Free Fireworks at the Lake by Berengaria Brown Page A

surgery or an accident? Lack of self-esteem?
    Moving slightly to the left, Luke tilted the Stetson a little higher to get a better view of the brown-haired man. He was thin but not skinny. His shoulders were broad and in proportion to his height. His hips were lean and narrow. No, nothing wrong with his physique.
    A wave splashed up Luke’s leg, wetting his knee. Okay the tide was definitely coming in. It was time to move. He’d use it as an opportunity to speak to the watcher, to listen to what kind of voice he had, maybe get a good conversation going and find out something about him as a person.
    Luke sat up straight and put his hat back on his head, then stood and folded his chair. Purposefully he stretched to his full height, looking all around as he did so. The watcher was looking down at the sand. Luke willed him to look up, and he did. Big brown eyes and a wide mouth that smiled at him. Luke smiled back.
    “Hey there. Name’s Luke.”
    “Andrew.”
    “Do you live here, or are you just here for the Fourth?”
    “Neither. I’m here for the three-day holiday weekend. Back to work on Monday.”
    He had a nice voice. Light, but not immature. Easy on the ears. Luke could get used to hearing that voice whispering in his ear as they played naughty bedroom games. His eyes gleamed and sparkled in the sunlight as if he was happy to talk to Luke. That was positive. “Me, too. Also, I’m starving. Want to come grab some food with me?”
    “Sure. There’s not much choice, though, unless you want to get dressed up and go to the restaurant at the resort. It’s pretty much either hot dogs or pizza.”
    “Pizza sounds good to me. How about you?”
    Luke was almost blinded by the dazzling smile his watcher -- Andrew -- gave him. “Pizza is fine by me.”
    “Come on then.” Luke shoved his feet into sandals, slung his lawn chair over his shoulder, and side by side they walked across the narrow band of sand, then up over a grassy area back to the parking lot. He stopped beside his car to drop the chair in the trunk, then they turned right into the heart of the town. Well, “heart” wasn’t the correct word. Main Street wasn’t even a half mile long. There was a general store, a post office, an ice cream store that also sold books and magazines, the pizza place, and not much else. Even though it was mid-afternoon, the pizza store was still crowded. They ordered their pizzas, were given paper tickets, and told “twenty minutes.”
    “Let’s wait outside. It’s very noisy in here,” suggested Andrew.
    “Yeah. We can come back in fifteen minutes which should be heaps of time.” They crossed the road back toward the lakeside, and Luke dropped down to sit on the grass. He’d been sitting for hours, but he wanted Andrew to relax, and standing together in the center of a patch of grass would look odd, whereas sitting and talking should look like a normal couple on vacation.
    “My family came here a few times when I was a kid. I wanted to see if it’d changed,” Luke said.
    “And has it?”
    “Nup.”
    “That’s amazing. Everything changes so fast these days. I’m surprised you even recognize the place.”
    Luke nodded at Andrew. “I know. In some ways it’s weird. I walked down to the lake today and put my lawn chair just exactly where my mom always used to put hers. I didn’t even notice I was doing it until after I was sitting down. It’s surprising how powerful old habits become.”
    “Habits. I suppose the good ones, it’s smart to copy them. It’s just knowing which are the bad ones that we should get rid of.”
    Wow. Sounds like he’s been hurt in a relationship . That was a perceptive comment indeed. Is that why he keeps his shirt on? Has someone told him he’s too skinny? Luke held his breath for a moment. Was this his opportunity to take the conversation deeper, to find out what really mattered to Andrew, or was it much too soon? They hadn’t even known each other an hour yet. But if he wasted