Stranded on the Beach (Holiday Acres Book 1) Read online

  She pulled his weight down on top of her and wrapped herself around him.

  They lay like that for a minute, both of them panting and hot and sated.

  But there was the condom to deal with. Phil finally had to heave himself up and take care of it. He sat on the edge of the chaise, still trying to catch his breath, and he looked at her.

  She smiled up at him.

  He swallowed. “So was that... was that goodbye?”

  He really didn’t know.

  She didn’t answer immediately, but her expression changed. It flickered with something conflicted, uncertain.

  Phil was waiting, almost holding his breath.

  “I-I don’t know. Do you want it to be?”

  He wondered what she wanted him to say.

  He had no idea.

  So he told her the truth. “No.”

  Her face and body relaxed. “Me either.”

  He could finally release his breath. “Okay. Good. Then let’s not say goodbye yet.”

  TWO DAYS LATER, PHIL went over to Rebecca’s vacation house at just after noon.

  He usually took a few hours off in the middle of the day since he went in so early and stayed so late, and there was no reason not to spend those hours with Rebecca.

  They only had five days left.

  He was trying not to think about it.

  He was trying not to think of anything except having a good time with Rebecca while he could.

  When he got to her house, the door was open, so he knocked on the door and then opened it. “Hey, Rebecca.”

  “Come on in!” she called.

  He found her in the kitchen, setting out dishes on the kitchen bar. She was smiling as if she were having a very good time.

  “What’s all this?” he asked, coming over peer at what she’d set out.

  “This is lunch. I’ve been making stuff this morning. Chicken salad. Fruit salad. Plus leftover pasta salad. In summary, all kinds of salad except green salad, so hopefully you’ll like it.”

  “Looks great.” He was hungry, and he wasted no time in filling up the plate she handed him.

  They ate out on the patio, and she asked him about his morning and told him about taking a swim and then walking to the grocery store and having fun with food all morning.

  She’d obviously had a good day so far, and her face was glowing with pleasure.

  She’d always been like that when she got to cook, and he wondered if she’d had the chance at home lately.

  From what she’d said, it sounded like she hadn’t.

  He finished his plate and then filled up another, and eventually she was giggling at the amount he’d consumed.

  He didn’t mind. He was full and relaxed and didn’t have to go back to work anytime soon.

  “Were you going to swim this afternoon?” he asked. “I brought my suit just in case.”

  She was wearing a bikini beneath her tank top. He could see the straps and was very interested in what it would look like when she took her tank off.

  “I don’t know. I’m feeling kind of lazy now after eating so much. Maybe I’ll get in the hot tub. Did you want to swim?”

  “I’ll do whatever you do.” The hot tub sounded good to him. He was overly full.

  So they got into their suits, and as he was stepping into the hot, churning water, Rebecca asked, “Do you want a glass of wine?” She was pouring one for herself from the bottle they’d opened last night.

  He hesitated because he wasn’t sure how long he’d be able to stay awake if he drank wine on top of the lunch he’d just eaten. He did have to go back to work eventually.

  But she was smiling at him, and the wine was white, light, and fruity, so he ended up saying yes.

  So they soaked in the hot tub and drank wine and stared out at the waves on the quiet beach. People occasionally walked by, but no one was camped out in front of them or obstructing their view. The hot tub was on the covered part of the patio, so the sun wasn’t hot or oppressive, despite the time of day.

  And Phil felt perfectly content.

  And perfectly cut off from his normal life.

  Maybe that was the reason. Or maybe it was the wine. Or maybe it was something else entirely.

  But he heard himself saying something he never would have consciously said. “My dad didn’t believe in hot tubs.”

  She was sitting on the ledge seat beside him, but they weren’t touching. She’d piled her hair up with a clip so it wouldn’t get wet, but a few strands had already slipped free. Her eyes rested on his face as she asked, “What do you mean? I’m assuming he knew they existed.”

  “Yeah. He didn’t believe men should indulge in them.”

  “What the hell? Why not?”

  He gave a little shrug, wondering why he’d even brought it up but not as reluctant to talk about it as he should have been. “He didn’t believe men should indulge themselves... in anything. He had those tough Appalachian roots. Work hard. Keep to yourself. Don’t indulge. You know what he was like. With us—me, Scott, and Kent—he was even worse.”

  Phil had never known his mother, who’d died from complications after his birth. He’d been raised by his father alone. Sometimes he wondered if having a mother would have softened his childhood, but it wasn’t an answer he’d ever have.

  Rebecca’s expression had changed now. “How... how much worse?”

  “He didn’t hit me,” he said, reading her mind. “He never hit me. Or any of us. Well, he did hit Kent once, right before Kent left home. They were in a fight, and Kent was in his face. My dad lost his temper and punched him. By that point, Kent was big enough that he could have won a fight with him, but he just walked out instead. But that was the only time... He was just... hard.” He took his last swallow of wine and put down his glass.

  Rebecca reached over and took his hand, holding it under the water. “He really didn’t think men should get into hot tubs?”

