Clear As Day by Babette James

Author:Babette James [James, Babette]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Published: 2012-04-03T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

Kay flinched away. “You say I have a decision to make. You’re pushing me.” This whole discussion turned confrontation was wrong. They never argued.

Her need to escape won and drove her off the path into hard steps forward.

He blocked her, catching her by the shoulder. “Kay—”

“I need to make the decision myself. Back off.”

“Fine.” His flat tone unnerved her. He let go. “Fine. I’m going for a swim.” Without waiting for her, he spun on his heel and sauntered down the slope to the tiny, sheltered cove where a scrap of sandy beach shone pale in the moonlight. He dumped their bags and towels, toed off his shoes, yanked his T-shirt over his head and flung it to the sand.

Kay hovered there on the edge of the drop. Follow or escape? The shakes rattled through her, and she winced against the old memories banging for recognition.

Can’t you give it a rest? Fine, go and sulk, Melissa. Do you have to turn every damn discussion into an argument?

The scree was slippery, and Kay ended up at the bottom on her rear end with her thin sandals full of sand and pebbles. Nate was already swimming hard away from shore into the dark.

She spread out a beach towel by his shoes and shirt. She picked up his shirt, brushed the sand off, and laid it folded on top of his bag. She slipped off her sandals, shook them clean and brushed off her feet.

Sitting on the towel with arms wrapped around her knees and her head tipped back, she stared into the night sky, putting names to the constellations in an unsuccessful effort to distract herself from their argument and her memories. The Big Dipper was easy, then the Little Dipper, and then the North Star. Finding her way north was easy. Now she just needed some directions around in her heart.

The splashing from Nate’s swimming stopped.

Kay looked out to where he stood in the waist-deep dark water, surrounded by silvered ripples, his back to her, hands on his hips, shoulders slumped and head hanging.

Guilt crawled through her.

He exhaled hard and turned slowly to face her. “Are you coming in?”

The current tumult of emotion let the old stuff boil up as well. Kay gave a squeamish shudder against the old, old childish fear of dark creatures in dark waters. Lloyd teasing Margie the other night was surely responsible for that ridiculous, distracting anxiety popping to the surface when she had so many real issues to deal with now.

“I don’t feel like swimming.”

He waded out and stood dripping in front of her. “Kay, babe, come swimming. You’ll feel better.”

She kept her gaze fixed on her folded arms and her knees. “I don’t want to swim.”

He crouched down. “What do you want to do?” He stroked a finger over her cheek, coaxing her to tip her face to him.

“Nothing.” She wanted things back to simple and clear. He loved her and now everything was a mess. See, she was right. Love was too crazy, too dangerous.

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