Tequila And Tingles: Turtle Pine, Book 2 Read Online Free Page A

him a slip of paper with directions to the center, and he navigated around the small town, through the two red lights on the square and past the umpteen stop signs, until he turned and pulled into the full parking lot in front of the redbrick building. A green-and-white striped awning marked the front, and Turtle Pine Community was written on a sign above in a scripted font screaming for an update.
    He sighed and made his way through the front of the building. A girl wearing a pink shirt with TPC on the left breast flicked hair out of her way and tossed him a braces-filled grin. “Hi, ya.”
    “I’m looking for Brandon.”
    She pointed to the right. “Go down the hall to the glass doors leading to the pool. Can’t miss him. He’s setting up for today’s swim lessons.”
    The stout smell of chlorine filled the hall as he came closer to the door. Forget coffee. That scent alone would put hair on a man’s chest. Somebody didn’t know what they were doing. Best he understood from his sister, he was about to meet that somebody. He pushed through the glass doors and found a man in a red shirt, same TPC marking on his chest, with a handful of small life jackets around him. He had short dark hair as Meredith had described, and a slightly chubby midsection that said he lifted more paper at the gym than weights.
    “Brandon?”
    The man looked up, and his shoulders dropped as a long breath eased from him. “I hope you’re Jason.”
    He couldn’t decide if that was a good or a bad thing that he wasn’t immediately recognized. The odds of anyone knowing that his former client had accused him of having sex with her and being the father of her baby had to be small. Even small odds were still too large for him. “Reporting for duty. Meredith said I had a swim class to teach.”
    Brandon loosed the clipboard that had been clutched to his chest. He lowered his arms, and the board hung from his fingertips at his side. “Boy, am I glad to see you. I didn’t want to teach this class. My wife would kill me if I weren’t home in time for supper with her parents.”
    “Happy to be here.”
    Brandon glanced to the clock. “We have about ten minutes. Let me give you a fast run-through for shutting this place down. Jennifer, the girl at the front, will be here to help, but just so you know what to expect.”
    “Sure.”
    Jason followed for a quick tour of the building. He was taken into different rooms, given instructions to shut things down and other general things about the business. He found TPC was complete with a nice pair of locker rooms, including saunas and steam showers. As upscale as the facilities were, you’d seen one, you’d seen a hundred. And Jason had seen a hundred or more showers like these in his lifetime.
    As the tour dragged on through more items and amenities he’d seen before, he couldn’t help but think back to this morning, when he’d woken and Beth had still been asleep. He hadn’t wanted to get out of bed but knew if he wanted to get to his sister’s at a decent hour, he had to be moving. He’d taken time to pull Beth’s hair away from her face and leave a kiss on her forehead. Lying in that bed, looking at her with the light barely touching her face, he’d decided to send her breakfast in bed, courtesy of room service, before slipping to a quick shower. Somehow, he’d managed to do all that and not disturb her.
    Or so he’d thought. Getting out of the shower to the sound of the hotel door closing had shown how much he’d missed the mark.
    Brandon pulled open another door and stepped aside with a wave of his hand. “I’m hoping you’ll know what to do with all this.”
    Jason blinked Beth and her incredibly shapely backside out of his mind for the rows and rows of pool chemicals and testing strips. “I noticed your chlorine smelled a little strong.”
    Brandon sighed and rubbed the back of his head. “I didn’t know what I was doing and tried to make do until you got here.” Heaviness