Page 51 of Inevitable
Ruggedly handsome.
And stupidly hot for a man his age.
Relief flooded through my body when he shucked his jeans with no fanfare and dropped them beside his T-shirt.
He lifted a brow as he said, “Let’s swim.”
He took my hand and tugged me toward the water.
Honestly, you couldn’t see much of his leg because the board shorts were long, but it wouldn’t have mattered if it was completely revealed.
Colin was such an imposing male figure that those scars were hardly even noticeable.
He released my hand as we waded into the water, and I watched in awe as he dove into the depths of Lake Michigan.
Colin had been a SEAL, and he swam like a fish.
He was more comfortable in the water than any other person I’d ever known.
I dove after him.
I’d grown up here in Cherry Cove, and I didn’t remember a time when I hadn’t been able to swim.
We swam silently for a while, both of us getting our exercise and wearing ourselves out.
When I was totally exhausted, I finally put my feet down in one of the shallow areas that existed from the shifting sands in the protected cove.
The water was nearly up to my chest, but I was able to rest.
I simply watched Colin continue to swim like he was capable of keeping up his rapid pace forever.
I knew he had an eye out for other swimmers in his path, but most of the recreational swimmers were closer to shore.
I was leisurely floating on my back when he finally joined me.
“You’re going to get sunburned,” he warned as he stood on the sand beside me.
I smiled at him as I put my feet back on the ground. “Not happening. I slathered myself with sunscreen before I left the house.”
My skin was fair, and I knew better than to go without sunscreen on a day like this.
Michigan winters were long and brutal, and I didn’t get outdoors much when the weather was frigid and the snow was flying.
On the other hand, Colin tanned easily, and he was probably always tanned like he was now from living in California.
He’d mentioned that he swam in his outdoor pool year-round in San Diego.
“I guess we should get back to shore and help with the barbecue,” I told him, feeling a little awkward for the first time in Colin’s presence.
Maybe I still wasn’t quite used to Colin’s standoffishness with me.
When we’d been in the water in Virginia Beach, we’d touched each other constantly when we were swimming and we’d played like we were teenagers who were crazy about each other.
“Wait,” he demanded as he wrapped an arm around my waist before I could swim away. “You were nervous on the beach. Explain that to me.”
Ugh! He’d noticed. Maybe I should have expected that. Colin was the kind of guy who picked up on every nuance of human behavior.
By the time we’d left Virginia Beach, he’d been able to pick up on every one of my emotions.
