Page 62 of Life, Love and the Pursuit of Happiness

“Congratulations on the great meal,” she said once again. “I’m going to dream about your hamburgers tonight.”

I’d prefer you dream about my other meat, he thought and bit his bottom lip to ensure he didn’t let such a crude thought escape aloud. Really, I’ve been living in a male horndog society—SEALs—way too long. I need to relearn gentility. Hah! That’s a word my mother liked. I’m becoming my freakin’ mother. No, no, no! I will not become genteel. I will maintain my rude, crude roughness, on the inside, anyway.

“Maybe you should be doing the cooking on Sweet Bells.”

“Oh, no! I’m a one-dish wonder. Besides, the team members would shoot me if you didn’t come back. You promised them a special batch of your cinnamon rolls.”

She nodded. “I’ll make them first thing in the morning. Several varieties.”

“Lemon?” he asked, hopefully. “I only got those two this morning before your visitors arrived, and I saw K-4 scarfing up the last few this afternoon.”

“Yes, Merrill, I’ll include lemon,” she said with exaggerated patience as if he were a small child.

He was feeling nothing like a child as he gazed at her in the sundress she’d been wearing all day, the sundress that had ignited lots of ideas in his overactive brain. Oh, there was no halter knot at the back of her neck, but those thin spaghetti straps could probably be lowered by a motivated man’s teeth.

“Are you ready to take off tomorrow?” he asked. Something’s ready to take off from my end.

Rude, crude, for sure. My mind is really in the gutter tonight.

“Everything on my list is done,” she said.

“Mine, too. All my phone calls made. Harry’s been brought up to date and is well able to handle my business from this end.”

“Should be an interesting week, with Bonita’s news.”

“Yep. I did some research earlier, and the Falcon would be a great discovery.”

“Does that mean you’d give up on the Three Saints?”

“Not at all. We have the site until next year. Just a change of direction, for the moment.”

She looked a little bit sad as she stared off toward the bay. There was a ripple of thunder in the distance, presaging a storm to come. The breeze was a welcome relief to the day’s heat.

“I’m worried about you going out tomorrow,” he said suddenly, into the silence. “You know, leaving your daughter behind, practically on her arrival.”

“She’ll be fine. I’ve given Gram a list of things to do with Maggie around town and here at the motel. Plus, my grandmother has ideas for how to clean some of my diner equipment, with Avon products.” She gave him a rueful shrug, as if apologizing for her grandmother’s quirkiness.

“You do know she sold me and K-4 men’s colognes already?”

She rolled her eyes. “That’s my grandmother, but don’t feel obligated to buy stuff from her. She’ll con you if she can.”

“She asked K-4 today if he’d like to play a round of poker. He got leery when she pulled out a case with her own chips and everything.”

“She has a little issue with gambling. Living in Atlantic City with the casinos in walking distance is a great temptation. For her anyhow.”

Ah, so that’s where the money went. “You said that Maggie will be fine when you’re gone. But will you?”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s obvious how much you love your little girl and how much you’ve missed her, already. It’s too soon to be separated again. As I’ve already suggested—”

She put up a halting hand. “No! I honor my obligations. Trust is important to me. I need you to trust that when I say I’ll do something, I will.”

“Okay, okay. I didn’t mean to offend.” He stood and told her, “Wait here. I have an idea.”

She rolled her eyes, again.

He chucked her under the chin in passing. “Not that idea,” he said, “although I’m more than willing.”