Free to Love by Sydell Voeller Page B

can’t expect you to keep doing that—especially when we need to get the roof on as soon as possible.”
    He stroked his chin. She was right about that much. The bundles of shingles he’d stacked in the carport a week ago still lay unopened, and he’d grown more frustrated every time he’d spied them.
    “All right. Just take it easy, okay? I’ll keep breakfast warm till you get back.”
    Her lips parted in a saucy smile. “I’ll make you a deal I won’t run today—or the rest of the week either. I’ll just take a walk. Nothing more.”
    “Promise?”
    “Scout’s honor.”
    “Mind if I walk with you?”
    “Of course not. But just don’t worry so. I’m going to be fine.”
    “Of course you are. I guess I’ve been so busy playing doctor to you and Marcella, I haven’t had the good sense to know when to stop.” He darted her a contrite smile. “Sorry, Jo.”
    “Don’t apologize. Your help has been a godsend, believe me. Taking over at the beach cleanup. Helping with Auntie. Cooking my meals.” She hesitated. “And most of all, bringing me yellow roses.”
    An hour later, they strolled hand in hand down the beach. A lazy sun shed its soft milky light as it filtered through the mist rising up from the water. The breeze nipped their cheeks and tousled their hair.
    Throngs of others had flocked there also—undoubtedly in an attempt to capture the last beautiful days of autumn. Teenagers threw Frisbees. Dogs barked. Children with plastic buckets filled with water knelt as they built sand castles. Overhead, an assortment of brightly-colored kites drifted on the wind.
    Austin let go of her hand, then stooped to pick up a flat gray rock. He pitched it far into the ocean. They watched it plunge below the blue-gray depths.
    “Ah! Not bad,” he said with a laugh. “I haven’t done that since I was a kid.” He caught her hand again and gave it a quick squeeze.
    “Everything’s so beautiful!” Joanna exclaimed, filling her lungs with the tangy salt air. “One week indoors, and I feel as if I’ve been away from this forever.” Today, for some reason, the sea appeared more translucent. The sand whiter. The sky a thousand times bluer.
    Was it merely her confinement that had sharpened her senses so? Or this wonderful, caring man striding close by her side? The thought caught her suddenly off guard, making her heart turn over.”
    “Ah, Jo. You should’ve been a mermaid.” He angled her a look, then paused, his eyes teasing. “If I remember my Greek mythology correctly,” he went on, “the mermaids’ singing lured many a sailor. And the German story of the nymph Lorelei says she inhabited a cliff overlooking the Rhine.”
    “And if I’m remembering right,” she teased back, “Lorelei turned out to also be the poor sailors’ undoing. She beckoned them to the rocks below. She caused their destruction.”
    He chuckled. “But isn’t that the destiny of every unfortunate man who falls beneath the wiles of an alluring female?”
    She pulled her eyes from his, wondering whether his statement carried some hidden agenda. She had to ask. “And that’s why, Austin Sullivan, in all your thirty-one years, you’ve made sure to stay single? To escape such destruction?”
    “Perhaps. But don’t knock bachelorhood.” The mirth vanished from his face. “There’s something to be said for going it alone.”
    He balled his hand into a fist, his thoughts spinning. What that something was, he could no longer be sure—but he’d be damned if he’d admit that to her. Besides, he’d soon be gone, and so much the better. These past weeks had tested his restraint in ways he’d never anticipated.
    They walked on in silence, listening to the gentle hiss of the surf licking the shore. Straight ahead, Cape Castaway jutted out. In minutes, they approached a small deserted cove and stopped to gaze at a rocky precipice where, at the bottom, russet-colored starfish clung. The cliff, deeply chiseled and glistening with