Miss Liz's Passion

by Sherryl Woods

  “Careful, Liz. Alexis seems to be a little nervous. Are you sure you should be hovering quite so close to the calf?”

  “Don’t be silly,” she said, stretching a little further to pet the baby dolphin. “She knows I’d never…”

  The words died in a sputter as Alexis tumbled Liz straight off the dock and into the icy water. She bobbed up, hair streaming and indignation written all over her face. Todd pulled out the camera he’d tucked in his pocket and began taking pictures.

  “Don’t you dare,” she said, scrambling back onto the dock.

  He chuckled. “Who’s going to stop me?”

  “I am,” she said, her shoes sloshing as she tried to chase after him. Her clothes clung to her body, the T-shirt displaying the tantalizing thrust of her hardened nipples, her white shorts practically transparent. Todd’s breath caught in his throat and his step faltered. She took full advantage of the hesitation to put both hands on his chest and shove. He stumbled backward, but caught himself just in time to prevent himself from tumbling backwards off the dock.

  “You’d better be very glad that didn’t work,” he said softly. He shot her a look of feigned menace.

  The spark in her eyes dimmed. “Oh?” she taunted right back.

  “Between us I have the only dry clothes,” he pointed out. “Not that I’m complaining about the way you look in those, you understand, but they are a bit provocative.”

  Her gaze lowered self-consciously and her cheeks flushed pink. “If you were a gentleman, you’d do something.”

  “Already we have a problem,” he teased with a wicked grin.

  “Todd, don’t you have a beach towel in the car?”

  “I might.”

  “Well, then, get it,” she said. He had a feeling she was only barely resisting the urge to stamp her foot in annoyance.

  Reluctantly, he went to the car and got her a towel. When he came back, he’d also taken off his shirt. He held both items out to her. Her gaze seemed riveted to his bare chest.

  “Liz.”

  “Umm…”

  “Your towel. My shirt. Don’t you want to go inside and dry off?”

  She still looked slightly dazed, a fact he found more than a little flattering, to say nothing of arousing. Of all the times and places to stir her senses—and his own. Shirt and towel slid from his fingers as he stepped closer. Her gaze held by his, Liz waited. She ran her tongue across her lips and his heart thudded. The woman’s power to arouse him awed him. Her ability to do it at the most inconvenient times was just part of what made her fascinating.

  Before he could enfold her in his arms, he heard Kevin’s shout, then the thunder of feet along the dock.

  “Hey, Dad, guess what? I have ’lexia. Ann says she knows just what that is. And you know what else, Dad? She says I’m going to get to swim with the dolphins. Isn’t that great? Wait till the kids in school hear about it.”

  He skidded to a stop and his expression changed from excitement to bemusement as he saw Liz dripping from head to toe. “Mrs. Gentry, what happened? You’re all wet.”

  “It seems Mrs. Gentry couldn’t wait for you. She’s already been for a swim with the dolphins.”

  “In her clothes?”

  Todd grinned, ignoring her murderous glance. “Like I said, son, she couldn’t wait.”

  Ann arrived just in time to hear the tail end of the conversation. Her eyebrows rose questioningly and her lips twitched with amusement. “I don’t suppose I need to ask how this happened.”

  Liz grimaced. “A friend would not gloat. A friend would get me some dry clothes.”

  “I brought you a towel and offered you my shirt,” Todd countered indignantly.

  “I wanted something dry,” she retorted, staring pointedly at the shirt and towel in question. They were floating in the water. As they watched, one of the other dolphins approached the shirt cautiously and, after a brief investigation, swam off with it.

  “That’s Jacquie,” Ann said. “She’s the most curious of any of our dolphins.”

  “Terrific,” Todd muttered, though he couldn’t resist laughing at the dolphin’s antics. Jacquie seemed as pleased with her new acquisition as any other lady who’d been on an unscheduled shopping trip and had found a bargain in a favorite color.

