Sleigh Bells in the Sand (Act of Love Book 1)

by Tamara Lynn

  “Hot. You know how to drive this thing?” Kate brought her back into the present.

  Daniela gave her a smirk. “Have you seen any of my movies?”

  In truth, not all of them. But Kate did see one where she was driving a speedboat in London. “I assumed that you used a stunt double.”

  “I do have a really good double. Her name is Sam. But no, I always do my own boat work,” Daniela got the signal from Carl and pushed on the throttle.

  Carl was an excellent wake boarder. Not only could he hold on as Daniela sped him across the lake, but he also did some fantastic tricks. He would steer into the waves and then flip and spin as he flew through the air.

  With the wind rushing past them, it was impossible to talk, so Kate chose to spread out on the front of the boat and enjoy the sun. Knowing that she was directly in Daniela’s line of vision, Kate sucked in her stomach tightly as she laid down.

  The motion of the boat rocked Kate to sleep. Daniela noticed this, and drove the boat a little less aggressively than she would have otherwise.

  For hours, the boat carved its way through the crystal blue waters. It was a perfect day. No wind, no clouds. Nothing but the sun to warm their skin.

  When it was time to go, Wyatt snuck up to the front of the boat. Then without warning, he scooped up Kate and threw her into the lake.

  “Wyatt!” Daniela slapped his arm. “She was sleeping!”

  “I know,” Wyatt laughed.

  Daniela ran to the end of the boat and offered Kate a hand to help her climb back in the boat. She knew that Kate wakes up grumpy and this was not going to work out well.

  Kate climbed aboard and made a beeline for Wyatt. “Jerk,” she mumbled and gave him a shove.

  “I was just trying to be funny,” Wyatt laughed.

  “I thought it was funny, brah,” Carl always had his back.

  “We need to leave if we’re going to make it back in time for dinner,” Daniela spoke with authority. She’d had her share of Carl and was more than ready to get away from him.

  ◆◆◆

  Once out of the sun, and in the light of the house, it was evident that Kate was severely sunburnt.

  “Ouch,” she hissed as she tried to gently wiggle out of her suit.

  “That’s really bad,” Daniela noted as she walked over to help. Carefully she untied the straps on the back of Kate’s neck.

  Kate’s skin was bright red. There was a sharply defined white line where the suit had covered her skin. She looked like an Easter egg that was only dipped part way into the dye.

  “I forgot to re-apply my sunscreen,” Kate moaned.

  “You have to put it on more than once?” Daniela asked. She rarely needed to use sunscreen, and never once reapplied it.

  “On days like today, for sure,” Kate explained. “Especially if I’m getting in and out of the water.”

  “Too bad you rolled over half way through your nap,” Daniela pointed out. “You’re as burnt in the back as you are in the front.”

  Holding her bikini top tightly to her chest, Kate tried to look over her shoulder and see her back. “Ugh, it’s bad.”

  Daniela stepped in front of her, well into her personal space, and looked her directly in the eyes. “What can I do for you? What helps?”

  Kate shook her head and pushed Daniela off to the side. “Nothing, I’m an idiot. I’m just going to take a shower, and get it over with. This is seriously going to hurt.”

  She was worried for her friend. Daniela sat down in the chair by the windows and pulled out her phone to look up remedies for a sunburn.

  ◆◆◆

  By the time Kate got out of the shower, Daniela had already driven to the corner drug store and back. Once Kate was in a robe and putting on her make-up, Daniela walked into the bathroom and showed her everything she’d bought.

  “Aloe with lidocaine.” Daniela announced it like she was introducing a bunny she’d just pulled from a magician’s hat. “Ibuprofen, cooling packs, Gatorade, Vitamin E pills, tea bags, lip balm, and a Hershey bar. Chocolate makes everything better.”

  Kate, reached out a red hand and gently placed it on Daniela’s arm. “You’re so sweet. Also, I don’t know what half of this is for.”

  “That’s okay, I do. First though, drink the Gatorade. Dehydration is a serious problem with sunburns,” Daniela explained.

  Kate opened the bottle of ibuprofen and took two of them with the Gatorade. “I hate sugary drinks,” she whined.

