Clear as Day (6 page)

A lanky man with cheerful, pale blue eyes, a boyish face, and his blond hair knotted into a waist-long braid stuck his hand out to Kay. “Unlike me. Great to finally meet you. I’m Mark, Sayer Construction’s geek dude. Closest I’ve ever come to fishing is winning a goldfish at a county fair Ping-Pong ball toss. Jo gave the royal command and Lloyd dragged my butt out of the office, so here I am. At least we’ve proved I don’t get seasick.”

“For which we are all profoundly grateful,” Patti drawled as she strolled up with her husband, Scott, followed by Rich.

The next hellos came from Christopher, a college buddy of Nate’s, and his new bride. Nate was right, Margie was a complete sweetie, but so young. He’d mentioned she was twenty-five in his monologue, but with her fresh face and wide, hazel eyes, she looked about sixteen.

“Wow, amazing suit, Olivia.” JoAnn dragged Olivia forward for introductions, while the tense Olivia looked as if she’d rather be anywhere else. An elegant, obviously pampered woman, she was tall, with beautiful bone structure, deep-brown bedroom eyes, perfect tan skin and silky black hair done up in a neat twist and well-behaved tendrils. Discreet diamonds winked in her ears, and the black bikini and lacy cover-up she wore on her model-slim body shouted
if you have to ask, you can’t afford it
designer.

“Nate, isn’t she the most gorgeous thing? Like Audrey Hepburn and Sophia Loren and that other actress whose name I forget all rolled together. You so have to photograph her. Right? Getting settled in over there, honey?”

A delicate smile and a flush lit Olivia’s face, changing her expression from aloof to uncertain. The honeyed touch of Southern accent when she spoke was a surprise. “Thank you. Honestly, not really. R.J. was in such a hurry to head out fishing, everything’s just, well, there. I’m good around a boat, but camping…” She shrugged.

JoAnn patted Olivia’s shoulder. “We’ll get you set up. Don’t you worry.”

“All right! Who’s ready to cut some water? Kay, want first go?” Dave shucked off his faded T-shirt that declared
Firefighters Do It Hot and Wet
. His tough, rangy body still hadn’t an ounce of spare flesh.

“Oh, be still my heart.” JoAnn grinned and fanned herself.

Dave’s laughter cracked out, and he tossed her the shirt.

JoAnn fake-swooned into a chair, clutching the shirt to her, and doubled up laughing.

Dave’s new ski boat was very sweet, all glossy cherry red and black. Kay had her ski vest with her, but since she hadn’t expected any skiing, her own ski was locked in her truck at the marina. She borrowed Patti’s ski.

Her first ski run this summer, she played along in the wake, taking her time. The ski rattled on the flat, turbulent wake, the vibration drumming all the way to her teeth. She cut the wake and swung carefully out to the side, until she skimmed along with the towrope nearly perpendicular to the boat. Delight filled her as always that she could ski parallel to the boat with such a sense of freedom, as if for a moment she was able to escape the logic of physics.

Nate waved from the spotter’s seat. Kay dropped back into the wake. She thumbed up for more speed, cut to the left of the wake and caught up to the boat again, then dropped behind. The wind burned her face between splashes of spray as she skipped from side to side. All too soon, they made the return run to the beach. She dropped the grips and glided toward the sand until she slowed and sank gracefully into chest-deep water. Dave could surf it out up to the sand and casually step out of the ski without ever sinking. She had yet to master the balance and composure needed for that fun trick. Then again, the man had composure to spare, considering his career.

She shuddered. He jumped out of airplanes into forest fires for a living, and she couldn’t even board a simple commercial flight.

Mark clapped as she waded from the water and shrugged out of her ski vest. “Way cool, Kay.” He eyed her with an appreciative male grin.

Dave whooped when he brought the boat in. “All right, Kay! Nice landing. Okay, who’s next? Nate, you ready for a spin? Go get your ski and we’ll let these horses rip. Patti, spotter? Marko, put a vest on and get your butt on board for lesson one. You watch Nate and you listen to me.”

Mark leapt up with gawky enthusiasm. “Wahoo! On it!”

While he waited for Nate, Dave fixed his eyes on Olivia. “Know how to water ski, Ms. Harper?”

