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.Too bad his good looks (well, what I could see of him anyway) were ruined every time he opened his mouth.I felt bad for whoever had to put up with him on a daily basis.But even his foul behavior couldn’t completely erase the memory of the sound of his voice and the way he rolled that lollipop around in his mouth.And the soft feel of his hands against my leg…In one swift movement, I turned the water onto cold and blasted myself with frigid spray.Fantasizing about some man I literally met on the side of the road wasn’t going to happen.Men were off-limits to me.Period.As if to punctuate my declaration further, I shut off the spray and began to dry off.The whole time I worked on my hair, I thought about the view I was missing.I laid down the comb with a frustrated sigh.My eyes noticed something on the counter.A pair of scissors.I glanced up at the wet blond hair hanging limply over my shoulders.I was tired of feeling heavy.I was tired of wearing my hair the way other people wanted me to wear it.I was going to be like the sun.I was going to embrace the new day.I pulled my hair back into a low ponytail at the base of my neck and slid the band down a couple inches.And then I chopped it off.When I pulled my hand away, about six inches of hair bound together with a black tie came with it.I tossed it in the nearby trashcan and looked up.My hair hung above my shoulders now, some of the newly cut ends flipping outward.I ran my fingers through it with a smile.I felt lighter already.Feeling empowered, I combed the front down over my face and cut in very long bangs.In fact, they were so long, I didn’t know if they even were bangs or just a long layer.I wasn’t a hair stylist.In fact, I was pretty sure I’d lost my ever-loving mind, but I didn’t care.After I was done, I cleaned up the hair that had fallen in the sink and then worked a little mousse through the strands.I applied a layer of sunblock before standing back to study my handiwork.Not bad.It appeared even because I used the hair tie as a guide.The real test would be once it was dry.I wasn’t about to blow-dry it.I wanted to get outside and enjoy the colors in the sky before the sun rose so high it was only blue.In the kitchen, I rummaged for coffee, only to find there wasn’t any.What kind of human being had no coffee? A trip to the store would be a must later today.There was a little OJ in the fridge so I settled for that and carried it toward the back door.On the way, Salty stared at me hatefully.I guess my fresh appearance didn’t make me any more likable.As soon as I opened the sliding door, fresh sea air greeted me and I took a deep breath.I stepped out, my bare foot meeting the textured wood of the deck.Before I could fully step outside, Salty (aka Demon) shot out the door between my legs with an angry growl.I stumbled and almost fell over from the stupid animal but caught myself just in time.As I straightened, the stupid cat leapt off the deck railing and into the sand dune.Did I mention people were not allowed on the dunes? They weren’t.It was actually a law here, and if caught, you would be fined heavily.“Salty!” I yelled.“Get back here!”Aunt Ruth was more than happy to let me stay at her place while she recovered from surgery with Claire’s parents.She even refused to take rent money.The only thing she asked was that I feed Salty and take care of him.Her indoor cat.I hadn’t even been here a full day and already he was running off outside where he wasn’t supposed to be.Hey, Aunt Ruth, thanks for letting me borrow your beach house.You know that cat you love so much? I lost him.Yeah, that was not a conversation I wanted to have.I set down the glass and leaned over the railing.Salty was sitting calmly below, looking up at me with a haughty expression.Almost as if he were mocking me.“Don’t think I won’t come down there!” I bellowed.He just sat there.“No tuna for you!” I threatened.Nothing.“Fine!” I shouted and began climbing over the railing.I felt a splinter ram its way into my palm and I bit my lip, thinking of all the ways I was going to make this demon suffer for this.Once I was on the outside of the deck, I looked down.Whoa.That was a lot bigger jump than I realized.“Stupid cat!” I snapped.Salty hissed and ran off.“Wait!” I yelled and squeezed my eyes shut before jumping off.I landed on my feet, immediately falling onto my butt.The sand here was cold because it was mostly shaded.Salty was close by, and I reached out to grab him.He avoided my grasp and took off running, this time toward the beach.Was he insane? Cats didn’t like the beach.Did they?I scrambled up and went chasing after him, yelling his name the entire way.Right next door to Ruth’s house was another house right on the beach.The distance between the homes wasn’t very far, and in between them where the dune gave way to the beach was a very tall wooden pole with a light on the top.It was this light pole that Salty decided to climb.I scurried over the dune and skidded to a stop beneath the light post.The good news was Salty had enough sense not to climb to the top.The bad news was he was high enough that I couldn’t reach him.“You’re evil!” I hissed at him.He hissed back.“Come down here, right now!” I demanded, looking around for some sort of stick or something I might be able to poke him down with.He didn’t listen and there were no sticks lying around.I was going to have to go up there and get him.The large, brown pole was literally a cylinder shape of wood sticking up out of the ground.There was no ladder on the side, nothing for me to use as foot holds.I tested out the width of the wood by wrapping my arms around it.My hands didn’t meet so it was fairly large.I backed up a few steps and took a running leap at it.The plan was to jump on it and, using my arms and legs, wrap myself around it and then shimmy up.Yeah, that didn’t happen.I bounced off like I was a basketball thrown in a lousy shot.With an oomph, I landed on my back in the sand.I stared up at the blue, cloudless sky.How in the hell did these things happen to me?Taking a different approach, I wrapped my arms and legs around the pole and then tried to climb it that way.Can I just say I learned two things:1.I hated cats.2.I had no idea how strippers “worked” a pole because it wasn’t easy.I released the pole and stood staring up at the cat.He gave me a pitiful meow, and I rolled my eyes.“Sure, now you want my pity [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]