She had felt safe there the moment she"d found the key in its hiding place last night. Now she was grateful to be on familiar ground.
"Did it ever occur to you that people would worry about you?" Billy asked. "I couldn"t find Sam or Emma after you just walked out last night. This morning I finally thought of checking here."
"I left word at the inn where I"d be," Carrie said in a low voice.
Billy turned her to face him, gripping her shoulders hard. "Come on, Carrie."
Carrie took a step away from him. "Is this pretend-Carrie-is-special time?"
Billy looked stunned. "How can you say that?"
"Look, Billy, I"m not stupid, and I hate stupid games. I know you saw your friend Luann talking to me last night. She told me she"s going out with you. Imagine my having to find that out from her."
"Hey-" Billy began.
"I was going to talk to you about it. I figured it was the only mature thing to do," Carrie said with an ironic twist to her mouth, "but when I found you backstage a little while later, Luann had found you first. Maybe you didn"t see me because your face was buried in her hair."
Billy sighed and took a couple of paces away.
He gazed out the sliding gla.s.s doors to the deck.
He didn"t speak for a moment.
"I only met her a few weeks ago," he finally said. "And I told her all about you."
"So she said," Carrie retorted. "Funny that you didn"t bother to tell me all about her."
"I was going to, I really was," implored Billy.
"Do you think I"d have wanted you to come up here if there was anyone else I was serious about?"
"As far as I knew," Carrie shot back, "there wasn"t anyone else at all."
Billy"s mouth drew into a thin line. "Listen, Carrie, I"ve known all along there was someone else in your life-you see him every day!"
"Hey, that"s different-" Carrie began.
"Different how?" Billy shot back. "You expect me to sit up here like a d.a.m.n mummy in a tomb, only coming to life when you arrive to dig me up?"
"But . . . but that just isn"t fair!" Carrie sput- tered. "Josh is my friend! He"s been my best friend for years! It"s nothing like you and me!"
"G.o.d, Carrie, wake up!" Billy said. "Do you really think you can have a long-term romantic relationship with Josh and then poof!-one day he"s just your good buddy?"
"No, but-"
"I"ve seen how Josh looks at you. I know how he feels about you," Billy said. "You think I like it when we run into him at Yale?"
"How dare you twist this around?" Carrie cried.
She put one hand on her forehead. How could this be happening? When she"d taken that long, cold walk to the Templetons" house last night, she"d been so full of righteous anger. But now Billy was putting her on the defensive!
Billy stared out the window again, as if trying to control his temper. Carrie hadn"t even known he had a temper-she"d never seen it before.
"What I"m saying," Carrie began shakily, "is that it was rotten of you not to have told me about Luann before I got here. Can we just stick to that subject for the moment?"
Billy looked down guiltily. "It just didn"t seem important enough."
"Billy, that is bull," Carrie said, folding her arms.
"Okay, maybe I felt a little b.u.mmed about it,"
Billy allowed.
"Well, at least you"re being honest," Carrie said quietly.
Billy walked to Carrie and took hold of her shoulders. "Carrie, she is not important to me, that really is the truth," Billy whispered, staring into her eyes. "I like her very much, but she"s not-you."
"Really?" Carrie asked. She needed his reas- surance so badly.
"Really," he said firmly. He leaned in and kissed her softly on the lips. "How about if we go have breakfast, maybe take a walk on the beach, and talk about this?"
"You"re on," Carrie said. "I"ll get my jacket."
As Carrie went for her jacket she thought that maybe, just maybe, the situation with Billy wasn"t as dire as her fears had led her to believe. But as she caught a look at her reflection in the hall mirror, her heart sank. Luann was so lovely and slender. How could Billy possibly prefer her over Luann?
By Monday morning, Sam was ticked. It was the second day in a row she"d found herself waking up alone in the suite at the Sunset Inn.
Something was up, and no one was telling her anything.
Emma hadn"t yet spent a night in her bed, and Sam suspected she and Kurt must be sleeping together. She was a little hurt that Emma hadn"t confided in her. And Carrie, of course, had moved to the Templetons" house for the week.
Sam could see why she"d prefer that over the bachelor pad the Flirts shared. But it was funny- Billy didn"t seem to be staying there with her.
They had all been together the day before for a spontaneous Sunday-afternoon fun-and-games party at the Flirts" house.
Fun and games, my a.s.s! thought Sam, re- membering the stilted atmosphere of the gather- ing. They"d played a few games, but no one had seemed to be having much fun. Sam had noted that Emma, who had sipped wine all afternoon, had been pie-eyed and wobbly on her feet by the time Kurt whisked her out the door. But by then, Sam had had her own worries to contend with.
d.a.m.n that Danny! Sam seethed. Danny*s ab- sence the day before had been conspicuous. Sam had made a big show of flirting with Pres, but inside, she was b.u.mmed out. Emma and Carrie had seemed a little reproachful when they"d asked about Danny, but Sam had shrugged them off, saying he was a big boy and could take care of himself. The truth was that it was really getting to her that she didn"t know where he was. She hadn"t seen him since he"d disappeared from the benefit Sat.u.r.day night.
Well, I"ll be d.a.m.ned if I"m going to sit around this hotel room all day, Sam told herself firmly.
It"s time for action.