  “It has electrolytes,” Daniela explained.

  “Do you mind rubbing the aloe on my back?” Kate held out the bottle and asked. “There’s no way I can reach it.”

  “I don’t want to hurt you,” Daniela looked worried.

  “Please?” Kate pleaded.

  Daniela rubbed her forehead and paced nervously, “Yeah, okay. I will.” She really hated this.

  Kate held her breath and bit down on the edge of the Gatorade bottle. She turned her back to Daniela and dropped the robe to her waist.

  As Daniela gently applied the aloe, she could feel Kate’s muscles tighten and flex. She was bracing against the pain. Daniela applied a large dab of the green gel, and then lightly spread it so that she was applying as little pressure as possible.

  “Do you have anything soft to wear?” Daniela asked.

  “A lot of my stuff is scratchy cotton or jeans. I do have a tee-shirt that would work,” Kate was not loving life at the moment.

  “You can wear my joggers if you want. They are crazy soft,” Daniela offered.

  “I can’t wear those to dinner. Dixie and Betsy will kill me.” Kate shook her head.

  “No, they won’t,” Daniela assured her. “I’ll talk to them. But first, I need to wash off the lake.”

  Kate gathered up her stuff and left the bathroom to Daniela. Back in the bedroom, Kate sat down on the edge of the bed and began to cry. It hurt like hell to have Daniela put that aloe on her. Now her body was giving her a confused combination of sweltering burn and cooling gel. It hurt so bad.

  Not wanting to mess up her make-up, she talked herself into toughing it out, and stopped crying. She was completely unable to put on a bra, but she did manage to slip into her black tee shirt. Then she grabbed Daniela’s sweats out of her bag, and slid them on. She paused for a moment when she noticed the script. More than anything, she wanted to read it so she picked it up and walked over to the chair.

  Moments later, Daniela emerged from the bathroom dressed in dark blue jeans and a white long sleeve button up. “Really?” she raised her eyebrows at Kate. She’s reading my script again?

  “It’s distracting me from the pain,” Kate gave her a pitiful look.

  “Fine, but don’t make me make you sign a non-disclosure agreement,” Daniela teased.

  “You know that won’t be an issue,” Kate waved her off and looked back at the script.

  Daniela finished drying her hair and then went to give Dixie and Betsy a heads up about Kate’s condition.

  They immediately dropped what they were doing and went to check on Kate.

  “Honey,” Dixie walked over to the chair. “Dani said you were burnt.”

  “Oh, my heavens,” Betsy knelt on the other side of the chair. “Child, you are bright red. Here, drink some moonshine, it will help with the pain.”

  Daniela nearly knocked the jar out of her hand. “No! She needs to hydrate. Not dehydrate.”

  “Well then, take this, it’ll help,” Dixie reached into her apron and produced a small white pill. Before Kate could protest, Dixie put her thumb on Kate’s chin, popping her mouth open. Then she tossed it at the back of Kate’s throat.

  Kate coughed a little and before she could say anything Dixie had the bottle of Gatorade up to her mouth.

  “Mama!” Daniela protested.

  “Just like pillin’ a cat,” Dixie proudly exclaimed.

  “You were always good at that,” Betsy high fived her.

  “What did you give me?” Kate was stunned.
>
  “Oh, just a prescription pain pill,” Betsy waved her off. “Here let me have one,” Betsy said as she reached into Dixie’s apron.

  “Do you want one too?” Dixie looked up at Daniela.

  “No,” Daniela was adamant.

  “Ok, now honey. In a few minutes you won’t feel a thing,” Betsy explained. “Until then, we craft!”

  The two of them each grabbed a hand, and pulled Kate from the chair. Daniela noticed that she winced in pain.

  “I’m not wearing a bra,” she mouthed as they pulled her past Daniela.

  “It’s okay,” Daniela tried to reassure her. “You can’t tell.”

  “I can tell!” Kate shot back.

  On the table in the kitchen was a pile of stockings littered with Mason jars filled with various decorations. The jars held buttons, letters, jingle bells, pins and ribbons.

