by Jean Oram
The sun felt wonderful on his skin as they skipped from rock to rock through the marsh, just off the small thoroughfare that ran through town.
“It’s later than I usually come out, but we might be in luck,” he added.
Come on, turtles. Don’t make a fool of me.
He jumped to the next rock, turning to hold out a hand to Hailey, who had her unwieldy camera bag slung over her shoulder. She made the leap, grabbing his hand for the landing, her flip-flops looped through the fingers of her other hand, her sundress bunched up to keep it out of the way of her long, slender legs. He couldn’t help wondering how strong they were and how they’d feel wrapped around his waist as he…
Wow, this sun was getting to him. His mind was so far in the gutter it would be a miracle if she didn’t slap him due to the vibes he must be giving off.
As she moved to the next rock ahead of him, her bag threw her off and she waved her arms frantically to regain her balance.
“You need a backpack,” he called, landing beside her and resting a palm lightly on her waist. He liked this game. So many reasons to touch her, get a feel for her body, breathe her in and thrust his fantasies into high gear.
“The one I want is overpriced.”
“By how much?” She needed a backpack. The way her bag was swinging and throwing her off balance it was a miracle she hadn’t landed in the murky water.
“How’d you discover the turtles?” She turned to check how far they’d come.
“Training. How much are the bags?”
“Training?” She glanced at him with a puzzled frown.
He shrugged and held out his arms. “I have to stay in shape for my roles. It’s nice to find something to do outside.”
Tipping his head back, hands on his hips, he relished the feel of the sun. This was the life. He smiled at Hailey, his vision bleached from the sun. “Come on. Leaping from rock to rock is good exercise.”
Finn took off again, letting out a whoop when he almost fell in, overestimating the distance between two rocks. He heard a laugh behind him and turned to see Hailey shaking her head as she carefully followed his route.
“I can take your bag if you want to try.”
“I’m fine.” She clung to her shoulder strap, eyes lowered as she eased past him, cheeks flushing as their bodies brushed against each other.
He wanted to run a hand up her arm, kiss her again. But glad that she was still talking to him despite last night’s wandering hands, he decided he wouldn’t push it. Instead, he’d suffer through the brush of her sweet curves against his groin as they moved past each other on the rocks.
“So what do you do for entertainment?” he asked.
“Watch your movies,” she said with a sly wink.
He stood on a rock, assessing her. Was she kidding? Mocking him? Or revealing a secret obsession? “Very funny.”
“You have no sense of humor,” Hailey retorted. She let out another laugh and gave him a playful shove, before catching him so he didn’t fall in the water.
She held him near, their eyes locking. He swallowed hard. He knew how she saw him--as irresponsible, full of bad judgment and lacking in impulse control. A man looking for trouble. He’d bet anything she wanted to take him down a notch.
He smiled at her, again resisting the urge to kiss her. Finn could handle her trying to take him down a notch. Anything she did would be just fine by him.
They broke eye contact and resumed moving through the reeds, his mornings sprints over the rocks paying off in nimbleness. Moments later, Finn stilled and held out a hand to prevent Hailey from passing. He crouched and pointed. There on a rock was a spotted turtle, looking ancient and wise, its beady eyes staring straight at them.
Hailey edged closer, her hair wild from the breeze, her gaze focused and intent. She grabbed his arm as she caught sight of the distinctive reptile sunning itself at the water’s edge. It looked as though it was communing with a higher order.
“I can’t believe it. You know how long I’ve been looking for one of these?” she whispered. “And there it is, sunning itself with the wisdom of the universe right on the edge of town.” She turned to him, eyes full of wonder.
Finn shifted and cleared his throat. It was one thing for him to think the turtle was wise and connected with the universe, but to hear someone else say it out loud…well, it made him uneasy. “You’d better take a picture before it takes off.”
Without a word, she let go of his arm and began digging through her bag, matching up camera and lenses, her cheeks pink with excitement.
