Page 11 of Paradise Found
“Something broke, and we need the van to grab materials for it.”
“What broke?” When he was disappointed, Axel tended toward stubborn nosiness.
“The chicken coop needs to be reinforced.”
“You have chickens? I wanna come along!”
“No!” She sounded appalled. “You’re a guest on vacation. Why in the world would you want to go to a hardware store?”
To be with you,his wayward brain answered automatically. His voice of reason, thankfully, prevailed.
“I’m crazy bored, Oleanna. There’s only so much Netflix I can watch and books I can read.”
It was true. Jet lag caused him to wake up at dawn. “There’s nothing to do except lather myself with green gel and play video games.”
“How is your burn?” She sounded concerned. He almost pulled therub your soft hands on my back to find outstrategy.
He restrained himself from using the pity card. “Better. Don’t change the subject. Let me help.”
“No, I can’t, I—”
“I need to pick something up, too!”
He barely held back laughter when he recognized the solution to this and other dilemmas. He not only needed to spend the day with Oleanna; he also required independent transportation for the next two weeks. Most of all, he was dying to impress a girl.
“What do you need to pick up? I’ll get it for you.”
“A convertible and somehalo-halo. I’m waiting outside. Let me in the van before I burn again,” he stated before hanging up.
He would not give her a chance to protest.
Axel scrolled through his phone to find the coolest convertible he could get his hands on. Out of nowhere and beyond expectation, nothing was more important than taking this gorgeous girl out for a drive around the island.
Greg, Axel, and Oleanna went to a suburban shopping mall off the interstate. In the hardware store, Oleanna efficiently kept her uncle focused and itemized the materials they purchased.
To top it off, he couldn’t believe Oleanna had meant to carry all that stuff with her uncle. Supplies to reinforce a chicken coop and make gutter repairs filled the van. They managed to fit fencing materials and lumber, gutter filters and tools.
With everything loaded, they drove to the car rental.
At first, Oleanna was reluctant to abandon her uncle. Fortunately, the older man wrote out a grocery list, giving her a reason to stay in town.
Axel watched Oleanna while the rental agent walked them to the red convertible Mustang. It was the last car at the end of an indoor parking lot, obnoxiously flashy and impractical for someone already burnt.
She looked like she wasn’t sure if she should laugh at him for renting something as loud as his Hawaiian shirt or hug him for arranging an afternoon of fun. He had his hopes on the latter, but either way, nothing felt better than his girl slipping into thepassenger seat. Beside him. With him.
Wait. When had he started thinking about Oleanna ashis?
He shoved the unexpected thought away and fixed his mirrors. It was dark in the corner of the rental garage, yet her bare thighs were no less of a distraction. The coconut aroma of her skin, when she whipped around to grab her seatbelt, almost made him growl with hunger.
He was about to start the car when Oleanna held out a tube of sunscreen. One look at her expression revealed she wasn’t playing around, so he mimed the same slathering over arms, legs, and face that she was doing.
“You need to spread it right here,” she laughed, pointing at his forehead. He swiped a hand across it.
“That made it worse, silly.”
She reached over to smooth out the lotion. Her small hands moved competently along his temples and down his nose. She passed over his chin and accidentally brushed his lower lip with her thumb. Oleanna froze.
It was like the night before, when she realized she was touching him and forced herself to stop. Even when she didn’t want to stop. Or was it Axel who needed her hands like he needed his next breath?
