I held my hand out to Mara. "Come on, it'll be good to get some fresh air. Trust me."
She bit her lip, but then slipped her hand into mine.
My gaze dropped to her feet and those sexy little pink toenails.
Veering my attention to her face, I cleared my throat. "You might want tennies instead of sandals. Better for a nature walk."
Mara hurried off to change her shoes and came back wearing pink tennies. She stepped outside and shut the door, saying, "Let's go."
I picked up the picnic basket and my guitar case. "Follow me."
We headed toward the nature trail, skimming the edge of the lawn maybe thirty feet from the naturists who were hanging out there. Mara glanced sideways at them but didn't even flinch. Maybe her immersion therapy was working. I hoped so, because I didn't want her to leave. I kind of liked her, neuroses and all.
"Want me to carry something for you?" she asked. "You've got your hands full."
"I'm cool. Don't worry about it."
But yeah, I had a feeling I did have my hands full with this girl.
Maybe that's what I needed in my life---something unpredictable.
Chapter Five
Mara
Ollie guided me down the wide dirt path, pointing out the trees and wildflowers while explaining what each one was. I'd never gone out in the woods before. City parks had been the extent of my nature communing. I hadn't needed to leave the city, except to fly somewhere for a vacation at a fancy resort, so I never had.
The trees were so big and beautiful here, and their branches formed a canopy above our heads. The sunlight filtered through them, creating a gentle glow. I heard birds tweeting and squirrels chattering. Ollie had to explain to me what that chattering noise was, since I'd never heard such a thing before. There must've been squirrels in Philadelphia, but I swore I'd never noticed them making noises.
Today I'd learned something. I loved the outdoors.
Once we got to the lake, Ollie set up our picnic by laying out a blanket for us to sit on and setting food items on it. We sat facing each other, so we could talk while enjoying our meal. Ollie had made sandwiches---the best I'd ever eaten. He also brought cupcakes like the ones I'd eaten earlier.
I munched on a potato chip before asking him the question I'd been wondering about all morning. "How did you wind up working at a nudist resort? And how long have you worked here?"
He seemed so normal, not like the kind of guy who would want to spend his days with naked people.
Ollie winced, though I couldn't understand why. He looked down at the picnic blanket for a couple seconds before aiming his gorgeous amber eyes at me. "How long? I, uh, started working here last fall. It just sort of...happened. They needed an assistant manager, and I'd gotten laid off from my job as a computer systems engineer, so it all worked out. To be honest, I was sick of my old job, anyway. Staring at a computer screen all day got really old really fast."
"That's quite a leap, from computers to a nudist resort."
"Maybe, but it made sense to me." He screwed up his mouth, looking away again. "But I'm boring. Tell me more about you. What do you do for a living?"
Oh, I hated that question. Whenever I told a man about my work, they wound up finding excuses to run away. Escape from the spoiled rich girl, that was all they wanted to do. Nobody understood that I took my job seriously. Maybe Ollie would understand, but I didn't want to chase him off before we really got to know each other.
So I played it safe. By sort of lying.
"Me?" I said as a lame delaying tactic while I considered my answer. "Well, I'm basically in real estate."
"Cool. Do you sell a lot?"
"No. I'm more into...management." I picked up a cupcake and bit off a big chunk, eating it as another delaying tactic. Then I swigged water from the bottle Ollie had given me and decided to offer him part of the truth. "I'm really good at the business side of real estate. I know that sounds arrogant, but I don't mean it that way. I love figuring out the best marketing strategies, testing them, refining them, all that stuff."
Ollie grinned. "I knew you were smart. I mean, I thought you were crazy at first, but I could still tell you had brains too."
"How could you possibly know that? I've been acting like a complete idiot since the moment we met."
"Nah. You had a big shock when you found out what this place really is, that's all."