Page 2 of Beach Bodies


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“You can take a little nap,” Lisa said, trying to hold her up.

“Let me lie on the ground for a minute,” Lily moaned. “I’m so sorry…”

“On the sand?”

“Yeah, I have to lie down.”

“Come down here with me,” Lisa whispered.

The tide was coming in fast. Lisa helped Lily lie down on the cold sand about a foot from the edge of the surf. The surf washing Lily away had not been in Lisa’s original plan to do away with her but would be advantageous.

Naked from the waist down, Lily curled up on her side and was snoring within seconds. Up at the picnic table, Lisa dug around in Lily’s sweatpants pocket for her phone. They had agreed not to text each other, but the location share could be a problem if it was on. She went into the settings and took a deep breath when she saw that it had been disabled. Scrolling through Lily’s text messages, she found one thread from Lisa that she quickly deleted. Her phone number, deleted.

She looked down at Lily’s sleeping body, thinking. She then tossed the sweatpants into the water, where they rode the waves before being pulled under. Though she hoped Lily would sleep for a while, Lisa wasn’t taking any chances. The phone was going out to sea, too. She did what she could to pry it apart using a rock, and then, after smashing it into pieces, she scooped up the bits and scattered them in the surf, throwing what was left of it as far out as she could. Hopefully, none of it would wind up in a beachcomber’s hands, or worse, her mother’s sea glass collection.

Grabbing their wine cooler bottles off the table, Lisa squatted at the edge of the surf, scrubbed all the fingerprints off with sand, rinsed them out in the salt water, and then stuck them in her pockets. She’d take care of them at home. The precaution was just if the plan didn’t work.

The whole process had taken less than five minutes. She took a last look at Lily, who was still breathing. The tide was coming in fast and furious, lapping at Lily’s feet, but she didn’t move. Running up the dune to the tree line, Lisa hid there, waiting. If her new plan worked, Lily’s body would go out to sea. If it didn’t, and she woke up before that happened, Lisa would rescue her and just suffer the consequences.

Waiting patiently, she looked at the sky, wishing she could tell time by the stars. She sat down with her back against a tree and soon fell asleep, stress and parenthood taking a toll.

Breakers crashing on the beach woke her with a start, the report echoing in the night air. She hopped up and crept to the edge of the trees but couldn’t see Lily. There was a chance she’d come to and run home, but she would have called for Lisa, wouldn’t she?

Lisa ran as fast as she could up the public beach access road and sprinted to Sea View, crouching down, staying in the shadows. Soon she was at the cottage. The house was as she had left it, dark and silent. Inside, she closed the door, the lock tumbler clicking when she turned the bolt.

The wine cooler bottles went into the dishwasher, and she started the cycle. It wasn’t unusual for her to run the dishwasher at night, and she often saved bottles for kids’ crafts. In the laundry room, she stripped down to her underpants and added the clothes to the washer to soak. Grabbing one of Ryan’s T-shirts, she pulled it over her body.

Slowly turning the knob to their bedroom door, she peeked in; nothing had changed since she’d left. Ryan was lying on his back, softly snoring. Relief poured over her. Being in the same room with him began the process of recovery. Breathing slowing down, heart rate reducing, fear deescalating.

She climbed in next to him and lay on her side, exhausted. Reaching out with a finger, she traced his jawline without touching his face. The magnitude of what she had done wouldn’t hit her for a while. For now, she was safe; her family was safe, her husband in bed next to her. Ryan was the love of her life. Anything she had to do to keep him safe, she’d do.

The movement of the bed had awoken him, and he rolled over, facing her. With hands that had just murdered, she smoothed his face, and with a mouth that had kissed another not an hour ago, she kissed Ryan. The only thing that would take away the anxiety, that would calm her down, was Ryan making love to her.

Working his hand under her body, he slid his arms around her, pulling her closer. His hand slipped down to her panties, fingers moving the damp fabric aside.

“Oh, you’re all ready for me,” he murmured.

“I’ve been thinking about you, Ryan,” she whispered. “Thinking how lucky I am to have you. I would do anything for you.”

Wiggling his finger up inside her, right where Lily’s had been not an hour ago, he ensured that she was in fact ready, all slick and velvety and eager to receive him. “Wow, you’re easy. I don’t have to do any of the prep work.”

“All I need right now is you.”

Pulling her panties down, he worked them over her hips and threw them to the floor. Lisa encircled his shoulders with her arms so she could bury her face in his neck. One tear escaped, cruising down her cheek into her ear. Kneeing her legs apart, Ryan got on top of Lisa. She opened wide for him, wrapping her legs around his waist, needing him to do what he could to wash away the persistent dread of what she had done that night.

And it worked; he moved his way inside, inch by inch, whispering to her, telling her how much he needed her, how much he desired her. And slowly the effort paid off, and she was in ecstasy, moving under him, forgetting what the tide might bring in tomorrow.

Chapter 1

The house on Sea View had suffered unimaginable losses. Two husbands taken by heart attacks, and the most devastating, the death of a son. The occupant’s appearance was one of grace and, thanks to extensive plastic surgery, beauty. Noted around the village of Babylon as a generous and somewhat mysterious soul, Pam possessed a serenity that was legendary; however, it was just a façade.

She stood on the veranda of her restored and renovated cottage, the beach before her unlike the surrounding Sea View vistas. A large bolder left behind by a receding glacier ten thousand years before sat about twenty yards offshore, and as the surf surged, a magnificent spray of water erupted around the protruding rock.

She watched the display like she did most mornings, holding on to a steaming cup of coffee, preferring the solitude when the house was empty. Her mother, mother-in-law, and their entourage had just left Babylon to return to Rehoboth for the rest of the year. Hocus, her assistant/housekeeper/house manager, had gone early that morning to visit her mother in the Bronx and wouldn’t return until after lunch.

That morning, a wave of sadness swept over Pam as she remembered her son, Brent. Nothing specific this time, no regrets exactly, just memories of him as a young man, growing up alongside his sister, Lisa. They’d forged a bond stronger than most siblings had, and after Brent had died, murdered by the father of his then-girlfriend, Julie Hsu, Lisa had never recovered. And neither had Pam.

Her current worries about Lisa eclipsed her memories of Brent. Lisa lived with Ryan, her half brother, who had suffered a mental breakdown recently but was slowly rallying under her tender loving care and protection. Woe betides anyone who would dare to hurt Ryan.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
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