Shades (Evil Dead MC 3)

“What? You’re the one that paraded her out here in that,” Ghost replied.

He looked down at her smiling face. “You go on in. I’ll be there in a minute.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

She looked toward the water. “You think there are any sharks around?”

“Baby, the only sharks you need to worry about are up on this deck.”

She smiled and slugged him in the gut.

“Just stay close to shore.” He kissed her, and she skipped down the stairs and into the sand. He turned to watch her walk across the beach toward the surf. There were beach houses to the right and left as far as the eye could see, but the beach was uncrowded, almost deserted.

He turned back and moved to go inside to change.

“You are one lucky son-of-a-bitch,” Blood said, tilting his beer up.

Shades grinned at him. “Luck had nothing to do with it.”

****

Hours later they sat around the table out on the deck eating shrimp that Ghost had boiled. Peeling the shells off and tossing them onto a platter in the center of the table, the pile rising higher and higher.

“We need more cocktail sauce,” Blood announced.

“I’ll get it,” Skylar replied, standing up. She was still in her bikini, but she had the matching pareo she’d bought tied around her hips.

“Shake what your momma gave ya, sugar,” Sandman teased.

She did a little shimmy and giggled. Then she moved into the house and found Ghost in the kitchen draining another pot of boiled shrimp. He looked up and smiled at her.

“Another batch coming right up.”

Skylar smiled back at him. “Good thing. They’re almost through the last bowl you carried out.”

“Well, this is the last of them. You need something, Hotrod?”

“More cocktail sauce.”

Ghost nodded toward the refrigerator. “I think there’s another bottle in the door.”

She opened it and found one. As she pulled it out, she noticed some bottles on one of the shelves. “Corona!”

Ghost looked over. “Those are my aunt’s. I’m sure she won’t mind. Go ahead and have one. There are probably limes in there somewhere, too.”

“Awesome.” She set the sauce and beer down and dug out a lime. Ghost slid her a small cutting board and knife. She sliced up the lime and put a wedge in her beer.

“Make me one, too, will you?” Ghost asked.

She smiled at him. “Sure.”

They carried out the shrimp and sauce and their beers and sat down with the others.

Skylar took a sip of her beer, and it caught the eye of Sandman.

“Beer with fruit. I never got that,” he commented.