She pulled on her favorite worn jeans over a set of red men"s long Johns. She added her sheepskin vest and a red suede belt with three thongs that tied to create a ta.s.seled effect. Step- ping into her red cowboy boots, she spun to catch a glimpse of herself in the full-length mirror.
"Serious vixen," she complimented herself out loud, and she was ready to attack the day.
One quick call to Wheels, the bike rental shop that Pres still managed, and she had arranged for a bicycle to be dropped off while she ate in the hotel"s coffee shop. A bike was perfect for sleuthing around-it wasn"t a black stallion with flaring nostrils, but what the h.e.l.l.
An hour later she was braking outside the Bay View Motel"s lobby just as the ferry shuttle-a worn-out old station wagon-dropped Kevin at the door.
Perfect timing, Sam congratulated herself. A compadre!
"Jeez," said Kevin with an ear-to-ear grin, "the welcome wagon never looked this good back where I come from!"
"Few people know I"m psychic," Sam said blithely. "I divined that you"d be arriving at this precise moment."
"It must be my lucky day," laughed Kevin. "So where does your psychic sense tell you Danny is?"
"Don"t know," Sam confessed. "Your buddy has been making himself scarce of late."
Sam took Kevin to the motel, where he stopped to register and get a room key.
"Maybe we"ll find him immersed in the great 190 _.
American novel or something," Kevin said as they opened the door to the room he"d be sharing with Danny.
Sam was glad to see evidence that Danny hadn"t disappeared into thin air: an open shaving kit, a damp towel on the shower rod, and a few shirts on hangers above a suitcase neatly stowed below.
A candidate for the Good Housekeeping award, thought Sam, picturing the helter-skelter disorder that had already blossomed in her room back at the hotel.
"Here"s a note," said Kevin, handing her a sc.r.a.p of motel notepaper.
Sam read aloud, ""Kev: Gone fishing. Back midmorning. Let"s have lunch. D.""
Sam"s relief must have been evident. "You two having a spat or something?" Kevin asked.
"Whatever we"re having, it isn"t a good time,"
Sam replied testily. "Maybe if he"d show his face, we could figure out why."
As if on cue, the door opened and there was Danny.
"Hi, guys," said Danny, as casually as if he were just returning from a run across the street for a newspaper.
In spite of her resolution to stay cool, Sam was on her feet and in his face before he was three steps inside the room.
"Do you know how worried I"ve been?" she cried. "You could at least have left me a message or something!"
"Worried? Why?" said Danny. "This island is one of the safest places on earth."
"That"s not what I mean," said Sam.
"So what do you mean?" Danny parried.
"Hey, time out, you two," Kevin interjected.
"Sam, where"d you get that bike? Or more to the point, can I use it? I"ll take a cruise and look at the island-not that the two of you aren"t scintil- lating company right now," he added wryly.
"It"s yours," Sam said. "Hey, I"m sorry, you just got here and-"
"Not to worry," Kevin interrupted. "I"ll see you two later." He shut the door behind him.
Sam started in as soon as the door shut.
"Listen, Danny, I-"
"No, you listen for a change," Danny said.
"Somebody"s got to start being honest around here, and I guess it"s going to be me."
Sam waited. Danny paused for so long that she wasn"t sure if he was going to talk or not. Finally he spoke, but as he did he stared down at his hands.
"Did I ever mention what a c.r.a.ppy childhood I had?" he asked Sam. "Yeah, yeah, yeah," he continued, "me and half of the Western world, right? Anyway, they didn"t exactly send me off into the world with a lot of faith in relationships."
"I know the feeling," Sam said in a low voice.
"The point is that I"ve never wanted a ... a relationship before," Danny said.
He looked up just as Sam was about to break in, but he stopped her. "Wait! I said I was going to be honest." His eyes locked on Sam and held her gaze. "The point is," he said slowly, "I"ve never had a relationship."
Sam wore a puzzled frown, and Danny paused until he saw the light dawn in her eyes.
"You mean . . ." Sam ventured, "you mean you"re a . . ."
"That"s right," said Danny.
Sam was astonished. Danny! Gorgeous, hand- some, funny Danny, with the beautiful body and the bedroom eyes! Danny was a- "That"s not my only confession," Danny hurried on, as if he was afraid to lose momentum. "When I first met you, Sam, you were so outgoing, so c.o.c.ky and sure of yourself. I thought you were the s.e.xiest, and maybe one of the most experi- enced, girls I"d ever met."
"But Danny-" Sam began.
"Please, this is hard for me," Danny said pain- fully. "Don"t you see? You talk so big, I figured you"d seduce me within a week. Then you"d go your way, and I"d go mine-a man of the world."
Sam was flabbergasted. All those nights, from wild partying to quiet talks, that she"d waited for Danny to try to kiss her. All this time, and he"d been waiting for her to make a move!
"There was only one problem," Danny contin- ued. "I found out I really like you and I didn"t want you to just go on your way."
Sam sat down on the bed. "Let me be sure I"ve got this straight. You were planning to let me take advantage of youl"
"Something like that," he agreed sheepishly.
She swung her hair back over her shoulder. "So then why haven"t we done it yet?"
"Huh?" Danny said, taken aback.
Sam stood up. "Come on! Take off your clothes right now! Let"s do it!"
"But-" Danny sputtered.