  “Why don’t you two drive over to my place and scavenge around for some dry clothes,” Ann suggested. “I’ve promised Kevin a chance to swim with the dolphins. One of the trainers will be here in a minute to take him in.”

  “I’d like to stay and watch,” Todd said, “That is, if you don’t object.”

  “Of course not. Liz, what about you? My clothes will be too big, but you’re welcome to whatever you can find.”

  “I think I’ll wait, too. The sun’s hot. With this breeze, I’ll drip dry in no time.”

  Within minutes Kevin was in the water with the dolphins, who seemed delighted to have a human playmate. They tossed a ball with him. They let him hold onto a fin, while they swam with him alongside. After each stunt, they waited for him to give them their reward. The excitement in Kevin’s eyes made Todd’s heart flip over. His laughter was young and carefree, exactly the way it should be for an eight-year-old and all too often hadn’t been for Kevin.

  When Ann finally called a halt to the swim, Kevin climbed out of the water reluctantly. “I get to do it again next week, right?” he begged Ann.

  “You know the rules.”

  “I have to write an essay about what we did today.”

  “That’s right. I want it to be the very best you can do, okay? You have a whole week to work on the spelling. I want you to do it all on your own. No help from your dad or Mrs. Gentry. You can have them look it over when you’re finished, if you want to, but you write it by yourself. Try to tell me everything that happened.”

  Kevin threw his arms around Ann’s waist with an impulsiveness that startled all of them. “I will. I promise.”

  All the way home Liz listened to Kevin’s nonstop chattering. She felt warm inside, as if her mission had finally been accomplished. In time, Kevin would be okay. He would learn how to cope with his dyslexia, how to minimize its impact on his life.

  This was what her life was all about—helping kids. This was something that really mattered. Getting involved with a man like Todd was only a risk, an unnecessary complication. She needed to extricate herself from the relationship before one of them got hurt. Already she was too attracted to him, already he was able to wound her far too easily. His irritation that morning, his obvious resentment of what he viewed as her interference had hurt. The more entangled their lives became, the greater the risk of emotional scars when the school year ended and Kevin no longer provided the link between them.

  Lost in thought, she didn’t notice until it was too late that Todd had driven to his place in Coconut Grove. Reluctantly she followed him inside as Kevin ran off to find paper and pencil so he could begin working on his essay about the dolphins. She glanced at Todd and caught the pride in his eyes. It filled her with satisfaction, knowing that she’d had a small part in their happiness.

  “I’ve never seen him this carefree, this anxious to do any sort of homework,” Todd said. “Thank you for giving him this chance.”

  “You’re giving him the chance. I just pointed you in the right direction.”

  “I’m still not sure I understand the connection between the dolphins and Kevin’s dyslexia.”

  “They’re the incentive. They give Kevin a reason to succeed with the actual reading and writing exercises. He wants to swim with them again and by having him describe the experience, Ann is getting him to take auditory and visual experiences and put them down on paper. I’m not sure I understand why it works. I only know it does. I don’t suppose it would have to be dolphins. It could be anything a child really loves, something that will make the struggle to put words on paper worthwhile.”

  “However it works, I’m grateful.”

  Just then Kevin came racing back to join them. He was
waving a sheet of notebook paper. “Hey, Dad, look at this. What do you think?”

  “You’ve finished your essay already?”

  “Yeah. I wrote all about swimming with the dolphin and I said that you and Mrs. Gentry were there, too. Look at it. How’d I do?”

  “Remember what Dr. Davies said, you’re supposed to do this on your own.”

  “But she said I could let you look at it.”

  “Not right now, son. Mrs. Gentry and I were talking.”

  Liz couldn’t believe he was putting such a damper on Kevin’s excitement. She held out her hand. “Bring it here, Kevin. I’d like to see it.”

  Kevin gave his father one last disappointed look before bringing the paper to her. He handed it to her solemnly. “This is very well written, Kevin. Maybe you could try to put in a little more about what you did with the dolphins in the water.”

  “You mean like playing catch with them?”

