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“What does all this have to do with you?” she demanded.
“Nothing. I came to this island to camp, just the same as you,” he told her.
“Then why were you searching the clearing?”
“I told you. It seemed obvious you had hidden something.” He had been impatient, almost ready to pull away. But suddenly he became the one determined to carry on the conversation. He moved toward her. There was a tree behind her, and she backed up against it. He set a palm on the trunk to trap her, leaning close.
“What were you hiding?” he demanded.
“Nothing.”
“A skull?” he queried.
“Of course not!”
He pushed away from the tree and once again started back toward the beach. She followed him, irritated and uneasy.
And oddly determined to keep up with him.
To remain close.
They reached the trail. For a moment Beth was afraid they would run straight into Sandy and Brad, but the couple was nowhere to be seen.
Amber and Kimberly were lying on the beach, exactly where they had been when she had left them. Roger, too, seemed not to have stirred from the hammock.
“Hey, girls!” Keith called out.
Amber rolled over and looked back, seeing Keith. “Hi,” she called, smiling.
“Hey, guys,” Kimberly said.
The girls looked at him, then Beth, then one another. They smiled.
No, she thought. They smirked.
“Did you find any good coconuts?” Amber asked him.
It was Beth’s turn to look from him to the girls and back again. Obviously the girls had known that he hadn’t gone on the boat. Where the hell had she been?
Not paying attention. A mistake she didn’t intend to repeat.
“Hey…that looks like a decent coconut right over there.” He pointed in the direction of the hammock where Roger lay sleeping.
“I’ll get it,” Amber volunteered.
Beth bit her lip, not allowing herself to protest. The girls liked Keith. Trying to draw them away and tell them to be wary would only send them flying to his defense.
Kim jumped up to run after Amber.
Beth’s pepper spray lay forgotten on Amber’s beach towel.
Staring at Keith, she went and picked it up. He smiled, shaking his head.
“What’s that smile for?” she demanded, moving closer to him so the girls wouldn’t hear her.
“Pepper spray…machete. Hmm.”
“Don’t kid yourself, this stuff can blind a man.”
“I wouldn’t dream of mocking your strength, Ms. Anderson,” he told her.
Then he turned and went to accept the coconut Amber had picked up. Beth watched as he slammed it against a tree.
The coconut broke at his bidding. He didn’t look back at her, just offered the pieces to the girls. Only then did he turn.
“Sorry—is it all right if they have fresh coconut?”
Amber giggled. “Silly. Aunt Beth doesn’t have anything against coconuts.”
Beth forced a smile.
She was relieved to see the first of the dinghies sliding smoothly onto the shore, just a hundred feet down on the beach.
The others were back.
“Mahimahi tonight!” Ben shouted. He jumped from the dinghy and dragged it farther up the shore, then reached back to give a hand to Amanda. She accepted it with her usual innate sensuality, managing to bring her whole body against Ben in her smooth effort to step to the sand.
“My recipe tonight,” Ben called to Beth.
He sounded so pleased. Their fishing expedition had clearly been a great success.
Once again, she forced a smile, then waved and slipped into her tent.
She hoped her brother was having a good time.
For herself, it felt as if she had taken the night train to hell.
And, she realized, it could only get worse. She was suddenly longing for something she shouldn’t have.
Perhaps couldn’t have…
But the really scary thought was that he was feeling just the same.
5
BETH SAT ON THE BENT TRUNK of the palm tree, eating Doritos and watching.
It might have been a family reunion.
The light was gone, but three separate fires blazed, and the portable barbecue was working away, as well. The fires, she decided, were mainly for show, for warmth and light, though the moon was full, and the sky was clear, studded with stars. The fires were still nice, she thought.
Ben was talking to Keith and Matt by the barbecue, explaining the secret to his perfect mahimahi, she suspected. A coffeepot was set over one of the fires. Brad was the coffee brewer. Hank, Gerald and Matt were hanging out with him, probably talking about their day on the water.
As she watched, Amanda joined the group, giggling, laughing and, judging by her gestures, telling a story about the way someone had caught a fish. The men were laughing, obviously entertained, and equally obviously enthralled.
Beth was startled when Sandy sat down at her side.
She had a beer in her hand, and she was watching the group at the fire, as well.
“She’s got a way with her, huh?” Sandy said a little glumly.
“She’s very pretty,” Beth said judiciously.
Sandy turned to her, a half smile in place, a wry expression in her eyes. “You’re much better looking. Actually, so am I. She just really knows how to turn it on and use everything she has.”
