He didn’t think anyone else had seen the flash of panic cross Ava’s face when Kristin had mentioned the tour, but Grant suspected he might have some idea what that was about.
Even if, as Grant suspected, Kristin had covered Ava’s flight and resort stay, the incidental expenses of this trip were beginning to add up, and Ava had always been careful with money in a way Seth wasn’t. It really was for the best that Seth was marrying into the richest family in Necessity. Grant loved his friend, but he also knew that it wasn’t in Seth’s nature to economize.
Seth was a dreamer. Ava, on the other hand, was eminently practical.
He had seen the same look on Ava’s face when they were young and she had been put in the position of spending her carefully saved allowance money to join the other kids at the movies. She wanted to go, but she had to calculate what it meant giving up.
Seth remembered the trip to the Dallas mall for Ava’s prom dress as a trek from store to store to store as Ava searched for something perfect.
Grant remembered it as Ava searching for the best deal—something that was both pretty and affordable.
He didn’t know how yet, but he would figure out a way to make sure she didn’t feel compelled to pay for a snorkeling trip she couldn’t afford.
And the walk on the beach tonight would give him a chance to have that talk with her he’d been promising himself all afternoon.
Am I really going to go for a moonlit walk on the beach with Grant?
Ava leaned her elbows on the patio railing. What she wanted to do was watch the sun set over the ocean, but she was on the wrong side of the island for that.
Not that she would want to watch that sunset with Grant, of course. Or go for a sunset walk, either. No, a walk on the beach with a gorgeous man during a beautiful sunset was a little too greeting-card cute for Ava.
At least, that’s what I’m going to tell myself.
She had been glad when Grant returned to their table at the bar that afternoon to announce that the next day’s snorkeling excursion was sold out—until she had seen the disappointment on Kristin’s face. Then she had felt guilty for wanting to save her pennies.
If I go for that walk with him, I could seduce him tonight.
Moving back inside the room, she took the Floral Floozy minidress out of the closet where she had hung it earlier and draped it across the bed, smoothing one hand across the fabric before taking a step back to regard it.
If she met him wearing it, would he know what she wanted? Could she convince him to have sex with her on a moonlit beach?
The thought made her shiver.
Maybe I could invite him up here for dinner. Skip the beach altogether.
Her stomach twisted at the thought.
Why was this so terrifying?
Because I don’t want him to say no.
The thought surprised her. She had known that his rejection of her eighteen months ago had stung, but she didn’t realize she hadn’t gotten over it. If nothing else, his reaction to her wearing the dress suggested he was unlikely to turn her down.
History, however, suggests he’ll probably leave before I’m awake the next morning.
Clearly she needed to think about this more.
Hanging the dress back in the closet, she considered her remaining options.
She would cancel with Grant, have room service on the balcony, and listen to the night-song created by the tree frogs and cicadas on the resort grounds.
If I want to take a walk on the beach at night, I can go by myself.
While she was on that walk, she could work on figuring out how to seduce the only man she had ever really wanted.
Five
The morning sun didn’t bring any more answers than her nighttime stroll had—though they both ended up with Ava in the same beach chair, staring at the waves splashing against the shore.
The guide at the equipment rental shack a few dozen yards down the beach had told her that noon was the best time for snorkeling—the jellyfish tended to come out in full force in the mornings and evenings, but at midday, she could avoid getting stung more easily. He had also assured her that she was unlikely to get stung at all, but she preferred not to take chances.
And that’s the story of my life.
At any rate, she had the whole morning to herself, and a new romance novel to read.
If I’m too chicken to seduce a man on a beach at night, I’ll have to settle for reading about it on the beach in the morning.
Smiling wryly and settling back into the reclining beach chair, Ava pulled her enormous, floppy-brimmed straw hat over her face. She could doze here for a little while, soaking up the heat and the sheer nothing-to-do-ness of it all.
A glorious day in paradise.
“So what’s the point of lying in the sun if you cover yourself in SPF-one-million sunscreen?” Grant’s voice interrupted Ava’s contemplation of what she might see in her snorkeling later that day.