Текст книги "Native Affairs"

Автор книги: Doreen Malek Owens

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Текущая страница: 28 (всего у книги 37 страниц)

Chapter 4

The next morning Ann’s father was at his office, her mother was at a Daughters of the American Revolution meeting, and Luisa was at the market doing the grocery shopping. Ann was deep into the adventures of a Victorian Gothic heroine in the Yorkshire dales when the doorbell rang. Ann padded barefoot over to the front hall to answer it, saving her place in her book with her finger.

Heath Bodine stood on the front portico, Ann’s sweater in his hands.

“Hi,” he said. “Okay if I come in?”

Ann’s heart began to beat faster the moment she saw him. He was wearing tan chino pants with a crisp navy polo shirt that flattered his dark coloring. She stood aside and let him walk past her into the house.

“How’s your hand?” she asked.

“It’s all right. They did a good job sewing it up at the hospital, I guess.” He handed her the sweater, now spotless. “I brought this back for you.”

“You got the bloodstains out!” Ann said, marveling.

He smiled wryly. “I’ve been working at the marina for five years now. Stain removal is my life.”

Ann laughed.

“Would you like a cup of coffee or something? There’s nobody home but me,” Ann said, leading the way into the living room of the house.

“I know. I stayed across the street until I saw everybody else leave.”

Ann looked at him inquiringly.

“I wanted to talk to you alone.”

Ann waited, her mouth going dry.

“I guess Luisa told you all about me,” he said flatly, his gaze expectant.

Ann shook her head.

“Yeah, she got rid of the truck so I wouldn’t have to come back to your house. That’s why I’m here.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t appreciate being driven away like a thief,” Heath said darkly.

“Luisa didn’t mean it like that.”

“Oh, no?” he said, holding her eyes steadily with his own, his posture defiant.

Ann looked away from him.

“There’s another reason I came,” he added.

“Yes?” Ann said.

“It was a nice thing you did for me, and I know I wasn’t acting very grateful.”

“Don’t worry about it, I understand. You were in pain and worried about your hand...”

“That wasn’t it,” he said.

Ann stopped.

“People like you look down on people like me, and I didn’t want to be indebted to any snob.”

“I’m not a snob, Heath.”

“I realized that after I got home and thought about it. I guess I just reacted instinctively, and I’m sorry.”

He extended his hand, and she took it. His palm was callused and warm.

The telephone rang and they both jumped, as if caught in a stolen embrace.

“Just let me answer that,” Ann said hastily, “and I’ll be right back.”

When she got to the phone it was her father, calling from work. That was odd enough in itself to make her wonder what was going on. Henry Talbot’s business was his life, and when he left the house in the morning it was usually as if he had disappeared into a parallel universe until he returned in the evening.

“I just wanted to let you know that there’s a dance at the Heron Club this Friday night and Dan Witherspoon asked me if you and Alan Michael would like to attend,” Henry said.

Ann saw the fine hand of Luisa in this development. The housekeeper had obviously told Henry about the incident with Heath, and Henry’s response was to provide his daughter with what he considered a more appropriate alternative.

Ann’s grip tightened on the receiver. She had spent exactly two hours with Heath Bodine, most of it in an intensely romantic hospital emergency room, and her father was behaving as if she had been discovered in a motel bed with him.

“Mr. Witherspoon is now arranging Alan’s dates?” Ann said to her father.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Henry Talbot replied testily. “He just thought it would be a nice idea if we could all go together.”

“Well, I’m sorry, you’re going to have to disappoint Mr. Witherspoon. I have plans for Friday.”

“What are you doing?”

“Amy and I are going over to Big Palm Island for an Aerosmith concert.”

“Can’t you postpone that?”

“Dad, they’re playing one night before going on to Miami. We’ve had the tickets for three months.”

Henry sighed dramatically. “All right, we’ll arrange something for the future then.”

Over my cooling carcass, Ann thought. Aloud she asked, “Is that all, Daddy?”

