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

then?”
    Liv looked up at him with dewy eyes and a crooked attempt at a smile. “It's bronzer.”
    “Bronzer?”
    “I bought it this afternoon,” she admitted. “My legs were pasty Ohio white, and I didn’t want to be embarrassed. I thought a little bronzer might …” She trailed off without finishing, and dropped her face into her hands.
    Jared tried to keep his grin in check, but he couldn’t help himself, so he just lowered his head and angled his face away from her. Once composed, he rested his hand on her shoulder and patted it gently.
    “I look like I was left out for a couple of months after a rain. I’m rusted!” she exclaimed. “This is so embarrassing.”
    “This is not embarrassing,” he reassured her. “It's just another beauty product gone mad. It happens all the time. My nurse, Georgia, came in one Monday morning with hair as green as seaweed.”
    Liv separated her fingers and looked at him hopefully from between them.
    “I kid you not. She is a peroxide-bleached blonde, she got hold of some new product, and her hair went completely green. They couldn’t dye it back for a week, so she had to just wear that green hair. It wouldn’t have been so bad if she were Irish instead of Southern Belle.”
    Liv snorted, then buried her face in her hand again as she giggled.
    “Or if it had been March instead of July. She could have blamed it on St. Patrick.”
    After a moment, Jared reached over and pried Liv's hands away from her face, and then pulled one toward him and planted a kiss on one knuckle.
    “Besides, as long as it's not a jumpsuit you’re wearing by the side of the road,” he told her, “you look very nice in orange.”
    Liv punched at him and chuckled.
    “I’ve heard sometimes chlorine water causes the fake-bake stuff to fade,” he suggested. “Why don’t you come over for a coffee and soak your legs in my pool?”
    “No. Thank you, but—”
    “C’mon.”
    It hadn’t taken much convincing, and Jared was thankful for a reason to remain in Liv's company a little longer. There was something about this woman, something he couldn’t quite label or explain to himself. She gave off a ray of light that warmed him to the core. He hadn’t even known he’d been cold.
    The pool lights cast a pale ice-blue sheen on the water, and movement sent wavy lines of light across the surface. Jared strode toward her, tray in hand, as Liv perched on the edge of the pool, legs extended out over the concrete steps, rubbing them vigorously with both hands.
    “Do you like cappuccino?” he asked.
    “I do, but I can’t have caffeine this late or I’ll be up all night.”
    “It's decaf,” he told her. “I have the same problem in my old age.”
    “Hey. Did you just label me old ?” she teased.
    “No. I labeled me that way.”
    “Oh, okay. That's all right then.”
    “Hey.”
    Jared rolled the hems of his trousers up to just below the knee, and then sat down beside Liv on the flagstone, the tray of coffee between them, both sets of legs dangling over the edge of the pool steps. The underwater light magnified the difference in their skin pigments; his suntanned legs looked as white as a starched sheet in the reflection, and hers were orange, like the top layer of color on a piece of candy corn.
    “I’ve had a really good time tonight, Jared,” she said, and her voice was as soft and sweet as a lone flute playing in the distance. “Thank you for inviting me.”
    “Thank you for coming along,” he replied. “I’m glad to know you enjoyed yourself.”
    “Aside from the whole orange leg thing,” she told him with an arched brow, “it's been perfect.”
    “I told you. I think you look beautiful in orange.”
    “It is my color,” she acknowledged, and they shared a smile as the now-familiar sweet citrus scent of her shampoo wafted by him.
    Jared knew it was too soon, but he didn’t allow himself a moment to think it through. Throwing caution to the wind, he reached toward her and