Bay of Sighs by Nora Roberts Page B

to stay focused.”
    â€œI won’t. I will. Then we’ll get outstanding gelato.” She dashed straight inside.
    â€œThey better be exceptional Bellinis,” Sasha muttered, and followed Annika inside.
    She found such a pretty suit with red flowers, and another in bright, bright green, and what Sasha called a wrap almost as thin as air, and shoes with pretty seashells that left most of the foot bare. With Sasha’s help, she bought them all, and another wrap with blue waves over white for Sasha.
    â€œFor you.” She offered the little bag. “For helping me.”
    â€œOh, no, Anni, you don’t have to buy me something for helping you.”
    â€œBut it’s for you.” Firmly, Annika pushed the bag into Sasha’s hands. “The blue is like your eyes. It’s a gift for you, and makes me happy to give.”
    â€œThank you. It’s beautiful. We really have to go now. Remember, we have to carry all of this.”
    â€œPretty things never weigh too much.”
    To Sasha’s mind, a couple of bikinis that barely covered the essentials weighed virtually nothing, but she steered Annika out of the shop.
    â€œThere they are.” Wary, Sasha kept a solid grip on Annika’s arm as they walked up to where the rest redistributed bottles into packs.
    â€œYou’re exempt,” Riley told Sasha as she hefted her heavier pack. “Fair’s fair.”
    â€œI can carry more.” Annika turned around, offered her pack. “It’s not heavy.”
    Doyle zipped a couple bottles of Italian beer inside her pack. “That’ll do it. We’ve got the rest.”
    â€œThere’s gelato!” Annika dashed up the steep street as if her new sandals had wings.
    She’d struck up an animated conversation with a couple of American tourists by the time the others caught up.
    â€œJessica likes the chocolate, but Mark likes the pistachio. It’s a nut.”
    â€œRight. How ya doing?” Riley signaled Sawyer to ease Annika away, distracted the couple with small talk until they wandered off.
    â€œThey were very nice, but I don’t know whether to listen to Jessica or to Mark. And oh, there are so many pretty colors.”
    â€œPick two,” Sawyer suggested, and her eyes went wide.
    â€œI can have two?”
    â€œTwo scoops in a cone.”
    â€œTwo scoops in a cone,” she repeated. “Which do you pick?”
    â€œYou pick first. You’re not going to go wrong.”
    â€œI think . . . the pink, and this green? They’ll look nice together. Like a flower.”
    â€œStrawberry and mint. Nice combo. It’s on me,” he told the rest.
    When, even after he’d paid, Annika just admired her cone, he demonstrated on his own. “You want to eat it.”
    She took one delicate lick, then another. “Oh! It’s like eating joy!”
    Weird, Sawyer thought as they hiked with packs, bags, and cones, but she made him feel like a hero for giving her her first taste of eating joy.
    Because of it, the hike back went easy.
    They scattered on the return, and as Sawyer moved faster, he snagged the shower ahead of Doyle. He washed off the salt, the sea, the sweat, felt fully human again as he drank half his first beer in the shower.
    When he got out, he heard laughter from the kitchen. Femalelaughter. And though it appealed, he thought it wise to take a little time, a little distance from Annika.
    His lust quotient there kept rising, no matter how studiously he tried to suppress it.
    He took the rest of his beer outside, pulled a lounge chair into a patch of shade, and settled in with his tablet. He needed to email home, update his family. Maybe he’d read a chapter or two of one of the books he’d downloaded.
    He dashed off the emails, promised pictures to follow. Told himself he could take an hour off, to read, or doze, or whatever the hell, then he’d do some research.
    Riley was the