e her head and pumped her hips. Jack’s palms itched with the desire to trace his hands along the curves of her body. He clenched his fists and took a step back. At the same time, Audra spun on her bare toes to face him.
Her scream stripped the silence. She stumbled back, falling awkwardly onto the bench behind her. She pressed a fist to her chest. “Oh, my goodness! You scared the crap out of me! Again!”
Jack felt as guilty as a seven-year-old child caught searching his parents’ bedroom for his Christmas present. That actually had happened to him. “I’m sorry.”
“Why are you always creeping around in the woods?”
“I wasn’t creeping.” Jack stepped into the light.
“Then what were you doing?” Audra’s voice no longer shook.
“What were you doing?” It was a childish response but the only one he was prepared to give at the moment.
“Dancing.”
“Why?”
She dragged a hand through her hair. “I thought the exercise would help me sleep.”
“Still having trouble sleeping?”
“So are you. Why else would you keep creeping around in the woods?” She pressed a couple of keys on her laptop. Mary J. Blige became silent. The screen glowed blue, then became dark.
“I wasn’t creeping around.”
“Then what were you doing?”
Cornered. In the sudden silence, he heard the crickets in concert. “I came to see you.”
“Why?”
“To tell you . . . I’d take you fishing.”
What? Where had that come from?
Her champagne eyes sparkled. “Really?”
No. But the slow smile brightening her pixie features turned his mind to mush. “Sure. I’ll take you fishing in the morning.”
He hadn’t meant to offer to teach her. What would make him say that he would?
“You could have waited until the morning to tell me.”
A reprieve? “No, I couldn’t. We need to leave no later than five.”
Her eyes stretched. “In the morning?”
“Yes.” Jack breathed more easily.
Audra wouldn’t want to wake up that early. Five o’clock in the morning here was two o’clock in the morning on the West Coast. There was no way she’d adjusted to eastern standard time yet. She’d only been here three days.
“OK.” Audra popped off the bench and collected her laptop. “I’d better say good night.”
Jack gaped. “That’s OK with you?”
“I’m excited.” Audra flashed him a bright grin over her shoulder before bending to unplug her computer from the patio outlet.
Jack dragged his eyes from the firm curves of her derriere. “Five o’clock isn’t too early for you? We’re three hours ahead of the West Coast.”