Chapter 3
Holly liked the decisive bang of her screen door as she crossed the wide patio heading toward the gate. A moonlit swim was exactly what she needed. During the day Cape Shell’s beach was too crowded to attempt a swim, and because of yesterday’s fiasco the less crowded Dune Island State Park was now off limits too. She closed her hand over the gate latch and sighed. Since she’d met Evan Jamieson, cabin fever had taken on a deeper meaning.
She lifted the latch, eased open the gate, and peered out. Not a soul around. The night was blessedly still outside the Jamieson property. Still, she had to be careful; night jogging and dog walking were popular pastimes in the family- oriented New Jersey resort town. Holly swallowed. An overzealous reporter was not an impossibility either. Across the road paralleling the beach and the boardwalk, the streetlights shimmered menacingly. Beyond those lights the deserted beach beckoned.
Thank goodness Evan was at his North Jersey office and not in his upstairs window looking out. What a comical sight she would have made as she hobbled, barefoot and wincing, across the pebble- strewn blacktop. Next time she decided on a midnight outing, she swore to herself, she’d remember to wear shoes.
Heading up the pedestrian ramp, she paused to look north. One mile away a canopy of colored lights glittered against the jet sky. Underneath, a few thousand people were enjoying the unique experience of a summer night on a livelier section of Cape Shell’s boardwalk. With a slight wind out of the north, she started to imagine she could hear the arcade hawkers and smell the sausage and peppers grilling in the open air. Nameless emotions stirred, bringing back moments from her youth. Moments she’d started to recall at dinner last night with Evan.
Holly clutched the towel to her breast and thought of him with his sunburned ears and his questioning eyes. With his hair lifting and falling on his forehead in a warm breeze . She pressed the towel against her heart and shivered with the next memory: his mouth on hers.
Evan, who’d disturbed her in such an endearing manner. Evan, with his hard, muscled body begging to be touched. Evan, with his voice vibrating nerve endings she’d forgotten she possessed.
Weren’t those visions of Evan the reason she’d decided on this midnight swim? She slipped her fingers through her hair and gave a little tug. She could not, she reminded herself, afford to indulge in any more thoughts like that. Thoughts might lead to actions, and actions to reactions. It was easy, so easy, to picture herself in Evan’s arms. Turning toward the water, she hurried down the steps and out onto the sand. There was no denying their attraction for each other. Holly kicked hard into the sand. No denying, but no yielding to it, either. Once her unsavory secret was out, he would despise her. Those beautiful blue eyes would turn to steel once he knew the truth. Once everyone did.
Of all she’d been through this past year, she knew instinctively that Evan Jamieson’s disapproval would be the one thing to finish her. So one way or another, she was going to stay away from Evan Jamieson.
Moonlight dappled the surface of the ocean invitingly. A bracing plunge and a rough swim would help her forget for awhile. She dropped her towel onto a twisted portion of weathered fence and made a run across the cool sand.