink baby Tee that said “Folly Girl” (nothing she would normally wear) and a tie-died strapless orange, brown and white sundress that she quietly thought Jamie might like. When she started to second-guess the wisdom in buying a dress for some guy she’d only just met—and merely because he’d complimented her in another orange dress—she went straight to the cash register, shutting off her thoughts and pulling out her debit card. She had an extra three thousand, three hundred dollars after all.

On Tuesday, Annie took Lady on her leash to the Washout to watch Jamie surf. It was a little windy and the sand stung as it whipped her in the face, but she couldn’t have cared less. The sun was blazing, the skies were mostly clear and she couldn’t remember a more contented moment in all her life, surrounded by laughter and little kids running around with little red and blue plastic shovels slapping each other on their sunburned backs.

Jamie fell off his board and her heart leapt a little as she watched.

She could tell by his movements that he wasn’t particularly pleased. He spotted her and came ashore with his faded orange surfboard under his arm and dropped it onto the sand beside her. It was the first time she’d seen him actually look annoyed. “Did you see that guy drop in on me out there!”

Annie lifted her brows and shrugged. She had absolutely no idea what he was talking about.

“I’m hanging it up for the day! Too many kooks! That’s really the only time I get uneasy out there. So, are you ready for some fireworks?”

Annie shielded her eyes with a hand as she peered up at him, marveling that he could drop his bad mood so fast. “Why, are you going to beat someone up?”

He chuckled. “Not hardly. I meant tonight. I know a prime spot to catch the best of Charleston’s pyrotechnics.”

Annie was pleasantly surprised that he didn’t seem the least bit tired of her company yet. “Sounds great!”

He sat next to her and leaned in to whisper in her ear and Annie’s heart lurched a little. “I really don’t want to hurt you-know-who’s feelings, but I was thinking maybe just you and me tonight?”

Until now, everything had been very friendly, a little flirty, but completely platonic. Feeling his warm breath on her skin gave Annie goose bumps of the sort the wind could never have produced. Swallowing the lump that rose in her throat, she turned to look him in the eyes.

He was waiting for her answer, staring at her mouth, eagerly waiting for words to come out.

Their faces were so close that just the slightest lean forward would have brought their lips together. Annie held her breath and didn’t back away. Neither did he, but he didn’t kiss her either.

He was still waiting.

“OK,” she said finally.

“Great! Red or white wine?”

He was still staring at her lips. “Red,” she said and dared to move just a smidgeon closer, her heart tripping wildly. She waited for what seemed an interminable moment while people milled about them in a blur of movement, hoping he would touch his lips to hers. But he smiled softly and backed away, rising to his feet and brushing sand from his body, careful not to brush it in her face. “I’ll come by to get you at six. I still have a few things to pick up.”

Disappointed, Annie didn’t even have a chance to respond.

He picked up his board, tucked it under his arm and ran off down the beach.

Bolting to her feet, Lady barked a complaint at his retreating back.

Luckily, Annie was still holding her leash. She reached out to stroke Lady’s back and let out a shuttering breath. “He’s pretty hard not to like,” she agreed and then rose to her feet and walked Lady home.

As promised, Jamie showed up at six with a basket and a giant cowhide bone for Lady. “To keep her occupied,” he explained and before she could protest that maybe they shouldn’t leave her alone with a bone she might choke on, he took Annie by the hand and dragged her out to the beach.

“As you’ve probably figured out, this end of the beach stays pretty quiet most of the time,” he said. “Locals come here to fish, but you can’t really swim because of the currents. By now they’re all sunburned and on their way home so we’ll have the beach mostly to ourselves.” He winked at her suggestively. “Maybe we’ll even get lucky and spot an incoming turtle doing her thing.”

They passed the remains of an old building. All that was left was a stone foundation that had become a canvas for graffiti artists. “What’s that?”

“Part of an abandoned WWII coast guard station.”

Annie started to take off her sandals. “No, wait til we get to the sand. There are killer burrs here. If you jab one into your toe you’ll scream so loud you’ll scare away all the turtles and you’ll be solely responsible for their extinction.” He winked at her.

Annie giggled and left her shoes on. As it turned out they had a bit of a walk. Beyond the dunes, this part of the beach was bordered by rocks and nearly deserted. A lone fisherman stood on the barrier rocks, shirt off, shoulders beet red, wearing only a pair of duck shoes while he repeatedly cast out his line and reeled it in.

Jamie took her by the hand and led her up to the top of a dune and then put the basket down and spread out a blanket, gesturing for her to sit. “I’ve never actually brought a girl on a picnic before so you’ll have to forgive me if I don’t get this exactly right.”

Annie laughed, amused. “We’re even,” she said. “I’ve never been on a picnic before.”

He cocked his head and said in an exaggerated manner, “Oh, really? Well, I guess we’ll have figure it out together. And look … I brought you this!”

Laughter erupted from her lips as he pulled out another bone. “Oh, no, that was just in case Lady whined and we had to bring her along.” He reached back in the basket. “This!”

This time, he pulled out a beautiful multicolored crocheted shawl and set it around her shoulders. He reached back in the basket without waiting to see her reaction.

“I wasn’t sure what color you’d be wearing tonight so I picked out something that would go with everything.”

Annie’s breath caught as she admired the gift. “Thank you,” she said, stroking it. Her eyes stung a little and she attributed to being emotional, but she couldn’t remember the last time anyone had given her anything besides a birthday card. Her grandmother had often surprised her with a favorite meal or a nice gesture, but most of their lives together, money hadn’t been plentiful. It was only after Annie had started her own design business that things had changed but at that point it was Annie doing most of the gifting.

“And this …”

He pulled out a bottle of Silver Oak cabernet, which he proceeded to open, and then he handed the bottle to her. “Hold that, please,” he said, and took out two red wine goblets, handing one to Annie. Annie was a little stunned by the effort he had put into this evening. She hadn’t expected any of it. He took the bottle from her and poured them each half a glass and set the wine bottle back in the basket holster and raised his glass. “To unexpected surprises!”

Annie couldn’t have put it better. “To unexpected surprises,” she agreed and found she actually meant it.