Close Up (13 page)

Obviously, she felt the same way. She wanted a divorce. There was a reason she had taken off ten years ago and a reason he hadn’t heard boo from her in the meantime, and it wasn’t because she loved him. Plain and simple.

Feeling annoyed that he couldn’t control his personal life the way he did his business, Sean pulled into the boat launch and parked his car in front of his boathouse. He should have taken control of this situation a long time ago. Turning the car off, he reached over and gently shook Kristine awake. “We’re here,” he told her as her eyes fluttered open. “Last chance to bail before you’re stuck on an island with me for thirty-six hours.”

Part of him wanted her to pull the plug on this madness. It might quell the uneasiness and irritation he was feeling.

But she didn’t.

Kristine simply blinked and sat up, stretching her arms out, forcing her flannel shirt to strain against the buttons. “I’m done running away, Sean. If you want to get rid of me, you’ll have to toss me in the lake.”

Her reply made his cock swell. “Oh, I can think of a lot better things I can do with you than dunking you in fifty-degree water.”

Before he became too distracted, he climbed out of the car and unlocked the boathouse, adjusting his pants as he went. Damn, but she was going to kill him before this weekend was over. It wasn’t healthy for a man to get this many erections without satisfaction.

He hoped she’d enjoyed her catnap, because she was about to be very physically active.

* * *

K
RISTINE WAS STILL GROGGY
, but there was no mistaking the intensity of Sean’s gaze or the way he slammed his car door shut and unlocked the boathouse with sharp, jerky motions. He was clearly sexually frustrated and clearly annoyed with her. Why, she wasn’t exactly sure. Of course, she could come up with a whole lot of reasons why he had every right to be annoyed, but she wasn’t sure which one specifically had his shorts in a knot right now.

Her accusing him of infidelity ten years ago?

Her childish disappearing act?

Her lack of a successful career?

Her annoying mother?

Or maybe it was simply that she’d fallen asleep in the car on the way there and he’d been bored. She hadn’t meant to doze off, but the week before had kicked her ass thoroughly, as had getting up at five in the morning to prove she didn’t follow his commands. Which hadn’t been a command at all, merely him expressing a preference. Now she was wondering why she was so determined to prove she was independent. If she truly thought she was, would she really feel the need to drive that point home constantly?

No.

That was the crux of the problem.

Maybe instead of taking it out on Sean she should focus on being herself.

When she grabbed her purse and followed him into the boathouse, planning to dump it on a boat seat before going back for her suitcase, she paused, her breath catching in her throat as she soaked in the view through the open door. The whole lake, and a multitude of tree-covered islands, sprawled out in front of her, framed by the boathouse door frame. The dark water rippled and the sun cut through the crisp white clouds. It was beautiful, and she was overwhelmed by the memory of the one-and-only time she had been here with Sean.

For their honeymoon.

That time he had picked her up and deposited her onto the little motorboat while she had shrieked and laughed. The boat had rocked, and for a minute, she had been scared, but then she had looked up into Sean’s face and all fear had melted away. He would protect her, cherish her, love her. She had been sure of it.

She had no reason to believe he hadn’t. He’d kept his end of the bargain.

And now she would have to do the same, despite the memories of happy times making her melancholy.

She couldn’t run from emotion every time a twinge of hurt squeezed her heart. That was how she had ended up alone and isolated in Vegas, with only a few girlfriends to rely on.

So while Sean untied one of the ropes, she resolutely tossed her purse onto the bottom of the boat. Now she was committed. Her purse was her lifeline and she couldn’t retrieve it without climbing on board. She went back for her suitcase and attempted to lug it out of the trunk. Next to her luggage were bags of groceries. Right. Food. She hadn’t even thought about food, she’d been so preoccupied sorting through all her underwear to find the most showstopping pieces and putting together lumberjack-chic outfits. Thank goodness he was practical, though now that she thought about it, he had said they would stop at the grocery store in Tower before they crossed the lake. He must have gone in without her while she’d slept.

