The Summer Place

CHAPTER FIFTEEN



FOR THE SEVENTH MORNING straight, Rick woke up at five but couldn’t coax his body out of bed to run. He would run during quiet time, even though it would be during the heat of the afternoon. An hour of drowning in sweat was a small price to pay to enjoy another half hour of Summer in his bed—and his arms. Hell, with the workouts she’d given him the past week, he probably could cut out running completely.

It struck him as odd that he didn’t feel compelled to run, and the irony of that thought made him smile. He hadn’t reached the age of thirty-four unmarried by falling in love too quickly. And even the serious relationships he’d been in made him feel as though he would have to give up a part of himself to make it last.

This morning, he had no compulsion to bolt mentally or physically. He just felt relaxed. Maybe starting out disliking each other had been a good thing. Coming through the bad before the good certainly gave him a much truer perception of the woman he held than all the flirting and courtship crap that went along with dating when everybody was on their best behavior.

What a woman she was, Ms. Summer Delaney. She took his breath in so many different ways, not the least of which was the way her ass wiggled against him as she woke up just now.

“You awake?” she whispered, and he pulled her closer and kissed the crown of her head in response. “Can we talk?”

He stiffened. “Uh-oh. The ‘can we talk’ thing, already?” What had gone wrong? The week had been wonderful, hadn’t it?

“Tell me about the nightmares,” she said.

He didn’t want to start the day thinking about them. “There’s nothing to tell.” He closed his eyes. Maybe he could doze back off for a few minutes.

“They’re every night, Rick.”

“But they don’t last long.”

Her sigh had a disgruntled edge. “They disturb your sleep...our sleep...every night. What’s going on?”

He’d never trusted a woman enough to talk about the story behind them. But Summer understood...or was beginning to understand. He cleared his throat. “I told you Dunk got shot.”

“Yeah.”

“He was covering me when it happened. I had an injured kid in my arms.” His stomach clenched at the words. God, he hated talking about it.

Summer pulled her arm from beneath his and laid it on top, guiding his hand to her breast. “Go on. Tell me the rest.”

“I couldn’t stop. The kid needed medics.” He closed his eyes and breathed through the pain. “I went back and got Dunk. But he didn’t make it.”

Summer rolled over to face him, sadness darkening her eyes. “I’m sorry.” She ran her fingertips across his temple. “Have you tried therapy? I mean, it might help to talk to somebody.”

“I can handle it. It’ll just take time.” He saw the crease form between her eyebrows. “And I don’t want to talk about it anymore.” That was the truth. It was better to leave it hidden in the darkness. He latched on to another subject. “Happy anniversary, by the way.”

“It’s been a week today, hasn’t it?” He could hear the smile in her voice, and he relaxed. She snuggled her forehead against his neck and kissed his collarbone. “Did I tell you how good you were last night?”

“Mmm-hmm. I think Kenny might’ve heard you telling me how good I was last night.”

She sighed. “We’ll need to turn the air conditioner on if you’re going to keep doing those yummy things that make me want to pant so loudly.”

“Or, if you want to continue sleeping with the windows open, we could stop doing those things,” he teased.

She looked at him under half-lidded eyes and gave him a lazy smile. “I’ll pant more quietly.”

“I thought so.” He kissed her eyelids, admiring the thick lashes that lay against her cheek. In the breaking light of dawn, they glistened like gold threads.

She opened her eyes slowly. “What are you looking at?”

“You.” His chest tightened as he used the tip of his finger to trace the side of her face, so delicate in its bone structure. It was difficult to think he’d ever found much wrong with her. “This is the only time of day I get to look at you. I mean, really look at you. During the daylight, I hardly have time to even glance at you, and that bulb—” he pointed to the bedside lamp “—doesn’t begin to do you justice at night.”

Her lips pursed. “The shadows it puts out make you look pretty hot.”

He raised on an elbow and tossed the sheet that covered them to the foot of the bed. “Stand up.”

“Why?” She propped herself on both elbows and tilted her face toward him. “Are you treating me to a stand-up quickie?”

Rick shook his head, then stopped to consider her willingness. She thought she was the one who was being treated? Her sexual appetite was like no other woman’s he’d ever known. But he felt satisfied right now, like the urge was there and it was good, but it would be even better if he waited. “It’s tempting, but I’m pretty mellow right now. I just want to look at you in the natural light...naked.”

A tender smile crept to her lips, and she crawled over him to stand at his side of the bed. Her hands swept her hair behind her shoulders, baring her breasts and her nipples, which were standing at attention. Then she dropped her arms to let them hang loosely at her side.

“You’re beautiful.” His eyes roamed over her slowly, for once taking in her beauty at his leisure.

“Beauty’s on the inside, Rick. This is all just cover.”

