Under the Boardwalk: A Dazzling Collection of All New Summertime Love Stories (58 page)

"I had a mild sunburn from yesterday," she told him, not particularly alarmed. "I think I'll just take one quick dip in the pool, then I'll go in and clean up for dinner."

"I'll stop by your room in an hour or so."

"Great. I'll see you then."

Jody watched him walk across the concrete patio that surrounded the pool and sighed. Jeremy looked great from absolutely every angle.

She dove into the deep end of the almost deserted pool and surfaced halfway down the length of it. The water felt cooler now, and she floated, drifting for a few long moments, then hoisted herself out of the pool, pondering what she'd wear that night.

Rousing herself from the water, she towel-dried her legs, noticing for the first time that her skin had taken on an ominously deep shade of pink. How many times during the day
had
she put on sunscreen?

She reached in her beach bag, searching for the sunscreen. Suddenly she recalled lathering herself with the white cream while she was in the bathroom earlier that morning. In her mind's eye, she clearly saw the tall brown bottle resting on the side of the bathroom sink, right where she'd left it.

Jody stuffed her belongings back into the bag, then followed the patterned carpeting from the poolside lobby to her room, mentally berating herself for being so careless.

I hadn't expected to be out there for so long, and I hadn't intended on falling asleep
, she reminded herself as she went into the bathroom to hang up the wet towels.
I thought Jeremy would be back earlier
…

The sight of her own face and body in the mirror made her head swivel around in surprise. Was her skin really that red? Or was the skin that had been covered by the bikini really that white? She leaned closer, not believing her eyes. Could she have gotten
that
much sun today?

Maybe on her way back from dinner she'd stop at the drugstore and pick up something for sunburn. She hummed as she showered, hummed as she washed her hair. The humming stopped when her skin seemed to tighten as she began to towel-dry it.

Every fiber of cotton seemed to abrade, as if the towel were made of sandpaper, and she finished drying by patting the towel on her skin. She didn't panic until she looked back into the mirror and saw just how red she was.

Lobster red. Crayon red. Fire engine red.

I must have something with me
, she muttered, rummaging in her suitcase for something, body cream, lotion… something that might help.

Jody found a jar of skin-care lotion and soothed a wide white swath onto her arms, but it only seemed to make the skin feel more taut.

Swell
, she muttered as she blow-dried her hair. When she finished, she turned her back to the mirror and looked over her shoulder, trying to gauge how badly she was burned on the flip side. Had she even applied sunscreen to her back?

Jody winced as she drew her bra straps over her shoulders. The thin satin straps lay like rough burlap on her tender skin. She ignored the discomfort as she pulled a white top over the bra, then slipped on a short skirt. It took only about thirty seconds for Jody to recognize the truth of the situation. The skirt tightened like a vise around her waist, the pressure more than she could stand. She took off the skirt, the shirt, and the bra, and tossed them on the bed in disgust.

Well, this is a nice kettle offish
, she mumbled, standing in the middle of the room in her panties.
How can I go out to dinner if I can't put any clothes on
?

Her eyes drifted back to the closet inside the motel room door to where the red silk number was pinned to its hanger.

With a sigh, she slipped it off the hooks and over her head. It skimmed her skin like a whisper. And a short-sleeved shirt would provide a little cover, hiding the obvious fact that she was wearing very little under the dress. She slipped her feet into high heels and groaned. Between the still-sore gash on her right foot and her sunburned soles, her feet hadn't fared much better than the rest of her.

Here she had little choice. She had her heels, her running shoes, and her flip-flops. The heels it would have to be. Jeremy said the restaurant was just a few blocks away. She should be fine. And if her feet hurt when she got there, she could slip her shoes off and no one would be the wiser.

Jeremy did a triple take when Jody answered the door. The red silk dress was soft and alluring, feminine yet sexy.

It was also the same color as her face. And her arms. And every other inch of skin that wasn't covered.

They stopped at the corner across from the motel, waiting for the light to turn green so that they could cross. Jeremy's eyes narrowed and he leaned forward. Were those blisters on her nose?

