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“Grab yourself a drink. We have beer, soda, and bottled water.”
I grabbed myself a bottle of soda. “Hey, Charlie, you want to share my drink, kiddo?”
“Yeah.” Charlie got to his feet. He took a sip of the orange liquid, then with a mumbled thank you, went right back to playing.
Rea finished making her salad, covered it, then pulled up a chair for each of us.
“This is so relaxing.” I sighed. “I haven’t been to the beach in ages.”
“How come? Don’t you only live a few blocks from Venice Beach.”
“Charlie isn’t a big beach bum, and I rarely have the free time to go myself.” I sipped my drink.
“Now’s your chance, Olivia.” Rea indicated the ocean.
“What?”
“You ought to go for a swim before we eat lunch. We can watch Charlie while you indulge yourself.”
“Are you sure?”
Rea snorted and nudged my leg with her foot. “Go on, you know you want to.”
I placed my drink down in the sand and got to my feet. “Yeah, okay. I’ll see you in a couple of minutes.”
“Please, take your time.”
I took my beach dress off and headed down to the water’s edge. I felt light and joyous for the first time in years. My love of the ocean was something I’d repressed for years as I put Charlie’s needs above my own. The water was warm—much like the water back home in Cockatoo Cove. I waded in up to my waist and dove through the wave. I enjoyed the salty water on my face and in my hair; I felt instantly cooler. When I reached far enough to where I nearly couldn’t touch the bottom, I turned around and waited for a wave. When I caught the right one, I bodysurfed all the way back into the shore.
Carefree laughter bubbled up inside of me. I hadn’t laughed like that in a long time, unless it was with Charlie. He was the light of my life, which was why I dedicated so much of myself to him. But to laugh at the simple joy of swimming in the ocean exactly like I did when I was growing up was something special within itself.
I got to my feet again and contemplated whether I should go back to the others or go for one more round of bodysurfing when a huge brown and white pit bull bounded over to me with a stick in his mouth. I hadn’t had much to do with pit bulls, but I had heard stories about their aggression, so I was cautious of a random pit coming at me. I stayed still and watched him with caution.
“Ahh, hey there, fella.”
He dropped the stick at my feet and with a doggy smile, sat on his haunches and looked at me expectantly. For some reason, the dog looked awfully familiar.
I tucked my wet hair behind my ears. “Um, who do you belong to?”
“He’s mine.”
That voice. That wasn’t a voice I was going to forget all too soon, considering how my body reacted to it. Sure enough, I looked up from the dog to see a half-naked Emmett coming my way. My heart lurched in my throat at the sight of his shirtless body with its hard abs and a dusting of hair covering his chest with a trail leading right down to . . ..
“He wants you to throw the stick.”
“Oh. Okay.” I bent down and picked up the stick the dog had dropped and threw it into the shallows of the waves.
The dog ran after it and I glanced at Emmett again.
His gaze travelled over my bikini-clad body and he licked his bottom lip. “Hi.”
Oh, gosh, that husk in his voice did things to me I didn’t want to admit to. “Hi.”
“Fancy seeing you here.”
I jutted my chin out. “I could say the same about you. What are you doing here?”
He chuckled. “I live here.”
