His wife was younger by several years and even more attractive. She was average height and a blonde as well, although hers probably came from a salon. Her roots were blonde, but her eyebrows and bush were both dark.
She was one of those women who took great pains to look her best. She’d done her hair and makeup, and her finger- and toenails were painted (red). She wore gold earrings, a gold watch, and gold rings on each hand. None of it was gaudy, though. She reminded me of a younger Caroline Bramwell, the West Virginia inn owner, although perhaps without as many zeroes in her family bank account.
My eyes flicked over the rest of her. Her breasts were full and round, although slightly flat. They sagged a bit, but her stomach was improbably firm—her belly button was almost an outie—and she clearly did aerobics or something else to stay in shape.
To my surprise, her eyes grabbed my attention more than her body did, and I found that I couldn’t look away. They were a pale blue, not quite as pure as Christy’s, but close enough. Her complexion was fairer than Christy’s, and she blushed when she noticed the intensity of my gaze. I wanted to kick myself for breaking the cardinal rule of nudists, but at least I’d been staring at her eyes instead of something else.
Susan saved me from further embarrassment.
“I’ve been looking for you,” she said.
“Well, you found us,” Trip said cheerfully. “What’s up?”
She glanced at the new couple and changed her mind about what she wanted to say. “Do you have time for a quick status report?”
I had to bite my tongue when his expression changed to one that had nothing to do with business.
Susan herself struggled not to laugh. “No, not that kind of report.” She shot a glance at the couple and decided to explain, sort of. “Trip and Paul are normally guests, but they’re doing some work around camp. Sorry, let me rephrase, they’re supervising a major renovation and expansion project.” She gestured at our jeans and work shirts. “That’s why they’re dressed like that.”
The man nodded.
Susan thought of something and suppressed a smirk. Then she said to Trip, “Maybe you and Wren can come by after dinner?”
He shot a nervous glance at me, and Susan decided to add a fig leaf, in case the new couple understood the innuendo for what it was.
“You’re leaving tomorrow, aren’t you?” she said to Trip. “I want to talk about the computer you mentioned. But where are my manners? Trip, Paul, I’d like you to meet Carter and Kim.”
We shook hands and made introductions all around.
“On second thought,” Susan said to the new couple, “do you mind if I borrow Trip for a minute? Well, more like ten?”
“Sure,” Carter said, “no problem.”
Susan smiled her thanks and led Trip toward the house we’d just left.
“So, you’re normally a guest?” Carter said to me.
“Yeah. But she has a pretty big project going on. Trip and I are managing it for her.”
“She was telling us. And… don’t take this the wrong way,” he asked politely, “but aren’t you a bit young for something like this?”
“Yes and no.”
Sandy eyebrows invited me to explain.
“We’re twenty-one, but Trip’s been doing this since he was sixteen. He has a flair for business.”
“And you, what do you do?”
“I do all the design.”
“They’re the college students Susan was telling us about,” Kim said. “You know, the architects.”
“Ah, right!” Carter laughed. “Sorry,” he added to me, “I’m a professional skeptic.”
My eyebrows invited him to explain.
“I’m an attorney.”
“Ah, okay. That makes sense. And it explains your accent.”
“Oh?”
“Southern but polished. You’ve clearly been to college. And you don’t sound quite like the locals, but you’re definitely from somewhere in this part of the country.”
“That’s pretty impressive,” he said. “Can you tell where?”
I winced for show and thought about it for real. I didn’t have Christy’s ear, but I compared him to other people I’d talked to. I kept coming back to when my family had lived in Savannah. And he sounded like Sabrina, Danny’s fiancée. She was from the coast too, although she was cosmopolitan enough that she’d lost most of her accent.
“No clue,” I said at last. “Somewhere on the coast. Not Georgia or Florida. I know those accents. And not quite South Carolina either. So… maybe… North Carolina?”
He surprised me with a laugh. “That’s pretty good. I was born in Wilmington.” He glanced at Kim. “You can take the boy out of the low country, but you can’t take the low country out of the boy.”
She smiled and nodded.
“We moved to Charlotte when I was twelve,” he added.
“So you kept the accent,” I said, “but law school knocked the edge off.”
“You might say that,” he agreed. “How can you tell? Is it just my accent?”
I shrugged. “You haven’t said ‘y’all’ or ‘ain’t’ or anything like that, and you don’t shorten words or drop the G’s.”
“I do sometimes,” he admitted, “but only when I’ve had a drink or two.” He affected a slight drawl, “Or when I want to sound like a fine southern gentleman.”
“Ah, there it is,” I said with a grin. “Your real accent.”
“Yeah. You’re the first person to notice it, though.”
I shrugged again. “I pay attention to words and language. I’m weird, I guess.”
“Not at all. I make a living doing it.” He paused and changed the subject. “Susan said you and your girlfriend are here…?”
“Christy, yeah,” I agreed. Then I decided to explain why I’d been staring at Kim earlier. “Your eyes are like hers.”
Kim blinked in surprise, and her cheeks turned pink again.
“Hers are more blue,” I added, “where yours have flecks of green and gold.”
“Wow, you really are perceptive,” Carter said.
“I’m also weird about colors,” I demurred. “And eyes, obviously.”
“They are beautiful,” Carter agreed. He smiled fondly at his wife. “They were the first thing I noticed about her. Well, her eyes and… you know.”
She turned pinker still, and he smirked for my benefit.
I decided to risk annoying him. “This is your first time at a nudist camp?”
He frowned when he realized he’d made a faux pas, although he seemed genuinely embarrassed instead of upset that I’d called him on it. “How can you tell?”
I hesitated.
“Tell me,” he insisted. “Honestly.”
“We don’t really joke about body parts. Not other people’s, at least.”
“Right,” he said soberly. “Now I know. Low-brow humor. Sorry about that. Thanks for telling me.”
“No problem.”
He considered me for a moment and then said, “We’ll have to get together sometime. Where’re you staying?”
“Not here. Well, not here-here, in the main camp.”
He raised a sandy eyebrow.
“We’re staying in the new part, the Retreat.”
“Susan was telling us,” Kim prompted him. “Remember?”
“Ah, right!” Carter said, although I had the impression that he’d known the name and was simply too polite to correct her when she “reminded” him. Then he frowned and asked her, “Why aren’t we staying there? I thought you booked the nicest room.”
She winced. “I wanted to, but…”
“They aren’t ready yet,” I said smoothly. “We just finished trimming them out last week. They don’t even have furniture yet.”
Carter turned to me. “You said you’re staying there.”
“We are. But we’re sleeping on air mattresses and storing our things in apple crates.”