“I suppose so. Tell your mother I’ll be home at seven-fifteen. Goodbye.”

“Bye.” Ann hung up the phone and walked back into the living room to discover that Heath was gone.

* * * *

“What do you mean, he left?” Amy said as they drove over the causeway to Big Palm on Friday night.

“Just what I said. I went into the kitchen to get the phone and when I came back he was gone.”

“That’s odd.”

“Not to mention rude.”

“I don’t think he was being rude,” Amy said thoughtfully, turning down the radio.

“What would you call it?”

“He probably had to work up his nerve to come and see you, and then when you left he felt uncertain about it. Maybe he thought you were trying to get rid of him.”

“He heard the phone ringing in the kitchen, Amy. It wasn’t a magic trick.”

“But you did stay talking on the phone for several minutes, right?”

“It was my father, Amy. You know what he’s like.”

“Heath doesn’t know that. He may have thought you seized the opportunity to escape.”

“That’s stupid, Amy, why would I do that? He was only returning my sweater.”

Amy turned to look at her in amazement. “You’re the one who’s stupid, Annie. He could have mailed the sweater to you. He wanted to see you again and the sweater was an excuse.”

“You really think so?”

Amy rolled her eyes. “You’ve spent too much time in an all-girls’ school, sweetie.”

“You’ve been going to the same school.”

“But I sneak out every weekend to drive to Far Hills Community College to party while you stay in our room and read Victoria Holt novels and watch old movies. Trust me, I know about these things. He’s hooked.”

“I’d like to see him again,” Ann said softly.

“Then do it,” Amy said firmly.

“What do you mean?”

“Tonight is the perfect opportunity. Your parents think you’re at the concert with me. I’ll drop you off at Jensen’s Marina.”

“I can’t do that!” Ann said, aghast.

“Why not?”

“It’s so... forward.”

“What is this, 1959? Is Donna Reed at your house, giving advice in a shirtwaist dress, high heels and pearls? You want him, go for it.”

“I don’t even know if he’s working tonight.”

“From what I hear he’s always there. I don’t think home is too much fun. But we can make sure. Let’s pull over and call him.”

Ann stared at her in horror.

“I won’t say who it is, I’ll just ask for him and see if he’s there, okay?” Amy said, shrugging innocently.

Ann hesitated.

“Come on, come on—no guts, no glory.” Amy pulled into a driveway and turned her car around, heading back toward Lime Island.

“What if he is there? Are you going on to the concert by yourself?”

“Are you kidding? Gloria Stansfield has been bugging me for weeks to sell her my ticket, she’ll take yours in a second. I know for a fact she’s home tonight, I just talked to her this morning. I can pick her up after I drop you off at Jensen’s.”

“Got it all figured out, haven’t you?”

“Yup,” Amy said smugly, and grinned.

She guided her red Camaro into the Jiffy Stop strip mall and stopped the car in front of the pay phone. “Well?” she said as she put the car in park.

“All right. Should I call?”

Amy shook her head. “He might recognize your voice if he comes to the phone or answers it himself. This way, if I call and then you chicken out, he won’t be the wiser.”

Ann watched as Amy got out of the car and went to the phone. She had to hand it to her more sophisticated friend; Amy was a whiz at this stuff.

She saw Amy’s lips moving and then waited what seemed like an eternity before Amy flashed her the thumbs-up sign and nodded emphatically.

Ann felt her heart lurch. She had been half hoping that Heath wouldn’t be there. As much as she wanted to see him again, the thought of actually confronting him made her go weak in the knees.

What if he told her to get lost?

Amy scampered back to the car and chortled “Bingo” as she pulled open the door. She started the engine and the car shot out into the street, its tires kicking up sprays of gravel in her eagerness to get back onto the road.

“What took you so long?” Ann demanded, gnawing on her thumbnail.

“I had to get the number of the marina from information first. I didn’t exactly have it memorized, you know.”

“What did he say?”

