by Mya Wood
The waves were getting larger, and she did a little jump and sway with each one. She could see a fairly big one making its way in, so she braced herself for it.
“Bianca!”
She turned at the sound of her name. Landry was coming through the hedge. Thank goodness! Now she could swim.
“Be careful!” he called out. “You shouldn’t be in the ocean by yourself.”
“I know,” she called back, “But I’m not really swimming. I’m just standing. I’m perfectly all…”
Bianca turned away from him back toward the ocean, to the large wave that caught her full in the face. It spun her off her feet and threw her to the bottom. She scrabbled about with her hands and feet and tried to right herself and get her head above the water for a breath. She dragged herself awkwardly to her feet and ran her hands over her face trying to get the stinging salt water out of her eyes.
The suction of the receding wave grabbed Bianca’s legs and threw her down again. This time she landed hard in shallow water and felt the broken shell bits dig into her knee. Gasping for air, she felt a hand grab her arm and pull her to her feet.
“Steady now. Easy does it.” Landry’s hand gripped her arm as she swayed.
Bianca put a hand on Landry's chest to steady herself, and he walked her out of the waves and up to her towel.
She snatched it up and wiped her face. “What did you do that for?” she snapped.
“Me?”
“You made me turn. I knew what I was doing.” She looked down at her knee that was oozing blood around embedded shell bits. “All evidence to the contrary.”
Landry took the towel from her and spread it out on the sand. “Sit down,” he ordered. “I’ll be right back.”
He ran through the hedge and returned a couple of minutes later carrying a bottle of water, a towel, and a white plastic box, which turned out to be a first-aid kit. Bianca reached for the bottle of water, but Landry swatted her hand away.
“Not yet. That’s not what it’s for. Give me your leg.” He opened the water and poured some over Bianca’s knee. Then he dabbed at it with a corner of the towel and opened the first-aid kit, removing a pair of tweezers.
Bianca’s eyes widened. “Dr. Hampton, I presume.”
“Yes, it is I, Igor…” said Landry, adopting a Transylvanian accent.
Bianca laughed, then winced.
“I’ll try not to hurt you,” Landry said in a gentle tone, and he began picking the shell bits out of her leg. His touch was so soft and so erotic that other parts of Bianca began wondering what they could do to themselves to merit some of Dr. Hampton’s attention.
“I’m sorry I blamed you,” said Bianca. She ascribed the huskiness in her voice to her intake of salt water and hoped he would do the same.
Landry set down the tweezers and picked up a plastic spray bottle. “This says ‘antiseptic’ so it might sting.” He sprayed a generous amount on her kneecap. It did indeed sting.
“Owww,” said Bianca mildly. “Is that your way of getting back at me for yelling at you?”
“No,” said Landry, patting the drips at the edge of the wound with a gauze pad. “There! It’s not bleeding any more. Do you want a bandage?”
Bianca shook her head.
“I just wondered,” he continued, “why you thought I was responsible – like I had the powers of Poseidon or something.”
Bianca raised an eyebrow at him, surprised at the classical reference.
Landry’s feelings were hurt.
“Athletes can read, you know,” he said, busying himself with tidying up the mess.
“I know,” said Bianca, “and even go to college.”
This time it was Landry’s eyebrow that went up.
“I spent some time in the library this morning…” continued Bianca, “…after my abrupt and very rude departure. I’m really sorry about that.”
“Well, I gotta say,” Landry said with a grin, “It was certainly a first. That’s…definitely not the usual reaction I get when I reveal my identity to a woman.” He paused. “I thought maybe you were mad because I hadn’t told you, but I wasn’t sure how to fit it into the conversation…I mean, while I was fixing your shower…or…” He shrugged.
Bianca leapt to her feet. “It's cool,” she said, licking her lips and bouncing up and down on her toes. “Anyway…”
She was looking for an out and Landry knew it. He opened his mouth to speak – to give her one – but Bianca cut him off. Laughing, she shook her finger at him.
“Ha! I’ll bet you thought it could happen four times in a row. I’ll bet you thought I couldn't get through one conversation with you without making a complete ass of myself. Well, that just shows how much you know!”
“Bianca…”
“Let’s see, we had ‘I broke the bathroom’.” Bianca ticked them off on her fingers as she spoke. “Then, ‘I talked to the birds’, and the truly memorable, ‘how dare you be talented and famous’. What was next? … Oh yes, ‘I’m perfectly alright by myself in the ocean, glug, glug’…”
“Bianca…”
Landry wanted to laugh; it was funny, not tragic. But he wasn’t sure how she would react.
Bianca put her hands up to her head, trying to squeeze sense into her brain. “God! And I was so proud of myself for not mentioning the salad,” she muttered.
Landry looked at her in bemusement. They stared at each other for a moment.
