“Sure you don’t want to invite Isaac along?” he asked before the captain cast off from the dock. “It’s no bother.”
It was so much a bother he couldn’t believe she didn’t call him on the lie instantly. But offering was the right thing to do.
Audra rolled her eyes. “Please. There’s a girl his age here with her family. She’s from France. He practiced his French all through breakfast and that was that. I sent him off to the pool with a gallon of sunscreen, which he will promptly forget about. I’ll have a boiled lobster to deal with later instead of a brother, but he’s got to learn some time that redheads burn just by glancing at the sun.”
“Aloe plant,” he advised with a chuckle. “Best if you can get it fresh. Cut open a leaf and smear it over his sunburn.”
“I’m sensing you’ve dealt with invincible teenagers before,” she commented wryly as the boat puttered away from the Duchess Island dock and followed the shoreline toward the northern tip.
“Invincible sailors. Same difference.” He probably shouldn’t have said that much, but she had something about her that invited him in. Made him want to please her. Be a little more transparent than normal.
They wouldn’t ever see each other again after this. Surely he could relax his guard around her a little?
She nodded. “Present company excluded, right?”
“Make no mistake. I’ve taken my share of risks.”
The only difference between him and the other guys was rank. It was Charlie’s job to make it out alive so he could pick up the pieces. And there were often plenty of those. Sometimes more than he could take. The nightmares didn’t only happen when he was asleep.
That which doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Frankly, he’d be okay with an occasional day at the office that didn’t do either one.
“That’s right, you’re a badass in real life,” she said, her tone light. “But you can’t tell me about it or you’d have to kill me.”
He changed his mind. Even if he didn’t have confidentially drilled into his marrow, he didn’t want to talk about extremist-infested badlands at the border of Iraq and Iran that his guys could never fully clear. Like cockroaches, ISIS bred new members overnight. A SEAL team out of Coronado never rested.
Transparency wasn’t his strong suit, apparently. Even with someone he liked as much as Audra. Went with the territory, and he’d signed up to rid the world of evil with his eyes wide open. He’d always have a part of himself closed off and unavailable to others.
Of course, that had happened even before he’d enlisted, right around the time he’d walked in on his father screwing Naomi—who happened to be Charlie’s girlfriend, not that either of the naked, writhing people on that chaise lounge in the pool house had seemed bothered by the distinction.
So maybe he had more closed off inside than he’d like. It was a fact. No reason to get weepy about it.
“Let’s just say that some things are better left unexplained,” he advised her as the boat captain cut the engine and drifted to a stop about a hundred feet off the shore of Ilhota Rosa.
“We have to wade to the island from here,” Audra said, apparently okay with his lack of an answer, which was awesome. “The boat captain will be back to pick us up in a few hours.”
She untied the sarong and stuffed it in her bag along with her sandals, then hefted the strap to her shoulder as she clambered into the water barefoot without hesitation. God, that was sexy. Not just the bikini-clad body—which was so, so sexy—but the way she didn’t wait around for someone else to take the lead.
It was nice to give up the head spot. For once. Plus he could watch Audra’s spectacular green-clad backside all day long. But that wouldn’t get him any closer to his beach fantasy.
Holding his own flip-flops aloft, Charlie followed. The warm water hit him thigh deep, wetting his board shorts. It was so clear he could see the wide striations of color on the sandy bottom: deep blue where he stood, then lighter blue, then pink all the way to the beach, where the spun-cotton-candy color extended into the green tree line about a hundred yards from shore.
Up close, the island was even more odd and amazing. Like he’d been transported into an alternate upside-down world where the colors ran riot according to some celestial hand that cared nothing for order. He loved it. Mostly because it wasn’t his chaos to sort out. Being the one in charge was a daily tension-inducing nightmare that he’d gladly left behind for a while.
Audra waited for him on the beach, toes dug into the pink sand and a half smile on her face. “I forgot to ask. Are you a strong swimmer?”