“I was talking about the inside.” He grinned. “But the cover sure makes me want to read this book.”

Her eyebrow rose as a smile twitched the corner of her mouth. “Well, it might hold a couple of interesting passages.”

He chuckled at her quick wit—another plus in the long list of things he found adorable about her.

A recent tan line that outlined the modest swimsuit she wore at camp gave way to lighter areas that denoted a bikini. But nowhere was there an area that didn’t have at least some tan.

“You sunbathe in the nude?” His finger traced a lazy, meandering path from the base of her neck between her breasts and down to her navel.

She gave him one of her mischievous grins. “Every chance I get. Which used to be pretty often with Mom and Dad traveling so much. I visited my sister in Florida last month. She has a very private patio.”

He brushed the back of his finger across her deeply tanned and toned thighs. Her weight shifted forward to press against him, and the temptation almost proved to be too much as he felt himself stiffen. He thumped her playfully on her stomach like he was testing a watermelon.

“Turn around, soldier,” he growled. “This inspection’s not finished yet.”

Summer stuck her hip out in an exaggerated sway and undulated her body around in a belly-dancing move until she faced away from him.

She’d given out two more wands the night before, so her hair was still in fairy princess mode. Golden waves splayed down her back in a disheveled mass that gave her an intoxicatingly sensuous look. Rick couldn’t resist combing his fingers through the enticing tangles, noticing the way the sunlight picked up the natural highlights, which separated into myriad colors.

The wild cascade ended just above the small of her back. He let his fingers trail out through the ends and follow the dip in her spine to the crease between the cheeks of the perkiest, most perfectly formed ass he’d ever had the pleasure of knowing. The brown luster of the mounds looked like a pair of buns toasted to delicious perfection and made his mouth water. He leaned forward and nipped the fleshiest part, which brought a surprised yelp.

Summer swung around and popped him on the head with her palm, then tried to scamper away, but he proved faster. Seizing her around the waist, he pulled her between his legs, and began planting loud raspberries across her belly, ignoring her squeals of protest.

Laughter shook her until she finally collapsed onto his lap. “I surrender.”

Their smiling gazes locked, and Rick felt his desire for her make a slow burn through him. Not just the desire for sex, although that was part of it. It was a desire to take possession of this woman, body and soul. Her mouth lowered to his and he could swear he felt the surrender of it all in her kiss.

She straightened, pulling her face back a few inches. “Do you regret this, Rick? Making love was my idea. Do you have any regrets about it?” She searched his eyes for an answer.

He thought about it for a moment, wanting to be as honest as possible. “Yeah. There’s one.” Clouds gathered in her eyes at his words. “We met almost two months ago, and we didn’t make love until last week. I regret all that wasted time.”

He’d never been more truthful, and honesty had never felt so good...especially when Summer rewarded him by inviting him to join her in the shower.

* * *

SUMMER DECIDED NOT TO EVER distrust her instincts again. Making love with Rick had filed the edge off and smoothed her into a new woman. On one hand, she felt relaxed and laid-back. On the other, she had energy to burn and felt as though she could take on the world with her bare hands. The bubble she carried inside made her float through her days knowing she would end them in Rick’s arms.

Normally, the current midafternoon activity would have catapulted her into zombie mode, but not even the boring fossil hunt could sap her giddiness.

“Yep, another crinoid stem.” She nodded and repeated the words for the seventeenth time...but who was counting?

The recent storm had eroded a huge portion of the bank along the pebble beach surrounding the cove, so Rick came up with an idea to combine some geology and paleontology by having a fossil dig.

Neil ran with the idea and had arranged for a professor from nearby Murray State University to come and talk to the kids and demonstrate the proper procedures to follow during an archaeological excavation. He explained to them the different eras of Earth’s history and how fossils were formed.

Of course, Howie asked question after question about the dinosaurs that roamed this region, but the professor, Dr. Shelton, showed a great deal of understanding and patience for the kid’s high-octane energy. Howie just seemed to be one of those kids people responded to.

Summer was pleased with the improvement in his attitude toward females since they’d made the groups coed. She’d even heard a couple of the girls arguing about who he liked the best. She imagined how charming he would be in a few years. It would be difficult not to love him...the little twerp.

So she reminded herself it was his enthusiasm that had him heading toward her once again, lugging another big rock. A couple of groups down, she saw Rick smile and shake his head as he watched the kid carrying the huge rock in her direction. It ran through Summer’s mind that putting Howie in her group for this activity had been by design rather than the random way it appeared.

“I think I found something cool, Ms. Summer. Look at this.” Roughly the size and shape of a partially deflated football, it took both hands for Howie to hold the rock up for her inspection.