“I didn’t talk to him. When somebody answered I just asked her for Heath Bodine, and when she went to get him, I hung up the phone. But we know he’s there.”

“For how long?”

“Probably until the place closes at nine.”

“But what if he leaves early? What if he goes out on a job and isn’t there when I arrive?”

Amy looked over at her in exasperation. “Then take a cab back home. Luisa’s gone for the day and your parents are out, anyway, they’ll never know the difference.”

“I only have ten dollars.”

Amy picked up her purse from the car’s console with her free hand and thrust it into Ann’s lap.

“There’s fifty in my wallet, take half. That’ll be more than enough, even if the cabbie takes you home by way of Santiago. Anything else, Nervous Nellie?”

“I’m not dressed right.”

“Oh, for heaven’s sake Annie. You’re driving me nuts. You look perfectly fine.”

“This blouse is old.”

“It brings out the color of your eyes.”

“My hair is frizzy.”

“Sweetie, your hair would not frizz in the jungles of equatorial Africa. It looks the way it always does, sensational.”

“I have a zit on my forehead.”

Amy slowed the car and pulled onto the shoulder of the road. She put the car in neutral and looked over at her friend.

“We are three minutes from the marina. If you don’t want to go through with this, say so now and we’ll forget it, all right?”

Ann bit her lip. “I want to do it. I’m just... scared.”

“Scared of him?”

“A little. He’s so big and strong and, I don’t know, masculine. And he must have a reputation, or else why would my father and Luisa be freaking out just because I talked to him?”

“Hold me back,” Amy said, sighing. “If he were interested in me I would live at Jensen’s Marina.”

“Okay. Let’s go.”

The rest of the trip was conducted in silence. The marina was lit up as dusk was just falling, and through the glass walls of the showroom Ann could see the new boats up on blocks for display to potential buyers. The docks where the tenant boats bobbed at anchor led off to the water on the right; the repair garage was on the left.

“How are you doing?” Amy asked as she pulled to a stop at the entrance to the garage.

“I’m a wreck. My hands are like ice.”

“Go for it. Good luck.”

Ann got out of the car. Amy pulled away so fast that Ann knew Amy was not giving her a chance to change her mind.

Ann walked slowly inside the garage, where several boats were disassembled on the stained cement floor and the smell of oil and diesel fuel was overpowering. A middle-aged man with red hair, wearing a rugby shirt, looked up from a ledger at a desk by the door.

“Help you?” he said.

“Yes, I’m, uh, looking for Heath Bodine.”

“He’s out back with Joan. Want me to get him for you?‘“

Ann almost said no, but the man was already moving away. She stood shifting her weight nervously, wondering who Joan was, until she heard the sound of footsteps and saw Heath walking toward her.

He was wearing ripped and faded jeans with a sleeveless army surplus T-shirt and wiping his hands on a greasy rag. He stopped short when he saw her.

“What are you doing here?” he asked.

Ann stared at his unsmiling face, the hard lines of his mouth, and her nerve failed her.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have come,” she muttered, bolting for the exit.

He ran in front of her and blocked her path. “Don’t go,” he said. “I was just surprised, I didn’t expect to see you.”

Ann looked back at him in mute appeal.

The redhead returned to his desk and examined the ledger again, humming under his breath.

“Joe, okay for me to use the office for a few minutes? ” Heath said to him.

“Sure, kid. It’s empty.”

Heath jerked his head toward a cubicle with a door at their left, and Ann followed him into it. Once inside Heath turned to Ann and looked at her inquiringly.

“I don’t know what I’m doing here,” she said miserably. “I just wanted to see you again.”

He gazed at her for a long moment and then walked past her to lock the door. When he turned back to her, his face was unguarded and vulnerable.

He opened his arms and she ran into them.

“It’s all right, Princess,” he said into her hair as she closed her eyes and relaxed into his embrace, reveling in the hard feel of his arms around her and the support of his shoulder under her cheek. “I feel the same way, I just wasn’t sure if you did.”

