“How did I become your personal groomer?” I teased. “I’ve bathed you. I shave you.” I spread the shaving cream, which was almost gone, on his cheeks.

He gave me a big smile. “I’m lucky?”

“You’re spoiled. When we get off this island, you’re going to have to shave yourself.”

“That won’t be any fun at all.”

“You’ll manage.”

I finished shaving him and we walked back to the house, ready for a nap under the awning.

“You know, I would be happy to give you a bath or shave you, Anna. Just say the word.”

I laughed. “I’m fine, really.”

“Are you sure?” He was lying on the blanket beside me and he reached over and pulled my arm up, then ran the back of his hand along my underarm. “Wow, you are smooth.”

“Stop! I’m very ticklish.” I swatted his hand away.

“What about your legs?” he asked, and before I could answer, he leaned toward me and ran a hand slowly up my leg, from ankle to thigh.

The heat that flooded my body took me by surprise. I made a noise, a cross between a gasp and a moan, and it slipped out before I could stop it. T.J.’s eyes widened and he stared at me with his mouth hanging open. Then he smirked, clearly pleased with the effect his touch had on me.

I took a deep breath and said, “I can handle my own grooming.”

“I’m just trying to pay you back for helping me out all the time.”

“That’s very nice of you, T.J. Go to sleep.” He laughed and turned on his side, facing away from me. I lay on my back and closed my eyes.

He’s only eighteen. That’s too young.

A voice in my head said, technically it’s old enough.

A few days later, in the afternoon, T.J. and I swam with the dolphins. There were four of them, and we watched as they frolicked around us. I wanted to name them, but I couldn’t tell them apart.

When the dolphins swam away, T.J. and I sat on the shore. I dug my toes into the soft, white sand.

“Didn’t you say you were going to take a bath?” he asked.

“Yes. I didn’t bring anything with me though.” Our supplies were dwindling fast. We only washed with soap once a week now. I no longer noticed the way we smelled.

“I’ll get everything for you,” he said.

“You will?”

“Sure.”

“Okay, but I need clothes, too.”

“No problem.”

He brought it all down and left it on the sand. I waited until he walked away and then got undressed.

When I finished bathing, I stood for a minute drying in the sun. I walked over to the pile of clothes, expecting to find a tank top and shorts, or a bikini. What he picked out surprised me. He chose a dress, the only one I’d packed. It was one of my favorites, short and light blue with thin straps. He also selected a lacy, pink pair of bikini underwear, and I felt the heat on my cheeks. He’d forgotten a bra, or maybe he hadn’t, but I never wore one with that dress anyway.

I stepped into the underwear and slipped the dress over my head. When I reached the house, T.J. stared openly.

“Do we have dinner reservations I don’t know about?” I asked.

“I wish,” he said.

I stopped in front of him. “Why a dress?”

He shrugged. “I thought you’d look good in it.” He took his sunglasses off and looked me up and down. “And you do.”

“Thanks,” I said, feeling the heat on my cheeks again.

He left to go fishing, and I sat on the blanket under the awning waiting for him to come back.

I often caught T.J. staring at me, but he’d never been so blatant about it. He was getting bolder, testing the waters. If he had been trying to hide his feelings before, he wasn’t as concerned with that now. I didn’t know of his intentions, or even if he had any, but living with him was about to get complicated.

That much I knew.

***

“I wish we had scissors.” I was sitting on the blanket outside the house a week later, trying to brush the knots out of my hair. It hung almost to my butt and drove me nuts. “I should have had you hack off some of my hair before the knife got so dull,” I said.

I glanced over at the fire.

“You’re thinking of burning some of it off, aren’t you?” T.J. asked.

I looked at him like he was crazy. “No.”

Maybe.

I continued brushing.

T.J. walked over and held out his hand. “Give me the brush. I’ll do it. See? I’m paying you back for shaving me.”

I handed him the brush. “Knock yourself out.”

He leaned back against the outside wall of the house, and I sat in front of him. He started brushing. “You have a ton of hair,” he said.

“I know. It’s way too long.”

“I like long hair.”

T.J. patiently dealt with the tangles, working on one section at a time. The sun beat down, but the awning shaded us. A cool breeze blew off the ocean. The omnipresent sound of the waves crashing into the reef, and the feel of the brush moving gently through my hair lulled me into a state of relaxation.

He lifted my hair off my neck, and then pulled me toward him so that my back rested against his chest. I turned my head, and he pulled my hair to the side, laying it over my right shoulder. He continued brushing and it felt so good that after a while I closed my eyes and fell asleep.

When I woke up, I knew by the sound of T.J.’s breathing that he’d fallen asleep, too. His arms encircled my waist from behind, his clasped hands resting on the bare skin above my bikini bottom. I closed my eyes again, thinking about how nice it felt with T.J.’s arms around me.

He stirred, whispering in my ear, “Are you awake?”

“Yeah. I had a nice nap.”

“Me, too.”

Though I didn’t really want to, I sat up and his hands slid off my stomach. My hair fell in a smooth sheet down my back. I looked over my shoulder and smiled. “Thanks for brushing my hair.”

His eyes were heavy with sleep and something else. Something that looked unmistakably like desire.

“Anytime.”

My heart rate increased. My stomach filled with butterflies and a warm feeling spread over me.

Thinking that our relationship was about to get complicated might have been an understatement.

Chapter 24 – T.J.

I watched Anna walk away after I brushed her hair. I thought about the other day, when she made that sound when I ran my hand up her leg. I wondered what kind of noise she’d make if I did something else with my hand. The urge to slip it inside her bikini bottom and find out had been almost uncontrollable. If we were in Chicago, I wouldn’t stand a chance with her. But I was starting to wonder if, here on the island, I might.

***

Anna and I swam back and forth in the lagoon, waiting for the dolphins. “I’m bored,” I said.

“Me too,” she said, floating on her back. “Hey, let’s see if we can do that lift like Johnny and Baby.”

“I seriously have no clue what you’re talking about.”

“You’ve never seen Dirty Dancing?”

“No.” The title didn’t sound half-bad, though.

“It’s a great movie. I saw it in high school. 1987, I think.

“I was two years old.”

“Oh. Sometimes I forget how young you are.”

T.J. shook his head. “I’m not that young.”

“Well anyway, Patrick Swayze played this dance instructor named Johnny Castle at a resort in the Catskills. Jennifer Grey played Baby Houseman, and she was there with her family.” Anna paused for a second and then said, “Hey, I just thought of something. Baby and her family were spending their whole summer vacation away from home, just like you.”

“Was she pissed about it, too?” I asked.

Anna shook her head and laughed. “I don’t think so. She got together with Johnny and they spent a lot of time in bed.”