Can't Help Falling In Love (7 page)

The feel of the cool water brushing over his skin, the heat of the sun, the rhythm
of his breathing and the cadence of his hands slicing through the water calmed him.
It was quiet. He loved swimming. Always had. Now it was his reward for a long night
and a bruising pace on the treadmill. Every day he ran with everything he had or lifted
weights in the hotel’s small gym and then he hit the pool.

He swam until he couldn’t put off getting out any longer. His fingers were prunes
and he was gasping for breath when he hauled himself out of the water.

And he was resolved. He wasn’t going to speak to her again. He needed rest. He was
so tired now he might get some.

“You’re a great swimmer.”

Tony nodded at her as he bent to snatch his towel off the chair next to her. She’d
taken off the sunglasses, so that was progress. He could feel the sweep of her eyes
over his chest and down to where his wet trunks molded to his thighs.

And he had the idea that maybe she hadn’t been a snooty bitch before.

Maybe she’d been speechless.

Because she liked the way he looked in his swimsuit.

He covered the unexpected laugh with a cough.

Testing his theory, Tony ran his towel over his head and down his neck before drying
his chest. Her eyes followed every inch, and Tony decided to have a seat. Try a little
conversation. See how far this would go.

“Thanks. So which was it? Epiphany or mosquito?”

Randa was embarrassed. And cute. “Sorry about that. You surprised me, that’s all.
I was thinking about something stupid I did, and I really didn’t need an audience.”
She licked her lips. “I thought I was out here by myself.”

Tony thought she might be almost telling the truth. He had surprised her. Figuring
out who the real Randa Whitmore was might be a fun game as long as he didn’t get too
caught up in it.

He motioned at her cover-up. “Good thing you dressed in layers. Wouldn’t want you
to get cold.” When she turned to frown at him, Tony smiled and watched her eyes widen.

“Are you smiling at me?” Randa clapped. “Oh, I didn’t believe it was possible. He
teases and he smiles.”

Tony wanted to laugh but he was afraid that might send her back into speechless shock.
He wasn’t absolutely sure he still could. But he wanted to and that mattered.

“Water’s nice. Maybe you should get in.” Tony shrugged. “Since you’re already here.”

Randa fidgeted with the cover-up, tugging the bottom edge down. “Tony, you may not
know this, but sun damage is dangerous.”

He didn’t answer, just watched her.

“Plus, I mean… wrinkles, you know?” She slid her sunglasses back on and leaned
back against the lounger.

Wrinkles? “So, you came out to sit beside the pool… why?” She was passing up
a beautiful, deserted pool because she was worried about wrinkles? That made no sense.
“If you can’t swim, say so. It’s no big deal.”

“Oh, I can swim.” She said it like she might be a little offended at the suggestion.
“I was captain of my swim team in high school, thank you very much.”

Tony wanted to see her in a swimsuit. Badly. He wanted to burn the image of her in
a bikini somewhere safe and sound that he could savor later to his heart’s content.

“Oh, right. You, on the swim team.” Tony watched her bright red lips tighten.

“I just don’t feel like swimming, that’s all.” She crossed her arms over her chest.

“So you’re out here by the pool instead of… I don’t know, touring Graceland?
Or doing your nails? Or bathing in unicorn blood to stave off wrinkles? You must have
a long list of other things to do.”

Randa dismissed that idea with a wave. “Unicorn blood? Do you know how expensive that
stuff is?”

Tony laughed. He couldn’t help it. It was rusty and harsh to his ears, but the feeling
of letting go of some of the tension and fear that he might not ever laugh again,
especially while sitting next to a beautiful woman, was so damn good. He felt a little
warmer toward Randa. Even if she was up to no good, she was helping him along.

“I wanted to wait until the weekend for Graceland. I thought I’d ask Laura for a tour”—she
paused and looked very obviously in his direction until he shook his head at her unspoken
but obvious request to see the rest of the hotel—“later and I barely slept last night
so I wanted out of the room.”

Thinking of her, a hotel bed, and barely sleeping was doing his concentration no good.
“The first night in a new place can mess up your sleep, for sure.”

