Dark Beach Read Online Free PDF

allowed in the hot tub. Maybe I should just tell him now. Ron had disappeared to bring wine and snacks.
    Steam billowed up from the tub, covering the glass doors that faced the ocean . They were open just a crack; the sea air was so crisp she didn’t want it to seep in, but she still wanted to hear the rhythmic waves. She stood and made her way to the light switch, dimming the lights, and then moved to the French doors to gaze down at the empty beach. It was beautiful. Isolated. Down on the dune, a sudden movement rippled the long grass near a sullen, lone rock. Was that a rock? It resembled someone crouching. She shivered and pulled the doors shut as faint footsteps sounded on the stairs.
    “What did you do about that door?”
    “How’d you know I was there?” Ron said, sounding disappointed.
    “I heard you sneak up th e stairs, and I expected it.” Jenny leaned over into the tub and wet her hands, wiping the warm water up her arms, torso and neck. “I don’t feel right, leaving Kip down there. Not with the door wide open.”
    “It’s fine.” Ron couldn’t help but watch the curves of her slim body as she leaned over. “I nailed it up. Found a hammer in the garage. It’ll hold until we get the locksmith out. Wine and cheese?” He set a bottle and platter down on the nearby vanity.
    Jenny flashed him an inviting smile. “Sounds good. I’m starved.”
    “Even after our big dinner?”
    She nodded.
    “Hop in,” Ron said.
    “Not just yet. It’s too hot. I’ll just sit here a minute.”
    “Open the doors then.” Ron threw them wide open and then joined her. They watched each other, both enjoying a bite of Camembert and cracker.
    So perfectly fit in every way. Jenny admired her husband’s body as he sat on the side of the tub . All that working out, she thought.
    Noticing her gaze, Ron slid into the bubbling water.
    “Blue wineglasses. Blue everything.” She gestured to the glass of red wine, now a deep purple, which she had set down on the edge of the tub.
    “Nana’s favorite color. She’s a big water person.”
    Jenny laughed. “I can tell, and she likes fishermen.”
    “Fishermen?”
    “Yes, by the front door—that quote.”
    “I don’t know what that’s from. It wasn’t there when I lived here.” Ron took a swig of wine, following it up with a bite of extra-mature cheddar.
    “What did your grandfather do?” Jenny dangled her legs in the tub beside him.
    “He was a cattleman. They had a ranch down south, but it wasn’t doing well. He consolidated and they came up here in the early sixties, when Rocky Shores started up. Ironically, the land here before was a cattle ranch. It was a compromise to come to the ocean. He preferred the open fields, in with the dirt, on his horse, but my Nana had only been to the ocean once. She fell in love with it. It captured her heart. Apparently they bickered for a good many years about coming out here.”
    “And she won.”
    “Yes, she won. Seems to me she had a big say.”
    “Maybe she had a secret romance with a fisherman.”
    “No! She wasn’t like that. She was proper, strict at times, had me doing chores for even looking at her the wrong way.” Ron tucked his hands behind his head and leaned back into the heat and the bubbles. “Do you want to meet her?”
    Jenny frowned. “You mean she’s here . Now?”
    “Yes, but not now ... tomorrow. Her retirement home is in town. Busy Bee Meadows—something like that.”
    “Cute name, although they’re not really busy bees, are they?”
    Ron chuckled. “No. But we could be.” Jumping up, wet and all, he scooped Jenny up in his arms and carried her over to the mahogany-framed bed.
    “Ron!” she squealed.
     
    * * *
     
    “That was … exactly what I needed.”
    They lay entwined, sprawled on the wet sheets.
    “But look at the mess we’ve made.” Jenny splayed out one hand, rubbing it across the sheet, feeling the warm damp beneath her. “I’ll have to wash all this tomorrow.”
    “Who