Seduced in Sand Read Free

only as the man she was trying to divorce.
    When she’d made her decision to leave her husband, to walk away and leave Danny, she’d known it needed to be done but she’d been unsure if she was making the right choice. Now, she was just as conflicted.

Chapter Two
    â€œThat’s some power you have. Of the repellant variety.” Sam took Tabatha’s wine glass, somehow sounding sympathetic. “Tabatha’s meet-ups normally last longer.”
    Sensing he had a chance to learn about his wife’s new life, Danny turned and faced Sam more directly. “She have a lot of meet-ups?”
    â€œA girl has to kiss a lot of frogs.” Sam leaned on the bar and winked. “You wanted to be one of her frogs, huh?”
    â€œI wouldn’t say it like that, but I used to be her favorite.” Wouldn’t mind being her favorite again.
    Nodding, like she understood everything she couldn’t even know, Sam went to serve some other customers. Her distraction gave Danny time to doubt—again—the wisdom of his decisions.
    Tabatha’s attorney had refused to divulge her new address, so Danny had Googled her. Finding her neck deep in wedding planning in Miami, he’d set a plan in action.
    He moved. Then he heard of a spot on a pairs beach volleyball team, and being as at home in the sand as he was in his own skin, he’d gone to the tryouts. His years on high school and college teams had helped him win the spot. With a new purpose in his life, a plan for winning Tabatha back began to form.
    The first step in the plan called for a pseudonym. It would help protect his privacy while also giving him a way to talk to Tabatha without her guard up. Before approaching her, he’d worked on the him part of his plan.
    With the job secured, he’d found a place to live and worked on getting serious about life and being accountable to the clock. While doing that, he’d watched from a distance as Tabatha moved around in a town she seemed to love with friends she seemed to adore. Then he saw her picture on a dating website.
    Unable to stomach the idea of her finding someone new, someone she decided was better than him, he’d signed up for the dating site and crafted a profile sure to match up with hers. When she’d responded, he’d almost been too excited to keep from revealing everything, but he’d resisted.
    Each delay to meet was carefully constructed to keep her interested while giving him time to see how her time in Miami had changed her. He’d thought enough time had passed, that he’d revealed enough of who he was now, for her to at least give him a chance. Clearly he’d thought wrong.
    â€œSo,” Sam said when she came back. “You knew you were meeting Tabatha. Who did she think you were?”
    â€œThe better question was who she thought I wasn’t.”
    â€œThe answer?”
    He had no problem telling her the truth. At least nothing other than the possibility that Tabatha didn’t want people to know. She’d built a new life, just as he had. He needed to know how he fit in it before he tossed around the complete truth. So, instead of saying her husband he went with, “Her past.”
    â€œHow long past?” she asked while filling orders for other customers.
    â€œToo long,” to be without Tabatha, “and not long enough,” for her to forgive me.
    â€œSounds like you have some amends to make.”
    If Sam was insightful enough to read him after only a few minutes, she might have some tips to help win Tabatha back, because he’d bet they knew each other beyond a regular bartender/customer relationship. “Got any advice on getting her to listen?”
    â€œDon’t play games. Be genuinely interested and attentive, but not stalkery.”
    â€œIf only it were so simple.”
    â€œIt’s exactly that simple.” She nodded as she walked to another customer.
    Unlike his teammate,