“I did. I do. I hadn’t planned to leave you the other day when the phone rang, and when I came back and you were gone—”

“Don’t explain,” he said, interrupting her, and she felt the rumble of his voice under her ear. “It doesn’t matter. You’re here with me now and that’s what counts.”

He held her off at arm’s length to look down into her face, and then laughed.

“I’m getting you all dirty,” he said.

She threw her arms around his neck again. “I don’t care. Hold me again.”

He obeyed, crushing her to him, and she felt his lips in her hair. When they moved down to her cheek, she lifted her mouth eagerly for his kiss.

It left her breathless, eager for more. He knew what he was doing; this was not the shy, tentative kiss of an inexperienced adolescent but the mature embrace of a man. She clung to him, her lips opening to admit his probing tongue, pressing herself against his lean body until she could feel his unmistakable reaction. It didn’t alarm her, it only made her hungry for more.

There was a knock at the door. “Hey, kid, I need to get in there for the day’s receipts,” a male voice said.

Heath pulled Ann’s arms from around his neck and took a step back.

“We can’t do this here,” he said breathlessly. “Can you meet me when I get off work at nine?”

Ann nodded, her heart still pounding.

“I have my bike out back. We’ll take a ride, okay?”

“Okay.”

He moved to unlock the door. “And whatever you’ve heard about me or my family,” he said, “don’t be afraid. I’d never do anything to hurt you.”

“I’m not afraid,” she said, and suddenly she wasn’t.

The door opened and the redhead came into the room, shooting Heath an amused glance.

“I’ll see you later, okay?” Heath said to Ann, careful not to look at her.

“Later,” she echoed, and walked out of the office and through the garage, not seeing a thing.

She waited until she was outside the doors before she jumped for joy.

* * * *

The hour and a half until Heath got off work seemed to last a decade. Ann went to a sandwich shop down the block from the marina. She sat there nursing several sodas and staring uncomprehendingly at a newspaper until it was time to walk back to Jensen’s. When she got there, the redhead was locking the doors of the garage with a woman standing at his side. He grinned at Ann and said, “Heath will be right out, miss.”

Ann nodded.

Heath emerged from the office door, a gray, hooded sweatshirt tied around his waist. He smiled when he saw her and called out to the others, “G’night, Joe. G’night, Joanie.”

The woman waved as the couple climbed into a van and the man started the motor.

“Joe and Joanie Jensen, sounds like a British comedy team,” Ann said to Heath as he joined her.

“Yeah, I know, but they’ve been good to me. Joe took me on when I was just a sophomore in high school, didn’t even have working papers, didn’t know a thing. I’ve been here ever since.” He took her hand as naturally as he had kissed her and led her around to the side of the building.

“Are you the only ones who work at night?”

“Actually, the place closes at six. They own the marina, so they’re here after hours to do paperwork and bookkeeping, stuff like that. I come in some nights to finish whatever repairs they didn’t get to during the day, and sort of clean up, you know?”

Ann nodded. She didn’t even care what he was saying, his presence was so overwhelming. He stopped short in front of a huge Harley-Davidson chained to a cement post and said, “You ever been on one of these?”

Ann shook her head.

“I didn’t think so,” he said dryly. “Not exactly the mode of transportation favored by the country-club set, is it?”

Ann surveyed the motorcycle warily.

“We can just take a walk if you’d rather not get on it,” he said, responding to her expression.

“No, it’s all right. I want to try it. What do I do?”

“Just climb on behind me and hang on tight to my waist,” he replied.

“I think I can do that,” Ann said, blushing.

“Yeah, I’ll bet you can,” he replied, laughing. He released the chain and then sat on the bike, kicking it into life. Then he unsnapped a helmet from the crossbar and handed it to her.

“Put this on,” he said to her.

“Where’s yours?”

“That is mine. I wasn’t expecting company. I’ll get another one for you tomorrow. Come on aboard.” He held out his hand and she took it confidently.

