Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 94531 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94531 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
She called after me. “Have fun, sweetheart.”
After I brought out the supplies, Leo helped me board before he started up the boat and began to drive. I’d expected him to go a lot faster.
“Is there a reason you’re going so slow?” I asked.
“I guess I figured boating was somewhat…leisurely.”
“No.” I shook my head. “We have work to do. Let me at the wheel.”
Seeming amused, Leo grinned as he stepped aside.
I moved the throttle and we took off at warp speed, our hair blowing in the wind as mists of water sprayed us.
He shouted over the sound of the motor. “Apparently I’m only equipped to operate paddle boats.”
“It’s okay, newbie,” I yelled.
His teeth gleamed in the sunlight as he smiled wide. He was almost painfully handsome.
It had been a long time since I’d driven on the water. Boating was a popular pastime here, but neither Mrs. Angelini nor I owned a boat. So the only time I went out on the water was when a friend invited me or when Mrs. Angelini’s brother drove his boat from Newport to visit us and go clamming. He sometimes let me drive it. The rakes and other tools were technically his.
When we arrived at the part of the bay where I normally dug for clams, Leo and I docked the boat and got out.
“You’re going to need to roll up your pants,” I said.
“But we just met,” he teased.
That made me think how odd it was that I’d already seen him in the buff. That felt wrong. But maybe that’s why I never stopped blushing around him. The memory of his glorious physique was never far from my mind. And right now, in his dark jeans, his ass looked just as good as it had the day I saw him naked. Leo’s T-shirt was drenched from the spray of water that continually hit us on the ride here. The wet, white fabric clung to him, allowing me a clear outline of the sculpted chest underneath.
We started out in the water, digging for quahogs with the larger rakes.
“What is that thing?” he asked, looking down at the green plastic tool I held. It had a hole in the center.
“This is what we use to measure the size.”
“Interesting.” He smirked.
It looked kind of like a mini glory hole. But I wasn’t going to point that out.
“We have to hold our quahogs up to it, and if one of them slips through, it’s too small to keep. It’s actually illegal to take those.”
“Really. Well, you learn something new every day. I would’ve grabbed them all,” he said.
“No. That would be like kidnapping babies. And there’s a hefty fine if someone catches you.”
We weren’t having much luck in the water, so we moved over to the sand.
“You don’t want to dig too deep,” I said. “Five to eight inches…anything beyond that we won’t find anything. And only lightly move the sand around, otherwise you can murder the clam if you break the shell.”
“And they said this was fun and stress free.”
“You’ll get the hang of it. Just watch me.”
“Got it,” he said, though he kept unknowingly doing what I’d told him not to.
“These over here are too small,” I said. “Let’s move to a different spot. But we have to put the sand back first to help them survive.”
After moving to a different location, we finally ran into some luck.
“We hit the motherlode here!” I announced. “It’s a honey hole.”
He scrunched his nose. “A…honey hole?”
“Yeah. A sweet spot. A honey hole. That’s what Mrs. Angelini’s brother, Paul, calls it when you find a bunch of clams all convening together. Pretty sure he made up that name.”
“I love it.” Leo grinned.
About an hour into our adventure, Leo was finally getting the hang of things. Before I knew it, we’d filled an entire bucket with clams.
After our work was done, we took some time to relax on the sand.
Leo rested his arm on the top of the bucket. “That was a lot of work, but it was worth it.”
“Yeah, I like that it takes my mind off stuff when I get into it.”
“What’s on your mind? Something stressing you out?”
Should I be honest? I laughed. “You.”
His eyes went wide. “Me?”
“A little. Yeah,” I admitted. “Last night…was weird.”
“Ah.” He nodded. “Let’s talk about that. I wasn’t going to bring it up, but since you did…”
I shrugged. “I don’t know what to say about it. I guess I was nervous because I wasn’t expecting to see you, and then the fact that you were on a date was awkward, for some reason.”
“It was awkward for me, too,” he said.
“Running into me?”
“No. The date. I had no desire to go, but I gave in to my cousin’s prodding.”
I blinked. “You’re not seeing her again, or…?”
He shook his head. “I’m not interested in her.”
“I would imagine she’s disappointed, then.”