What Janie Wants Read Free Page B

isolated loungers.
    Zade shifted on his barstool and adjusted his semi-aroused dick. “Not sure I care, as long as she keeps walking.”
    She moseyed to one lone chair near the pool steps and began unloading her bag.
    A fat spray of water arced from the pool’s surface and sliced across Janie’s shoulder. She shot upright, the O shape of her mouth a testament to the water’s coldness.
    The girl who’d inadvertently splashed Janie jumped on her boyfriend’s back and shouted over one shoulder, “Sorry!”
    Janie waved the apology off and cast the girl an understanding smile. “Not a problem.”
    The hell, it wasn’t. She’d already tucked her bag back in place and backed away from the lounger.
    “ They’re going to run her off.” Arlo tossed his rag down and hustled from behind the bar. “I knew better than to run a college special. They’re all wrong for our resort.”
    “ Hold up.” Zade hopped down from his stool and motioned his uncle back behind the bar. “Three more days, and they’re gone. They’re filling what, half the rooms? That’s enough to keep your staff paid up through high season.”
    “ It won’t matter, if they ruin the experience for potential return customers.”
    Janie ambled away from the pool down the wide stamped concrete path toward the lobby. The woman had perfect hips. Made for a man’s touch and attention.
    Zade clamped a hand on Arlo’s shoulder and winked. “Well, then. I’ll go see if I can’t compensate any discomfort Ms. McAlister might be feeling with a little one on one personalized experience.”
     

     
    Nine in the morning and less than an hour from a shower, and Janie already felt wilted. God, Mexico in August was hot. Emmy wasn’t just insane. She was a sadist.
    A young couple exited the shadowed lobby hand in hand. The girl’s swimsuit barely varied from those at the pool, although the mango color sure worked a lot better than the blatant neon selections the others had worn. It was like they all went to the same stylist—string bikini, beach blond hair, and belly button ring. As soon as she got home, she and her daughter, McKenna, were going to have a nice long reminder talk about the importance of self-image.
    The couple padded closer.
    Oh, to be that thin again. Without wrinkles and defiant of gravity. Janie sucked in her gut and squared her shoulders. She’d thought the few trips to the tanning bed would take the edge off her fair, redhead skin tone, but under the vicious Mexico sun, she looked as white as ever. The ivory swimsuit wasn’t helping. Maybe the girls were right to go with bolder colors.
    The couple passed with a twin set of curious smiles.
    A few more steps and the lobby’s shade engulfed her, easing the sun’s powerful bite on her shoulders. She should’ve found a lounger in the shade. Surely her mini-tan could peek through there, not to mention camouflage some of her cellulite. A total win-win. Better, if she’d had a good night’s sleep to go with it. Her room was lovely, with lots of bold, beautiful colors and a bed twice as comfy as her ten-year-old king-size back home, but she’d stayed up way too long tossing and turning over the man she’d inadvertently groped and kneed the day before.
    Zade Painel. What a name. Though, it fit him.
    God, she should be ashamed. He couldn’t be more than a few years older than her son, Thomas. But the way he’d considered her, so focused and interested in every little detail, despite what she’d done to him. And the feel of his warm skin, how solid he’d been, pressed next to her.
    Nope. No. No. No. Not a direction her thoughts needed to take.
    She snatched a flier off the brochure rack. Time to make the most out of what life had given her. Or, as she coached her kids, reassess and revise.
    Tulum and Jungle Maya With Ziplines and Rappelling.
    Ugh. In August? She’d be soaked in sweat before she ever got off the tour bus. Although, Thomas would get a kick out of the ziplines and