Jody, meanwhile, was trying to ignore the fact that her skin felt like glowing embers and her lips felt as if they were beginning to swell. Inside the high heels, her feet protested every step.

"Jody, that burn looks really painful."

"It is." She bit her bottom lip.

"Did you put something on it?" He touched her arm and she flinched.

"I didn't have anything in my room. I didn't expect to be stupid enough to have something like this happen. I thought we'd stop at the drugstore on the way back and pick up something for sunburn. I'll bet they see lots of sunburn down here."

"Are you sure you want to go out to dinner?" he asked.

Jody nodded. "I'll be fine."

She hoped she'd be fine. She
would
be fine. She'd waited a life time for a man like Jeremy. She'd
have
to be fine.

There would be a twenty-five-minute wait for a table, they were told when they entered the restaurant.

"Want to wait at the bar?" Jeremy asked. "It looks as if there are a few stools left there on the end."

"Sure." Jody took Jeremy's hand, and leaned heavily on it as he helped her onto the tall, high-backed bar stool.

Jody leaned against the hard wooden back, then shot forward with a lurch.

"Jody, are you sure you're all right?"

"My back is a little sensitive, that's all."
And the soles of my feet are on fire, and my thighs are melting under my skirt. Other than that, I'm perfectly fine
.

Jody bit her bottom lip, wondering if she'd be able to sit through an entire meal without spontaneously combusting. Unconsciously, she ran a knuckle across her chin.

Jeremy took her hand away and peered closer. "Jody," he told her, "your face is starting to blister."

"Damn, are you serious?"

He leaned closer still.

"I think your nose is blistering." He traced her lips with one gentle finger. "And it looks like your bottom lip is swelling."

She searched in her handbag for a mirror. Finding a compact, she opened it and found herself peering at a creature with lips as big as saucers and bubbling blisters rising up on her face like tiny volcanoes.

"Oh, no!" she cried. "Look at me! My whole face is starting to swell up!"

"Calm down, Jody, it isn't that—"

"I look like I've had a run-in with killer bees!" She held both hands in front of her face, as if to shield what she perceived as a hideous visage. "Jeremy, look at my lip. I look grotesque."

Jeremy tilted her face to the light. It wasn't his imagination. The blisters were getting larger. Visibly larger.

"Look, how about if we skip dinner, and well go find a drugstore right now and we'll get something to take the sting out."

"There's a pharmacy two blocks in that direction." She pointed in the opposite direction from the motel. "I saw it on Saturday."

"Okay, so well walk…" He paused. She was clearly on the verge of tears. "What?"

"I can't walk two blocks. I’ll be lucky to make it back to the motel," she told him miserably. "The soles of both my feet are burned."

"Okay, then, I'll go to the drugstore. You wait right here. I'll be right back." Jeremy signaled to the bartender. "Another dub soda—lots of ice, please."

He turned to Jody and said, "Keep sipping the soda and let the ice rest against your lips. It'll help a little."

She nodded and watched him disappear through the crowd around the front door.

Was this the worst luck in the world? She couldn't recall ever having had a sunburn this bad. It hurt to move. Her feet hurt unmercifully.

And here she was, with the most incredible man in the world. If he touched her tonight, she'd die of pain. If he didn't, she'd die of regret. She prayed he'd find something mighty potent at that drugstore, a wonder drug that could totally anesthetize only the nerves that controlled pain while leaving the pleasure center intact…

Within minutes, Jeremy was striding back into the bar, a plastic bag bearing the name of a chain drugstore swinging from his left hand.

"Aloe," he told her, holding up the bag. "How do you feel?"

"Like I stood too close to a volcano," she told him, adding, "and at the same time, I'm freezing from the air-conditioning."

Jeremy took off his jacket and slid it gently over her shoulders. "Is that better?"

"A little. Thank you." She shifted slightly in her seat. The movement left her slightly nauseated.

"Jody, do you want to leave?"

"I just don't feel very well all of a sudden. I'm sorry."

"Stomach queasy?"

She nodded.

"You might have sun poisoning. Let's get you back to the motel and take care of that burn."

"I can wait till you've eaten."

