"We'll definitely do that."
He led me back to our picnic site. We gathered up the leftovers of our lunch, and this time I carried the picnic basket. Ollie let me do that because it weighed almost nothing now. He'd slung the strap of the binoculars over his shoulder and carried his guitar case in his hand. We got back to the resort just as a bunch of nudists swarmed the lawn.
I stopped at the end of the trail, at the edge of the woods. Could I handle being around these people yet? The ones I'd met seemed super nice, and I couldn't go on hiding inside the little house. I wanted to get used to their nakedness. I had to. Maybe I couldn't change all the dumb mistakes I'd made in the past, but I could get myself over the shock of hanging around with nudists.
"Will you be okay alone?" Ollie asked. "You can go back into Eve and Val's house if you'll be more comfortable there."
"No, I want to introduce myself to everybody. I need to do it."
"Okay." He glanced around, then pointed at the gray-haired woman I'd met earlier. "You know Ruth Norris, so start with her. She'll take good care of you."
"Thank you, Ollie. I really enjoyed our picnic and seeing the birds."
"You're welcome."
He trotted off toward the guest house.
And I marched straight onto the lawn full of naked people.
Chapter Six
Ollie
For the rest of the day, I alternated between doing my job and keeping an eye on Mara, without seeming like I was spying on her. Even though I kinda was. But not in a creepy way. I hoped. Talking her into wearing tennies instead of sandals had spared me from seeing her pink toenails, but I'd neglected to take into account the fact that she was damn sexy all over, not just her toes. Every time she smiled, I felt my dick trying to firm up. When I sidled up behind her on the lake shore, to show her the kinglet, the proximity of her body had turned me on big time. Leaving her alone for the rest of the day seemed like the smartest choice.
Late in the afternoon, I headed outside and spotted Mara sitting on a lawn chaise, perched on its edge with her hands clasped on her lap. Her eyes were large, but she didn't seem freaked out like before. Some of the guests were playing miniten again, and she followed the players' movements with her eyes, flicking them left, right, left, right, up, down, right, left. Her lips curled up the tiniest bit at the corners, carving out the sweetest little dimples.
The goofy girls who'd been trying to catch butterflies this morning were at it again. One of them bumped into her friend, and the two tumbled to the ground, shrieking with laughter.
Mara smiled. Really smiled. Her teeth showed a little bit.
She was beautiful.
And just like that, my dick started to swell. Mara would freak out if she saw the lump in my pants getting bigger. I probably should've gone over there to remind those butterfly girls about the resort rules---like no body contact---but I couldn't do that when my dick thought this was a good time to get hard. Those dopey girls had wandered off toward the guest house, so I decided to give them the etiquette speech later. But I wanted to talk to Mara. Needed to. It was dumb but true.
I ducked back into the guest house to get a clipboard from the exercise room. It was the sign-up list for buying yoga mats. Didn't matter. I needed something to hold in front of my groin, and this would do. Armed with my clipboard, holding it in front of myself, I marched straight to Mara.
She noticed me and smiled, waving at me.
I clutched the clipboard to my crotch like it was glued to my body. No, that didn't look weird or pervy at all.
"Hey, Mara," I said, sitting down on the chaise next to hers. I kept the clipboard on my lap. "Seems like you're feeling a lot better about being out here with the naturists."
"I am, thank you." Her smile softened into a curling-up, dimple-carving expression that made my heart stutter. "Thank you again for our nature walk. It was amazing. And for the bazillionth time, I'm soooo sorry about the way I acted earlier. Honestly, I'm not terrified of naked people. But I was raised a certain way and taught to believe public nudity isn't proper."
"This isn't a public place. It's a private resort way out in the boonies." I tried to focus on her face, because her body looked so damn good in those pants and that top, but even her smile made me get stiffer in the one place I didn't want to get stiffer right now. "But I get that it was a shock. Glad you're feeling better."
Her brows knit together over her sweet little nose, and her gaze shifted to my lap. "Do you need me to sign something?"
I glanced down. Duh. I was holding a clipboard that had papers clipped onto it.
"No," I said, pushing my glasses up with one finger, "nothing like that. This is the sign-up sheet for guests who want to buy yoga mats from us. Do you do yoga?"
She nodded. "Not in public, though."
Of course not. Uptight city girls didn't do yoga poses in front of strangers, I guessed. But she hadn't seemed uptight when we had our picnic by the lake. The way she'd gotten so excited about seeing birds had made me want to kiss her. For a moment there, when we'd looked at each and our faces had been a breath apart, I'd been tempted to do it.
Until I remembered I was lying to her. Well, not outright lying. I let her believe I wasn't a nudist and gave her an evasive answer to her question about how I wound up working here. How could I kiss her, much less sleep with her, when I wasn't being honest with her?