The Kiss on Castle Road (A Lavender Island Novel) (25 page)

“Actually, no. You’re my sister’s worst nightmare. She’ll call me tonight and ask me more about you.”

The smile slid off Natalie’s face. “
What?
What do you mean I’m her worst nightmare? I would be a great girlfriend. I’m perfect for you.”

Elliott lifted an eyebrow.

“I mean . . . you know . . . if we were thinking along those lines. Which we aren’t. But if we were . . . Wait, why would I be Nell’s worst nightmare?”

Elliott threw his arm over his head on the lounge and stared out toward the ocean. “You’re too young. Not science-y enough. Not nerdy enough. You don’t have a boring, staid career.”

Natalie stared hard at him. “Too young? I’m almost the same age as you!”

“She wants me to date someone in her thirties.”

“And what do you mean, ‘not science-y enough’? Do you mean not
smart
enough? Not cerebral enough?”

“I didn’t say that, Natalie.”

“And what do you mean I don’t have a ‘boring, staid career’? You mean I can’t commit to a career at all?”

“I didn’t say that either.”

“But that’s what you meant, didn’t you?”

Elliott swung his legs over the side of the chaise and faced her. “Look, I’m not going to let you make this into something it’s not. I didn’t say any of that. And Nell didn’t say any of that about you specifically. It’s just that Nell told me, a couple of months ago, that she thought I should date women who were in ‘in my league,’ meaning as nerdy and undateable as I am.”

“I think she meant women who were as smart as you, and you know it. You think I’m not smart enough for you, and you know that Nell would think that.”

Elliott shook his head. “What are we even
arguing
about? You and I
aren’t dating
. Your choice, by the way. It doesn’t matter what Nell thinks of you. She doesn’t get to choose my friends.”

Natalie looked away. He was right. But it still bothered her that his sister wouldn’t approve of her as a romantic partner. She’d had a long life of being treated with disdain by many, many men, but it never occurred to her she might be treated that way by a woman. Regarding that woman’s brother. Whom Natalie wasn’t even dating.

She sighed. She
was
being ridiculous.

She reached over and gave Elliott’s knee a good-bye squeeze. “You’re right. This isn’t something we should argue about. So what did she come over for anyway?”

“Nell set me up on a double date with her and Jim for that Senior Prom this weekend. She’s flying someone over who she said is ‘just right’ this time.” He made air quotes and leaned back, not looking too happy about it.

The jealousy and possessiveness that zipped through Natalie regarding Elliott’s prior dates was something she’d gotten used to ignoring. But this time felt like something she might need to examine.

Because this time it had an ominous sense of foreboding. And she’d need to figure out why.

If she could stop her heart from pounding, that was.

CHAPTER 22

The next day, Natalie had a million errands to run to get the prom organized—so many, in fact, that she was able to keep her mind off her rising sense of apprehension.

As she prepared to leave Casas del Sur that afternoon to pick up Lily, she almost bumped into a closed door at the end of a hallway, then heard a familiar voice drifting out of a door ahead of her.

“Are you sure this is right?” the voice asked.

A smile overtook her for the first time all day as she peeked inside the room.

Elliott was standing in the center, one arm curled around an imaginary partner, the other lifted into the air as if grasping an imaginary hand. He was staring with focus at the floor, waiting for the music to start. Doris was fumbling with an MP3 player at a back table.

“Natalie!” Doris said. “Come help me with this.”

Elliott gave her a cute grin as she entered, as if he’d been caught at something.

“I heard you were taking dancing lessons,” she said, walking back to the MP3 player.

“I finally admitted defeat.”

She fumbled with the cord until the speakers came on, suddenly at the second bar of “Moon River.” It jiggled in and out of the song. “I think something’s wrong with the cord, Doris.”

“Can you hold it for a second, dear?”

“Sure.” Natalie held the cord in its precarious position while the music wafted across the ballroom, and Doris met Elliott in the center of the floor.

“Okay, ballroom hold,” Doris said. “Shoulder blade, remember?”

Doris only came up to the middle of Elliott’s chest, so he adjusted his arm hold to her.