  “Exactly. And be sure to double-check your spelling.”

  He grinned. “I’ll bet that means I made a mistake somewhere, huh?”

  “Just a couple. You can figure them out.”

  “Okay. Thanks.” He bounded off, his enthusiasm renewed.

  Liz turned to Todd. “Why wouldn’t you at least look at his paper?”

  “Ann didn’t want him to have help.”

  “That wasn’t help. It was support. He was excited. He just wanted to share it.”

  “Then I was wrong. Can we get back to us for a minute?”

  He reached out to take her in his arms, but she backed away a step. “I think I should go.”

  “Because of what just happened?”

  “Of course not. I just don’t think this is a good idea.”

  “Please change your mind, Liz. Stay here tonight. Don’t make me take you home just yet. Help Kevin and me celebrate his first lesson at Dolphin Reach.”

  Her breath caught in her throat. Longing swept through her, followed by determination. She could see right through his manipulation. She couldn’t allow him to use Kevin to hold her. “I can’t,” she insisted.

  Todd frowned. “Can’t or won’t?” he asked, obviously puzzled.

  “Does it really matter?”

  “Liz, what’s going on here? I thought we were going to try to move ahead, take this relationship one day at a time and see where it went.”

  She shook her head. “I tried to make you understand. I don’t have relationships. Not the kind you mean. I know how I want to spend the rest of my life. I want to teach. I want to have a few good friends, people I can count on.”

  “And you don’t think you’ll be able to count on me?”

  “You and I aren’t friends, Todd. We’re physically attracted. We have a common bond through Kevin. That doesn’t add up to friendship.”

  He looked as though she’d struck him. “Is that how you view the last couple of weeks? A couple of parent-teacher conferences and a few passionate kisses?”

  “That’s exactly what it’s been,” she said stubbornly.

  “I see. Then I’m the one who’s had it all wrong. I thought the feelings ran a little deeper. Forgive me. It’s been so long since I’ve wanted to hold anyone in my arms, I thought it must mean something.”

  She winced at his demeaning tone. “I didn’t mean to make it sound cheap. I’m sorry. I’m not very good at this.”

  “Neither am I, apparently,” he said dryly. She sensed that he was struggling with his temper. She honestly couldn’t blame him. She’d been sending mixed signals. That was all the more reason to clarify things now.

  Todd wasn’t waiting for a response from her, though. “So,” he said with an attempt to sound casual, “what say we start over? Let’s try to become friends.”

  She blinked. This wasn’t what she’d expected, at all. She’d anticipated anger, reproach, but not this cool acceptance, this rational proposition.

  He grinned. “Not what you were expecting, huh?”

  “Not exactly.”

  “Look, I’m willing to admit that maybe everything has happened too fast. Rather than turning our backs on it though, why not start over and go about this more slowly, just get to be friends. You say you want friends you can count on. I’d like to be one.”

  Liz was filled with doubts. A man like Todd as a friend? Impossible. “Do you honestly think we can put limits on this?”

  “We can try.”

  Todd watched the play of emotions on her face and held his breath. He knew this was the only way he was likely to keep Liz in his life. Unless he could persuade her that staying was safe, she would run from the more intense emotions. Quite possibly it was the only time in his life, he’d deliberately set out to turn his life into a living hell. He had no doubt that’s what it would be, too. Having Liz close enough to touch, but off-limits would be sheer torment.

  He watched her reaction closely. She seemed perplexed by the offer, doubtful of his sincerity. More than that, though, she seemed tempted. That alone told him that given time, he might just be able to pass through hell to get to heaven.

  Chapter 10

  For nearly three weeks, Liz and Todd struggled valiantly to maintain a purely platonic relationship. The vow to retreat from the intensity and get to know each other hovered over them, keeping their desires in check but not entirely forgotten.

  They talked nightly on the phone, even when they’d parted barely an hour earlier. Sometimes the conversations were no more than a quick goodnight, a hurried reminder of the next day’s plans. Sometimes they lasted for hours.