For a turtle. Finn sighed and scrubbed a hand through his hair. Eager to remain close to her, he resisted placing a hand on her shoulder in case he began caressing the soft, sun-warmed skin. Instead, he brought his head close to hers, as though trying to capture the view she was lining up. He let her curly, out-of-control hair tickle his face as he inhaled the sweet scent of her fruity shampoo.
He wondered what she’d do if he slipped the strap of her dress down to get a better glimpse of the way her chest rounded out. She was so petite, his hands could explore a lot of territory in one small move.
She shot him a frown over her shoulder.
Right. She was creating. Needed head space, physical space. Not some horny dude breathing in her feminine scent and fantasizing about her body. Got it.
He forced himself to step back onto the rock behind her, watching as she dropped into a squat, lining up her shot. Finn almost laughed at the thought of himself sitting on a rock in a mucky marsh in Canada, excited about sharing a rare turtle with a chick who needed to be introduced to a hairbrush. Some bad boy he was turning out to be.
“My sister Daphne is going to go nuts over these.”
“Why?”
Still hidden behind her camera, Hailey whispered, “She’s a bit of an environmentalist, and has been trying to prove these creatures live in the area. She’s been working on stopping a development across the lake. The spotted turtle is sensitive to water pollution. Big developments bring disturbance, an increase in traffic, and of course, more boats, which means more water quality degradation. All of which is bad for these guys.”
“Huh.”
So Hailey got off on real-life issues. Who knew? Finn had plenty of those. Such as promises made to charities that he might not be able to keep. A brother who had died in his arms in a gang war. Another brother who’d flipped a switch with only Finn to bail him out.
He stood and tried to catch his breath as memories flooded over him. After twelve years the pain had barely dulled. He tried to focus on the conversation, his voice thick and tight, defensive. “Don’t get me wrong, turtles are cool and all, but honestly, would anyone even notice if they went missing from the amphibian lineup?”
She turned to him, eyes round, mouth open.
“Kidding.”
Grumbling something he couldn’t quite hear, she changed the lens on her camera and took several more shots.
He stared at the sunning turtle. It was like him. Supposedly rare, but would anyone really notice if he went missing from the movie star lineup? Not likely.
“Sorry if I sounded like my sister,” Hailey said. “But when you see something as beautiful as this and know it is endangered because its home has become our playground…” She let out a sigh loaded with what sounded like guilt.
“Why does that bother you?” Finn asked, half listening, half caring.
She held up the LCD display on her camera so he could see her last shot. He looked out to the real turtle, then back to the camera. How did she make that look like this? That was boring. This was introspective. Her photo had somehow managed to capture exactly how he felt staring at the turtle when he was here alone, lost in his thoughts. Finn took a step back and just about into the muck. He knew from experience that the marsh water looked clean, almost pristine, but there was a lot of deep mud at the bottom. He’d already lost one shoe in here and didn’t want to lose another--especially in front of Hailey.
“Nice. Ready to go?” He needed to get out of here. Go be a bad boy. Create a new, fictionalized drama. Keep moving forward. And definitely squelch the urge to kiss the serious look off Hailey’s face.
He rubbed his stubble in irritation. What was wrong with him? How did she keep getting under his skin, jabbing at the places he’d tried to kill off when he entered show business?
He needed palm trees, plastic smiles, and false everything. Not this. This was too real. Too…feeling.
He plunged both hands through his hair and trudged back over the rocks, trying to shake off the emotions that assailed him. He needed some decompression time, naked with some bimbo, that’s all.
It wasn’t Hailey. It was him. It had been months and he was in a weird head space. It didn’t help that she was teasing him in a push-pull game, and he was a man in transition. That was why he’d come here. He needed to sit and chill and not think. He needed peace so he could glide into the next stage of his career. Otherwise he’d get redirected from his goals.
“I’m going to be a while,” she called, her soft voice distant.