“Now forward with the left foot, side with the right, close,” she said as she led Elliott across the floor. “Forward with the right, side with the left, close.” The two of them moved in slow, large circles. “Left, side, close,” she said. “Right, side, close. Left, side, close. Yes! You’ve got it, Elliott.”

The two of them continued to spin gracefully around the room. Doris was beaming, and Elliott’s chin came up into the air. Natalie could have watched these two lovely people dancing to “Moon River” all day.

“Natalie, do you want to come over here and dance with our dear Elliott, here? I’m afraid I’m way too short for him. Elliott, you’ll see how much easier it is with someone closer to your height. And age. Come.”

Natalie hesitated for a second, but then thought,
Why not?
and went to take Doris’s place. The music stayed on, despite the faulty cord.

“Do you remember how to do this, Natalie?” Doris asked, pushing her into position with Elliott.

“I think so.”

“Ballroom hold.” She adjusted their hands. “Shoulder blade, Elliott.” She lifted Elliott’s hand higher. “See—isn’t that easier? You two truly are the perfect height for each other. Natalie, put your hand on Elliott’s shoulder. He has beautiful shoulders, doesn’t he?”

“Yes.” Natalie smiled, but he rolled his eyes and looked away.

They avoided each other’s eyes for the first few seconds, adjusting to the hold, the nearness, the awkwardness, Doris’s critical stare. But soon they were floating together across the room, finally looking into each other’s eyes. Elliott’s gaze stayed steady. It seemed to be filled with gratitude, perhaps for standing in during his lesson, or maybe for being tall enough, or maybe for being comfortable enough for him that he still got the steps right.

But as he continued to hold her stare—the longest he’d ever met her eyes, for sure—she felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude herself. She was thankful for their trust, their friendship, the confidence they gave each other, the laughter they could always share, the months that had been filled with wonder. She stared right back into his eyes and was filled with tenderness, then a wave of sadness at the thought of saying good-bye. As her eyes began to mist, he gave her a small, appreciative smile.

Then everything came back into her awareness: the bright lights, the flickering cord, and Doris’s counting “
One
, two, three.
One
, two, three. Good, you two!”

When the music finally ended, Natalie grinned at him politely. “You’re going to make a great dance partner for someone.”

Elliott cleared his throat and stepped away.

“Why don’t we call it quits, too, Elliott dear? You did great today. You walk Natalie out now.” Doris all but shoved them both out the door.

They blinked against the sunlight outside the lobby doors and headed across the cobblestone porte cochere.

“I’m going to miss you, you know,” he said.

She’d always been rather good with good-byes—she usually approached them with a “See you again soon” feeling instead of a final salute. But maybe that had just been her way of justifying the fact that she liked things to end.

But now, facing Elliott in the warm July sun, she had the sense of dread that she imagined most people felt when they thought of upcoming good-byes. A crushing sense fell through her chest. A sense that she might never see this man again, and that her life would always have a small black hole where he had been. Or a big one. Where he had filled her days with joy. Where he had filled a void that she hadn’t even known she’d had. She cleared her throat of the lump forming there.

“So, what else do you need lessons on?” she asked, ready to change the subject. “I assume this is for your prom date?”

He gave a quick snort out his nose. “Everyone’s worried I’m going to screw this up. Doris wants me to learn to dance, the Colonel wants me to order the right drinks, Nell wants me to ditch the glasses again, and she’s taking me shopping to a place she actually called a ‘boutique’ on the other end of Main Street. Do guys seriously go to ‘boutiques’? That doesn’t sound right.”

Natalie climbed into her golf cart. “I think it’s a thing now. That and manicures for men.”

“Oh God, Nell mentioned that, too. And a pedicure? Please. Why bother?”

“You’ll just get it messed up again at the tide pools.” She smiled and started the engine.

“Right! The tide pools. My hands and feet are in water all the time. Or chemicals. This is all stupid. Do you think this date will genuinely care?” He was leaning against Natalie’s driver’s-side door rail now.

“Only in bed.”