  “What is this?” Wyatt asked. “Make your own stocking?”

  “Oh, bless his heart! He’s so smart,” Dixie sang condescendingly.

  As they sat down, Kate noticed that Hootie & the Blowfish’s version of “The Christmas Song” came on.

  “Who picks the music?” Kate asked.

  “Otis,” Dixie answered. “He needs to throw a little country in the mix. Country is God's music.”

  “I think it’s perfect,” Kate smiled at Otis.

  “Thank you,” he replied. He was busy baking loaves of fluffy white bread. The smell was driving everyone crazy. They kept trying to sneak some of the bread, but Otis continually chased them off.

  “I’m going to take this by the lake and shoot some holes through it. That’s how I’m going to decorate my stocking,” Carl announced.

  No one acknowledged his statement. They just went about getting their own supplies lined up.

  Daniela picked up one of the white stockings. It perfectly matched a sweater she planned to wear the next day. Then she fished out some green holly leaf buttons and small round red ones as well.

  Wyatt chose a black stocking and found some football buttons.

  Kate picked a grey stocking and gathered up some wooden buttons that still had the bark on them. They looked like they were sliced from a tree branch and then someone drilled little holes in the middle.

  The effects of the drug were starting to show. As they began sewing the decorations onto their stockings, Kate leaned over and quietly whispered in Wyatt’s ear, “look at my boobs.”

  “Gladly,” he replied.

  “Can you tell I’m not wearing a bra?” Kate whispered.

  “You’re not wearing a bra?” Wyatt thankfully kept his voice low.

  Kate rolled her eyes and looked at Daniela.

  “You really can’t tell,” Daniela whispered.

  She barely had enough time to finish the stocking before the medicine really began to kick in. She excused herself and went to the room to lay down. Betsy was right. She didn’t feel a thing. What sunburn?

  ◆◆◆

  “You better marry that girl,” Otis said as Carl and Wyatt stood at the sink rinsing dishes.

  “Uncle Otis, we’ve only been dating for six months,” Wyatt reminded him.

  “Doesn’t matter, I know a keeper when I see one,” Otis declared.

  “Do you want me to check on her?” Daniela offered.

  “Yeah, can you?”

  “Take her a plate of food in case she gets hungry,” Otis quickly put together a plate with bread, potatoes, corn and ham.

  Daniela snuck a slice of the bread as she walked down the hall. The whole family loves his bread.

  Daniela entered the bedroom and put the plate on the nightstand with a fresh bottle of Gatorade. Kate stirred when Daniela sat down on the edge of the bed.

  “How are you feeling?” Daniela asked. Her voice was gentle and full of concern.

  Kate squinted at the windows. “How long have I been asleep?” The sun had already set.

  “A few hours,” Daniela replied. “You missed dinner, but Dad made you a plate.”

  Slowly, being very careful of her burnt skin, Kate sat up and reached for the plate.

  “I’m going to put some cold compresses on your burns,” Daniela said as she slowly peeled back Kate’s blankets.

  “Oh my gosh this bread is so good,” Kate mumbled, mouth half full.

  “Tell me about it,” Daniela laughed. “We went through three full loaves at dinner. That’s more carbs than were consumed in all of L.A. today.”

  Daniela stepped out of the room for a moment and then returned with the frozen packs of gel.

  As she placed the first one on her thigh, Kate shivered.

  “Too cold?” Daniela asked.

  “No,” Kate said between bites. “Just a shock. I’m sure the fire from my legs will melt that real quick.”

  With a quick knock, Wyatt entered the room. “How are you feeling baby?” He asked as he bent down for a kiss.

  Kate smiled and gave him a quick peck. “Better. This food is amazing.”

  “I don’t think the pain meds have worn off yet,” Daniela looked up at Wyatt.

  “I like the stocking you made,” Wyatt said as he sat on the edge of the bed. He carefully held Kate’s hand and took notice of the small blisters that were forming on her forearms.

  “I finished it?” Kate asked. “I remember starting it, but not finishing it.”

  “Yep, you finished it and then went straight to bed,” Wyatt explained. “You were so tired.”

