Page 29 of Almost Priest

In the distance about fifty feet out from the coast was a small square dock. Tristan had swum out there earlier and had been napping there ever since. Sam knew from watching him go that after about twenty feet the lake floor became untouchable. There’d be no going in the water for her.

Sheilagh lay on her belly across a bright orange beach towel facing Patrick as they played Gin Rummy. A small radio broke the silence and Sam softly tapped her foot in the coarse yellow sand to the beat.

“Gin!” Sheilagh declared.

“Finally! Come on, I’m sweating. Let’s go in the water,” Pat said as he stood and stretched.

“Race you to the dock?”

“Yeah, because that’s not obvious,” Patrick teased and Sheilagh shoved him as she darted into the water.

She seemed to have no issue with running around in nothing but Lycra strings and patches. “Wanna come, Sam?”

She stood and shaded the top of her sunglasses and looked up at Patrick. He was a sweet kid and Sam really appreciated the way he always included her in whatever else the others were doing.

“No thanks. I think I’m going to take a nap.”

“Okay, suit yourself. You may wanna put on some more sun block though. Your nose is getting red.”

He ran off and Sam took his advice and rubbed in a bit more sunscreen. It wasn’t long before she was peacefully lounging in one of the abandoned chairs on the cusp of sleep, basking in the warmth of the sun.

A while later as the distant voices and splashing from the water faded into white noise, the chill of a shadow passed over her as if the clouds were momentarily blocking the sun. The thud of something hitting the sand made her realize it wasn’t the clouds blocking the sun, but a person casting shadows.

She opened her eyes and stilled at the sight of Colin. Grateful for the veil her dark glasses provided she watched him unfold a beach chair and remove his shirt. Knowing her voyeurism was wrong, she covertly kept her lashes lowered in case he looked her way and saw through her lenses.

She wasn’t prepared when he paused before seating himself to boldly stare at her. Suddenly very aware of her body, his gaze a caress upon her sun kissed thighs, she fought the urge to fidget. Her fingers, although completely still, felt as if they were slightly twitching along with her toes.

What was he looking at? His gaze roamed over her knees and down to her ankles.

“You better put sun block on your feet. They’re burning.”

She tensed.

Should she quit her campaign to feign sleep and admit she was watching him too, or continue on with her see-through ruse for self-preservation’s sake?

Damn it!She was such a crappy liar. She lifted her glasses and smiled. “Thanks.” Reaching into her bag she pulled out her sun block.

“How’s the water?”

“Uh, I don’t know. I haven’t been in.”

She avoided looking at him by taking an extra-long time rubbing the milky sunscreen into her arches and making sure to get deep between her toes where sun would likely never touch.

Sheilagh’s laughter traveled to them from far out by the dock. Patrick was wading in the water close by as Tristan tickled her. Sam wondered if she had somehow misinterpreted his sexual orientation the evening before. What he was doing with Luke’s sister was unmistakably flirting.

“What’s wrong?”

She turned to Colin and again was reminded of how devastatingly handsome he was. “What?”

“You’re frowning. Is something wrong?”

“Oh. No, I was just watching them.”

Colin looked to the dock and sighed. “I should worry that a man seven years older than my baby sister is touching her that way, but Sheilagh’s a force to be reckoned with. She won’t let him take things too far.”

While that may be true, Samantha disagreed. She could already tell that if Tristan were open to more intimate matters with Sheilagh, all he would need to do is say so and the girl would be agreeable to anything he wanted.

They watched the two play a moment longer when suddenly Sheilagh lost her footing and stumbled off the dock, arms pin- wheeling as she fell.

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