Page 29 of Crying Shame
“Youknow him.” Sam bounced in the water. “And I like Charlie. He’s telling me about flying across the ocean.”
Clarissa smiled and stepped back like she wanted to disappear.
I got an idea. It might be helpful to spend a few minutes with Clarissa when she was relaxed. I swam to her side. “Instead of swimming, why don’t you and I hit the hot tub right over there where we can keep an eye on them.”
She hooked her arm into mine. “I am curious about what it feels like to be in a hot tub.”
Good. She wasn’t scared like yesterday. We waved at Charlie and Sam then stepped out of the pool together. “You’ve never been in one?”
We headed to my in-ground hot tub under the pergola, and I turned on the jets. She slipped one toe in. “We had them at hotels I worked at, but I’d never even been assigned to clean them.”
She walked in with me. I had a hard time computing her story, though I believed her. “We have one at the Virgin Cove house.”
She settled into one of the seats. “And I wasn’t allowed near it.”
Crazy. I took a seat beside her and let the movement of the water help disguise just how much I wanted her.
We watched Sam and Charlie playing in the pool and splashing each other.
“So what do you think of the hot tub?” I asked her.
She smiled at me. “My muscles are loving this.”
Perfect. I not only wanted to earn back her trust, I wanted to always do right by Sam.
The way her face looked with the light reflected on it rushed straight into my heart. Years ago, I should have realized that Clarissa was the only woman who’d ever be perfect for me. She made every second I spent with her better than the last.
So now I had to try to do the same for her. It was time to win her heart.
10
Clarissa
The jets of water felt nice and so did sitting next to Elon. The pressure from the water hitting my muscles was almost relaxing. I gazed across the hot tub at Elon, and my heart stirred. I wished I’d come to him years ago.
I sat on my hands. “It’s really good you became a doctor, but why did you end up focusing on OB-GYN?”
A member of his staff brought us a bottle of wine and served it to us in glasses.
“Good question," Elon said. "I like working where people are happy. Most of the time when I hand over a baby, the parents are as happy as they can get.”
I wasn’t sure heat and alcohol were a good mix, but for once in my life, I decided not to stress. I could trust Elon. I took my glass from the drink holder attached to the side of the hot tub. “I forgot most of the pain after they gave me Sam.”
He clinked glasses with me. “To be honest, the babies and the families remind me that the world is a good place, whatever the noise or drama of the day might be.”
It was so nice sitting beside him that I felt emboldened. “How do you see Sam fitting into your life?”
“He’s my son. He gets everything I have.”
Perfect answer. I sipped my wine and then put the glass back in the drink holder. "You’re not angry at me for not telling you about him?”
He shook his head, sipped his wine, and kept a sharp eye on Sam. “I was self-involved when I was twenty. I was so afraid of losing my parents and my place in the world that I lashed out at the wrong person. Losing you was worse.”
I picked up my glass again and scooted away from the jet so I would be sure to hear his answer to my next question. “You've said that before, but what changed in you that you could recognize it?”
“You want the truth?”
“Yeah,” I said. My face felt heated, but it could have been from the warm water.