Elliott’s smile slid away. He looked at the ground and stepped away from her cart. Natalie felt bad instantly. She didn’t mean to razz him. He got so uncomfortable talking about sex. What kind of friend was she, making him feel uncomfortable on purpose? But her thoughts and emotions were all over the place now. She wanted to pull him close and push him away at the same time. And thinking of him and another woman together was making her irritable. She wasn’t exactly jealous. Or so she told herself. She just knew that Elliott needed someone who would let him be himself, someone who would cherish him, and Natalie didn’t know if this other woman would be right. Nell had miscalculated too many times already.

“Do you want me to go to your house and teach you a simple dinner you can make?” she asked.

“Sure. Maybe those steaks we made that one night? I can handle the steaks, but could you show me the rest you did?”

“The glazed carrots?”

“Yeah, and the bread. That was awesome.”

“Sure. I’ve got to run now. Gotta get Lily.”

“I’m going back to the center. See you tonight?”

“I’ve got to take care of something tonight, but how about tomorrow? Did you still want to go snorkeling? Maybe after?”

“Snorkeling on a workday?” He smiled. “You’re a bad influence.”

“I’m off tomorrow. And aren’t you snorkeling for work anyway?”

“You’re still a bad influence.”

“My work here is done, then.” She met his smile with a wobbly one of her own. “So cooking lessons afterward?”

He gave her a nod that seemed filled with a host of other emotions: uncertainty, maybe. Or nervousness. Or a little hesitancy that looked not unlike what she was feeling right now. It was a hesitancy perhaps carried over from their dance, that they might need to step carefully now, that they were going to have to say good-bye soon, that there might be deeper emotions catapulting between them, that they might be careening into something that neither of them was quite prepared for. Or that Elliott might be going to the prom with the wrong person.

Natalie puttered away down the hill and breathed in the scent of island eucalyptus to calm her nerves and clear her mind.

Thank God the streets were lined with the stuff.

CHAPTER 23

The next morning, Natalie piled her snorkeling gear into Elliott’s golf cart, jumped in behind it, and returned his relaxed smile as they scooted across the island underneath the bright sun.

This would be her first time snorkeling in eons, and possibly her last time gallivanting on a beach with Elliott, so she was prepared to thoroughly enjoy the day. She’d protected herself against the July rays with a wide-brimmed hat, enormous sunglasses, plenty of sunscreen, and a maxi dress covering her from shoulders to toes. She had to admit that she was a little grateful for the sun, and the excuse it gave her to hide behind fabric and straw. Although she knew she didn’t need to cover up with the old fears from her past—she was safe with Elliott—old habits just died hard. But she had let her hair loose today, simply tucking it into her hat. It would feel good to let it float around her shoulders underwater today.

As they puttered up to Heart’s Cove in the cart, she inhaled the heady scent of saltwater and California sage, staring around her at the beautiful view and pointing out the flora she remembered—the Queen Anne’s lace, the eucalyptus groves. She tried not to think too far into the future.

Heart’s Cove was a rocky cliff area off the edge of the town, with a small horseshoe-shaped beach in the center. The scuba diving off this terrain was reportedly some of the best in the Pacific, and—throughout the summer—half of the horseshoe was always filled with scuba divers, scuba gear, instructors, tours, and teams, all diving off the east end into an underwater world of magic.

Not very many people knew, though, that on the other side of the horseshoe, the snorkeling was phenomenal. If you didn’t want to invest in the time and equipment to scuba dive, you could simply don a mask and a snorkeling tube and see beauty to your heart’s content in the shallow underwater pools. It always felt like an island secret.

She showed Elliott where to park the cart, and they scurried down the hillside, over the lava-rock terrain, and into the sandy horseshoe. There were no footprints in the sand except theirs. The ocean roared in and slapped the rocks around them like their own personal serenade.

“Wow, I haven’t done this in a long time,” Elliott said, eagerly studying the water. He tossed his backpack into the sand, yanked his shirt over his head, and stared down at the deep tide pools, standing still in his bright-blue board shorts, which hung much lower on his hips than she expected.

Stopped short, Natalie drew in an unexpectedly ragged breath.

