Double Exposure. Vicki Thompson Lewis

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СКАЧАТЬ love them.”

      “Then it’s settled.” She started for the door. This evening was becoming more exciting by the minute. Now they’d be able to have their meal in total privacy. “What kind of sandwich do you want?”

      “I eat anything. Surprise me.”

      She gave him a quick grin. “That’s what I like, a man with a sense of adventure.”

      He smiled back. “Then I’m your guy.”

      3

      KATE DECIDED THAT WALKING to the sub shop would be faster than trying to maneuver her car through the dense traffic, not to mention the challenge of finding a parking spot once she got there. She set out at a brisk pace, enjoying the salty air and the cry of the seagulls overhead. Walking also gave her a chance to consider the idea that had lodged in her brain and wouldn’t leave.

      Harry needed a massage. She had a basic knowledge of massage techniques. They’d have to work with the bed instead of using a massage table, but she’d had a little practice at that. She was no professional, but she was better than nothing. Besides, she’d had a massage nearly every week for the past five years, and then there was the crash course she and her ex-boyfriend Jonathan had taken last summer.

      Although Jonathan hadn’t thrived in that class, she’d had a great time. Come to think of it, his lack of interest in the massage class had marked the beginning of the end, although she’d never thought Jonathan was the answer to her prayers in the first place.

      But Harry…Harry had definite possibilities. She had only one quibble. A stupid and superficial quibble it was, too, and she was a little ashamed of herself. She wished he had a different name. A guy named Harry would be the kind who remembered to take out the garbage and put air in the tires, a nice enough fellow, but not the sort she’d associate with grand passion and undying love.

      Yet everything else about this man seemed totally perfect. Maybe she’d avoid using his name for the time being, and if everything worked out between them she’d create her own special name for him later on. Maybe he had a great middle name she could convince him to use.

      After reaching the sub shop, she had to stand in line for a few minutes before placing her order for two eight-inchers, one hot pastrami and one Italian meatball, and a couple of large Cokes. The twenty-minute wait for the order gave her enough time to run back to the combination souvenir shop and drugstore that she’d noticed on the way here. If she couldn’t find what she needed there, she’d take it as a sign that she was on the wrong track with this massage plan.

      Inside the store, she stood and surveyed the display of T-shirts, miniature lighthouses and shell jewelry. The place was crowded, like everywhere else in Newport on this June evening. She glanced at her watch and waited with more than a little impatience for browsers to move out of the way so she could continue her search. She’d never meandered in her life, and it made her crazy when confronted with such a random waste of time.

      Just when she was about to give up, the woman blocking a particular glass shelving unit walked to the far side of the shop. Sure enough, the top shelf held a set of three scented oils. Kate only needed the bottle of almond, but she didn’t mind paying for the other two.

      As she took the shrink-wrapped basket containing the oils to the front of the store and handed them to the woman standing at the register, she glanced behind the counter and noticed a tube of antiseptic cream. That would be good for the cut on Harry’s forehead. Kate asked the clerk to add that to her purchase.

      Then another item on the rack behind the counter caught Kate’s eye. She didn’t usually keep such an item with her, yet, under the circumstances, it might become essential. Still, buying it in advance seemed…weird. Of course, she considered herself a sexually liberated woman, so it shouldn’t seem weird. Yet she’d never bought this particular item before.

      “Will that be all?” the dark-haired woman asked with a smile.

      “Um….” Kate hesitated as she quickly reviewed the situation. She was about to give Harry a massage, assuming he agreed to that. She thought he would. Secondly, he was attracted to her, or else he wouldn’t have been fishing around trying to find out if she had a boyfriend.

      If that attraction led to something more, she was open to that possibility. Yes, it was all happening fast, but Harry wasn’t some stranger she’d picked up in a bar. He was Stuart’s best friend, a respected medical professional, and a certified hero. He’d only be in Rhode Island for the weekend, so she didn’t have a lot of time to play the dating game. And she was dying to be swept away.

      Yet she was unprepared in one very important way to be swept away, and she had to assume he was, too. Now was her chance to remedy that, if she had the nerve. Was she willing to lose a golden opportunity out of a stupid sense of false modesty? So what if she was buying massage oil at the same time?

      The clerk waited expectantly.

      Kate took a deep breath. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. “I’ll take a package of those.” She pointed toward the display.

      The clerk turned toward the back wall. “Which package?” she asked.

      “The…the red one.”

      The clerk pulled the package from the display and laid it on the counter next to the basket of massage oil and antiseptic cream while she rang up all three purchases. The array was pretty damned suggestive, and Kate willed the clerk to proceed a little faster.

      Of course the woman fumbled, hit the wrong keys, had to void out the tape and start over. Kate drummed her fingers on the counter and stared into space with as much sophisticated nonchalance as she could muster. But when the clerk finished ringing up the items and started to put everything in one bag, Kate stopped her.

      “I’ll take those in my purse,” she said, snatching the condoms. With all the stuff already crammed in there, she had a devil of a time working the package to the bottom. Her bracelets jangled as she pulled out her wallet and moved aside her camera, compact, lipstick, lip pencil, mascara, blush, a pad of paper, two spare rolls of film, an emery board, a packet of tissues, breath mints and three ballpoint pens.

      “Do you want your receipt in the bag?” asked the clerk.

      “Yes. I mean, no, I’ll just take it.” Kate grabbed the receipt and stuffed it in her wallet the minute she realized that it probably spelled out exactly what she’d bought besides massage oil. She didn’t have the nerve to look at the clerk again as she snapped her wallet shut, crammed it into her purse and whisked the plastic bag containing the oil off the counter.

      Ten minutes later she’d picked up the food order and was on her way back to the inn. The closer she came, the faster her heart beat. She’d complained in the past about the lack of excitement in her life. Now here she was faced with the possibility of genuine, twenty-four-carat excitement, and she was scared. For one thing, she might be rejected. For another, she might not.

      But this was what she’d longed for ever since she’d read Gone With the Wind at the age of eleven. Time to put up or shut up. Taking a deep breath, she walked into the Townsend House and down the hall toward the back door that led into the rose garden. She wondered if Harry had shaved.

      FIRST HUGH UNPACKED. Then, when Kate still hadn’t returned, he unzipped his shaving kit, stripped off his T-shirt and lathered up his day-old beard. As he stroked the razor through the minty foam, СКАЧАТЬ