Page 49 of Family Bonds: Carson & Laine

Carson was pretty sure he was going to lose control when Laine took her shirt and shorts off that she had on over her bathing suit.

He was just happy the ocean would be cool and shrink down the excitement that was going to be evident.

“Where did you get the glove?” he asked her when he saw it on the top of her beach towel in her bag.

“I found a place in Boston that had it. You can hire people on the island to go pick up things at the docks for you,” she said smartly.

“I know that,” he said.

“I had a few supplies I needed anyway. I had them delivered to the docks along with that glove and then had a courier go get it all yesterday at one of your family-owned businesses there.”

“Guess you wanted to bodysurf and knock it off your list,” he said.

They’d decided to share their lists with each other so if one added or crossed something off the other could see it.

He’d added a few things to his list, including making pottery. Why not? It’d be fun.

“Could be a few things I wanted to do and it all went together,” she said.

He wasn’t sure what she meant there. He wouldn’t ask either. If she wanted him to know, she’d tell him.

They rented their boards and were at the public beach on the Atlantic Ocean. “My parents are on the water and have a nice beach, but they are facing Plymouth, so no waves like this.”

“No,” she said. “Due to the storm coming in, there aren’t too many left on the beach.”

He looked around at some people lingering, but his guess was they’d been here all day.

Here it was six at night and he’d come right after work. He assumed they were going to get something to eat after, but for now, they wanted to beat the storm.

Maybe he’d take her to Hadley’s after. It was his cousin Duke’s other restaurant that he had with his fiancée on this end of the island. This was the only public beach that had surf equipment to rent. It’s not like he had a surfboard though he’d gone bodysurfing before.

Once he had both boards in his arms, they walked onto the beach and dropped their things and he laid the boards down and slipped his shoes off. He pulled his shirt over his head and wiggled his eyebrows at her.

“Look at you,” she said. “Woozers.”

He burst out laughing. “Why, thank you. I’m sure I’m going to have the same response.”

She slipped her sandals off, then undid her cotton shorts and down they went. Her T-shirt was still covering most of her.

He wasn’t tearing his eyes away for anything. She was still looking at his chest and he was trying not to blush.

Her shirt went up and over and his jaw dropped.

She started to laugh. “What’s wrong?”

“I didn’t expect your tattoo to be there and so big.”

She had a huge koi fish on her left side, under her breast a little over her ribs. It was bright, colorful and stunning. It had to have hurt like hell.

“It seemed the thing to do,” she said.

“You know I’ve got to ask when and why a koi fish?”

“I got it when I graduated from college. Like a gift to myself. It hurt like hiccups when it was being done.”

“Hiccups can hurt, but I’m sure you wouldn’t have wanted them while you were getting this.”

“No way,” she said, giggling. “I might have had some liquid courage to get it done, but I’m so happy that I did it.”

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