Ann felt a glow as she climbed onto the bike and wrapped her arms around Heath’s waist. He was getting her a helmet. There would be more times like this.

“Okay back there?” he said, turning his head.

“Fine.”

“Where to?”

“I don’t care,” Ann said, and she didn’t.

They roared off down the incline from the marina to the street, and when Heath reached the road he opened up the bike, traveling at a rate of speed that made the wind whistle in Ann’s ears and the nighttime scenery merge into a blur. She leaned forward and put her head against the back of Heath’s shoulder, closing her eyes and just enjoying the sensation of his warm, muscular body under her hands. When she finally felt the bike slow down she was almost sorry, raising her head to see that Heath was pulling into a clearing above the bay. They were on a height looking out toward the causeway bridge, which twinkled with strings of lights in the warm and fragrant darkness.

“It’s so pretty,” Ann said as he helped her off the bike. “How did you know about this spot? I’ve lived on Lime Island all my life and have never been here.”

“I drive around a lot,” he answered shortly. He untied the sweatshirt from his waist and spread it on the ground for her to sit upon in comfort. The innate gallantry of the gesture pleased her, and she sat with great ceremony, curling her legs under her.

“Where are we?” Ann asked.

“The hills above Port Lisbon. That’s the commercial dock area down below, where you see the boats.” He lay back on the grass and folded his hands behind his head, staring up at the stars. She could just see the white bandage near his thumb, smaller now. He had replaced the gauze pack from the hospital with a square of white tape.

Ann waited for him to speak, certain that he would, but curiously not anxious to rush him. Normally she was one of those people who charged in to fill the gap when a silence fell, but already she knew that with Heath, the situation was different.

He was not a talker.

He sat up suddenly and she could tell that he was looking at her, even though all she could see in the dim and filtered moonlight was his clean profile.

“Princess, I have to tell you the truth here,” he said quietly. “I don’t want to scare you, but I’ve never felt like this before, and I want to make sure you feel the same before this goes any further.”

Ann held her breath, listening.

“Ever since we met on your father’s boat, I’ve felt so drawn to you... like I have to be with you. Obviously I was fighting it the first day—I didn’t want to make a fool of myself. It was happening so fast, so strong, and I know I have nothing to offer somebody like you.”

“That isn’t true,” Ann protested. He held up his hand to stop her.

“Let me finish. When you came to see me tonight, I realized that you must be feeling the same thing.”

“I am,” Ann said softly.

“Okay. Then you should know about me. You’re going to hear things from people—Lime Island is small and Port Lisbon is even smaller. Even though you didn’t go to school here, you’re going to be around all summer and Luisa Sanchez, who lives two blocks away from me, works in your house. I want you to know the facts.”

“All right.”

He sighed and stared off into the distance. “My father is the town drunk. He hasn’t worked at all in about ten years, lives off welfare and has a buzz on by about eleven in the morning. In the afternoon he passes out on the sofa and gets up to stagger around a few hours in the evening before crashing into bed. Or in a chair, or on the floor. Whatever’s handy.”

Ann said nothing.

“His daddy was a full-blooded Seminole, and he says it’s the Indian blood in him that makes him drink, but I think he’s just a lazy bastard who likes to lap up the sauce. As for my mother, she took off when I was nine, about the time my father really started to go downhill. I have no idea if his decline was the cause or the result of her leaving. We don’t know where she is, and I don’t care. Before she left she was an embarrassment, anyway, the friendly type, if you get my drift. She was especially friendly to anyone passing through who might have a few bucks to spend on her. I guess she wasn’t getting much attention from the old man, but it’s all water under the bridge now.”

He was relaying all this in a dispassionate voice, obviously unwilling to be the object of sympathy, but Ann couldn’t help saying, “But who took care of you when she left? You were only a little boy.”

“My older sister did what she could when she was still home. She would have been twenty-five now. She got into drugs, easy enough to do in my neighborhood, and wound up going to Miami to support her habit. She died of an overdose about ten months ago.”