  “I’m still tired,” Kate said as she returned her plate to the nightstand. “I think I’ll go back to sleep.”

  Wyatt kissed her on the forehead and got up. “Text me if you wake up and need anything.”

  Kate nodded as she slid back down into the bed.

  “I’m going to stay here with you, so I can take these off in a few minutes,” Daniela informed her.

  “Talk to me,” Kate whispered as she reached out to hold Daniela’s hand.

  Before she could think of anything to say, Kate was fast asleep. The medicine clearly still had a hold on her. Daniela was glad for that. From what she’d researched online, the pain was only going to get worse before it got better. And the blisters. That was concerning. This burn was really bad.

  After a few minutes passed, Daniela slowly began collecting the cold compresses. Once she had them all, she pulled out the aloe and gently applied a thin layer to Kate’s skin. This time she noticed that Kate’s muscles were not flexed, but relaxed. Her skin however was still hot to the touch. Blondes really can’t handle their sun, can they?

  Once she was done coating Kate’s skin with aloe, she gently pulled the covers back over her. “Wyatt, you sure picked a gorgeous one, didn’t you?” Daniela whispered to herself. She thought she caught a glimpse of a smile on Kate’s lips.

  ◆◆◆

  Shortly after midnight, Daniela woke to the sound of Kate vomiting in the bathroom. She quickly pulled on a robe and went to her.

  “Kate?” Daniela said as she flipped on the light.

  Bent over the toilet, Kate was looking miserable. She immediately began heaving again.

  Daniela knelt and began gathering Kate’s blonde strands. She took a hair tie off her wrist and pulled Kate’s hair into a messy pony tail.

  “Aw, hon,” Daniela said as she gently rubbed Kate’s back. Then she remembered the sunburn and decided it might be better if she didn’t touch her.

  Kate heaved again and Daniela got up to get a wet washcloth.

  “I feel miserable,” Kate attempted to sit up.

  “Here,” Daniela handed her the cold washcloth.

  “I think I have sun poisoning,” Kate sobbed.

  “Do you need a doctor?” Daniela slid to the floor next to her.

  Kate carefully washed tears from her face. “No. A doctor would tell us to do exactly what we are doing.”

  “How about another one of Mama’s pills?” Daniela offered.

  “Right now, I’d do anything to get some relief,” Kate admitted.

>   Daniela helped her up and practically carried her to bed.

  “Oh, guess what? Now I can tell you aren’t wearing a bra,” Daniela teased.

  “Shut up,” Kate managed a smile.

  Kate settled in to her bed, and moments later Daniela returned with another pain pill and a bowl full of cold wet tea bags.

  “What are those for?” Kate asked as she swallowed the pill.

  Daniela pulled a bag from the bowl and placed it on her leg. “The cool leaves, and the tannin in the tea create a soothing affect.”

  “That feels nice,” Kate said and leaned back into her pillows.

  “I boiled them earlier and then placed them in the fridge to cool down,” Daniela explained.

  She continued to gently place them all over Kate’s legs and arms. Then she lined them up across Kate’s chest where the v-neck tee shirt left an opening. Lastly, she placed the bags on Kate’s face. By this time, Kate was almost asleep.

  “I’m going to put some on your stomach,” Daniela quietly warned her as she gently pulled up the shirt revealing bright red skin.

  As she lined the tea bags into neat little rows, Daniela bent over and softly kissed Kate’s belly. It was too cute, and too perfect. She couldn’t help herself.

  Kate noticed. She reached down and lightly placed a hand on Daniela’s head.

  Emboldened, Daniela kissed it again.

  At that, Kate hiccupped twice and then fell back asleep.

  After ten minutes, Daniela removed the tea bags and threw them away. Then she set up an oil diffuser on the nightstand and filled it with water and peppermint oil to help with nausea.

  After all of this, Daniela was wide awake, so she gathered up the script and sat in the chair. Time to become Reed.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Kate slept well into the afternoon. By the time she finally woke up, she was feeling much better. Showering was still painful, but after the night she’d had, it was a necessity. After a quick inspection, she noticed that her back was covered in small pea sized blisters.