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Chapter 9
Amanda
Back at the hotel, I paced my room. Everyone else was down at the hot tub, probably an attempt to stave off tomorrow’s soreness from today’s horseback rides. I dug through my suitcase and—dang it! I’d forgotten my one-piece swimsuit.
All I had was Tessa’s crazy two-piece she’d thrown in with the rest of her getups. And by crazy, I meant I’d be crazy to wear it in front of Calvin, considering the sizzling kisses we’d shared over the past twelve hours.
I’d seen how he’d looked at me. I’d felt the heat of his hands all over my skin. I’d be playing with fire to wear something this … red and fiery.
The world had changed. In Tolkien’s description, I felt it in the water, in the earth.
“Calvin?” I tapped my knuckles on the door adjoining his room.
He cracked the door. “Hey.” There was a different light in his eyes. Most of the jaunty cockiness was gone. Something else had replaced it. Something … oh, dear. Was that sincerity?
Then I saw it. He was in swim trunks. Only swim trunks—his shoulders broad as the Mississippi. I bit my lip. “Hey.”
He stepped toward me, but I backed off. We were in a bedroom. I was feeling a little bedroom-ish toward him, and the combo wasn’t safe. “I see you heard that everyone is downstairs at the hot tub. I’m game, but should your bandages get wet?”
He patted the air. “I’ll sit on the deck. You can get in the water.”
I’d need to be in the water up to my neck to be safe from the perils of that two-piece pile of string someone called a swimsuit. “It’s okay if you don’t want to go.”
“We ditched them earlier today. I don’t want Parley to think he invited us all the way to New Zealand for no social interaction.”
Good point. “I’ll get changed.” Cringe. “Meet me downstairs?”
“Amanda. It’s better to walk in together—for appearances.”
Another good point. I sent him off and changed—careful to wear my biggest t-shirt over the skimpy bikini. “Ready?” I asked, even though I was anything but ready myself.
“Convince them and I’ll take you to that waterfall tomorrow.”
We walked out to the pool holding hands, which felt surprisingly right. As we approached, Calvin let go and placed a hand on the small of my back. Sensations shot across my skin.
Parley looked up from his canoodle with Ellen. “Dude. We thought we’d lost you. You missed a great trail ride.”
“Yeah,” Ellen said. “Amazing view of the lake. You guys would’ve thought it was romantic. In fact, it might have inspired Calvin there to propose.”
Calvin’s fingertips pressed into my skin, hard enough to probably leave a circle of little purple marks. “Amanda is all the inspiration I need,” the commitment-phobe ground out.
His reluctance stung. I steeled my face.
But it looked like Parley bought it, despite his next joke. “Wow, the man voted Least Likely to Commit is on the brink.”
Reluctantly, I stepped up onto the platform beside the large, party-sized Jacuzzi. Steam swirled off its surface, where Parley and Ellen sat immersed up to their necks.
“You’re not getting in wearing that nice shirt, are you?” Calvin squinted at me, prodding like he hadn’t just implied I was near getting the boot from his life. “It’ll get wet. We won’t have time to hang out doing laundry tomorrow since we’ll be checking out a waterfall.” The hint was palpable.
“It’s not far from here,” Ellen added. “It’s the very waterfall where they filmed Lothlorien.”
“What’s a Lothlorien?” Parley’s mom stepped up the ladder and down into the tub balancing a glass. “Sounds like a good name for a baby girl.”
“No relationship pressure, Mom.” Said Parley, the king of relationship pressure. “We’ll give you grandkids as soon as Ellen is ready. Don’t worry.”
Calvin tugged up the hem of my t-shirt. “This is taking too long.”
“Fine.” I peeled my t-shirt skyward, shook out my hair, dropped the cotton shirt at my feet and climbed into the water. “You sit on the ledge, butt-wound.”