Although Ann had already gotten most of this from Amy, hearing it come from his mouth as though he were discussing the weather had a chilling effect on her. She sat in silence for so long that he finally said flatly, “If you’re sorry you came up here with me, I’ll take you home now.”

Ann ran to fling herself on him, wrapping her arms around his torso and burying her face against his chest. His arms came around her immediately in response, and she heard him sigh, whether in relief or gratitude at her reaction it was impossible to say.

“You know,” he said above her head, with a catch in his voice, “you should be more careful. You don’t really know me, Princess. I could have brought you up here to rape and murder you.”

“Ever since I saw your face when you locked the door of the office at Jensen’s garage, I wasn’t afraid of you,” Ann replied softly. “Only of what I might do because of the way I feel.”

His grip tightened and she felt him kiss the top of her head lingeringly.

“Shouldn’t I tell you something about me now?” Ann inquired comfortably, closing her eyes.

“I already know about you. Henry Talbot is your father, that’s enough.”

“Don’t you want to know if I have a boyfriend?”

“If you did, you now have a new one,” he said confidently, adjusting his position to draw her even closer.

Ann giggled. He might be insecure about his family’s varied problems, but regarding his appeal to women he knew that he was on firm ground.

“My friend Amy says that all the girls in Palm High were after you,” Ann said.

“Who the hell is Amy?”

“We go to Winfield Academy together. Her cousin, Carol Brady, graduated with you.”

“Carol Brady?”

“She was on the cheerleading team. Her father runs the hardware store in Laguna.”

“Oh, yeah. Long brown hair, glasses, big mouth.”

“That’s Carol.”

“Well, don’t believe everything you hear. People exaggerate. I was never with anybody like you, that’s for sure.”

Ann sat up and took his hand, lightly tracing the calluses on his palm with her index finger. “But you’ve had lots of experience, and I haven’t had any,” she said.

“How old are you, Princess?” he asked quietly, after a thoughtful pause.

“Seventeen. I’ll be eighteen in January.”

He sighed heavily. “That’s what I thought. You’re underage in this state.”

“You won’t stop seeing me!” Ann said in a panic, clutching his hand.

“No, no,” he said, pulling her into his arms again. “We just have to go slow and be careful.”

“How slow?” she asked, running her lips along the firm line of his throat, feeling powerful and womanly with newfound desire. “How careful?”

He rolled her under him and kissed her wildly, until she was sinking her fingers into his lush hair and wrapping her legs around his hips, urging herself against him. He finally pushed her away and stood abruptly, walking a short distance to lean against a nearby tree, breathing harshly.

“This is going to be tougher than I thought,” he said at length, when he was under control again.

“I know I’m not helping,” Ann said, not quite ashamed of herself. “I can’t keep my hands off you.”

“The feeling is mutual.” He sat a few feet away from her and said, “I have to ask you a question.”

“Anything.”

“Did you call Jensen’s earlier tonight and ask for me?”

“That was my friend Amy. I wanted to make sure you were there and I was nervous about calling myself.”

“Why?”

“I thought you might recognize my voice.”

“I would have, I think. But why didn’t you just admit that it was you?”

“I wanted the chance to back out if I got cold feet.”

“I’m glad you didn’t, Princess.”

“So am I.” She hesitated a moment and then said, “Why do you always call me ‘Princess’?”

“Because that’s what you look like to me, all golden hair and big blue eyes, creamy skin. Like what’s her name... with the dwarfs. Snow White.”

“Snow White had black hair,” Ann said laughing. “At least in the movie, she did.”

“Well, then, Sleeping Beauty. Or that other one in the tower, Rapunsa.”

“Rapunzel.”

“Right. I know she was a blonde—I saw the cartoon.” He was laughing with her. He stood, pulled Ann to her feet, and enfolded her tenderly.

“What are we going to do, Rapunzel?” he said into her ear. “I would go over to your house and talk to your father man to man, if I thought it would do any good....”