Elliott was beautiful. Natalie hadn’t been this close to an undressed version of him before. Although he was lean, his shoulders, arms, back, and legs were all sinewy muscle, his skin already tanned from his morning runs. His blond hair brushed along the back of his neck as he planted his hands low on his hips and stared deeper into the pools.

When he suddenly turned toward her, she looked away.

“Yes, very beautiful,” she choked out.

She unbuttoned her dress and made a valiant attempt not to look up at his chest and flat abs right now.

Damn.
Weren’t they wearing wet suits today? She’d brought hers. The sun was warm, but the water hadn’t yet caught up. “You’re, um . . . you’re in for quite a treat.”

Natalie turned farther still so he couldn’t see the blush that was certainly creeping across her cheeks. With her back to him, she discarded her maxi dress, kicked off her sandals, grabbed her snorkeling gear out of her tote, adjusted the tie at the side of her bikini bottoms, then whirled back around toward Elliott, who was still facing her, hands on his hips.

His eyes widened as she turned, and they swept up and down her body like a touch. Once. Then twice. But—as if he suddenly realized what he was doing—he quickly turned his attention to the sand between them and visibly swallowed.

“I’m sure I am,” he said.

He cleared his throat and stepped toward the water’s edge.

Natalie panicked for a second. That sexual zing—that sudden awareness, ricocheting between them, here on this deserted beach—was something she hadn’t thought through very carefully when she’d accepted his offer to snorkel. They were supposed to be
friends
. They’d
agreed
to that.
He’d
agreed to that. She’d been carefully cultivating that all spring, and—

Oh, please, who was she kidding?

Bet or no bet, she couldn’t lie to herself anymore. She’d fallen somewhere along the line. His kindness, his respectfulness, his passion for his work, the code of goodness and honesty he lived by. The way he looked at her, the way he really
saw
her. The way he was so generous with his time and money and attention to the things and people he cared for—Natalie loved all of that.

She loved the way he took her hand in the tide pools; she loved the way he doted on Lily; she loved the way he was polite to her sisters and regarded all the seniors and their histories with the same awe and respect she had. She loved the way he smelled of sandalwood and salt spray; she loved the flirtatious way he’d look up at her from under his bangs; and she even loved the way he separated his food on his plate when they had too many different kinds of vegetables.

Somewhere along the way she’d fallen for Elliott Sherman.

Hard.

And now, here she was, stuck on a deserted cove with no interference, very few clothes, sexual sparks flying back and forth, a pounding heart she couldn’t control, a shirtless Elliott who suddenly looked as if he didn’t know what to do with himself, and a bet she didn’t know if she wanted to keep anymore.

Elliott waded into the cold Pacific and hung his hands on his hips, not sure if he wanted to dive in, pivot to get his wet suit, or turn back around and get another gander of Natalie in that bikini.

The gentlemanly side of him told him to jump into the water. Now. The cold would be a good douse to his libido, which could really use a dousing right now.

But the less gentlemanly side of him told him to turn back around and get another eyeful. Because man, oh man, she was hot. He’d
known
she was hot—he’d known that all along, of course, ever since he’d first glimpsed her in those short shorts at his sliding door a couple of months ago. But she’d always kept covered enough for him to maintain a sense of decorum and respect her wishes that they didn’t move things beyond friendship. Once he’d learned for sure about the lecherous assholes in her past—something he’d guessed at but hadn’t been sure of until that night they’d exchanged the Elsa doll—he’d been even more careful not to cross any lines with her. She needed someone who respected her, and respected her boundaries, not just another asshole who was maneuvering ways to get her into bed all the time. So he’d avoided talking about sex, thinking about sex, joking about sex, or even alluding to sex in her presence. It just made things easier to navigate.

But now . . .

Damn.
Why hadn’t he thought this snorkeling thing through better? He’d brought a wet suit—maybe she had, too.

Another flash of memory of her in that bikini went through his head, and he kept wading forward, still weighing his gentlemanly tendencies against his lascivious ones. He’d grown to care about her so much—developing a feeling of adoration and protectiveness that could only be love. He knew it when he saw it, just as the Colonel said he would. And he ached now with a way to express it physically, too. What if he just turned and marched back toward her, took her jaw in his hands, and kissed her the way he’d been imagining for months? What if he told her he had no interest in any of Nell’s blind dates because all he could think of was her? What if he pressed into her, kissing her the way they’d started on Castle Road, running his hand through her hair, down her body, over that bikini string, under it, sliding toward—

His fingers plowed through his hair in frustration, and—mind almost made up—he turned back toward her.

