Summer Sizzle Read Online Free PDF

direction. She had gone from hot passion to cool logic in a matter of seconds.
    Now his turn had come to decide what kind of personal information to reveal, and what to keep safely hidden away. He carefully chose his words. “I’m…I guess you could say I’m retired.”
    Her expression went blank as she stared at him, as if she hadn’t heard what he said. Then she apparently found her voice. “You’re retired? You aren’t old enough. What you mean is that you’re unemployed.” Her abject disapproval came through loud and clear.
    He had earned a Doctorate of Sociology, and at his current age of thirty-nine was the youngest department head at the university. In fact, the youngest in the university’s history. Following his son’s death, he had tried to bury himself in academic duties but found each term more difficult to endure than the one before. So just prior to the beginning of the spring term, he had made the decision to take a one year sabbatical.
    He sold his house near the university, had sold everything but his clothes, car, and a few other personal items, and signed the one year lease on the beach house that belonged to his friend, Gary Sanderson.
    The work ethic that had driven him to his early success no longer held any importance. He found it necessary to live each day as it came, to throw off the yoke of his previous life, and to make decisions predicated on what he wanted at the moment rather than on what was deemed proper, acceptable, or practical. Building toward a future no longer mattered. No one was guaranteed a tomorrow. Not even this compulsively regimented woman who had suddenly invaded his life.
    “Look, Vicki. It’s dinner time, and I’m hungry.” Blake’s exasperation resounded in his voice. “Do you want me to help take your suitcases upstairs to the spare room, or do you need to use the phone to make a motel reservation and call a taxi? Hopefully, you won’t get the same driver who brought you here.”
    “I, well…” She nervously cleared her throat. “All right, I’ll accept your offer. But I must warn you. I know karate and…and I have a gun.”
    He couldn’t stop the open, easy laugh that shattered the tension filling the room. “Well, I don’t know karate, and I don’t own a gun.” He tilted his head to one side and studied her for a moment, a teasing grin playing across his lips. “And judging by your flamboyant display of spontaneity, maybe I’m the one who’d better make sure my bedroom door is locked.”
    “I—I didn’t mean to insinuate that—” She turned her back to him, but not quickly enough to prevent him from seeing her face and neck turn crimson with embarrassment.
    “The second bedroom at the end of the hall is yours.” Blake didn’t say anything else. He simply grabbed her suitcases and took them upstairs. When he came back down, he went straight out onto the deck.
    He had a kite to reel in. He untied the line from the railing and brought the colorful box kite down, setting it inside the living room next to the one he’d placed there earlier. Standing on the deck, he looked at the panorama spread out before him. It had been a beautiful, sunny day with only a few clouds on the horizon. The sunset promised to be a dazzling one, the type to be savored and enjoyed rather than merely accepted as the norm.
    “Yo, Blake!” The shout came from down the beach.
    Blake raised his hand to shade his eyes from the sunlight. He spotted his next door neighbor walking across the sand toward him. “Hey, Tim. What’s up?”
    Blake had met his gregarious, fun-loving neighbor the first day he moved into the beach house. Tim Flannigan was a partner in a very successful law firm but only went into the city two or three days a week. He could accurately be described as a playboy who lived life in the fast lane.
    Tim stopped next to the deck railing where Blake stood. “Party at my place on Saturday, a week from tomorrow, starting at seven o’clock and lasting