That made her feel guilty. She would have to make it up to him by cooking. While she may not have established a business from the ground up, as he had, she could at least own that, despite her unorthodox upbringing, she had managed to teach herself a variety of domestic skills, including cooking and knitting. She had actually brought a scarf she was working on in case there was downtime between orgasms. Now the air was crackling with so much uneasiness between them, she wasn’t sure there would be anything but downtime.

Without a word, Sean reached around her and took the suitcase out of her hands and carried it to the motorboat. Everything shifted in the slip when he dropped the suitcase down, water lapping at the dock. Whoops. He hadn’t been exaggerating earlier when he’d said it was heavy.

“Do I need to sit on the other side of the boat to distribute the weight?” she joked, carrying several bags of groceries.

“I think that suitcase weighs more than you, so it won’t matter.” With quick efficiency, he grabbed the final two bags, then locked up his car and the boathouse door behind him. Then he jumped into the boat, while she stood awkwardly on the dock, trying to figure out where to step so that she didn’t lose her balance, despite the practical footwear she wore. High heels were second nature to her, but a rocking boat was another matter altogether.

“Grab the hold rope,” he told her, gesturing to a line dangling from the rafters of the ceilings. “It will help stabilize you.”

“Maybe I need to walk around holding that all the time,” she said, poking fun at herself because she was uncomfortable with the situation. She wasn’t sure how to act.

He didn’t laugh, unfortunately. “Get on the boat, Kristine.”

At least he had remembered to call her Kristine. No one called her Kristy anymore except her mother. It made her feel young and unaccomplished. As opposed to old and unaccomplished.

She got on the boat.

It swayed only slightly, and she managed to sit heavily on the ledge.

“Duck your head,” Sean told her as he untied the second rope and turned on the motor.

She ducked as they motored out through the door, admiring her boots. They had been pure fashion in Vegas, but here they were necessary. As they entered the open water, she lifted her head and breathed in deeply. “It’s good to be home. It smells so crisp here. I missed that in Vegas.”

“I can’t imagine living in the desert,” he said over the whine of the motor, casually steering the boat.

Sean had been born here and he looked as if he belonged, with his hunting jacket and knit hat. A far cry from the businessman of yesterday. Kristine could appreciate both sides of Sean.

“I didn’t mind it,” she said. “There is something to be said for all that sunshine and being able to go swimming in March, but there was a certain sense of desolation. I’m used to the trees and all this green.” She wasn’t sure she had realized just how much until now. It eased her awkwardness.

“I don’t suppose I’ll ever leave,” he said. “I have the best of both worlds, living mostly in the city, then coming out here when I can.”

“Do your parents and brothers still go to the cabin?” She had really liked his family. They had welcomed her with open arms.

“Yes. My brothers are both married, and I have two nieces now. My parents are here just about every weekend in the summer.”

An eagle flew overhead, and Kristine stared up at it, watching its soaring flight before it landed on a tall pine tree on one of the many small islands dotting the lake. “Two nieces? Wow. That must be fun.” She envied that, she had to admit. Sean’s stable family, a new generation, a steady rhythm of traditions and holidays. Just the sheer lack of public nudity in his family made her appreciate them tremendously.

“So what did you do in Vegas?” he asked, watching her carefully.

“I started out as a receptionist at a salon, then eventually I landed in the events department of a casino.” She shrugged. “It was a job and it was expensive to live there.”

“So did you take advantage of the nightlife there?”

Hardly. “No, not at all. The shows were too pricey for my budget, ditto for the buffets. I don’t gamble, and it’s crowded and expensive in all the clubs on the Strip. Not my scene.”

“So what did you do for fun?”

Nothing. “I did my nails a lot.”

Sean laughed.

The sad thing was, she was serious. Shivering a little, she loosened her scarf so she could pull the back up and over her head like a hood. They were going fast and the wind was biting.
News flash, Kristine,
she thought.
Minnesota is cold.

She sat up straighter on the seat. “Oh! There it is!”

Of course he knew that’s where the cabin was, since he’d been there a thousand times, but she was taken aback and delighted that she recognized the dock and the cabin up on the hill. It was a small and ramshackle structure with basically one room and a rickety loft, but she hadn’t minded ten years ago. It had been just her and Sean, as it was now. Only now she frowned when she saw that another larger, decidedly more upscale cabin had been built next door overshadowing the Maddock property.

