Page 47 of Two Tickets to Paradise

No, it wouldn't have looked good, but he wouldn't be hurting so much.

Looking at his face in the bathroom mirror, he wanted to kick himself.

He'd gotten some sun.

Okay, he'd gotten a lot of sun.

And his pale skin wasn't all that thrilled about it.

In fact, his skin was doing a great job of complaining about his treatment of it.

Lifting up his hand, he felt the beginning of a burn across his skin and when he pushed a fingertip into his cheek, the mark it left behind was white.

Yeah, he was burned.

He shook his head at himself. He'd done something stupid.

He'd wanted to impress the girl.

All of his workouts would come in handy on the beach.

He wanted her to see that he took good care of himself.

Sure, it was part of the job, but he enjoyed working out.

He liked running, too.

It would be incredible if she liked running as well, and he'd planned on asking her later, but how fit would he look if he walked up to her as red as a boiled lobster and talked about what he liked to do to keep fit.

Vince was sure that was not the way to impress the girl. And he wanted her to be impressed.

"Vince?"

He heard a soft knock on the bathroom door and turned to answer Cora, but that quick turn of his head was the wrong move.

The skin on his neck was sensitive.

And boy, it hurt.

"Vince? You okay?"

He heard the concern in her voice, but he also heard something else.

Opening the door, he saw Cora standing outside the door with a big, over-sized bath sheet wrapped around her body.

Her wincing smile worried him. "What's wrong?"

She looked down at her chest and lifted a hand to gesture at her exposed skin. "I burned."

She sounded so dejected that he had to fight off a smile, but when he looked up into her face, he saw that she was smiling at him. "You, too?"

He lifted his arm into the light, and she put her arm beside his.

The two of them were matching shades of red.

"Oh, boy," she laughed softly. "I don't think we picked the right level of sunscreen."

He nodded. "Looks like."

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