He paused. What? She’d had her shot. She was like the director for Desperate Cowboy who’d kept demanding retakes when he almost always used the first take in the end. Why did Hailey want to hang out in the heat and take more photos? Was she punishing Finn? Trying to gain the upper hand?
This whole “creating” thing she was doing made him uncomfortable. He needed to go to a bar. Art wasn’t his deal. Not anymore.
It was going to throw him off.
“I’m leaving,” he said, his voice gruffer than he intended.
“Jealous of a turtle and all the attention it’s getting, huh?” She straightened, her eyes shaded by her free hand. She came a few rocks closer, moving carefully. She lifted her lens, fired off a few shots of him standing peeved on a rock. In Canada. Great. Good luck selling that to the tabloids. It was time to find a real paparazzo.
“I’m not wearing sunscreen,” he snapped.
Without looking, she reached into the bag resting against her hip and flung a bottle at him. SPF 60.
Ever Miss Practical.
“I’m going to move over that way and see if I can get some head-on shots. Maybe catch it swimming. Thanks for bringing me out here.”
“There are no rocks that way.”
She shrugged.
“What about the eggs?”
“They’re not in the open water, Finian.” Hailey rolled her eyes.
“And leave you out here in the sucking mud? What if you drown?”
He could barely believe she was dismissing him. Didn’t she know who he was? He was Finian Alexander. A movie star. You didn’t dismiss him after he showed you the thing you’d been seeking for years. And you sure didn’t casually snap off a few shots as if it was a joke. You would pay at least as much attention and care to him as you did to the turtle. “You can’t stay out here alone.”
“You sound like my mother,” she said, her tone odd.
“You ever heard of a hairbrush?”
“Really like my mother,” Hailey muttered, her tone flat. She self-consciously drew her curls into a bunch, twisting them into a knot, her cheeks pink again. She stepped off the rock and waded through the marsh to face the turtle. What was wrong with this girl? She was dealing with mud between her toes and indeterminable squishy depths for a turtle. A freaking turtle.
Dammit. She was making Finn feel like a girl. Out in a marsh waiting for someone, being ignored. Insulted. He didn’t like it. Not one bit.
“Your mother’s a very smart woman,” he called.
“Watch what you say.” Hailey sloshed through the marsh, and in the process scared the turtle into the water. She lowered her camera, her face hard, the hem of her dress wet.
Good. She’d missed her shot and was mad at herself. And him.
Hands on his hips, he smiled, waiting for her to turn to him.
“You’re a big jerk, you know that?”
“Yeah, I do. It’s been amply noted by the general public.”
She splashed toward him, her head cocked to the side. “And yet you are so proud.”
“It pays the bills.” He shook his head, sighing as he held out a hand to help her out of the muck. What was it about Hailey Summer that always pulled him between two worlds, and made him ruin her mood? Not meeting her eye, he wrung out the hem of her dress so the moisture wouldn’t spread. “Your feet stink.”
“You need to shave.”
“You need to kiss me.” He grabbed her and, in the middle of the marsh, showed her just how under his skin she’d gotten.
6
By the time Finn pulled Hailey out of the marsh he was ready to take her back to his cottage and run his hands over her body and through her hair--hair that was surprisingly soft and fine, causing all that fly-away business he so often saw. He wanted to finish exploring all that potential he’d felt under her dress last night at The Kee.
He was practically dragging her as she laughed, stumbling along as they hit the dock, his eyes on his small cottage still yards and yards away. She’d let him kiss her again, her mood turning, her playful side coming out like a ray of sunshine.
A car peeled up beside them as they cut across a small parking lot, and Finn tugged Hailey behind him, afraid the paparazzi would distract her and dampen the mood they were building. He hustled her along as a woman, half hanging out the silver minivan’s window, hollered, “Did you get it?”
“Get what?” he asked suspiciously, keeping Hailey hidden behind him.
Hailey shoved him aside, yanking her camera out of its bag. “Sure did.”