Bianca raised her arms over her head in a victory salute. “And she goes for five!” she yelled to the heavens. “Ladies and Gentlemen, she breaks her own record!”
Bianca turned her back and looked out to sea, because she couldn’t concentrate when she looked at him and she knew she would need all of her willpower to make herself disappear. Because that’s all she wanted to do right now – disappear. Poof! Into thin air! Gone!
“Bianca…” Landry’s voice was right at her ear.
She bit her lip, forcing herself to stay silent. For once in your bloody life, Bianca, stay silent.
“Bianca, I don’t think you’re crazy. I think you’re sweet.” Landry ran one finger down her arm.
Stay! yelled her brain to all her body parts that wanted to jump him.
“Sweet…but dim?” she sighed, turning back toward the motel.
“That’s funny,” said Landry, falling into step beside her. “That’s what people always think about me.”
“Well, they sure nailed the ‘sweet’ part,” said Bianca, feeling foolish for ever having considered him dim. Or a pervert.
“Um…I have to…um…go now,” he said. “I’m going to see my aunt and uncle.”
Bianca nodded.
Landry ran his finger down her arm again. “I’ll be back around eight.”
Bianca nodded again.
“Stay out of the ocean,” said Landry.
Another nod. “Yes, I’ll spend the time thinking up stupid things to say to you.”
“You don’t have to spend time doing that,” replied Landry, not meaning it at all the way it sounded. But it turned out to be exactly the right thing to say.
“Right.” Bianca laughed. “Because it comes so naturally to me. Why waste precious time planning it? Especially when I could be working on that whole ‘career path’ thing.”
They stepped through the hedge and looked at the pool, where a host of beaming seniors stared at them.
‘Hi, Landry! Hi, Bianca!’ Came from all the women. Meanwhile, they only got nods from the men.
“Eight o’clock,” whispered Landry, and then he went over to make nice with the seniors.
Chapter 7
Bianca went to her room and showered off the salt. She shampooed her hair and shaved her legs. She redid her fingernails with clear gloss and her toenails with bright red polish. Then she opened the fridge and grabbed a bottle of water.
“No!” she said to the wine bottle, which smiled at her invitingly. She closed the fridge and l
ooked around for something to do.
She looked at her watch – 6:00. Dinner. Good idea. Dinner. That would fill up some time and provide nourishment. Except that her stomach was such a churning mass that Bianca wasn’t even sure it would accept food.
She grabbed her purse and went next door to the restaurant. She ordered grilled mahi-mahi and salad. Fried food would definitely not make her digestion happy, she knew.
“Would you like a glass of wine with that?” asked the waitress.
Desperately, thought Bianca, but instead she just said, “No, I’ll just have an iced tea, thanks.”
Bianca willed the time to pass quickly. She chewed each bite a dozen times; she set down her knife and fork between bites, and she forced herself to read a page of her novel before going back for more, stretching the meal out as long as she could.
But it was still only seven o’clock when she paid the bill and headed back. She looked up at the sky. It was an odd color – sort of a greenish-grey. It’s going to rain, thought Bianca. Lovely.
She dumped her purse in her room but remembered to keep her key with her. She took her book as well. Still fifty minutes, she thought. Slow down, Girl, she told herself, all he said was that he’d be back at eight. He didn’t even say, see you then. But he did say you’re sweet.
Bianca walked to the front of the hotel. The parking lot was surrounded by lovely gardens, and there was an old-fashioned glider swing. Bianca sat in the glider with the book in her lap and spent a very pleasant fifteen minutes reading.
A change in the atmosphere made Bianca look up. There was a storm rolling in, she could see. The air had become very heavy, and the temperature had dropped a couple of degrees.
Bianca wondered if she should go back to her room before the rain started. There was an awning on the glider which would keep the rain off if it wasn’t too heavy, but it would offer little protection in a real storm where the rain came down in sheets and the wind blew it in all directions.
And maybe you shouldn’t be sitting here in the parking lot like the worst kind of eager teenager, suggested her brain.
The appeal of the glider had made Bianca ignore its location. She felt foolish. My God, what would he think!? She looked at her watch. 7:40. She still had time to make her escape before his return.
“Hey.”
Bianca startled at the sound of Landry’s voice. He was approaching her from the direction of the office wearing beige dress shorts and a short-sleeved dark blue shirt with all the buttons but the top one done up. It was a very appropriate outfit for visiting his Uncle and Aunt. Bianca smiled at him.
“You’ve found one of my favorite spots here,” said Landry, climbing onto the glider and sitting across from her. He leaned his shoulders back and thrust his hips forward in a motion that made the glider start moving. It also almost made Bianca pass out.
“How was your visit?” she asked. “How’s your uncle doing?”
