Scarlet had the beautiful timing to return from handing out drinks and ask brusquely, “What do you want?”
“Something fruity,” Amber said. “With an umbrella. I'm not picky.”
She caught a glimpse of Jimmy out of the corner of one eye trying to catch her gaze and made a point of pretending not to see him. It wasn't a hardship to gaze at Tony as if he had all of her attention. He was probably the most masculine thing that Amber had ever had an excuse to talk to, all rippling muscles and jaw, and he had an amazingly expressive mouth.
Scarlet gave an unappreciative growl and left them in peace.
“Have you been here long?” Amber asked. “At the resort, I mean? Not the bar. Of course.”
“A week,” Tony said.
The way he said it made it sound like a finals week, or a week of torture, not a vacation at an upscale beach resort with all the gourmet food and good booze you could want.
“I've got a week here, too,” Amber volunteered. “It would have been nice to stay longer, especially after such a long plane ride to get here, but it's hard to get time off of work.”
“Oh? Where do you work?” Tony asked.
“Just a little local garden store in Lakefield,” Amber said with a shrug. “But I'm the only employee other than the owner and his wife, and they lean on me to do a lot of the day-to-day work.”
“I don't have a green thumb,” Tony said, as if it were a great confession. “I killed a jade plant once.”
“They're surprisingly easy to over-water if you don't give them good drainage,” Amber said understandingly. “How about you? Where do you work?”
“I work for an ... er ... in construction. Management. In, uh, construction.”
Amber wondered where he really worked, but didn't press the issue. If he wanted to elevate himself to management to impress someone at a resort bar, she could understand why. After all, she was the one wearing her shirt one button lower than usual, and she was loving the way his eyes couldn't entirely keep from straying from her face as they spoke. Did that make her a floozy?
The idea alarmed her until she reminded herself that she was on vacation, and had come determined to live outside of her comfortable little box of wholesomeness for the week. She would probably never see this guy again. That idea gave her an unexpected pang of bone-deep regret, which she squashed as quickly as she could.
Scarlet arrived with a brilliantly colored drink sporting not only an umbrella, but several pieces of fruit on a plastic cocktail sword. Amber gave a delighted “Ooo!” as she picked it up, but Scarlet didn't linger to appreciate her reaction.
“I wonder what her animal is,” Amber said wryly, taking a long sip of her technicolor drink. It definitely met her requirements for being fruity, and it had a delightful kick that promised plenty of alcohol and went straight to her head. “It's funny that she knows that about every one of us, and we don't know a thing about her.”
“She's probably a wolverine,” Tony ground out between clenched teeth. Scarlet clearly failed to amuse him.
Were they lovers at odds? Amber caught herself wondering. There was certainly some kind of tension between them. She took another long drink. “What about you?”
Tony looked like she'd caught him in headlights. “What about me?”
“Your, er ... animal?”
“Tiger!” he said, as if relieved. “Siberian tiger, to be exact.” And as an afterthought, “You?”
“Cat,” Amber said cautiously, and the heady drink made her continue when otherwise she might not have. “An Andean mountain cat, actually.”
Tony's eyebrows raised. “I've never even heard of that.”
“It's like a snow leopard,” Amber explained. “But smaller, like the size of a big housecat.”
“It sounds pretty.” The way he said it, gazing straight at her, made Amber warm to her toes.
She took another sip of her drink, and between the buzz of alcohol and the delight in Tony's attentive company, felt deliciously not herself at all.
The moment was doused by an unwelcome intrusion. “Are you finding your way around all right, Amber?”
Jimmy sidled up to her far side, and Amber felt obliged to turn politely, after casting a desperate look at Tony. “Ah, yes. Everything is quite well marked.”
Her neutral tone was meant to be discouraging, but Jimmy sat on the stool beside her in chummy oblivion.