Seriously? “Um, we have plans,” Finn said pointedly. Specifically, consenting adult plans, and this soccer mom with the hippie vibe was totally going to dampen the mood.
The woman, who had the same petite frame as Hailey but seemingly without the height, waved a hand burdened by massive rings. “Show me.”
Hailey moved to the van, holding out her camera’s LCD.
“How do you know about the turtle already?” Finn demanded.
“Hailey texted me,” the woman stated.
“Oh, Finian, meet my youngest sister, Daphne,” Hailey said, without glancing his way.
She could barely give him the time of day because of that turtle. What had he been thinking taking her out there?
“Nice to meet you,” Daphne said, her eyes on the camera’s screen.
“Yeah, pleasure is all mine,” he muttered. Sulking, he took a few steps away to see if Hailey would notice. Nope. Not even a glimmer that he was missing.
He was definitely feeling like a means to an end right now. He turned to face the breeze coming off the lake, eyeing Daphne out of the corner of his eye. She was a modern-day hippie, wearing lots of beads and an embroidered smock. Add in the fact that her silver Dodge Caravan had a bright red flower painted on the hood and plastic flowers wrapped around the antenna, and it was pretty obvious she took nature as seriously as her big sister did--more so, seeing as Hailey was looking for turtles for her.
Derek would be laughing himself right off his chair right now if he knew who Finn had chosen to be his paparazzo. Yet the way the two sisters appeared to be opposites gave Finn hope. Maybe Hailey would find him--an opposite--just as intriguing and worthy of helping as she did her sister. And if not, it wasn’t exactly horrible hanging out with her.
“You found this?” Daphne asked him, looking up at last.
“The turtle?” He ran a hand through his hair and tried to act casual. “Yeah. Why?”
The van door was flung open and he found himself being hugged by what resembled a python. Every time he tried to exhale Hailey’s sister squeezed tighter, until he couldn’t breathe at all. A smaller creature that he could only imagine was her offspring hugged his legs with all her might. Just when he thought he might actually pass out from a lack of oxygen, they released him, as if by unspoken agreement.
Finn inhaled and steadied himself. That mother-daughte
r team could take out unsuspecting spies with their killer grips.
The offspring began bouncing around on the asphalt, her fluffy party dress flouncing as she sang, “Mommy found the spotted turtle. Mommy’s going to save them.” She paused to give Hailey a hug for good measure, then climbed back into the van. Clicking the seat belt across herself, she announced, “All ready, Mom.”
Panic slipped under Finn’s skin as Hailey slid the little girl’s door shut and climbed into the passenger seat beside Daphne. She couldn’t just leave. They had unfinished business. They were about to go to his cottage and get it on. He was going to convince her to work with him.
But the women weren’t even talking, they were moving as though this was all part of some prearranged plan.
Hailey had found what she wanted and was ditching him. The idea left him with a surprisingly hollow feeling that echoed throughout his being.
“Well?” the hippie asked him.
He stood on the asphalt, feeling like a third wheel.
“Are you coming, or what?”
“Where?” He glanced at Hailey, and knew it didn’t matter what the answer was, he was going where she did. He climbed in next to the child bouncing in her booster seat.
“You’ll see.” Daphne pulled out of the parking lot in a move that would make most soccer dads salivate, and had Finn falling out of his seat.
“You might want to buckle up, mister,” the young girl said. “Mom’s like a race car driver. And they wear helmets.”
Standing in the public parking lot near Bala Falls, Hailey nervously ran her hands through her hair, accepting an elastic from her sister. Thank goodness Daphne and Tigger had come along. Hailey had become so swept up in Finian’s kisses in the marsh that she’d forgotten herself. And that would have been a complete failure seeing as she wasn’t supposed to be exposing him to the tabloids in a kiss-and-tell sort of way.
She wrestled her hair into a ponytail, the humidity of the warm day making it go nuts. The only thing worse was January and February, where she wanted to shave her head rather than deal with the static electricity that made her hair stick to her face.