Landry smiled. “He’s not a very good patient. Uncle Phil is a doer. He’s usually on the go all the time, but now he’s stuck. And worse, he’s stuck with two women who don’t really like each other all that much. In fact, he begged me to bring him back.”
Bianca grinned. “And did you?”
“No way!” said Landry, holding up a hand. “Those two women might disagree on a lot of things, but when they work together, they’re a formidable combination. Uncle Phil’s on his own. Goodnight, Rose.” Landry waved to Rose who was crossing the parking lot.
Rose waved goodnight and called out, “Thanks again, Landry.”
Landry waved off the thanks and turned back to Bianca. “I told Rose to go home early. It’s going to rain. Maybe she can get home before it starts. That’s why I got back sooner than I thought I would. Margaret…that’s Uncle Phil’s sister…she’s terrified of weather, and she started telling me to leave practically from the moment I got there.” He reached up and undid one of the buttons on his shirt.
I want to do that, said Bianca’s brain so loudly she wasn’t sure Landry hadn’t heard it. She moved her hands under the edge of her thighs in case they decided to make a move of their own accord.
Behave! she scolded herself.
Landry and Bianca sat and chatted companionably as the sky darkened and the storm rolled in. One or two cars pulled in and disgorged squabbling seniors. The restaurant was too expensive. The service was too slow. Hi, Bianca. Hi, Landry. Storm coming. You shouldn’t have ordered the fish blackened. You know you’ll get heartburn.
Landry and Bianca smiled at each other, and both swore silently to themselves that they would never turn into that.
“Looks like most everybody’s in,” said Landry, surveying the parking area. “That’s good.”
“Yes, some of these seniors have trouble driving when the roads are dry, let alone in the rain.”
And just as if Bianca had invoked it by saying the word, the skies opened and the rain came down. Straight down. It bounced off the cars and the pavement. Landry and Bianca were somewhat protected under the awning of the glider, but both knew it was only a matter of time.
A minute later, a gust of wind blew the rain in on them, soaking them both.
“Better make a run for it,” said Landry as a flash of lightning lit up the sky, making them each realize just how dark the sky had become. He grabbed Bianca’s hand. “Let’s head for the gazebo. It’s closest.”
They took off at a run and seconds later were inside the gazebo. They looked at each other and started laughing. They were dripping wet. They looked at each other again and stopped laughing.
“Have you had anything to drink tonight?” asked Landry.
Bianca frowned. Shit. He was on to her. “No…”
“Really?” Landry asked.
Bianca shook her head. “I thought if there was any possibility of you touching me tonight, I wanted to be able to…to just feel it all.”
Mortified, she clasped her lips. She couldn’t believe she had actually just said that. And she was sober, too!
Landry reached out his hand and then hesitated.
Bianca noticed the reaction, and her eyes fell. She felt like a fool. She had just made a pass at a big star like the cheapest little groupie out there. She moved to go by him.
“Sorry,” she whispered.
As she went by, Landry grabbed her wrist and stopped her, holding her in place. For a few seconds, neither of them moved, each waiting for the other to do something. Bianca knew she couldn’t. If she misread the situation and he rejected her again, she would drown her humiliation in wine and be at the bottom of the bottle within the hour.
Landry was still unsure whether he should do this. They had been heading towards it ever since they met, and he had covered all the reasons in his head more than once about why he shouldn’t. But he couldn’t seem to shake the notion that he wanted to. He shouldn’t do this, but he wanted to.
Bianca’s feet moved forward. They were the only parts of her body with any sense. The rest of her wanted to stay and willed Landry to do something. But her feet knew better. He wasn’t going to do it. And why the hell should he? He was a big star. He could have anyone. Why would he want someone like her…someone who managed to flub up every word that left her mouth?
Landry’s hand was the part of his body that was making the most sense right then. As Bianca moved to leave, it tightened its grip on her wrist. The rest of him was still arguing about ‘should’ vs. ‘want’, but his hand was the only part that knew enough not to let her go.
Bianca’s feet stopped moving.
Still, they didn’t look at each other. Their only connection was a hand on a wrist and a deep, mutual desire to do more.
“You shouldn’t,” whispered Bianca, taking another step toward the door.
“But I want to,” said Landry, pulling her to him. He wrapped both arms around Bianca and she laid her head on his shoulder, snaking her arms around his back.
Again, they stood
in silence, each of them balancing on the razor’s edge. Bianca began to see that if anything was going to happen, it was going to be up to her. She didn’t know if Landry was afraid because of who he was or who he thought she was, or if he was just too damned sweet like everybody said… But dammit, he was still a man, and she knew he wanted her.
Bianca raked her fingernails down Landry’s back through his wet shirt and was rewarded by a small sound that surfaced from his throat. She pressed her body up against his and kissed the hollow of his neck. Her reward this time was a stirring in his groin.
