after only a year with Herb. He was drinking pretty heavy. I’m surprised he made it as long as he did.”
“He was well-liked where we live.” Wanda tried not to wince as she said this.
“Yeah, that was his problem. He was just too nice. His conscience just kept getting the better of him. We’d have had more fun without it.”
Wanda stood, brushing her skirt over her knees. “Well, good luck here. They’ll be letting you move out soon?”
“Got no place to go. Myself, I have a daughter somewhere, too. Not Herb’s kid, mind you. The next guy’s. But she won’t want me around. I don’t like her that well, anyway.”
Wanda couldn’t imagine what to say to that. She nodded goodbye and made it to her car in record time. She rolled down the windows, but she sat there and baked for a few minutes, hoping she was wrong. Inside her head the conversation played, then replayed, and every time she reached the same conclusion. Could she possibly have something in common with revolting Gloria Madsen, a woman who had abandoned Herb because he was no fun, because he had a conscience, and just because she could?
She was sweating when she started the engine and started back home.
Tracy was finishing her daily report when somebody knocked on the rec room door. She glanced up to see Marsh Egan.
“I haven’t changed my mind about Happiness Key,” she said. “Just in case that’s why I’m so honored by your presence.”
“Want to have a barbecue out on the beach?”
Her eyes narrowed, the number one physical response she always had when Marsh was around. Number two was something approximating desire, and she didn’t want to think about that. She had to be misinterpreting. She couldn’t possibly have the hots for this casual, cynical, too-happy-with-his-own-cooking attorney who was trying to rob her of everything she owned.
She stood and stretched. “Why? So you can harass me about my property?”
“I was thinking more along the lines of us enjoying what passes for a cold spell around here.”
“Cold spell? You could fry eggs on the shuffleboard courts.”
“Well, you could, but my spareribs are tastier. And it only got up in the eighties this afternoon. It’s going to be a gorgeous sunset, and you could watch it with me and Bay.”
“Will you promise not to do a hard sell?”
He smiled, a very masculine smile. “Depends. I won’t try to sell you Wild Florida’s agenda, if that’s what you mean.”
She was melting, and not from the heat. She tried to remember why going anywhere with Marsh was a bad idea, but nothing came to mind.
He took lack of another protest as yes. “Go home and grab your suit. The beach directly across the key from my house is mostly empty on weeknights, and it’s a great place to watch the sun go down. I’ll set up my grill.” He told her how to get there, and when.
“What can I bring?”
He gave her “that” smile again. “The cutest bikini you own.”
“Don’t get any ideas.”
“I’ll have ideas aplenty. I’ll also have my son.”
“For once Bay will be in the right place at the right time.”
“I guess that’s all in how you look at it.” He gave a mock salute.
She finished the report, then some other business, closed up the rec room and let herself out the side door. So what if she had turned down a blind date with Sherrie’s doctor friend for tonight? So what if he had offered to spring for dinner at the ritziest restaurant in Palmetto Grove on this, the only night he had free? She had been sure she wouldn’t feel up to going out after a long day at work. A woman could occasionally be wrong.
Once she was home, she showered before she considered her bathing suits. She did not choose the skimpiest. Not even a bikini. She pulled on a black strapless one-piece with a giant poppy a la Georgia O’Keeffe. Then she threw on a gauzy red cover-up and matching flip-flops, left her hair loose, and packed a basket with cheese and crackers, and a bottle of chilled Chardonnay.
She arrived at the beach as Marsh and Bay were setting up a portable grill beside a picnic table on the edge of some small dunes. On the sand below them, she spread a blanket and set up her iPod speakers. Then she sliced cheese and laid out crackers.
Bay flopped down beside her, and she offered him the plate. He helped himself, eating out of the palm