Hunter's Heart by Rita Henuber

Author:Rita Henuber [Henuber, Rita]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rita Henuber
Published: 2014-12-10T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

The Caesar’s Ghost

Celia agreed to spend the day with him. Even though she’d hurt him with her lack of trust, he was genuine about wanting her to stay.

They shared a silent breakfast that took longer to cook than to eat. While Hunter showered, she cleaned up and thought about how to reestablish the ease of the previous days’ and weeks’ shared company. She was the one who had damaged it and figured it was up to her to fix it.

In ten minutes, Hunter came into the kitchen dressed in a huge T-shirt and shorts. She was sure he’d chosen the oversized shirt to hide the marks she’d inflicted.

“You have your suit?” He leaned and laid a toothpaste-flavored kiss on her.

“Yes.” She was surprised he’d taken the initiative to smooth things between them. No. That wasn’t true. She wasn’t surprised at all. She took his hand and threaded her fingers between his. “I’m embarrassed and don’t know what to say about last night.”

“Not a word about last night.” He squeezed her hand. “But you could ask where we’re going today.”

She nodded “Where are we going?”

“Taking my boat out.” He released her hand and opened the pantry, retrieving a small cooler. “You have a hat?”

“Boat? You never mentioned you have a boat.” She supposed it was the surprise in her voice that caused him to stop putting ice in the cooler and look at her.

“You okay with that?”

“Yes.” She couldn’t contain the excitement in her voice. “It’s just, I’ve never been on a boat.”

“Whew. For a minute I was afraid you didn’t like to be on the water.” He put four bottles of beer in the cooler.

She went to him. “Hunter?”

“Yeah?” He stood and gave her his full attention. She touched his arm.

“Thank you.”

His eyebrows almost joined as he considered her. He gave her that beard wiggling lopsided grin. “You, are very welcome,” he said. He made no move to touch her, just went back to collecting items they needed for the day.

Acknowledging her thanks, giving her space and not playing down last night—or worse, acting like it didn’t happen—put her at ease.

Once she put her suit on, they loaded a bag filled with sunscreen, CDs, extra clothes, and several large towels into his truck and were off. Hunter was in high spirits and chattered away about boats and boating terms. “Port means to the left and starboard means to the right.” Occasionally he sang along to a tune on the radio. She was pleased he kept his word and made no mention of the night before or of what she referred to as her former life.

At the marina entrance they turned into a gated driveway were Hunter held a card to a device cemented into the median. The gate moved away, and as they drove on her excitement grew.

“There.”

She looked where he pointed.

“Boats are stacked in that building like LEGO blocks. I call a couple of hours ahead and when I get here, Caesar’s Ghost, is in the water, fueled, and waiting for me.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.