Summer glanced down, expecting more of the same-old-same-old, but what she saw made her do a double take. Ridges. One side of the rock was flat but cut by a series of ridges separated by shallow grooves. It was unlike anything she’d ever seen in nature, though it did look kind of like the sole of a running shoe. She ran her fingers across the pattern, her quickening pulse convincing her Howie had found a treasure.

“Howie, I think you’re right.” Her voice shook with excitement. “You need to show this to Dr. Shelton.” She scanned the bank until she found the professor swishing one of the large screen sieves in the water.

“Dr. Shelton,” she yelled, and he looked up at the sound of his name. She pointed to the rock, which Howie now held proudly over his head. “I think we have something here.”

Even from a distance, she could see the spark of recognition on the professor’s face as he tossed the sieve onto the gravel and broke into a meaningful jog.

The beach came alive with the scurry of children and adults alike, running from all directions toward Howie and his treasure.

* * *

“A MAMMOTH MOLAR. Who would’ve thought?” Rick repeated the words on everybody’s lips since Howie’s find that afternoon.

“How much do you think something like that’s worth?” Tara leaned on her hand, looking sleepy, which Summer couldn’t imagine with all the excitement surrounding them right then.

Neil shrugged and took his glasses off to clean them with the hem of his shirt. “Dr. Shelton says not as much as you might think.” He expelled a breath on the lenses and rubbed. “You can find them for sale online anytime for a couple hundred dollars. But he says this is a really fine specimen that a collector might pay more for.” He put the glasses back on and used a finger to ram them into place.

“But it could mean a lot more than that to this place.” Summer was too excited to hold back the news.

Rick gave her a quizzical look. “What do you mean?”

“I talked with Dr. Shelton privately for a little while, and he says there’s a possibility a whole mammoth could be buried in the bank down there. He says it’s not that uncommon for a river like the Ohio or the Tennessee to give up a mammoth tooth, but the banks should be checked to see if any ribs have been exposed by erosion. He wants to bring in a team during the week between sessions to do some digging. I’m going to stay here that week, and they’re going to rent out one of the dorms. He said there’d be a team of probably six.”

“Did your parents talk to you about their plans for that week?” Rick’s mouth drew down at the corners.

“No. What plans?” What was he talking about?

“Um...” He hesitated a moment. “I suggested to them that we use the week to spruce things up around here. Paint the buildings. Put in some flower beds. Your dad called this morning and said he was all for it.”

A flash of annoyance ran through her. Her dad had called Rick about it—not her. “That’s the first I’ve heard about any of that.”

“I’m sorry. I was going to talk to you about it tonight. But I assumed your parents or Charlie had already said something. ...”

“Nobody told me anything.” The admission clogged her throat. Her parents still saw Rick as the one to turn to.

“Dr. Shelton’s team can still come.” Rick’s placating tone was meant to sooth her fractured ego, but it only made things worse because it was like he was giving his permission. “Neither of the projects should hinder the other,” he said. “I don’t see any problem—”

“The problem is nobody told me anything.”

“Well, it was my idea, so naturally they called me. ...”

“Naturally. And I’m not important enough to be brought into the loop, naturally. So Charlie knows, too?”

“Yeah. He told me at lunch that he and Ginny were going to stay through that week, too, to help.”

A frustrated sigh exploded from Summer’s chest.

“Don’t get all huffy about this, Summer. Charlie’s the director, and I’m—”

“The assistant director.” Her frustration was quickly giving way to indignation and anger. “How could I have forgotten they picked you over me? I’m just their daughter, so it’s not like I have any investment in the place.” Looking around, she noticed that Tara and Neil were on their way back to the dorms. She gathered her things and headed toward her cabin, Rick following quickly on her heels.

“Summer, don’t be like this.”

Aggravation tinged his voice, and she wheeled around on him, letting her own aggravation fly. “Like what, Rick? Say it.”

“Don’t pout. You’re acting like a child.”

She ground her teeth at his words. “I’m not acting like a child. I’m acting like a woman who’s insulted that she’s considered to be no more important in the administration of this camp than any of the kids who are attending.”

Rick reached out to take her hand, but she jerked it from his grasp and hurried on toward her cabin.

“Furthermore, as a grown woman, I’m perfectly capable of being by myself.” Her insides churned hot, and she needed time to cool down. “And that’s precisely what I intend to do tonight. Good night, Rick.”

“Oh, for heaven’s sake, Summer.”

She stepped onto her porch without a backward glance. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

His disgruntled huff followed her into the cabin and stayed with her long into the night as she thought about her situation.

People had to start taking her seriously. She had to prove to her parents—and yes, to Rick—that she was capable of making good decisions.

Charlie was retiring soon and Rick wouldn’t be available past this summer. Her chance to take over the camp was coming soon. She had to show everyone she was capable of running this place—that taking it over wouldn’t be biting off more than she could chew.

Hell, she had a mammoth molar to help with the task!