“Promise me you won’t do that, Heath!” Ann cried, seizing his arms. “Promise me!”

“All right, Annie, all right. Take it easy.”

“You don’t know what he’s like. He’ll do something awful to you, I know he will. You have to believe me.”

“I believe you. I believe you. Relax. Whew! Your old man must be some piece of work.”

“I’m supposed to cover his name with glory by marrying some millionaire. He will regard it as a failure on his part if I wind up with anything less.”

“Like me, for example.”

“I didn’t mean it that way. I’m just trying to tell you that talking to him reasonably won’t work. I’ve tried it for years. My older brother has been going crazy trying to live up to the Talbot name since he was born. It’s worse for him, being a boy, because he has to inherit the business and prove himself worthy to be chairman of the board.”

“And all you have to do is marry well?”

“You got it.”

“I didn’t know you had a brother.”

“He lives in Massachusetts with his mother, my father’s first wife. He’s in college now, spending the summer as an intern at the Harvard Business School. Usually he’s down here this time of year.”

“So I guess this discussion means that we have to sneak around, huh?” Heath said bluntly.

“We have no choice. Amy will help, she’s very clever. Speaking of Amy, I have to get to her place by midnight, that’s her curfew. Her parents will be back home by then and I’m supposed to stay the night at her house.”

“Where does she live?”

“Cocoa Boulevard, by the golf course. Her family is moving to Largo in the fall.”

“I’ll drop you off there,” Heath said.

Ann moved back to look at him. “When will I see you again?” she asked him.

“I’m off Tuesday night,” he said. “Can you meet me in the parking lot of the Lime Island Inn? So many people come and go there, we won’t attract any attention. We’ll take a ride out of town and drive someplace where nobody will see us.”

“Eight o’clock?” Ann said.

“Seven. That will give us more time together.” He kissed her forehead and then said, “Come on, Princess, back up in the saddle again. I have to get you back to town.”

Returning to Port Lisbon with her arms planted securely around Heath’s middle, Ann knew she was the happiest she had ever been in her life.

* * * *

During the next six weeks Heath spent every waking minute he wasn’t working with Ann. She, in turn, spent sleepless nights thinking up excuses to explain her absences to her parents, called on friends who hadn’t heard from her in months to have them cover for her dates with Heath, and even invented a part-time job in Laguna to account for some evenings away from home. She knew she was pushing the limit when her mother began to acquire that “worried” look, common to all parents who suspect their teenage offspring of duping them. But Ann was ecstatic and walking on clouds, and so, deliberately ignored the warning signs.

Reality would not dare interrupt her dream.

She and Heath covered the Keys on his bike, playing pool and pinball and miniature golf, dancing in out-of-the way joints and eating in roadside cafes, generally having a wonderful time. Ann found Heath endlessly interesting; he had led a completely different life from the one she knew and she never tired of listening to his stories. He kept her on the move, because too much time spent alone was dangerous. She was wildly infatuated with him physically, in love for the first time and eager to experiment. He, of course, was more experienced, but also young and in love, and as the broiling summer days passed, his defenses began to weaken and they came closer and closer to the point of no return.

Ann was preparing to leave for her bogus job one evening when her father called her into his study. She knew she was in trouble when she saw her mother hovering anxiously in the hallway and Henry Talbot wearing his no-nonsense, Chief-Executive-Officer-of– ScriptSoft look. Ann walked meekly behind him into the paneled den and sat in the chair he indicated across from his desk.

“What is it, Daddy?” she asked innocently.

“Don’t bat your eyelashes at me, young lady. That may work with your hot-blooded, swamp-trotter boyfriend, but it will cut no mustard in this room.”

Ann could feel the perspiration begin to trickle down her legs and into her shoes.

“What do you mean?” she said quietly.

“I mean that I know you do not have a job in Laguna. I also know that you have abused my trust, not to mention your mother’s trust, by inventing stories to explain your whereabouts while you’ve been flitting all over these islands with that grease monkey straight from the trash heap—Heath Bodine.”