Read A Love That Never Tires for Free Online

heard.”
    She shrugged. “All this from a man who’s afraid to take off his shoes and socks…”
    “I am not afraid.”
    “It’s alright to be afraid some of the time,” Linley continued as if she hadn’t heard him. “But you cannot be afraid all of the time.”
    “I said I am not afraid.” To prove it, Patrick jerked at the laces of his tan leather oxfords. He wrestled his feet out of the shoes, pulled off his socks, and dropped them both down onto the sand. “See!”
    She clapped with mock pride. “Very good. I am proud of you.” With that, she picked up his left shoe and chucked it toward the ocean. It fell short of the water but landed the wet sand with a plop.
    Patrick grappled for the other one, but Linley sent it flying in the direction of its mate. “Those were very expensive!” he cried.
    “You can get them back when we’re finished,” Linley said. “Besides, you strike me as the sort of fellow who owns more than one pair of shoes at a time.”
    “It is the principle of the matter,” he said, frowning. “You can’t go around pitching people’s good footwear into the Atlantic.”
    “Are they your favorite?”
    “As a matter of fact,” Patrick said, “They are.”
    Linley stood up, releasing a fresh barrage of sand into Patrick’s face. “I’m sorry. I’ll go get them.”
    “No, it’s fine. Sit down.”
    She looked down at him, the salty wind blowing her skirt around her ankles. “Are you sure?”
    “Please,” he said, patting the ground.
    Linley sat. Once she settled herself back onto the flannel jacket, Patrick snatched both of her shoes and slung them as close to his own as he could get them.
    “ Hey! ”
    He couldn’t help but burst out laughing at the look of open-mouthed shock on her face. “Now we are even.”
    “You snake! You had me feeling really awful.”
    Patrick tried to wipe the smile from his face long enough to scold her. “You should feel awful. But now you’ve had a taste of your own medicine.”
    She took a handful of sand and threw it at him. Not to be outdone, he gathered up a fistful and sent it right back at her. Before they knew it, they were both gritty with sand and laughing loud enough to scare the seagulls away.

    ***

    “You’re an alright fellow, Mr. Wolford. I’m rather glad we met.” Linley pushed her feet deeper into the sand, down to where it was cool and no longer warmed from the sun. With her hands, she molded a mountain around the stalks of skinny legs that jutted out of the earth.
    Patrick sat reclined on his elbows, shirtsleeves rolled halfway up his arms, and his eyes closed. He tried to time his breathing to the rhythm of the waves breaking on the shore, unable to remember the last time he felt so relaxed.
    “Really,” she continued. “You’re the first normal Englishman I’ve ever talked to.”
    He opened one eye to look at her. “Normal?”
    “One who’s not an archaeologist, or who wants to be an archaeologist, or whose parents are archaeologists.”
    “Ah.” Patrick closed his eye.
    “You’re very English. The way you talk, the way you carry yourself. I don’t know how I mistook you for a Frenchman when I first saw you.”
    He sighed. “ Wherever I wander, boast of this I can—though banished, yet a trueborn Englishman. ”
    “Shakespeare, of course. Very fitting. I’m sure you read all about him in some grand public school—same as your father and his father before him—reciting Richard II by gaslight with all your best pals.”
    “It’s true,” he said. “I probably had the most English upbringing of any man I know.”
    “How very fortunate you are to be able to say you were a part of something,” Linley said. “Sometimes, I feel everyone else has some place they can call home, but I belong up in the air somewhere.”
    “In the air?”
    Linley waved her hands. “Not anywhere in particular, just…around.”
    “I see.”
    “Do you? Do you really see?” she asked. “Because Archie, and Reginald,