Stef Ann Holm by Lucy Back (books to read in your 30s TXT) 📗

Every detail was taken care of for him. Soon the ladies were helped off the starboard side and handed cold beers, bags of chips, sandwiches and even a football.

Gossip buzzed around the dock, and within a few seconds, Sue glanced at Lucy. “Laker girls. How did he manage that?”

Lucy shrugged, fighting to keep her cool. How could she have ever thought Drew might find her attractive? He cavorted with the Laker girls—they were gorgeous. He could have any one he wanted, and he had a girlfriend.

Funny how she forgot about her meeting with the Greenbaums whenever she ran into Drew. Common sense seemed to desert her at the worst times. Ridiculous and reckless on her part. She knew he had a checkered past. Wasn’t good material for a stable future, or a future, period. He’d never married. He’d never had kids, wouldn’t understand the meaning of compromise.

Drew was wrong for her in every way possible.

Sue took a sip of beer. “Dave told me that boat cost a quarter of a million dollars.”

Lucy’s mouth dropped open. “You’ve got to be kidding.”

“Nope. Drew’s very well off.”

“How is that possible?” Lucy stared at him, watched as his smile flashed while he took the cigar from his lips and brought the neck of a beer to his mouth to drink. She hated that her heartbeat thudded in her chest, that her mouth went dry, that her thoughts were scrambled. “He’s retired. Surely he didn’t make that much money as a baseball player?”

“He did very well in professional sports. He’s smart. Dave is friends with the president of the Timberline First Savings and Loan, and he said Drew is a savvy investor. He’s got more money than he knows what to do with.”

Lucy licked her dry lips, hating to sound overly curious, but she couldn’t help herself. “Do you know anything about the drug scandal?”

“Not much. Drew quit baseball in the middle of a season. He wasn’t hitting well at all, and the press blamed it on steroids. There was that big scandal involving both leagues. Drew never received a deposition like the other players involved, so nobody knows for sure if it’s true or not. It does seem strange that he’d quit while under contract. I think there was a lawsuit about it. I’m not sure. He was a really good player. But sometimes, he’d be out there on the mound and he didn’t look so great.”

“You watched him?” Lucy’s curiosity was more piqued than ever.

“I’ve always been a fan of baseball. Dave got me hooked on it. I watched Drew play for years. I never dreamed I’d ever meet him. When he moved to Timberline, he was the talk at the High Country for months. He still is,” Sue laughed. “You have to admit, there’s just something about that man…”

Lucy said nothing.

The mayor of the dock came over, grabbed five beers out of Dave’s cooler and juggled them against his gut. Ice water dribbled down his stomach and he flinched. Glancing at Sue and Lucy, he proclaimed, “Drew and Jacquie are off again. This time for good.”

“Lloyd,” Sue said, her tone skeptical. “We’ve all heard that before.”

“No. It’s true. Drew said so. They’re finished.” Slanting his gaze sideways and taking in a wide-angle view of Drew, the scantily clad women and the expensive boat, Lloyd added, “He’s got Laker girls with him. That man sure has the knack. Found out they were up at the lodge on a calendar shoot and he invited them out on the dam for the day.”

Lloyd scurried over to join the guys drooling over the motor.

Sue shook her head, smiling. “Lloyd is going to wet himself one of these days.”

In spite of herself, Lucy laughed.

Nutter, Jason and Matt came over and wanted to know if they could take the raft and paddle it to shore.

Sue replied, “Yes, and take me along.”

“Mom,” Nutter whined. “It’s just the guys.”

“I need to go to the shore,” she said, not elaborating further.

Nutter wrinkled his nose. “Aw, Mom. Can’t you just go in the water?”

“No way. It’s only fifty degrees.” Sue held out her arm. “Help your mom up and take me to shore.”

For a moment, Lucy shaded her eyes and watched as the three boys rowed Sue toward the rust-colored embankment. Pines dotted the tops of the ridges, a thicket of greenery that left a fringy profile.

Slipping out of her T-shirt, but keeping her shorts on, she smoothed sunscreen across her chest and arms, then removed her sunglasses. She closed her eyes, leaned back in the chair and lounged in the sun.

The disk changer in Drew’s boat switched tracks and cranked out Foreigner’s “Jukebox Hero.” The bass line coursed through her, the energetic beat making it impossible to sit still. Eyes closed, she tapped her bare foot to the rhythm of rock and roll guitar riffs until she felt the sun’s warmth blocked from her body.

She peeked up through the shadows of her lashes.

“Hey, sugar,” Drew drawled above the music. “How’s your day going?”

He stood over her, tall and broad. Her eyelids lifted a little more, languid and lazy as she viewed him.

His chest was void of hair, smooth and contoured. The color of his skin was rich and golden, his nipples like flat pennies. At the base of his throat, his pulse slowly jumped and beat steadily. He had on a pair of smoky Ray-Bans, so she couldn’t see his eyes, simply her own reflection in the lenses.

The white of his shirt was a muted brilliance, the linen fabric looking soft, yet slightly wilted at the bottom. On him, it didn’t look bad. The trunks fit him loosely at the hips. She noticed the line of dark hair that trailed past his navel and below the waistband of the trunks. She glanced at the closure, the soft bulge, then darted her eyes upward as soon as she realized he could read her expression perfectly. Because he had the nerve to grin.

There was no one feeling she could describe when looking at