  Todd tried to schedule every spare minute, insisting that the outings were just casual.

  “It’s not a date,” he’d say in the midst of Liz’s increasingly weak objections. “We’re just going to a movie.”

  Or they’d go fishing, or to a football game, or to whatever he’d dreamed up to bring them together. He made each invitation seem so innocent, so persuasive that to refuse seemed churlish.

  Besides, Liz told herself, they were just having fun. It had been a long time since she’d had a pal who enjoyed doing impulsive, spur-of-the-moment things. She and Todd were increasingly comfortable together. She was almost able to ignore the little zing that shot through her when his hand brushed her accidentally. She was certain that with a little more practice, she’d stop gazing at his lips and remembering them hard and seductive against hers.

  She told herself it was all a question of mind over matter. If she concentrated hard enough on what they were doing, she’d forget all about what they weren’t doing. It rarely worked.

  They went to the movies, left halfway through and picked up a 1940s comedy at the video store. Sitting side by side on the sofa, a huge bowl of buttered popcorn between them, their hands repeatedly touched until Liz, feeling increasingly desperate, finally stopped reaching for more.

  They went fishing. Todd caught several red snapper. Liz got sunburned because she hadn’t been able to bring herself to ask Todd to spread lotion across her back. Simply touching his shoulders with the cool sunscreen had set her on fire. The thought of his hands on her, even in the most innocent caress, had left her weak and trembling.

  Todd called in a few favors to get tickets for a University of Miami football game. Despite the noisy crowd, Liz fell asleep during halftime, exhausted from night after night of restless tossing and turning to avoid dreams that seemed filled with Todd.

  They took Kevin to Zoo Miami, where Liz claimed to be so enchanted by the aviary that she spent the entire day there. She’d been unable to face the fact that she was growing increasingly attached to the two of them, that every excursion felt more like a family outing, the kind she’d envisioned with Ed and Laura and never really had. She was losing her heart and had no idea how to go about reclaiming it.

  They walked in the Grove at dusk, ate Mexican food on the terrace at Señor Frog’s, then strolled a few blocks down Main Highway to have frozen yogurt for dessert. Her own yogurt melted and ran down her arm, when she got lost in the
sight of Todd’s tongue slowly licking the swirl of chocolate and vanilla.

  Back at his place, he dragged out a guitar and strummed along to album after album of Bob Dylan songs, beginning and ending with ‘Lay, Lady, Lay.’ All Liz could think about was how it would feel to have those blunt, calloused fingers stroking her flesh with the same gentle touch as she lay across her own brass bed.

  It was exactly the sort of nondemanding, friendly relationship Liz had been so sure she wanted. It was driving her crazy.

  There were nights when Todd left her house that she paced the floor until three in the morning trying to figure out why he no longer kissed her goodnight. The fact that she’d set the rules only irritated her. There were days in her classroom, when she caught herself staring at Kevin and wondering what a child of hers and Todd’s would look like. There were moments in the supermarket, when she found herself automatically buying food enough for three instead of one.

  On rare occasions, usually in the middle of sleepless nights, she admitted to herself she was hooked. Not once, though, did she call it love. She knew perfectly well it was a silly obsession. Denial was a potent aphrodisiac. She actually considered abandoning the stupid rules and trying to seduce him, but figured she didn’t know the first thing about how to do it. If he merely laughed at her, if he’d lost interest, she would die of embarrassment.

  When she actually stopped to think about the amount of time she was wasting daydreaming about her relationship with Todd—or the lack of one—she wondered if perhaps she ought to go into counseling. He wasn’t turning his life inside out over this. He’d amiably accepted the restrictions and gone on about his business.

  His shopping center was still on schedule. In fact he and Hank were already in negotiations to build another one. He’d taken her to the top of the parking garage to get a view of this one at night with all the lights on and the fountains glistening. She’d never thought of a shopping mall—much less a parking garage—as romantic. Todd’s was.