Olivia stiffened regally in her chair and glanced up, her expression cool behind the dark sunglasses. “I manage well enough.”

Ski in hand, Nate snagged Kay around the waist and took a hard, heated, and very proprietary kiss. “See you in a few, babe.” He waded out to the boat, leaving her standing in breathless, open-mouthed surprise.

Once she could think again, Kay didn’t know whether to be furious or tickled.

JoAnn appeared by her side, a pleased smirk on her face. “So…” she drawled. “Nate seems to have taken a new tack. Winds of change blowing your way, too, I see.”

“JoAnn—” Kay flushed and busied herself brushing sand from between her toes. “It’s all, still, the same.” Oh, that was a huge lie.

JoAnn shook her head with a sharp, knowing smile. “Kay, honey, it’s totally obvious, has been obvious to everyone, that he’s stuck on you. The man’s a goner. Clear as day.”

A burning wave of confused emotion choked Kay. Everyone knew how Nate felt except for her? “We’re friends.”

Nate had proposed. She wore his ring. She’d lost her mind. Nothing was the same.

“So, how was the Grand Canyon this year? Still deep as ever?”

“I went to Oak Creek.” The shaky feeling punched Kay again.

“Hmm. How about that. Something different.”

****

His own ski run complete, Nate toweled off. What were the women talking about now? The five of them sat with beach chairs in a close semi-circle facing the lake, listening to Kay’s quiet words. JoAnn waved, blew him a teasing kiss, and leaned forward to say something to Kay. The women burst into laughter, even the edgy Olivia Harper.

He yanked on his shirt. What was Kay telling them? How he’d bungled his proposal? What a fool he was?

Paranoid much?

This sucked. He’d gone with his heart, trusted his gut, and completely fumbled what should have been his once in a lifetime moment. Now what?

“Shake a leg, Nate. I want you to spot. Mark’s set to go!” Dave turned back to giving Mark more last-minute directions for his first waterskiing attempt.

Nate sighed and joined Dave on the boat. From his aft-facing spotter’s seat by Dave, Nate watched the chatting women and the shoreline recede and Mark bobbing along crouched in the water, working on his balance against the pull of the gently tightening towrope.

“Hit it!” Mark’s anxious shout cracked out.

Dave hit the throttle.

The engine roared, and the boat leapt forward, dragging Mark up from the water like a lanky, drunken cork. Mark gave a loud whoop of excitement and, with pure beginner’s luck, stayed up. Nate kept a sharp eye on him and the flag ready for a fall, but Mark kept his balance, however ungainly, and Dave had a natural touch for finding the perfect speed for a beginner.

“So, what have you been up to these days, my man?” Dave shouted over his shoulder at Nate above the engine’s roar. “You don’t write, don’t call—”

Nate forced a grin at his friend’s lame joking. “Keeping way too busy. I’m jet-lagged like hell.”

“Don’t I know the feeling. I swear I’ve been in Alaska more than Cali this year. Damn glad you rallied us together for this trip. Felt weird when everyone pulled out earlier in the year. I see you still have that little old toy of yours. When are you going to break down and get a real boat?”

Nate snorted and flipped Dave the bird. Dave constantly teased him over his West Wight Potter 19, but the pocket cruiser was a joy to handle on a lake or the ocean, and he wouldn’t trade her for anything. Truthfully, he’d missed his sailboat almost as much as he’d missed Kay.

Dave chuckled and flipped him a finger back with his bandaged right hand. “Love you, too, buddy.”

“What’s with the mummy wrapping there?” The bandages were heavy duty for the normal nicks, scrapes and burns Dave picked up on the job.

“Cut. No biggie.” Dave waggled his fingers and shrugged off further questioning. “Sooo, Kay’s looking good, real good.” Dave’s tone was way too thoughtful behind his grin.

Great, now he was suspicious of his best friend? He needed to chill out. If Dave had been going to make a move on Kay, he would have done it years ago. Dave might live a fast and loose dating life, but he never, ever poached. “And, yeah, Kay’s looking great.”

“So when are you going to wake up, stop hotfooting around the globe and settle down with the girl?” This time, Dave was dead serious.

