Part 11 (1/2)
With a half smirk, Regan said, ”Angela used to teasingly call me a pale-eyed devil.”
”Your skin's fairer than I thought it would be.”
”I'm Irish. We're all pale.”
”Does everyone in your family have that beautiful dark hair?”
Regan grasped a hank of her hair and let it fall from her fingers. ”My dad and I have the darkest, but he's turning gray. My sisters are more brunette, like my mom. I never envisioned you as a redhead, but your hair is beautiful, as advertised. But you can't look at me with those adorable dimples and tell me not to say you're cute.”
”I guess there are worse things to be, but I'd rather be hot. I think you dark-haired girls achieve hot easier than us redheads.”
It was clear that Regan was a little embarra.s.sed by the compliments. She put on a pair of running shorts and a tank top, then put sunblock and a magazine into a bag. ”Ready?”
”Yep. I've got a new sunblock that guarantees ano more freckles.'”
”Do you want me to count the ones you have now so you can get your money back if it doesn't work?”
”No, I don't mind them. At least I don't have them all across my nose like Gretchen has.” She chuckled evilly.
Regan was undergoing her own travails in fitting Callie into her mental view. In her mind Callie was trashy looking. She'd looked like the kind of girl who was still hanging around the bar at two a.m., trying to outs.h.i.+ne the compet.i.tion. In fact, Callie was adorable. Fresh faced, bright-eyed, and energetic. Those dimples made her look impish and...adorable. There was no other word that she could think of, and that was as big a surprise as if she'd been missing a few teeth and had two inches of dark roots showing from platinum blonde hair.
Each quickly adjusted to the reality of the other. Callie was irrepressible. She had almost boundless energy and was childlike in her enthusiasm. As soon as they found a place for their towels, she ran into the ocean, shouting for joy. ”This is phenomenal!” She splashed the clear, clean water around with her hands, making big sweeping motions. ”I've never been in the Atlantic. It's now my favorite ocean.”
”You're easily convinced.” Regan ran in, splas.h.i.+ng around a little less riotously. ”You've been here for two seconds.” She picked up her feet and treaded water with just her arms.
”But I'm in love. L. O. V. E.” Callie dunked her head into the water, blinking rapidly when she pulled her head out. ”I can see for miles!”
”You can rent a mask if you'd like to have that be a little less painful.” Callie couldn't have been any cuter. Marina would have had to have the s.e.x drive of a goat to keep up with her and have energy left to screw around.
After spending two solid hours frolicking in the water like a pair of children, they finally lay on their beach towels, both nearly exhausted.
But Callie still chattered away. ”I wonder if it's less expensive to s.h.i.+p all of my electronics here or if I should have my sugar momma buy it all new.”
”Don't think I didn't notice you saying you'd take a sugar daddy. Is that true?”
”I'm clearly not very good at picking sugar anything. I couldn't get Marina to buy me a pack of gum.”
”Really? You didn't share your money?”
”Nope. Nada. What's hers was hers and what's mine was credit card statements. She made a lot more than I did, and she didn't share the wealth.”
Regan took a minute to process Callie's situation. Had she and Marina even been partners? What kind of partner would let you struggle financially when she could help?
Callie tilted her baseball cap, keeping her eyes shaded. ”When I left the corporate IT world to start my own business, I really took a hit.”
”Did you do that when you moved to Dallas?”
”Yeah. I wanted to be with Marina and I didn't want to waste another year in IT. I should have waited until I had a cus.h.i.+on but”-she puckered her lips in an air kiss-”love pushed me.”
”Regrets?”
Callie rolled over onto her stomach. ”Can you move the umbrella just a little? I don't want to burn my feet.”
Regan leaned over and adjusted it carefully. ”How's that?”
”Excellent. It's nice to have a beach buddy. It's harder than I thought it'd be to set up an umbrella for maximum coverage.”
Callie hadn't answered the question. How could she not have regrets? It sounded like all she got from Marina was the ability to sleep with other women. But she had that when she was single. Why bother being in a relations.h.i.+p at all? ”Glad to help. Now back to the sugar daddy issue. Are you...flexible?”
”Fairly. I was thirty-three the first time I experienced the love of a bad woman, so lesbianism isn't a lifelong habit.”
”Thirty-three?” Regan exclaimed. ”How old are you?” She scrambled to take the bite out of the comment. ”That didn't come out right. You don't look like you're even thirty. I thought you were my age, or younger.”
”Good save. I was just gonna kick sand in your face. My mother and sisters and I just had a fun-filled thirty-fifth birthday party last week.”
”But you were with Marina for a year and a half.”
”She was my first.” She put her hand over her heart and made it pat rapidly.
”Freaky. I don't mean that judgmentally. I'm just surprised.” Flabbergasted was the better word. Callie'd gone from never being with a woman to being with anyone who walked by? What in the h.e.l.l...?
”I always knew I was attracted to women, but I was in two long-term relations.h.i.+ps with guys and all of a sudden I was thirty-three. It catches up with you.”
”You liked being with men?”
”Yeah, I did.” She gave Regan a puzzled look and said, ”I didn't sleep with men to punish myself. Why do you act like it's odd? That's the majority position, you know.”
Regan slapped a hand over her face and left it there for a second. ”I'm not being very smooth today. I think I'm trying to say that I don't know any women who switched once they'd been in the game for a while.”
”Now you do,” Callie said, wrinkling her nose. ”I think I'll stick with women, even though being in a relations.h.i.+p with a woman wasn't as different as my friends said it would be. But women smell a lot better and they're generally less gross. Not having to use birth control is a big plus too.” She smiled broadly.
Being with a woman was just like being with a guy when you set up your relations.h.i.+p in a way most guys would kill for. She probably could have slept with men too. Or would that have crossed Marina's boundaries? Did she even have any? Their entire relations.h.i.+p was beyond comprehension.
Regan gazed at Callie, and once again that nearly angelic face made her doubt her gut reaction. ”You know, you have two completely different smiles. When you smile really wide your dimples don't show and the corners of your mouth curl up. But your other smile is more like a grin and both dimples show. It's fascinating.”
”I'm glad I can entertain you with just my face.”
”I don't know anybody with dimples. That's probably why I'm trying to figure them out.”
”All three of us have them. You should have come to my birthday party last week.”
”I would have if you'd told me about it.” She tossed a bit of sand at Callie. ”I'm buying your dinner tonight as a belated present.”
”When's your birthday?”
”May 28th. It's usually Memorial Day weekend.”
”Great. We'll spend Memorial Day together and I'll reciprocate. What birthday is this?”
”Mine.” She grinned impishly.