  “It was indulgent. Weak. And men are supposed to be strong.”

  “That’s ridiculous. Men can get in a hot tub and still be strong. They’re allowed to... to feel good sometimes.”

  “Yeah.”

  “You feel good right now, don’t you?” She let go of his hand and reached up to massage his neck.

  He sighed and relaxed back as pleasure spread down from her touch. The hot water was relaxing his body, and he was sated from the food and wine. And there was something freeing about talking to Rebecca this way. “Yes,” he admitted hoarsely. “I feel good.”

  “Good. I want you to feel good. You’re allowed.” She kept rubbing his neck for a few minutes, and then her hand moved down to his shoulders, his back. “You tell me I’m allowed, and if I’m allowed, then you’re allowed too.”

  Eventually he was moaning softly, shamelessly, and starting to harden in his shorts.

  She scooted closer so she could kiss him. He was glazed over with pleasure and relaxation, but he found the coordination to kiss her back. As they kissed, her hand slipped down to his groin and beneath his waistband.

  He groaned loudly against her lips as her hand wrapped around his erection.

  “I want you to feel good too, Phil,” she murmured, giving his lower lip a gentle tug with her teeth.

  His hips were rocking into her hand. “Fuck, baby. Oh fuck. I do.”

  “Good. Then let go for me.” She moved her hand to massage his balls for a few moments before she returned to work his shaft.

  His whole body tightened like a fist.

  “Let go for me,” she murmured thickly. “Right now.”

  He came. So hard and so uninhibitedly it was almost embarrassing. She squeezed him through the spasms as his body shook and he kept making loud, shameless groans.

  When he’d finally taken all the pleasure he could, he let out a lingering moan and collapsed back against the side of the hot tub.

  She was smiling, as if she were very pleased by his responses. “How do you feel?”

  “Good,” he managed to gas
p. He wanted to reach out and kiss her again, but he didn’t have the energy. He could barely speak, barely move. “Better than... anything.”

  “Good.”

  It took him a few minutes to recover himself, but then he reached out to pull her closer. He kissed her deeply and moved his hand between her legs as she eagerly responded. He brought her to climax with his fingers, and she came so quickly that she must have been really turned on. She was breathing raggedly and clinging to him as she came down.

  “How do you feel?” he asked, stroking her back and bottom under the water.

  “I feel so good.” She was stretching like a cat against him.

  “Good. You’re better at taking care of people—taking care of me—than anyone else in the world, but you need to feel good too.”

  “I do.”

  They stayed together in the hot tub, wrapped up in each other’s arms.

  Eventually she said without warning, “You’re not like your dad, Phil. You’re not... hard.”

  He didn’t answer for a long time. “Maybe. But I think if I’d stayed, I would have become like him. He wasn’t born that way either. His father was like that and his grandfather. They were taught the world would always be hard and that people would always betray them. They weren’t... wrong.”

  This was dangerous, treading too close to the core of pain still hidden between them.

  But Rebecca left it where it was. Instead, she said, “But you didn’t end up that way. You’re different. You’re not hard that way.”

  “I hope not. But I’m also not...” He didn’t know how to finish the sentence, so he didn’t.

  She seemed to understand anyway. “You just stay in the shallows, Phil. I can understand why.”

  He pulled away enough to see her face. “The shallows.”

  “The shallows. So the water laps over your ankles but you never go too deep. Isn’t that what you’ve been doing?”

  “Yes. It’s that exactly.”

  “I can understand that, after everything that happened. It’s safe in the shallows.”

  He liked the analogy. He turned it over in his mind. “You never drown.”

  “I know.” She paused for a long time before she added, “But you also never swim.”

  He thought about that too.

  After a few more minutes, she pulled away from him. “I need to get out before I turn into a prune.”

  “Yeah. Me too.”

  They climbed out, dried off, and changed into their clothes.

  “When do you need to be back to work this afternoon?”

  “By three, I guess. I have to give a lesson at three thirty, and I’ll need to get ready for it.”

  She glanced at a clock. “Okay. Good. Then you have almost two hours to take a nap with me.”

  “A nap?”

  “Yes, a nap. Don’t you want to?”

  He did. He was physically satisfied in every way, and his body was craving rest. So he let her pull him over onto the double chaise in the shade on the patio, and they stretched out there together.

  Phil was asleep in less than five minutes.

  Nine

  THREE DAYS AFTER THAT, Rebecca slept in until after nine in the morning.

  She didn’t intend to. She liked to get up early, take a walk on the beach, and end up at the pier where she could fish with Phil for a while.

  Fishing was never going to be her favorite activity, but it was mostly just hanging out. And she liked to do that with Phil. As much as she could.

  They only had a couple of days left.

  But Phil had come over last night the way he had every night that week. They’d lain on the beach until late, listening to the waves and looking at the stars. Then they’d come back to the house and had sex on the chaise on the patio. Then they’d had sex on the couch inside. Then they’d had sex in bed. It had been after two in the morning when she’d finally gone to sleep. Phil had been beside her then, but he was gone when she woke up that morning.