Nate blinked.

Dave laughed heartily, his bright brown eyes snapping. “I wish I had one of your cameras right now, man. You look just like a trout I hooked the other week.”

“I bought a house. In Oregon, on the coast,” Nate blurted. There, now five people knew about the house. He looked away, as if he was checking on Mark. Based on his whoops and shouts, Mark was having a blast.

Dave began the gentle curving course back toward Spider Camp.

Back to Kay.

“That’s cool. So? You got a plan cooking for the two of you? I can give you some pointers, since you’ve been so slow to the mark.”

“Like I’d take dating advice from you.” Nate chuckled as if he hadn’t a care. Dave might be his best friend, but with his one-night stand history? That would be a no. The term “committed relationship” didn’t exist in Dave’s vocabulary. Need a smooth pick-up line? Dave was your man. But a plan, oh, yeah, he needed a new one, desperately.

So, pump JoAnn and Lloyd for advice? He might have to suck in his pride, but of all his friends they knew Kay best.

“Hey, just because I haven’t been hooked and netted doesn’t mean I don’t know how to get the job done.” Deep belly laughs shook through Dave.

They neared the shoreline. Mark was looking desperate, bobbing, wobbling and slewing on the wake, but gave no signal to stop, and every time Nate thought he’d go down, Mark caught his balance.

“Hang on, you’re almost there!”

Finally, they were close enough. Nate signaled Mark to drop the handles.

Mark let go on the cue and immediately slewed and tumbled off the churning wake edge, biting water hard and his ski shooting off toward the beach.

Nate winced. Ouch.

But Mark splashed up with the okay signal and began the short swim to shore.

Dave brought the boat to a stop to let Nate haul in the rope.

“Remember my advice. Romance her. Candlelight. Champagne. The works. Women love that shit. And the words. They need the words.” Dave’s teasing expression boded trouble.

“Words? What words?”

“What words? Oh, man, you’re in worse shape than I thought. Nate, my friend, the three little words that are the key to a woman’s heart and to saving your ass in many, many ways: I love you. If you don’t say those words, or worse, say them wrong, you’re screwed three ways to Sunday. They need a lot of other words, but those are your lifeline in the sea of romance.”

Nate grimaced. He’d said the words. Meant them with all his heart and soul. Obviously, in Dave’s world Nate had said them wrong. He was definitely screwed.

As Dave brought the boat around to shore, Mark was stumbling from the water holding his arms in the air like Rocky to the cheers of the folks on shore. JoAnn peeled him out of his life vest and wrapped a towel around him, and Kay handed Mark a beer.

Dave elbowed Nate as they waded ashore. “Don’t forget the words. Got it?”

Nate snorted. “Got it.” Kay was walking away from them. Where was she headed? Oh, ice chest. Yep, paranoid.

“I’m serious. Remember Lyssa Burnham?”

Lyssa the Ice Queen had been their senior-year class president in college. Brains and beauty in one chilly, unobtainable package. Decidedly not interested in a scruffy bio, architecture, or art major. She was some sort of high and mighty politico type in D.C. now.

Kay was popping the beer cans, looking grim. JoAnn was chattering away with Margie and Patti and practicing for motherhood by scrubbing the water from Mark’s long hair as if he were a weedy toddler. Olivia stood smoking, her back to the camp, at the farthest edge of the beach, where the rocky corner of the hillside turned to the next cove.

Shit, he didn’t even know how Kay felt about having kids. He’d thought she wanted them. His stomach churned. Or was that simply another of his assumptions? She definitely liked kids—hell, he hoped she liked kids since she taught them, and she looked happy for JoAnn, but—

Dave elbowed Nate again. “You listening? Nate, hey, pay attention here.”

“Lyssa? Yeah.”

Dave slapped Nate’s shoulder, his wicked grin full of amusement. “The words, man. Proof. The right words, skillfully applied—a night made for history. Oh, yeah.”

Nate groaned and choked on his laugh. “No way. You’re so full of shit.”

“Laugh now, monkey boy. I plan to laugh plenty at you real soon. Now, go get her. I’m rooting for you.” He pushed Nate toward Kay, who was walking toward them with open beers.