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9
After getting back from the store, Katie parked the bike at the
back of the cottage and went inside to change. She didn’t have a
bathing suit, but she wouldn’t have worn one even if she did. As
natural as it was for a teenager to walk around in front of
strangers in the equivalent of underwear and a bra, she wasn’t
comfortable wearing something like that in front of Alex on a day
out with his kids. Or frankly, even without the kids.
Though she resisted the idea, she had to admit he intrigued her.
Not because of the things he’d done for her, as touching as that
was. It had more to do with the sad way he smiled sometimes, the
expression on his face when he’d told her about his wife, or the
way he treated his kids. There was a loneliness within him that he
couldn’t disguise, and she knew that in some way it matched her
own.
She knew he was interested in her. She’d been around long
enough to recognize when men found her attractive; the clerk at
the grocery store talking too much or a stranger glancing her way,
or a waiter at a restaurant checking on their table just a bit too
frequently. In time, she’d learned to pretend she was oblivious to
the attention of those men; in other instances, she showed obvious
disdain, because she’d known what would happen if she didn’t.
Later. Once they got home. Once they were alone.
But that life was gone now, she reminded herself. Opening the
drawers, she pulled out a pair of shorts and the sandals she’d
picked up at Anna Jean’s. The night before, she’d had wine with a
friend, and now she was going to the beach with Alex and his
family. These were ordinary events in an ordinary life. The
concept felt alien, like she was learning the customs of a foreign
land, and it left her feeling strangely elated and wary at exactly
the same time.