“Two of those guys are her cousins,” Beth reminded her. Sandy seemed so normal at the moment, but Beth couldn’t forget what she had seen and heard in the clearing.
“And two aren’t,” Sandy said flatly. She shrugged. “I guess some women are just like that. They can’t keep their hands off anything in pants.”
“She comes from a…a world of privilege,” Beth murmured, wondering why she was even attempting to excuse Amanda Mason, who tended to make her skin crawl. Still, she’d made it a point to make sure she never talked badly about any member of the club. She offered Sandy the bag of Doritos.
The other woman sniffed. “Think those boobs are real?”
“Um…I’ve never asked.”
“Enhanced,” Sandy assured her.
“Well, lots of people…enhance.”
Sandy sighed. “True. It’s just that…I mean, she uses the damn things like business cards. And men are so easy.”
Beth laughed. “I guess sometimes they are.”
“She can’t have many friends.”
“I don’t really know,” Beth murmured. She felt like she was ragging on the most popular girl in high school, and it felt more and more uncomfortable. She decided to change the topic. “So how long have you and Brad been together?”
“Three years,” Sandy said. “A long time, huh?” She paused. “I’m still madly in love with him. More or less.”
Beth wasn’t certain how “madly in love” and “more or less” could actually coincide, and again she felt she’d gone back to high school.
“Well, it’s great that you’re together, then,” she said.
Sandy chomped a Dorito. Amanda had her hand on Brad’s arm. Sandy shook her head unhappily and looked at Beth. “You don’t think it’s too long?”
“Too long for what?”
“Shouldn’t we be getting married?”
“Oh. Um. Well, I don’t know. I guess it’s good to really know a person first. I’d much rather be with a person and know that he’s the one I want to spend the rest of my life with than marry in a hurry and have it all fall apart. The divorce rate is so high today.”
“Is your brother divorced?”
“No. His wife passed away.”
“That’s terrible.”
“Yes.”
“So…you don’t think it’s a bad thing that I stay with Brad even though it’s been this long and we’re not married yet?”
Beth hesitated. She hadn’t begun to imagine that Sandy would come to her for advice on her relationship, certainly not after what she had seen and heard in the clearing earlier.
“I’m not qualified to give advice,” she said. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with staying with someone, no matter how long, if that’s what you feel is right.”
Sandy stared at the group by the fire, eyes level on Amanda. “Do you think he’d cheat on me?”
Beth was beginning to feel acutely uncomfortable. “Sandy, I just met both of you. I have no idea.”
Sandy didn’t seem to hear her. “She’s moving on. Who is she after, do you think? Your brother? Or Keith?”
Amanda had moved on. Now she stood between Ben and Keith at the barbecue. She was still laughing, charming, flirtatious.
And once again, she seemed to have enthralled her conquests.
“My brother is in his midthirties,” Beth said. “He has to take care of himself, make his own decisions.”
Sandy sighed. “Yeah, I guess Keith is all grown up, too. Hey, if Amanda is going to be all over Brad, maybe I should be making a few moves of my own.” She stared steadily at Beth again, then shook her head. “You’re so moral.”
Beth laughed. “How do you know that? We’ve only just met.”
Sandy shook her head. “There are things you just know. Things you see. No matter how long you’ve known someone.” She laughed softly. “Like chemistry. Don’t worry. If I make a play for someone, it won’t be Keith.”
“What?”
“There’s chemistry going between you two, and if you say it isn’t, well, then you’re a liar.”
“I’m too moral to be a liar, aren’t I?” Beth queried lightly.
Sandy still seemed caustically amused. “Well, he feels attracted to you. I see his eyes when you just walk by. And to be truthful, that’s why I’d never make a play for him. Why bother? He’s preoccupied. Actually, I don’t play games. And I don’t think Brad would, either. She just really pisses me off.”
“It seems as if you and Brad do have something…special,” Beth said, feeling a little lame but also really uncomfortable. When she looked at the woman, she wanted to shout, What the hell were you looking for today? A skull?
Both women turned to stare at Brad then. Apparently his coffee was perked, and he had gone to the trouble of making Irish coffee; he had a bottle of Jameson’s out, as well.
“Hey, I’d actually like one of those,” Beth said, ready to get up and end what was becoming too intimate a conversation with someone she didn’t know—and didn’t trust. She rose. “Come on, we’ll both head over there, and it won’t look like you’re worried in the least.”
Sandy flashed her a quick glance, and she realized that the woman had been worried. But Brad hadn’t done any instigating, and Amanda was being just as flirtatious with every available guy there.