  She reached for her phone before she even got out of bed, texting Phil.

  You weren’t late this morning, were you?

  No. I made it just in time.

  I just woke up. Sorry I missed fishing.

  No worries. I’ll come over for lunch.

  Sounds good.

  She put down her phone and stared up at the ceiling.

  Today was Friday.

  And she’d be leaving on Sunday.

  She was already dreading it.

  Before she could start brooding about that too much, her phone rang, and she flipped it open and greeted her sister.

  “Hey,” Laura said. “How’s everything going?”

  “It’s going good.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes, really. I even slept in this morning. I just woke up.”

  “Oh wow. That really is progress. I’m glad you’ve been able to relax.”

  “I have. It’s been nice. I really appreciate you, Olivia, and Penny doing this for me.”

  Laura brushed aside the thanks, which was her typical response to gratitude. “So are you still hanging out with Phil?”

  “Yeah. Sometimes.” Rebecca tried to keep her voice casual.

  She hadn’t told Laura—or anyone—that she’d been having sex with Phil. It wasn’t anyone’s business, and it would open up a can of worms that was better kept closed.

  “Is something going on that I should know about?”

  Rebecca rolled her eyes in her empty bedroom. “No. There’s nothing you should know about.”

  “Things are better with him now, aren’t they?”

  “Yes, they’re better.”

  “And you haven’t done anything stupid like fall for him again or something?”

  That was like Laura too. All her life, she’d believed that people should be smarter than to be led around by their hearts.

  “No. I haven’t fallen for him again.”

  Rebecca hoped—she really, really hoped—that that was true.

  She wasn’t entirely sure though.

  “Are you sure? You sound weird.”

  “I do not sound weird. I just told you. This was always about closure. I’m coming home on Sunday, and Phil’s not about to set foot back home again. He’s made that very clear.”

  Laura was silent on the other end of the line for too long. Then she said, “Shit.”

  “Shit, what?” Rebecca demanded.

  “I didn’t make things worse, did I? I never would have done this if I’d thought you’d be stupid enough to fall for him again and then get heartbroken when—”

  “I’m not heartbroken! I didn’t fall for him. I’m not a child, and I know what I’m doing. I’m having a good time for a couple of weeks, but this is a vacation. It’s not real life. I know that.”

  “Okay.”

  “I do like Phil, and I remember now why I fell for him before. But he didn’t love me enough back then to work through all our issues, and nothing about that has changed. I’m not going to give my heart to a man who doesn’t really want it. Not for a second time. I’m really not that stupid, Laura.”

  Something in her tone must have reassured her sister, because Laura sounded relieved. “Okay. Good. You can think of your time there like an amazing vacation. And maybe Phil will be part of that. But nothing more.”

  “Nothing more.”

  Rebecca felt a little glum when she hung up with her sister.

  It was clear that Laura never even once considered the possibility of Rebecca and Phil getting together. She’d been honest from the beginning when she said it was just about closure.

  Laura was smart. She didn’t make up silly daydreams and fairy tales.

  She knew what life was like, and she accepted it without flinching.

  Rebecca should be more like that too.

  Because Phil had never indicated—not once—that he was thinking beyond these two weeks.

  She shouldn’t even want that.

  But a tiny part of her did.
r />   PHIL DID COME OVER for lunch that day. Both of them were feeling lazy, so they just ate sandwiches and watched a movie together on the couch. When he went back to work, she swam for a while and then showered, dressed, and took a nap.

  At six thirty, she walked out to the pier.

  They ate together at the seafood restaurant. She’d been there several times now, and everyone greeted her like an old friend. She could see from the way Stella, the middle-aged woman behind the bar, was smiling at them that everyone probably thought she and Phil were a done deal.

  A real couple.

  But no one here knew the whole story.

  They went out to the pier afterward. Phil took his fishing rod, but Rebecca didn’t feel like bothering. She stood with him at the railing, enjoying the breeze and the sound of the water and the greetings from the locals and a few tourists who passed by.

  She did like it here.

  She would love to come back for another vacation.

  It didn’t feel like home though.

  She wondered if Phil felt the same way—even after all these years. He always referred to their hometown as home. He never talked about this as home.

  There was no reason why he needed to move back, but she couldn’t help but wonder what he’d not been able to let go of.

  He wasn’t likely to tell her. The most he’d opened up in the past two weeks was in the hot tub on Tuesday, when he’d talked about his father. Other than that, he wasn’t letting her in.

  He probably didn’t let anyone in.

  And it was just as well since they were saying goodbye in two days.

  She needed to just let the idea go, not think about it anymore.

  She could be like Laura, accepting the world as it was.

  It merely took an act of will. She could do it.

  “I can’t believe we only have a couple more days,” she heard herself saying.

  Shit.

  She hadn’t intended to say that. At all.

  Phil glanced over at her, a small, bittersweet smile lifting the corners of his mouth. “I know. I can’t believe it’s almost over.”

  Let it go.

  Just let it go.