“Oh, I spend a lot of time in hotel rooms, so I…” Tony watched her face as she
realized what she’d just said. That fit his idea of a corporate spy who traveled to
pick up insider information. Her hand jerked like she wanted to slap her forehead
again. She fought the urge. “You know, for my job as a… management consultant.
I usually sleep pretty well and I had no complaints at all about my room.” She bit
her lip and said, “I just had bad dreams and then spent too much time thinking.”

Tony took a deep breath, held it for a minute, and then exhaled quietly. This was
something he understood very well. There was just something about three in the morning
that made everything worse, like the door opened and every nightmare he had could
visit. And once he was awake, falling back to sleep was impossible. Memories and fears
and a million different questions kept him up and there was very little to do except
flip on the television or…

“I finished the book I brought with me and then discovered I’d left the cord to charge
my tablet at home.” Tony thought she looked pretty miserable at the confession. He
understood the feeling perfectly.

“That’s a pretty good reason to slap your own forehead,” he drawled.

Randa brushed her hair over her shoulder. “Believe me, I am well aware.”

Tony was distracted by the way her hair slithered over her shoulder to slide down
her back.

“I looked online for bookstores and there’s nothing close. Still, I’m thinking a taxi
ride is in my future.”

“There’s an adult bookstore not too far away.” He watched her roll her eyes.

Randa slid her sunglasses back on with a huff. “Is this your concierge level service?
Because I’m not impressed. I had something different in mind.”

It was on the tip of his tongue. He was about to offer her a ride. It wasn’t like
it was out of his way to take her with him. He was planning to make his weekly trip
to the Book Nook, his favorite bookstore.

But volunteering to spend that time with her would be a very bad idea.

She wrinkled her nose. “I guess you’ll just have to entertain me.”

Roughly a hundred different ways to keep her busy sprang to mind, but Tony was pretty
sure none of them were what she meant. At least, he didn’t think so. He really hated
the sunglasses. He couldn’t tell what she was thinking with them on, not that she’d
been all that clear before. With her, he needed all the help he could get.

She leaned closer to him, close enough that he could smell her perfume, and put her
hand on his arm. “Tell me about the tattoo.”

Tony cleared his throat. “I was a Marine.”

Her eyebrows rose over the dark glasses. “Uh, yeah, I was kind of getting that. Where?
What did you do? For how long? Give me the details.”

Tony was a little sorry he’d demanded a response now. He didn’t really want to get
into a heavy conversation with her. He had a “none of your business” answer on the
tip of his tongue, but the look on her face was genuine. She wanted to know more about
him. He cleared his throat. “Iraq, among other places. Combat logistics. And for too
damn long.”

Randa just raised an eyebrow.

Tony rubbed his forehead. “We fixed things. In combat. I mean, that’s what we did.
Moved things, repaired things, roads, machinery, whatever… in combat. Okay?”

Randa pursed her lips. “The strong, silent type, I see.”

Tony didn’t answer.

“That sounds like a lot of hard work.” She squeezed his arm and his stomach tensed
in reaction. Instead of setting him on edge or making him nervous, the way every touch
had for the first year he’d been home, he wanted her to move that hand. All over.
He had plenty of bare skin. He wanted her to touch all of it. “But important too.
For safety and just… I don’t know, winning doesn’t seem to be the right word.”

She was right on both counts. It had been important. And winning was not the right
word. But that was impossible to explain to a civilian, especially when he hadn’t
really wrapped his own head around it.

“Whose names are these?” She ran the tip of her finger over the list of names in simple
script that twisted in and out between the larger letters that made up Semper Fi.

Tony felt the tickle of her fingernail all the way to the soles of his feet. He squirmed
in the chair and did his best to will away any other reaction. “Friends. People who
mean a lot to me. That’s all. Just important people to me.” He frowned. “Don’t make
this into some kind of movie of the week, okay? I was a Marine. I wasn’t wounded.
I made it home. I do have friends who went through the same thing I did and who made
a difference.”

Randa pursed her lips. “Sorry if I’m being too nosy. I’m just curious about what makes
someone do something so permanent, you know?”

Tony closed his eyes and tried to loosen the muscles across his shoulders. He hated
talking about this. “Are you talking about joining the Marines or the tattoo?”

Randa’s quiet laugh made him feel a little easier. “Well, I meant the tattoo, but
maybe both now that you mention it.”

