Annie sat down and opened the cooler. “How about a wine cooler, girls? I’m sick of beer.” She gave one to Heather, but Lauren shook her head and held up her bottle. “Still working on this, but thanks anyway.”
Lauren had lost count of how many beers she’d had. She hoped it was only two, but it may well have been three. In any event, it was more alcohol than she had consumed at one time in her entire life. Was it the alcohol causing this sensation of security and comfort? That made her wish she could feel like this forever?
Annie leaned back in her chair and propped her feet up on the cooler. “I had lots of emails, Heather. We should have at least a hundred pairs of shoes to pack when we get home.”
“That’s great. Biggest shipment yet.” Heather smiled, and then looked down at Lauren. “I guess Rad told you about his shoe thing.”
Lauren gazed up with a blank stare, making Heather bite her lip. “Or maybe he didn’t.”
Annie touched Heather’s arm as if to say, I’ll handle this. “Well you know how Rad is,” she began. “He bought a couple of pairs of shoes for kids who didn’t have any, and then his church back home heard about it, and now it’s kind of taken off. This will make about five hundred shoes we’ve collected altogether.”
Lauren sat silently with her eyes closed. Yes, I know how Rad is. Generous. Thoughtful. Strong. Easy-going. Perfect. And I’m leaving in the morning.
When she opened her eyes, Rad was walking up the beach in the moonlight between Wynn and Pops, his arms moving in conversation, all their faces showing deep concentration. When his gaze fell upon Lauren, he paused and studied her with an expression of solemn contemplation for a moment as if losing his train of thought. Then all three of them stopped and huddled as Rad picked up the conversation again. He spoke intently in hushed tones for a few more moments before all three headed toward the women. If ever there was a more complete specimen of vigorous, manly strength, she had never seen it.
Lauren had to struggle to suppress the panic building in her heart as she watched this larger-than-life man stroll toward her. She had no idea what time it was, but she knew it was late. Without thinking, she pulled his shirt more securely around her. Time was slipping away.
“You three being anti-social or what?” Pops came to a stop in front of Annie’s chair. “Why don’t you join the party by the fire?”
“We’re just sitting here waiting for three knights in shining armor to come riding up,” Heather said. “Figured we had a better chance over here.”
“We’re here, my lady.” Wynn bowed deeply, and Rad grabbed Lauren’s hand.
“My horse is lame, but I’ll carry you to the fire if want.”
Everyone laughed except Lauren.
“I don’t think that will be necessary.” She stood and followed him toward the now-raucous crowd.
“Something wrong?” he asked when they were halfway there. “You look upset.”
“Really?” Lauren forced a smile. “Just missed you, I guess.”
Rad put his arm around her waist. “That’s what I like to hear.”
Chapter 9
The laughter emanating from around the fire was loud and contagious, and made Lauren wish to join the high-spirited group. But then again time was running out, and she selfishly—and unexpectedly—wanted to be alone with Rad.
As they approached the light from the flames, she gazed at the dark shadows that still sheltered and surrounded them. “Too bad it’s so dark. We could go for a jog on the beach.”
“That’d be fun.” Rad nodded. “I’d even jog slow, so you could keep up.”
Lauren turned her head toward him, knowing he was trying to stir up her competitive nature. “Really? You’d do that for me?”
By the time he answered, “Yup,” she had taken off at a full run down the beach.
Lauren ran as fast as she could, headlong into the night, and thought for a moment Rad had not even taken up the chase. But suddenly from out of the darkness, almost in front of her, came two strong hands that wrapped around her waist like steel vices. She went down in the sand, half-laughing, half-screaming from the surprise of the capture. She had not even heard his footsteps.
“How did you do that?” She was still laughing as she found herself pinned on her back in the sand, looking up into his serious face.
Rad relaxed his grip slightly. “You’re really beautiful when you laugh. You know that?” He leaned down still closer and studied her intently. “I get the feeling you don’t do it very often.”
Lauren’s smile disappeared. “What are you? Some kind of super-athletic psychoanalyst or something?”
“Just an observation.”
“Well stop observing—and get off me while you’re at it.”
Rad continued to stare deep into her eyes as if trying to read her thoughts, and for a moment she thought he was actually going to lean down and kiss her. He apparently thought better of it and helped her to her feet.
Lauren stood and brushed the sand off her jeans. “Okay, maybe jogging in the dark wasn’t such a good idea.” She shook out her hair and turned back toward the party, but Rad grabbed her hand and tugged her down the beach in the opposite direction. “Don’t you hear it? Hurry up. They’re playing our song.”
“Our song?” She looked up at him. “I didn’t know we had a song.”
He led her closer to the source of the music that emanated from the balcony of a hotel room and pulled her into his arms for a slow dance just as the words from John Denver’s “Sunshine on My Shoulders” reached her ears.
“I guess we do have a song,” Lauren murmured as she put her arms around his neck and relaxed into him.
Lauren tried to concentrate on the words, but she couldn’t stop her mind from racing. Who was this disarming, courteous man with his strong arms and his soft voice—a man with whom she felt no awkward strangeness, but only companionship and understanding. It was as though she had known him always—known him a lifetime ago and for an eternity.
