Love's Little Instruction Book by Mary Gorman Page B

Manny from engineering had his video camera pointed right at him.
    Annoyance roiled up within him once again. He knew the image of him listening to the sound of the ocean when he was already at the beach was definitely going to make it into next year’s home movie. He made his way out of the surf and over to where Manny stood. There was something he needed to say.
    • • •
    “Where have you been, Dave?” Presley asked as he came back to their towel a few minutes later.
    “I found these for you,” he said, handing the sea star to Denise and the whelk to Presley. Both women turned the objects over in their hands, examining the subtle beauty in color and forms. Dave sat down and drew his knees up toward his chest, feeling pretty self-confident after his talk with Manny. He didn’t think the man would be a problem to Presley after this, and he rather doubted that Manny or Pat would be troubling him any more, either. But just in case, he wasn’t going to be eating any burgers with the works this year.
    “How’s the water?” Todd O’Connor asked, sitting next to Denise on the far side of the blanket.
    Dave shrugged. “Warmer than a tundra. Colder than the air. About right for an ocean.”
    “I was talking to Denise and Todd about how we can get back at Manny and Pat,” Presley informed him. “I think maybe you and I should wait until everyone’s looking and then come up from behind and yank down their swim trunks. See how they like being put on display against their will.”
    “That’s not very subtle, Pres,” O’Connor told her.
    “Neither am I,” Presley shot back.
    “I don’t think they’ll be as much of a problem to you this year,” Dave told Presley, meeting her eyes as he spoke.
    A slow grin split Presley’s gamine face. “We saw you walking up to Manny. What did you do?”
    A small, smug smile pulled up the corners of Dave’s mouth. “I told him that you were up here talking to Denise about how a person files a sexual harassment suit. Told him that Denise thought that considering the fact that everyone saw the movie and could testify that Manny and Pat had filmed close ups of Presley’s backside, that they followed her around like a couple of stalkers, and even chased her into the ladies’ room, that it was a pretty open and shut case.” He shifted his gaze from Presley to Denise. “I don’t think you’ll be having a problem with them this year.”
    Presley threw back her head and laughed. “David DiSciullo, you’re brilliant! That’s perfect! Thank you so much!”
    O’Connor and Denise were grinning as well. “That was great, Dave. Really clever,” Denise praised him.
    Feeling smug and wanting to bask in the glow of their approval, Dave lay down on his back and soaked up the sun.
    • • •
    It hadn’t turned out to be such a bad time after all, Dave thought not long after lunch as he sat back on the blanket and listened to Presley arguing with Todd O’Connor about the best place to sit to take in the Boston Pops’ annual Fourth of July concert on the Esplanade. Denise lay on her back just a few feet away, sunglasses on so that Dave couldn’t see her eyes. She might even be asleep for all he could tell. There had been two more hasty dips in the ocean during the course of the day. One when she sat up to slather more sunscreen on her front — the sight of those long, sexy fingers stroking her breasts above the bright red of her top had damn near done him in. He’d made another trip into the ocean, less hurried, when she accepted O’Connor’s proposal to take part in the A.M. vs. P.M. crews’ volleyball game. He wasn’t fool enough to go and watch, but just the thought of Denise in her sexy red bikini raising up her arms to spike the ball had him doing a little unscheduled spiking of his own.
    But between his forays into the ocean, Dave had worked up enough nerve to start a conversation with Denise and discovered all over again that he really did like her. She was down