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“I’ve never been on a beach alone,” she said to him after a moment. “Especially a beach like this. It’s truly something, isn’t it?”
“It’s beautiful. How long have you been out here?”
“Since the sun came up. I couldn’t sleep last night so I came out here to think.”
“To think,” he repeated. “About what?”
“About this job. About whether I’ve gotten in over my head. I was thinking about if maybe I should leave.”
He was quiet for a moment, knowing he needed to apologize for snapping at her last night, but not knowing how to begin. “Do you want to leave?”
“I feel as if I’m intruding, Mr. Bradley.”
“I feel as if you’re supposed to call me Carlos.” He stood up, extending his hand. “Come to the market with me.”
* * *
He had a Range Rover in the garage solely for her use, but she wanted to him to drive the old-school black convertible that was big as a tank and took as much gas. It had come with the house; the former owner had fixed it up himself.
“I’m feeling a little like Lena Horne in the 1950s,” she said as the ocean air whipped around them. “Just give me a big pair of sunglasses and a fabulous scarf.” She had her bare feet up on the dashboard, those long shapely legs stretched out before him, distracting his attention from the road. He was very tempted to run his hand up one of them, just to feel more of her softness, but he stopped himself. Never in his life had he met anyone he wanted to touch more; never in his life had he found a woman so tempting.
“I never would have thought to come here until you called me,” she said, looking at the scenery around her. “This doesn’t feel like Florida. It feels as if I’m in another country altogether.”
“My parents brought us here once, as kids. So when the opportunity came up to buy it, I did.”
“I would have loved to come here as a kid,” she said wistfully. “My parents aren’t the relax-on-the-beach, sand-between-their-toes type of people.”
“My mother is from Costa Rica. She had a hard time living in Maryland, away from the water, so every summer my parents would pack us in the car and drive us down to Florida. My father loved the beach. He saved all his vacation days for the year so we could spend two weeks down here. He would park his chair in the sand in the morning and wouldn’t leave until sundown that night,” he said, finding himself sharing more about himself than he meant to.
“What did the rest of you do?” she asked, smiling.
“Ran wild.” Memories came flooding back to him of Ava and Elias running around the beach with inflatable water tubes around their waists, and his older sister reading in the shade of an umbrella.
“I’m jealous.” She shut her eyes and leaned back in the seat, letting the rays of the sun hit her face. “My parents were all about culture and educational vacations. As an adult I can appreciate seeing Prague. As a seven-year-old, I’d much rather have gone to an amusement park on the Jersey Shore.”
“Your parents took you to Europe as a kid?”
“Yes, my mother is a mathematics professor who teaches courses with names like Complex Functions Theories and Partial Differential Equations. My father was a high-ranking military man and dealt with a lot of foreign officials. They wanted their children to be well-rounded individuals who could excel in any setting.”
“Are you?”
“You’ve met me. What do you think? My parents were expecting a doctor and another professor in the family. But my brother is a paramedic and I decorate people’s houses for a living.”
“You think they are disappointed in you?”
“Oh, I know they are, but I learned a long time ago that I have to follow my dreams, not the dreams they have for me.”
He pulled into town and was greeted with the sight of brightly colored buildings in mint greens, bright blues and yellows. There were people strolling up and down the small streets and diners eating on restaurant patios, but it wasn’t crowded. It didn’t feel like the height of tourist season, which it was. The whole place felt relaxed, a throwback to another time, and Carlos felt himself growing relaxed. He didn’t think he would like being in town. But this place was so different from Miami. He forgot that was why he was drawn to it in the first place.
A few minutes later they were in the market, with him pushing the cart while Virginia went through her list.
“You aren’t one of those low fat/no fat people, are you?” She stopped in front of the milk case.
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