Free Interior Designs by Pamela Browning Page A

how Talma handled that. Selby wouldn't go anywhere without that doll."
    "Perhaps Talma bought her a new one," said Cathryn, trying to inject a hopeful note. It moved her that this man, usually so ebullient, was allowing her to see him defenseless. There was no sense of his wanting her pity, and there was no self-pity, either. There was just a trusting openness that was rare between two people and a humanness that she found endearing.
    "Perhaps she bought her a new one," repeated Drew, although he didn't sound convinced. He drew a deep breath. "Well. This isn't why we came here. Let's head to the beach."
    He took her by the hand again and led her through the dim house, and this time as she walked past the shrouded furniture, she almost thought she saw the slim line of a child's leg disappearing around a corner and heard the echo of a little girl's laughter in a faraway room. No wonder Drew hadn't wanted to come here by himself. The place was full of ghosts.
    She breathed a sigh of relief when they reached a large kitchen. Sun flooded the room, stinging her eyes but chasing the shadows. Here all ghosts faded, and Drew, with an effort, managed to look more like himself.
    Along the back of the house was a raised deck, screened and awninged and with a marvelous view of sand dunes and ocean beyond. Between the deck and the dunes grew one fabulous old scrub oak tree with wide branches that almost swept the ground in places.
    "This is lovely, Drew," she said.
    "I think so, too," he said. He slipped a casual arm around her shoulders, hugging her close.
    She welcomed the embrace. She felt emotionally drained, and she suspected that he did, too.
    "Let's take a blanket and lie on the sand," he said. "Do you need to change clothes?"
    She shook her head. "I wore my swimsuit under my shorts."
    They made their way down to the ocean side of the dunes, where he looked down at the gauzy strawberry-red top she wore over white shorts that showed off her tanned legs. She'd worn her hair pinned up for coolness and comfort. "Nice togs," he said. "Better than that heavy vest you wore this morning. Where is it written that runners have to look like the Pillsbury doughboy?"
    "It gets cool in the morning sometimes."
    "I know," he said. "Next time you're feeling cold, let me know. I'm sure I'll be able to think of some way to warm you up."
    "Warm me up, melt the ice," Cathryn said with mock exaggeration, glad that their mood had taken a turn for the better. "You can't seem to talk about anything else."
    "I can't seem to think of anything else," he said, helping her to spread the blanket and then pulling off his shorts and shirt.
    She thought he would look away as she undressed, but he didn't. He watched with interest but made no comment. Self-consciously she removed her shorts, feeling awkward under his gaze, and she sat down before she pulled off her blouse. This was ridiculous, she told herself. It wasn't the same as undressing in front of a man, say, in a bedroom, and she suspected that if it were a bedroom, she wouldn't feel nearly as modest.
    Stripped down to her white bikini, she settled herself beside him on the blanket, inhaling the tangy salt air and digging her toes into the warm sand. Little sandpipers scurried on matchstick legs ahead of the waves, looking for whatever it was they always searched for in the sand at the edge of the sea. Other houses, far apart, lined the beach, but she and Drew were the only people in sight.
    Drew lay beside her on his back, his eyes closed, his face at peace, all traces of emotional turmoil gone. It amused him that she'd been so inhibited about taking her clothes off. Obviously she wasn't used to putting on that kind of performance in front of a man, which he found reassuring. Despite her occasional coolness, he didn't think she was prudish. He'd found her too passionate for that. But it was clear that she wasn't the kind of woman who spread her favors around indiscriminately, either.
    Cathryn rolled over on