Just The Way You Are(54)

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Tessa sat on the bench seat, clinging to the rail as Sam powered the boat over the waves that made the floor beneath her feet roll with each bounce. The ocean was more turbulent than she had anticipated, especially since Sam had said the water was expected to be smooth and calm. Not that he seemed to be bothered at all by the sudden jerks and pitches.

"Isn't this great?" He turned to her from his position at the wheel. "Don't you love it?"

She drummed up a smile for him. "How far out are we going?"

"Wherever you want."

"This seems far enough."

He sent her a quizzical look, then cut the motors, and she felt their speed decrease until they were simply rocking on the water.

Sam came to sit next to her. "Are you all right?"

"Sure, why wouldn't I be?"

"You look a little…" He paused as he peeled her tight fingers off the railing. "White-knuckled."

"Oh, I haven't been sailing in a while. There's so much water, isn't there?"

"It's a big ocean."

"I thought we'd still be able to see Tucker's Landing, but there's nothing around but water. Are there a lot of sharks out here?"

"I don't see your friend Jimmy anywhere."

"That was a joke, ha-ha."

"We're okay, Tessa. You have to relax. I don't remember you being this nervous on a boat. I guess sailing around the world is probably not one of your dreams anymore," he said lightly.

"It would take far too long. Jets are much more efficient."

"There's nothing wrong with a little time on your hands, a little space," he said.

"There's nothing wrong with getting to your destination as quickly as you can."

"What if you have nowhere to go?"

"I always have somewhere to go. I keep myself pretty busy."

"Do you like it?"

"The modeling?"

"All of it."

"Sometimes I do. Sometimes I don't. It's like any job. I have to say that modeling opened up the world to me." She uttered a little laugh, realizing she'd just repeated something her mother had always said to her.#p#分页标题#e#

"What's so funny?"

"My mom used to tell me that when I balked at entering another beauty pageant. She'd say that modeling would open up the world for me, that I'd be able to see and do everything, to have more money than I ever imagined and meet incredibly fascinating people and live a life of constant wonder."

Sam didn't say anything.

"Aren't you going to ask me if she was right?"

"I know she was," he said, with a familiar quirk of his eyebrow that set her nerves on edge.

"She didn't tell me that it would be lonely, that people who didn't even know me would hate me for no other reason than that my hair was blond."

"Sounds like you're tired of the business."

"I am tired, tired of being me," she confessed. "At least the me I've been the last few years. What about you? Do you really like running your business?"

"I do. It has its bad days, but on the whole it's a good life."

Silence fell between them, broken only by the sound of the water lapping against the boat and the occasional seagull squawking about lunch. Tessa didn't know what to say to Sam. She'd been the one to ask for time alone, but now that they had it, she wasn't sure what to do.

"Tell me a story," Sam said. "The way you used to." He leaned back against the rail. "Tell me about your incredible adventures. Take me to where you've been."

After a momentary hesitation, Tessa found herself telling him about her trips to Morocco and Bali and Indonesia, the swimsuit spread taken on the Colorado slopes in the winter, the parties in Manhattan, the time she'd met the president at a fund-raising gala. She must have talked for half an hour, with Sam only interrupting once in a while to express astonishment or ask a question.

It was like all those days and nights in the treehouse when she'd told him stories, only they were true tales, not dreams. She was different, and Sam was different. Despite his attention, she wasn't sure she was really entertaining him.

Finally, she fell silent. "So that's my life."

"You did it all, Tessa. I'm proud of you."

His words made her heart swell with pride, and she blinked back a tear. Aside from Phoebe, there had been no one to share in her success, no one to say, "I'm proud of you, you did good." She hadn't realized how much she'd wanted to hear that until now.

"Hey," he said softly. "Don't cry."

"Sorry. I just—I missed you, Sam."

"Me, too." His smile faded and his expression turned serious. "When you left there was a big hole in my life."