He turned his head to look at her. And he felt better. Her smile was beautiful. And
sincere. “My dad was a Marine. I guess… I don’t know, maybe it felt like a connection
to him.” He looked down at the names on his arm. “Maybe you don’t get it, but people
matter more than things. I don’t have a lot of things but I remember the people who
made a difference to me. And I don’t want to forget how lucky I’ve been.”

Randa didn’t say anything for a second. He figured she was getting ready to hand him
his head in the big floppy hat she was wearing because she had no platter. Or maybe
offer him a Kleenex.

Her voice was quiet when she said, “I think that’s a wonderful reason for a tattoo.”

And just like that he deflated. She looked a little deflated herself. Her shoulders
were slumped instead of thrown back to show off her breasts. And she fiddled with
a strand of hair. But she didn’t remove her hand.

Tony glanced down at her hand on his arm, then shook his head. “Listen. I shouldn’t
have snapped. You were curious. I understand. I’ve just had a hard time… dealing
with all, but there’s no reason to snap at you.”

She shrugged one shoulder. “Show me the old girlfriend’s name, the one who broke your
heart.”

He smiled and was happy to know it came easier this time. “No girlfriend, not unless
you count Wendy Bates, school librarian.”

“Ooh, were you in love with her?”

Tony sighed. “Well, I loved her. When I was fifteen, I kept getting into trouble in
school. I got detention more than once and she was good enough to assign me book reports.”

Randa leaned back. “Good?”

“Better than scrubbing gum off desks or cleaning toilets. And the books she gave me,
they weren’t on the required reading list. They were good. And fun. And that was the
first time I knew books could be either, you know?”

“Good for her. Have you gone back to show her how little Tony turned out?”

Tony laughed. “God, no, she might still recognize me, but she didn’t really seem the
tattoo sort. A lot of people aren’t. I’m not sure she’d take it as a compliment.”

“I know what you mean.” Randa squeezed his arm and then reached up to smash the floppy
hat down. When she put her hand back down, it was on the arm of her own chair. And
Tony was damn sorry.

Randa straightened in her seat. “Hey, do you think you could convince the shuttle
driver to drop me off somewhere? Oh, I would love you for that!”

Tony stared out over the pool. “No, his route’s set. Sorry.”

Randa adjusted her glasses so she could peer out over the top. “I could pay. I have
money, you now. How much would it cost me to take him out of his way?”

Tony shook his head. “Nope. You’d leave somebody stranded at the airport or here,
late for their flight.”

She wrinkled her nose. “But not for long. I mean, how much trouble could it be?”

“None. Because it’s not going to happen.”

“Oh, well, fine. I’ll just call a taxi, go to the airport, get a car and find my own
way. If I end up halfway to Texas, though, it’ll be all your fault.”

“Can’t read a map? Here’s a clue… if you see Arkansas or Mississippi, turn around.”

Randa laughed. “I’m not very good with maps. But don’t worry yourself about me.” She
patted his hand and then rested both hands on her stomach. He couldn’t tear his eyes
away from those hands or that stomach for a minute.

He had to give her credit. She didn’t pout. He would have figured her for a pouter.

And even though he knew he was going to do it anyway, his brain shouted warnings as
he said, “I was thinking about hitting my favorite bookstore this afternoon. I could
give you a ride.”

He had no idea what he expected her reaction to be but she immediately clapped her
hands with a happy squeal. Her beautiful red mouth was a luscious O of surprise and
delight. She looked like he’d just offered her a first-class ticket to see the Taj
Mahal. Tony felt the tension building across his shoulder blades.

“No way! That would be awesome. I don’t suppose there’s a shoe store nearby, is there?”

Tony bit back the sigh that so desperately wanted to escape. There was no way he wanted
to go on a shopping expedition. “I have no idea where to find the kind of shoes you
wear.”
And no desire to know.

Randa shrugged a shoulder. “Okay, well… I just forgot to bring any sandals or
flats so it’s all heels, all the time.” She pasted on a bright fake smile. “But that’s
not the end of the world. At least I’ll look fabulous.” And she would. Tony had no
doubt about that. She took off her sunglasses and said, “What time were you planning
to leave?”