Page 10 of Hot Buttered Rum

Chapter 5

Enjoy. It was the last word Coco had uttered when she left me for what turned out to be an incredibly luxurious bubble bath session followed by the best night of sleep I’d had since I was a baby swaddled in soft cotton blankets. Of course, the most enjoyable part of the evening had had nothing to do with the bath or the bed.

I blushed thinking about Turner and wondered how the heck I would face him if I ran into him again. Would I run into him again? I hoped so.

I’d woken to an amazing assortment of pastries and spent a good fifteen minutes agonizing over whether to eat the pecan twist or the cheese Danish. There had been no sense wasting any more time thinking about it, so I ate both. Without asking, Coco had even known exactly how I took my coffee, very black with a splash of cream. It was as if she knew everything about me. The logical, engineering side of my brain sent out a signal that said I should have been a little freaked out by it all, but the creative writing side of my brain squashed those worries by repeating Coco’s wise words—’ignore the impossible and go with it’. The logical side might have won out if it weren’t for the cozy bed, glorious bubble bath, delicious breakfast treats and the faint tenderness that lingered from Turner’s touch. I was still having a hard time believing that his visit had happened at all. The few mind-blowing minutes with him had seemed much more like a hot dream.

I stared in the full length mirror and gave my reflection a nod of approval. Along with the fabulous breakfast, Coco had left me a pair of denim shorts, a soft flannel button down shirt and a pair of hiking boots that fit perfectly. I could spend an hour in a department store looking for a pair of jeans that fit well and still end up with jeans that were too tight or too loose or both. The shorts Coco had left me fit me as if they’d been sewn directly onto my body, and I had to admit, with the right fit, I looked pretty damn good.

I headed downstairs and found Coco in the kitchen measuring ingredients. It happened again. As I rounded the corner into the kitchen, I caught a glimpse of an elderly woman whose shoulders were rounded from age and whose hands were mottled with age spots. But by the time I took my first step onto the tile floor, the image I’d seen, or at least thought I’d seen, had vanished, and a vibrant with youth woman looked up from the bag of brown sugar. She had a streak of white flour across the smooth olive skin of her forehead.

“I’ve had the canoe carried down to the water’s edge for you. The paddle and life vest are on board.” She tossed the cup of brown sugar into her mixing bowl. “Hope you like apple cobbler? It’s the perfect dessert to follow up lobster pot pie.”

“I’m nearly dizzy just thinking about that lobster pot pie. I so rarely eat homemade food anymore. I guess I should take that canoe ride right now before I grow too plump for it.”

Coco laughed off my comment. “By the way, how does everything fit?” She surveyed my outfit and boots and smiled with approval.

“Perfectly.” I glanced down at the new outfit. “Somehow, I’m not surprised.”

“Good. Let’s keep the real surprises for something other than clothes. Let’s get you out on the water.” She wiped her hands on the dishtowel and led me out onto the back stoop.

The sky was teal blue with patches of white cotton clouds. The water was a tranquil, deep blue in a cove formed by layers of algae covered rocks.

Coco leaned out and pointed to a copse of trees with twisted dark red branches that were as smooth as glass. “You’ll see a lot of fish if you head toward the Manzanita trees. Just follow this brick pathway along the rose garden. It’ll take you straight to the sand.”

“Great. Can’t wait to start my adventure. I have to admit, I haven’t done anything like this in a long time.” I headed down the steps.

“Oh, and Ginger,” Coco called just as I reached the rose garden.

I looked back over my shoulder.

“Don’t paddle past the white buoys, or the tide will pull you out to open sea.”

I squinted into the sunlight reflecting off the water. At the far ends of the cove two white buoys bobbed back and forth in the tide. I waved back to her to let her know I understood and continued on toward the beach.

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