When the song came to an end, Rad’s embrace seemed to tighten.
“We should go back.” Lauren didn’t really want to return to the real world and end this dreamlike fantasy in which she was living. But neither did she want him to feel how fast her heart was racing against his.
“Yeah, I guess we should,” he said without making a move to leave.
At last, with apparent effort he released her and turned back in the direction of the party. He did not speak, perhaps did not trust himself to do so, and neither did Lauren. Instead she walked slowly in silence, knowing each step took them closer to the party—and closer to the end of the night. When she saw the light of the fire up ahead and heard the sound of the party being carried on the breeze, she touched his hand. “Let’s sit a minute.”
Rad nodded and led her to a quiet, dark spot without saying a word. Sitting down, he patted the space in front of him. “Here,” is all he said.
Lauren sat down between his legs, and leaned back into him. “This is cozy,” she murmured. “Hope I don’t fall asleep.”
“Not sure what that would say about me.” Rad sounded sullen as he wrapped his arms around her.
Lauren laughed. “It would say that you’re comfortable.”
“Just what every man dreams a woman will say about him. ‘He was so comfortable that I fell asleep.’”
Lauren jabbed him lightly with her elbow. “All right. If it will hurt your male ego that much, I’ll try to stay awake.” She sighed as they both watched a ship’s light twinkle on the horizon.
Once it disappeared from sight, Rad remained quiet and contemplative. Lauren leaned her head back and stared up at the stars.
“My grandmother and I used to bring a blanket down here and stare up at the night sky.” She adjusted her position to get comfortable. “She’d tell me stories.”
“Oh, yeah?” Rad leaned his head back for a better view of the sky, which was sprinkled here and there with stars. Clouds had begun to roll in and now covered the moon a
nd bits and pieces of the night sky. “Like what?”
“Well, see all those stars?”
“Um-hmm.”
“She would tell me they aren’t really stars at all. They’re eyes.”
“Eyes?” Rad looked down at her.
“Angel eyes—loved ones who are gone, watching over us.”
Rad laid his head back down and stared at the sky again. “Yeah, they do kind of look like twinkling eyes.”
“She used to recite a poem to me… not sure I can remember it.” Lauren tried to grasp the verse from the depths of her memory.
Shimmering stars gazing down,
Oh, tell me what you see.
Nocturnal eyes, gone from earth,
Still watching over me.
“Hmm. I’ll have to remember that.”
Encircled by darkness and his arms, Lauren enjoyed watching his face in the dim light as they continued to talk about inconsequential things that helped keep their minds off the passing time. When they ran out of things to say they just stared out toward the ocean, which they could not see, but could hear quite plainly. Lauren felt Rad pick up a handful of sand down by his leg. She turned her head slightly and watched him let it sift slowly out between his fingers. For once, she knew what he was thinking.
“Like sand through the hourglass,” she said.
He chuckled. “Now who is reading whose mind?”
“A lucky guess, that’s all.”
“Because it’s what you were thinking?”
She twisted her head and looked up at him. “Maybe.” She took a deep breath and turned her head back toward the ocean. “It went by so fast. Too bad we didn’t meet a day sooner.”
“A day?” He practically choked the words.
Lauren understood what he meant. If they had met twenty-four hours earlier, these last few hours would have been just as hard. The time would have been just as short. She tried to think how much time would have been enough. A week? A month? A year? She sighed heavily. An eternity? And then she had a sinking feeling that he had come into her life not just a day—but a lifetime—too late.
She had faced many enemies, but none as elusive as this one—time.
“So when you’re traveling, who takes care of Tara?” Lauren decided to change the subject—as much for her own benefit as his.
Rad’s attention had been locked over the water, but he gazed down at her when he spoke. “My sister lives close by. I drop her off there when I’m deployed.”
Lauren cocked her head and glanced at him, but he was either unaware of how much he had revealed or was aware and trusted her enough not to be disturbed.
Deployed?
Her thoughts turned back to the other guys she had met on the beach. They couldn’t possibly be military. Many of them had beards. All had long hair—at least by military standards. No, they were probably some kind of domestic force that deployed to specialized emergencies.
After a few moments of complete silence, Lauren cleared her throat. “Can I ask you a question, Rad?”
“Sure.” His voice sounded strangely soothing.
“Do you find this as strange as I do?”
“What?”
Lauren grunted in exasperation. “You know. Us.”
“What about us?”
“Well… twenty-four hours ago—make that less than twenty-four hours ago—I didn’t even know you existed.”
“Yeah, kind of strange isn’t it.”
“Strange?” Lauren nearly choked. “It’s more than strange. I don’t do this.”
Rad wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer as he inhaled deeply. “I’m not exactly the type to do this either.” He paused a moment. “But I’ve loved every minute of it.”
He grew quiet then but shifted his weight in such a way Lauren knew he had something else to say. And finally he did.
“So can I ask you something now?”
Lauren shrugged. “Sure.”