She was tugging her wet suit on. He watched her from behind—watched her body shimmy, her bikini bottom wriggle, her breasts bounce from the side as she jumped and yanked the suit up over her torso. Her arms punched into the armholes, and she wriggled the neoprene zipper up the back with a loop. Her hand flew up to her head, and she twisted her hair into the speediest topknot he’d ever seen, as if her life depended on it.

His chest deflated.

And shame overwhelmed him.

Because she looked scared.

And the last thing he wanted to be was another lecherous asshole in her life.

He turned back toward his backpack and dug his own wet suit out, then tugged it on and carried his flippers and snorkel to the deepest pool in four swift steps.

A cold douse of the Pacific would have to do.

Natalie and Elliott both pulled their flippers on at the edge of the water.

She sidled into the ocean and pushed away all thoughts of him barely clad as soon as they entered her mind—which they did over and over again—and felt a moment’s peace that he had the wet suit on now, although it pretty much just outlined the strong, lean shape she now couldn’t stop noticing.

“Ready?” he asked.

“Yep.” She snapped on her mask and adjusted her snorkel. Her mask nicely kept Elliott and his body out of her peripheral vision.

Underwater, she was able to finally steer her mind elsewhere. The underwater world of Heart’s Cove was magical: miles of kelp forests, which swayed beneath and around them, rays of sun from above cutting through the kelp beds like pillars of light. Amid the waving kelp swam neon-orange Garibaldi damselfish, bright-blue angelfish, and schools of gray-spotted calico bass. Elliott pointed to a rock crevice where two spiny lobsters peeked out with suspicious little eyes, and then he took her hand and guided them both toward another set of rocks, where he pointed at a two-spot octopus with fake-out blue eyes on either side of its head.

They swam for what seemed like a blissful forever—Elliott usually ahead of her, looking back often, sometimes smiling behind his mask, bubbles trailing out of his snorkel tube. He was a good diver—possibly better than she was—and they could both stay under for a long time before heading back to the surface to clear their snorkel tubes and dive back down. Often Elliott reached back for her and guided her toward something he wanted her to see—sometimes a nautilus or another colorful octopus, sometimes a color on the side of a rock she couldn’t quite make out. She gave him a thumbs-up when she realized it might be the algae he was looking for. Each time he spotted something of interest, they would both float backward for a second, careful to keep their flippers from damaging any kelp or coral, and then slide into another direction, sometimes amid another school of colorful fish. Natalie’s hair came loose and floated around her shoulders, making her feel carefree and happy in the quiet, weightless sanctuary, filled with only her, Elliott, his wondrous smile, the bubbles from their tubes, and a world of otherworldly color and motion. She didn’t want the afternoon to end.

When it finally had to, she swam up to shore and got her legs beneath her to wade up to dry sand. She collapsed onto a carpet of smooth pebbles and yanked off her mask, laughing and gasping for breath at the same time.

Elliott landed beside her.

“That was outrageous,” he said, breathing heavily. “Beautifully outrageous.”

“It was.” That was pretty much all she could get out until she got her breath back.

Elliott sluiced the water off his face and stared out at the ocean, his ankles crossed in front of him, his chest rising and falling as he caught his own breath. The sun was sitting low in the sky now—heading toward another beautiful sunset—and a sheen of gold illuminated his skin and hair. The peace across his face, the look of wonder, the drips along his eyelashes, the gold highlighting his features made him, suddenly, the most beautiful man Natalie had ever seen.

“You’re a champ diver,” he said, looking back at her over his shoulder.

“You’re not so bad yourself.”

“I was trying to keep up with you.”

She wasn’t sure what to do with the compliment. She didn’t quite know what to do with a man like this, who complimented her openly and often. Especially a man who was starting to set her heart pounding at every smile.