She was so busy watching the boat that she was unaware of the man approaching the deck until he started up the steps and the vibration of the wooden floor alerted her. She felt completely reborn after the past two delicious weeks.Ī sailboat, as brightly colored as a butterfly, caught her attention, and she watched it as it lazily tacked toward shore. Students and singles looking for a good time found it families looking for a carefree vacation found it and tired professional women wanting only a chance to unwind and relax beside the dazzling Gulf found that, too. It was a twenty-four-hour party that constantly renewed itself from the end of school through the Labor Day weekend. During the summer, the Miracle Strip didn’t sleep. No matter what time she woke, she knew that if she was hungry and didn’t feel like cooking, there was always a place within walking distance where she could get something to eat. There wasn’t a clock in the beach house, nor had she even wound her watch since she’d arrived, because time didn’t matter. This was the perfect vacation.įor two weeks she had wandered the sugar-white sands of Panama City, Florida, blissfully alone and lazy. It had been a glorious day, and she had done nothing more strenuous than celebrate it by walking the beach and swimming in the green-and-blue-streaked Gulf of Mexico. It would have made a stunning photograph, yet she was disinclined to leave her seat and get her camera. To her right, the huge golden orb of the sun was sinking into the water, turning the sea to flame.

The white gulls swooped in and out of her vision, their high-pitched cries adding to the symphony of wind and water. She wasn’t an idle person, yet she was content to sit on the deck of her rented beach house, her long, honey-tanned legs stretched out and propped on the railing, doing nothing more than watching the waves and listening to the muted roar of water coming in and going out. Dione gave in to it without a struggle, peacefully watching the turquoise waves roll onto the blindingly white sand.

Come lie with me by linda howard