Free Lily of the Valley in May by Clare Revell

please. And did you fax the schedule to DS Chadwick?”
    “I did that last night. And sure, I’ll organize the upgrade.”
    “Thank you.”
    “Are you sure you don’t just want the one room?”
    “Quite sure. It’s complicated, but there are three of us now, and the third person insists on staying as close as possible.”
    “Really?”
    Joel winked at Faith. “Yeah, her not-so-secret admirer came with us. So if you could do the suite that would be great. See you in a month. Bye.” He hung up and put the phone back in his pocket.
    Faith looked at him. “Now what?”
    “Now, I want to go walk on the beach before the hard work starts.”
    “What time’s the first signing?”
    “Ten o’clock tomorrow morning. So today we play. We have plenty of time.”
    Was that suspicion in her eyes? “Play?”
    He pushed a hand through his hair. “Yeah, play. Walk on the beach, paddle, and build sandcastles. The kind of stuff you probably haven’t done in years.”
    Faith shook her head. “No, I haven’t.”
    “Then let’s go. But today we’re just going to be us.”
    “Us plus the bodyguard. He’s going to get antsy if we don’t appear soon.”
    “Tough.” Joel checked his watch. “We’re meeting him in the lobby in three minutes, so best get a wriggle on. Don’t want to be late and spark a police alert.”
    ~*~
    Wind whipped the waves into a frenzy as Joel led Faith along the beach. His hand rested just next to hers, but he stopped himself short of taking it. No doubt this Damien had also scared her off men for life. His blood boiled at the thought of someone ever laying a hand on her. Her words were so quiet at first half of them got blown away by the wind. “I’m sorry? I didn’t hear what you said.”
    “When we were kids, we’d build the most amazing sandcastles. They’d have four turrets, a moat, dungeons, with some of those flags to go on them. You know the ones with the dragon and the harp and the lions.”
    “Yes, I remember those. Bradley loved them, too.” He looked at her. “Wanna build one?”
    “Are you for real?”
    He grinned. “Sure. We’ll take photos and everything.”
    “We don’t have a bucket or spade.”
    “But the shop over there does. Come on.”
    Ten minutes later they were kneeling on the sand digging out the moat. DC Blondell, an older man than Joel had imagined, sat a little distance away, pretending to read the paper. Joel was surprised how organized Faith was at sandcastles. She marked out the sand first, collecting shells and seaweed as she found them.
    “Bradley liked burying me in the sand.”
    She looked up at him, pushing her hair from her eyes. “Really?”
    “The higher up the better. I remember once, he buried me to my waist. Unfortunately there was a sand crab in there, too.”
    “Oh, no.” Was that a hint of a smile on her face? “Was it a hungry crab?”
    “Oh, yeah. I still have the scar on my leg to prove it.” Joel pulled his trouser leg up to show her the inch long scar on his calf. “Hard part was not letting on to Bradley it’d hurt me. He was upset enough as it was.”
    “I bet. Did you ever let him bury you again?”
    “Yes...but I checked the sand myself first.”
    “Can I bury you?”
    “No.”
    She laughed. “OK, then.” She looked at the turret she was making and frowned at it. She pressed several shells into it for windows. “Rick used to bury the three of us. He didn’t let us do it back though.”
    “Course not. It’s one rule for him and one for you. It’s a brother thing.”
    “That’s what he said. What about you?”
    “I’d bury Elliott and he’d thrash me at golf. He still does come to think about it.”
    Faith stuck the flags in the top of the turrets. “There. Finished.”
    Joel pulled out his phone. “Then its photo time.”
    Faith did lots of silly poses and then, pulled him over to her, leaning against his chest. “Take one of us both and text it to Grace. Going to the beach was never the same after