“How can I get in touch with you after tonight?”
She exhaled loudly. “You mean like a phone number or something?”
“Yeah, that would work.”
Lauren bit her lip, trying to figure how to tell him she couldn’t possibly give out her number.
“You still don’t trust me, do you?”
She bent her head back and looked up at him. “Even if I didn’t trust you, which I’m not saying I don’t—it wouldn’t necessarily mean I don’t like you.”
“Yeah, I get the feeling you don’t trust much of anybody.”
She was going to say, “You have good instincts,” but he interrupted her.
“I’d give you my number, but we can’t have phones with us during training so it wouldn’t do much good.”
“Well, it’s not that I’m against giving you my number, exactly.” Lauren inhaled deeply. “It’s just that I don’t get very good service where I’m going. And I don’t even carry my phone half the time, and if I do the battery is generally dead.”
“Hmm,” is all Rad said, as if he didn’t believe her.
Lauren closed her eyes, not knowing what else to say. The phone she had was for business, and as far as she knew, her direct superior was the only one who had the number.
“A business phone would work. I could leave a message.”
“I’ll think about it, Rad.”
She felt him draw a deep breath, like a condemned person hearing that execution, though inevitable, had been postponed.
“Okay, well, think fast. Time’s flying.”
As if by magic, the moon suddenly burst out from behind a cloud, casting a brilliant beam of light over the ocean that reflected off the water like a pathway to heaven.
“It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” Lauren said excitedly, afraid to take her eyes off the mystical sight in case the moon would become covered again.
“Yes. It is.”
The deep, sensuous tone of his voice made Lauren look up, and she found herself staring straight into his unwavering eyes.
“I’m talking about the moon,” she said after a moment’s hesitation.
“I’m not.”
All was quiet for a breathless moment as both seemed to wait to see what the other would do. Then a voice interrupted the silence.
“Rad! Rad! You out here somewhere?”
“I’m right here.” He sounded disappointed as he stood and pulled Lauren to her feet.
As they moved unhurriedly in the darkness toward the low hum of voices, Rad seemed somehow taller and more solid to Lauren, making her wish he would reach out and hold her one last time. She had the feeling he wanted to do just that—or at least say something—but if he did, he never had the opportunity.
“There they are.” Someone from around the campfire had spotted them and pointed them out as they walked up the beach.
“Rad, get up here,” Wynn shouted above the sound of the music. “We need you to settle something.”
Both Rad and Lauren blinked at the brightness of the low flames of the fire as they approached the group standing around it. The size of the party had diminished to just a handful of men, so Lauren knew it must be late.
“Pops and Reese are having a discussion about horses,” Wynn said. “They agreed to let you settle it.”
“If you had the choice, would you want a Quarter horse or an Arabian?” Pops walked toward Rad and handed him a beer. “I say Quarter horse is the better breed. Reese likes Arabians.”
Lauren answered for him. “Seriously? How about a Thoroughbred, or better yet, a Hanoverian?”
“You got to be kidding me,” Reese said. “What are they good for?”
Lauren shook her head. “Who wants a weeny little Arabian or fifteen-hand Quarter horse between their legs when they can have the power of a Hanoverian?”
Rad twisted off the cap of a beer and spoke casually. “See guys, it’s like I’m always tellin’ ya.” He took a long, slow sip before speaking again. “Size matters.”
Lauren was the f
irst to burst out laughing, but the others soon joined in before starting to gather their things to head back to their rooms.
“We’re calling it a night. You two kids have fun.” Wynn slapped Rad on the back, and the two had a quiet conversation while Lauren said goodbye to Reese and Pops.
“You guys have something to write with by any chance?”
After going through their pockets, Pops came up with a pen, and Reese had a book of matches. Glancing over her shoulder at Rad and Wynn still talking, Lauren ripped the cover off the matches and scribbled something down. “Thanks, guys,” she said. “Very nice meeting you.”
“Hope to see you again.” Pops shook her hand.
Lauren smiled. “Please thank Annie for her hospitality. I had a great time.”
“Will do. Ya’ll have a good night.”
As Lauren watched the two fade away into the darkness, she heard Rad’s voice behind her still talking to Wynn.
“Yeah. We’ll douse the fire before we head up.”
She finished folding the matchbook cover into a tiny sliver just as Wynn reached her. “Nice to meet you, Lauren.”
When she turned around, he surprised her by giving her a hug. “That guy’s a keeper. Just sayin’,” he whispered before letting her go and waving one last time.
Lauren gurgled with amusement that Rad’s friend would provide such an endorsement. She wondered if Rad had put him up to it.
“I wish you would do that more often.” Rad stood by the fire, kicking sand onto the dying embers.
Confused by his serious tone, Lauren stopped smiling. “Do what?”
“Laugh, dummy.”
“Give me some time. I’m getting better.” She bent down and picked up a discarded cup someone had forgotten. “There was a time when I didn’t do it at all.”
“Really?” Rad looked over at her. “When?”
Lauren walked to a trash can to get rid of the cup but turned her head toward him.
Meant to Be Page 8
