Free Right Place, Wrong Time by Judith Arnold Page A

closely. She was too busy choking down the last couple of bites of her sandwich. A few sips of juice, and she’d join Alicia on seashell patrol.
    Before she could lift her juice box to her mouth, Alicia came racing back to their table, her feet churning the sand and the two narrow braids behind her ear dancing, the beads bouncing like blue bubbles against the dark background of her hair. “Aunt Gina! Aunt Gina! Guess what I saw?”
    Gina was so grateful to Alicia for rescuing her from the lovebirds she lowered her juice box and struck a thoughtful pose. “An orangutan?” she guessed.
    Alicia pulled a don’t-be-silly face. “No! It’s—”
    “No, let me guess. A zeppelin?”
    “A lizard!” Alicia told her. “A big green lizard!”
    “I bet it’s an iguana,” Ethan said.
    Gina eyed him, surprised. She hadn’t realized he’d been listening.
    “It’s really big and funny-looking,” Alicia announced, yanking on Gina’s hand as if she could pull Gina’s attention back to her. “Hurry, Aunt Gina, come look at him before he runs away.”
    Gina had never seen an iguana before—and she wasn’t sure she wanted to see one now. But she bravely stood and let Alicia drag her across the beach. A shadow stretched beside her, and when she glanced to her leftshe saw Ethan loping to catch up to them. “Kim’s a wimp,” he said, “but I want to see the iguana.”
    “How do you know it’s an iguana?” Alicia asked. “It could be a dinosaur.”
    “I don’t think so.” He flashed a smile at her. “Iguanas are indigenous to the region.”
    “What does that mean?”
    “They live here,” Gina explained.
    Alicia halted. “It’s right over there,” she said, lowering her voice to a near whisper as she pointed toward an outcrop surrounded by scrubby beach grass and ferns. Perched upon the rock, basking in the sun, was a large lime-colored creature, as grotesque in appearance as the fish had been beautiful. Its skin reminded Gina of textured vinyl, its head was circled in green fringes that resembled the collar a court jester might wear in a Renaissance castle and its tail draped over the rock, long and wiry.
    Gina flinched. It was truly a vile-looking beast. Now that she’d viewed it from only a few feet away, it would probably be starring in her nightmares for years to come.
    “Yuck,” she muttered, then pivoted on her heel and stalked back to the picnic table, at which Kim sat with her book spread open but her gaze on the rock where Alicia had discovered the monster. Her smile was quizzical as Gina collapsed onto the bench and hugged her arms around herself. “That was the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen.”
    “Really?” Kim laughed, but she seemed sympathetic. “I don’t like insects. I figured I wouldn’t like iguanas, either.”
    “It was scary. Ugly enough to creep me out.” Gina gave a shudder, then reached for her abandoned juice box. She took a deep sip through the straw and wishedthe apple juice were applejack, or something even stronger, something to help her recover from the sight of that horrid lizard.
    By the rock, Ethan had hunkered down to eye level with Alicia. Gina could see his mouth moving, but he was too far away for her to hear the words. “He’s an environmental nut,” Kim said. “He runs the Gage Foundation, an organization that gives grants to protect habitats.”
    Gina nodded, impressed. She wouldn’t have figured him for that kind of career. He seemed like such a white-bread businessman, as upper-crust as Kim and her snotty parents.
    “He actually thinks insects are interesting.” Even wrinkling her nose, Kim looked adorable. “I guess I’ll have to get used to his weird interests once we get married.”
    “You’re engaged?” Gina asked, eyeing Kim’s left hand. No ring, but she was reading that book about diamonds.
    Kim wiggled her fingers. “We’ll probably pick a ring out down here. The jewelry stores offer fabulous discounts. And of course everything’s