Sea of Love: A Bayberry Island Novel by Susan Donovan Read Free Book Online Page B

signal to speak. He turned in his chair. “Good afternoon,” he said. “I hope I didn’t intrude.”
    All six of the senior citizens answered him, assuring him that he had not, and then stared him down with quizzical expressions. He glanced at himself and laughed, deciding to angle the chair into the room again in order not to appear rude. “I had to run all the way here from town square. Unfortunately, I don’t have anything to change into at the moment.”
    The eyebrows of all three older women rose in unison. Ash realized too late that he’d probably wandered into TMI territory.
    Or perhaps not.
    “Absolutely nothing?” The woman who asked this sat frozen in her chair, teacup stopped midway between her saucer and her mouth.
    “Well, no. My belongings are locked away in my sailboat, which is at the marine yard getting repaired. I’ll need to get my things once the storm passes.”
    “Did you kiss the mermaid’s hand and ask that she grant you true love?”
    Ash laughed. “I wasn’t given much of a choice. I was kidnapped.” He watched the group exchange knowing glances.
    “You’re this year’s Man Grab?”
    He smiled at the woman who’d asked. “So I’ve been told.” There was another round of knowing glances.
    “You’re a guest here?”
    “I am,” he answered the man. The group seemed inordinately curious about him, and he was about to learn why.
    “The six of us have been coming here for festival week since 1974, and we’ve stayed here at Safe Haven since it opened twenty-some years ago. We’ve never seen you before.”
    “This is my first visit to the island.”
    “What room are you staying in?”
    “I don’t know. I haven’t been checked in yet.”
    “Do you have dinner plans?”
    “Uh, not at the moment.”
    “Are you here alone?”
    “Well . . .”
    “We’re nudists.”
    Ash had been looking forward to enjoying a hot cup of coffee since Miss Flynn had so kindly offered, but it was a good thing he hadn’t yet received it—because the coffee would have just been spewed across the sunroom.
    “There’s a nude beach here, you know.”
    He knew, but he seemed to have lost his ability to speak.
    “The textiles aren’t the only ones who have fun around here during festival week, let me assure you.”
    Ash felt his hands grip the rattan armrests. He must have looked lost, because the third woman laughed and waved her hand around languidly.
    “Oh, that’s what we call people who wear clothes all the time,” she explained. “You know, textiles are fabrics, and clothes are made of fabric, so the people who wear clothes are textiles.”
    Ash cracked his neck and tried to keep that polite smile in place because, really, this was some wicked funny shit. These people had to be in their sixties at the very least, still running around naked in their retirement years! It was times like these that he missed Brian the most. He would have loved this.
    “You seem shocked,” one of the men said.
    He shook his head.
    The laughing woman waved her hand around again. “Then you should join us at the beach tomorrow. We’re having our own version of the parade, just without the costumes.”
    Ash swallowed hard.
    At that exact moment, Rowan Flynn arrived with a coffee tray and placed it on the small wicker side table next to Ash. He had never been so glad to see anyone in his life.
    “Here you go, Mr. Wallace. Sorry it took so long. I made a fresh pot.”
    The lights suddenly flickered, then went out completely, leaving them in the dark for several seconds. When the power came back on, Ash gazed up at Rowan as if mesmerized by her face. She was absolutely
adorable
. That’s the only word that came to mind.
    “Sorry about that. The wiring in this place is pretty old.” She looked at him quizzically. “Everything all right?”
    When she tipped her pretty head to the side and blinked, Ash felt something stir in him. It was a need, a longing he couldn’t name, and it spread from his chest