“Geez, your neighbors built that house close. Bummer. I hope they’re not loud.”

“That’s not the neighbor’s house,” Sean said as he cut the boat in an arc and approached the dock. “I built that house. It’s ours.”

Kristine was astonished. “Oh. Wow. It looks substantial.”

He nodded. “I wanted the whole family to be able to be here at once. But it still blends into the landscape of the island.”

He was right, it did. But it reminded her again that Sean had achieved a great deal of success. She was proud of him. She knew it must have meant a lot to be able to provide that for his family. “That’s fantastic. I’m sure your parents love it. It was really awesome of you to do this for everyone. Does that mean there is electricity and plumbing? What’s in the new house?”

Sean cut the engine, knotted the rope around the dock and tied it tightly. “There’s electricity. We pump up lake water into the kitchen sink for cooking, and outside you can shower, but you still can’t drink the water. There’s a water cooler. No plumbing. The old building is storage now, and it houses the incinerating toilet on one side, but mostly it contains wood and equipment.”

Say what? “Umm...what does that mean exactly? Incinerating toilet?”

“It means you don’t have to use the outhouse. There’s also an overhead light in there with an actual switch, so no spider surprises.” He jumped onto the dock and shot her a grin.

Kristine winced. Okay, so maybe she was afraid of spiders and maybe she had seen one in the outhouse and had screamed so loud he had come running, sure she was face-to-face with a bear. Lots of people were afraid of spiders. That didn’t make her a wimp. “Don’t tell me you’re still not afraid of spiders.”

“I’m not,” he said mildly.

“Neither am I,” she lied. “I outgrew that.”

Except that when she stood up and went to put a foot on the dock, she saw the biggest, ugliest,
leggiest
spider she’d ever seen in her life.

She screamed and scrambled backward in the boat, tripping over a fishing pole. The boat rocked and she lost her balance. She went down, hard, but thankfully still inside the boat. Her bum was bruised, and she sat, pointing, as Sean scrambled toward her, jumping back into the boat.

“What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

“That.” She shuddered.

Sean glanced down where she was pointing. “Oh. Dock spider. Sorry, I should have warned you they hover here. But don’t worry, they stay underneath.”

Kristine felt like she couldn’t breathe. It was staring at her, she was sure of it. Another shudder racked her body. “Oh, God, Sean, I don’t think I can. I can deal with outhouses, showering with a hose and freezing my butt off, but I cannot handle a spider that is big enough to saddle and ride like a pony.”

He was trying not to smile; she could see that. “I thought you outgrew that fear.”

“I lied—are you happy?” Kristine scanned the dock to make sure there were no other hairy intruders. “I am now and will probably always be, terrified of spiders. And I honestly don’t think I can climb onto that dock. Every hair on my body is standing on end.”

She wasn’t exaggerating or trying to be a diva. Her makeshift hood had fallen back and something was cutting into her backside, but she couldn’t bring herself to lift her leg straight over that board where the beast had last been seen. The very thought paralyzed her.

“Let me see,” Sean said, voice light.

When she shot him a dirty look, he laughed. “Okay, okay, I won’t tease you. Come here.”

Suddenly, he scooped her into his arms.

The boat rocked and she grabbed onto him, losing her balance as he lifted her into the air. “Oh, my God, we’re going to fall!” Was he insane? They were not on stable ground. One false move and they would be plunged into fifty-degree water.

But Sean had been on a boat since he’d been in diapers. He knew how to step in conjunction with the rocking of the boat, and while she hid her face in his chest, burying her eyes in the softness of his jacket, he held her with one muscular arm, and with the other, grabbed the post to guide his step onto the dock. That was it. No big deal. They were on stable ground and a good three feet away from the spider in about a minute, with seemingly little effort on Sean’s part. Kristine opened her eyes and eased her grip on him.

“Better?” he murmured.

“Yes, thank you.” When he didn’t say or do anything else, she added, “You can put me down now.”