Free The Big 5-Oh! by Sandra D. Bricker Page A

realized this would be about as fresh as a seafood meal could get.
    “Tell me about your life back in Ohio,” Jared invited her. “What do you do there? Aside from shovel snow, that is.”
    “Well, I live next door to my best friend and her family. And I like to paint and sculpt,” she told him, absently pushing the straw in circles around the inside of her glass. “I work full-time in the operating room of a busy hospital.”
    “A nurse?”
    “Yes. Well, I was.”
    “It's a little early for retirement, isn’t it?”
    “Thanks for noticing,” she replied with a grin. “I think I mentioned the other night that I’d been diagnosed with cancer.”
    “That's right. Was it breast cancer?”
    “Ovarian.”
    “Ovarian, and you’re all clear now?” he asked.
    “I am.”
    “That's quite a blessing. Ovarian is one of the rough ones.”
    “It is indeed,” she agreed. “But … they’re all rough.”
    “True enough,” he said thoughtfully, and then he narrowed his eyes at her and smiled. “I seem to recall something else you’ve mentioned, more than once. Something about a curse and a fairly significant birthday sneaking up on you.”
    “Ah, yes. The birthday curse,” she replied just as the waiter set two beautiful green salads before them, and then dropped a heaping platter of cold shrimp on the table between them.
    “Will there be anything else?”
    “Not right now,” Jared answered. “Thank you.”
    While they polished off every one of the little critters, filling an empty plate to overflowing with discarded shells, Liv proceeded to entertain Jared with the dark comedic tale of the string of annual disasters that had plagued her for most of her life.
     

     
    Jared could hardly believe it when he glanced at his watch and realized they’d been in the restaurant for more than two hours. After the shrimp came a shared slice of key lime cheesecake and countless cups of decaf. And truth be told, when they made their way down the dock and boarded his Sun Runner, he wasn’t ready for the evening to end.
    “I haven’t had such a good time with someone in a long time,” he told her, the boat skipping across the bay.
    “Thank you,” she replied, and then she lowered her eyes, preventing him from searching them for a trace of reciprocation. “The meal was lovely,” she finally added.
    Jared flicked on the stereo. The Michael Bublé CD was still loaded; he’d had it playing while he cleaned the downstairs cabin the previous afternoon, and it made a nice soundtrack against the low-setting sun and vibrant purple sky.
    He glanced at Liv and found her swaying to the music, her full, red lips mouthing the words of the song as she stared out over the darkened water. The sun was a ball of fire on the horizon that set her short red hair ablaze in its reflection. She pulled her shawl around her shoulders and arms, and he noticed the creamy porcelain skin of her hands as she folded them in her lap.
    Jared's gaze began moving beyond her to the ocean view when he did a double take. Beneath the knee-length hem of herblack dress, his attention was drawn to shapely legs, crossed at the ankle.
    What in the world? he thought as he took a closer look.
    He wished he’d have darted his eyes away just a second faster, but Liv caught him gawking, and she followed suit. As she looked down at her own legs, she gasped, covering her mouth with both hands.
    “What is that?” she cried, popping to her feet and running a hand over one bright orange, striped leg. “Jared, what is it?”
    It looked for all the world as if she’d been spray-painted.
    “I don’t know,” he said, grabbing a towel from the bench behind him and handing it to her. “Try this.”
    She did, and nothing changed, and then sudden realization seemed to overwhelm her. Jared watched as she heaved a belabored sigh and dropped back down to the seat.
    “I can’t believe this.”
    “What is it?” he asked. “An allergy, maybe?”
    “No.”
    “What