It was with relief that Mara heard her cell phone ringing. Any excuse to get out of the ice bucket. She splashed over to the beach, jumping up and down to warm herself up. Three sets of clothes lay strewn about the sand: Eliza's in a messy pile by a log, Jacqui's all in a row--she apparently liked to strip as she made her way to the water--and Mara's folded neatly by the side of the dune. Her phone kept jingling from her left jacket pocket, breaking the perfect silence of the night.
Mara crouched down and picked up her jacket. Who could be calling so late? Maybe it was David, calling from Brussels to apologize and tell her how much he missed her already? She pulled
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out the phone. It stopped ringing the second she picked it up. Of course.
"Mara?" A voice behind her startled her. A very, very familiar voice.
Mara almost jumped out of her birthday suit--not that that was possible. She turned around. "Oh my God!" Her hands flew to cover herself though she realized there was no need--he'd seen it all before. Because Ryan Perry was standing in front of her, an amused half smile on his face.
Mara's dark chestnut hair was plastered to her cheek, half her body covered with sand. She was so shocked to see him that the only words that came out of her mouth were, "Why aren't you in London?"
"Well, hello to you too," Ryan said amiably. His honey blond hair shone under the moonlight, and his two dimples winked in his smooth, tanned cheeks. He looked just as handsome as ever, if not more so. But his face was totally unreadable. He was acting so blase, as if he ran into naked ex-girlfriends all the time. Mara willed herself to act as nonchalantly as he was--even if he had the advantage of being fully clothed.
"Oh, sorry--it's just that you caught me by surprise."
"I can see that." He grinned. "You make a habit of walking around naked these days, Waters?"
Talk about new habits. Calling her by her last name was a new habit he'd developed since they'd broken up. That and calling
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her "dude." Dude? Mara was no dude. She was "babe," "good-looking," "sweetheart." Not "dude."
"Learned it from you," she shot back flirtatiously. Ryan was a free-spirit bohemian, and during the summer they'd spent on his family's yacht, just the two of them, there had been a lot of naked sailing, naked deep-sea fishing, even naked breakfast-eating.
"Touche', my friend." Ryan laughed, and Mara decided to ignore the "friend" comment. "You know my habits all too well--I'm always one step away from joining a nudist colony." He smiled wickedly.
Mara laughed. "It's good to see you," she said, trying to keep her voice level. How did you have a normal conversation with a guy you used to love? Especially when one of you was naked? Not wanting to bend over for her clothes, Mara took some of her long hair and tried to reposition it so that it was covering her chest. There. That was better. She crossed her arms for further coverage.
"You too." Ryan nodded and looked down, digging a toe in the sand.
"But seriously, why are you here?" Mara tried to suppress the waves of excitement flowing through her. Not that it meant anything, especially since she had a new boyfriend now. A very cute boyfriend. Although said cute boyfriend had left her stranded at the airport that morning. Definitely not a cute move.
"You heard about London, huh?" Ryan said. "Yeah, the family moved overseas, but I'm staying at the house here until they find someone to rent it. But what about you--aren't you supposed to
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be bumming around Prague or something? A friend of mine is doing Lonesome Planet, and I saw your name on the list. What are you doing here?"
"Taking a swim!" Mara yelled, and with that she ran toward the jet-black ocean and dove into the waves. She'd had enough of the conversation--it was just too weird and surreal to stand there in front of Ryan without any clothes on and make small talk. Cordial and civilized had never been their style.
Mara put her head down in the water, her heart racing. Ryan Perry. And he'd been keeping tabs on her, too. Seeing him was like hearing an old song come on the radio--bringing up so many old feelings and memories that you can't tune them out. Mara swam to where her friends were still bobbing happily.
"Hey, is that Ryan?" Eliza asked, squinting and craning her neck to get a better look at the figure on the beach.
"Ryan! Come join us!" Jacqui yelled mischievously, kicking up one bare foot.
Ryan just waved at them from the shoreline. Mara was relieved to see him finally turn on his heels and walk back to the house. Because even though the water was totally freezing, she felt warm and tingly all over.
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JEREMY SHOWS ELIZA HER FUTURE, ELIZA DOESN'T KNOW IF SHE WANTS TO LOOK
"WHERE ARE WE GOING?" ELIZA STRETCHED HER FEET out in front of her on the dashboard of Jeremy's truck, admiring her new pedicure--shell pink, to match the decor of her boutique, of course. The past several days had been a mad rush to get everything ready for the store launch that weekend, and she'd hardly even seen the girls since they'd gone skinny-dipping their first night. She was glad to even have snuck in some time with Jeremy.
"You'll see." He smiled, putting a hand on Eliza's slim ankle. "It's a surprise."