"No, I don't think you can."

"But, Jeremy—"

"No buts. Let's go." He offered her his hand to help her down from the stool, and she took it gratefully.

She picked her way slowly through the crowd on her screaming feet. Once outside, she removed her shoes and took the steps at a snail's pace.

"You look like you're having a hard time there. Feet really hurt, do they?"

She nodded her head.

"Here," Jeremy started to put his arms around her as if to lift her. "I'll carry you."

"No, don't pick me up." She backed away from him. "My sides, my back, my hips… anyplace that you would have to touch me to carry me is screaming right now. I think I can make it if I walk sort of on the sides of my feet."

"All right, then, let's get you back to your room and cover you in aloe."

The one-block walk back to the motel seemed endless.

"Jody," Jeremy said as he closed the door to her room behind them, "you're going to have to get out of that dress."

"Somehow, that sounded better last night," she tried to joke about her situation.

"And it will again in a few days," he kissed the side of her swollen mouth with great tenderness. "But right now, we have to take care of this burn."

"I'll put my bathing suit back on," she told him.

She ducked into the bathroom and closed the door, leaving Jeremy holding a bag of aloe gel. She emerged a few minutes later, the bikini covering the vital parts but little else.

Jeremy sighed. That sweet body he'd loved the night before—that perfect body that had seemed to fit his like a glove—was fried to a crisp.

"So," she said, clearing her throat nervously. She'd dreamed all day of having those skillful hands of his caressing her body again, but she'd been hoping for a more pleasurable experience than she was bound for this time around. "Should I just stand here and you can pour that stuff on my back?"

"No, I think you need to get a towel and spread it across the bed. Then you can lie on the towel, and I'll pour the aloe on. You're already blistering in places. I’ll just keep reapplying it."

Nodding without looking him in the eyes, Jody retrieved a bath towel from the bathroom and spread it on the bed, then painstakingly lowered herself onto it, face down.

Lord have mercy
. This was Jeremy's best fantasy and worst nightmare.

So near
, he sighed,
yet so far
.

"Maybe you should start with my shoulders."

Jeremy poured the cool gel into the palm of one hand and gently began to apply it to her shoulder blades.

"Sorry," he told her when she flinched.

"It's just that it's
cold
. Keep going."

He poured a little aloe directly onto each of her shoulders and smoothed it as kindly as he could down into the small of her back.

"How does that feel?" he asked.

"It's still cold, and my skin's still hot."

Jeremy spread a little over the tops of her hips and she groaned again.

"Want me to stop?"

"No."

He peered at her shoulders. The gel he'd applied had totally soaked into her skin. He reapplied the cooling substance over the entire area.

Jeremy dribbled a few drops of aloe across the backs of her legs, then gently began to rub it in. Jody moaned, and his mouth went dry. Torture. Sheer torture.

"Don't worry—the aloe should help a lot. My grandmother was a great believer in natural remedies. When we were little, it was aloe for sunburn, poison ivy, any skin abrasion, really."

"Who's we?"

His mouth went a little drier as he pondered an answer.

"My brother and I."

"You have a brother?"

He paused before responding.

"I had a younger brother," he said softly.

" 'Had'?" She shifted onto her elbows and looked over her shoulder. "What happened?"

"He died a long time ago."

"Oh, Jeremy, I'm so sorry…" She made a movement to turn over and he stopped her from facing him. He just couldn't go into it right then.

"It was a long time ago," he repeated. "Anyway, my grandmother had no faith in modern medicine. Saw a doctor once in her life, when she had pneumonia and my aunt took her to the hospital. As luck would have it, she picked up an infection while she was there and it killed her. She was eighty-seven and didn't look a day over sixty-five. Never used anything but aloe on her skin."

"Oh, well, then. Pour away. I wouldn't mind looking a few years younger."

"If you looked any younger, I'd be arrested for what I'm thinking."

She laughed for the first time since he had arrived at her hotel room earlier in the evening, and he realized then how much he had missed the sound of her laughter. In that minute he knew he would do whatever it took to drive away her pain and bring that smile back to her face.