Chapter 6

“Can I come and pick you up and take you somewhere?” she asked. “I’ll get Mom to watch Sareen. I want to say some things to you. I want you to be able to tell me anything. Will you do that for me, John?”

I was very suspicious. “Where are you taking me?” I asked.

“Jesus, John, stop being such a… wuss,” she said. “Do you think I’m dangerous? Do you think I’m plotting to bump you off and throw your body in the lake?”

“Yes, and no,” I said. “I don’t think you’re planning to bump me off, but I do think you’re dangerous. You’re the most dangerous person I’ve ever met.”

She laughed at that. “Please, I’ll be here at ten. I’ll help you wash your car afterward, okay?”

The credits were rolling on Sareen’s movie. “Okay,” I said. “Don’t get your hopes up, Sara.”

“I won’t,” she promised.

I played with Sareen and Tomy for a bit and it was time for them to go home. I got a big hug from Sareen, and a hug and a kiss on the cheek from Sara. I was buckling Sareen into her car seat.

“When are we going to spend the night with you,” she asked, “and when are you going to take me fishing?” She had a memory like a steel trap!

“Do you have a date for Sunday?” I asked her.

She giggled. “No. I don’t go on dates. Why do you want to know?”

“If it’s okay with your Mom, I’ll take you fishing Sunday,” I said. “We’ll have to talk about when you can spend the night, okay?”

“Yes,” she said. She was nodding vigorously and her curls bounced. “I really want to spend the night, though. Can Tomy sleep with me?”

“I don’t allow him to get on the beds,” I told her. “He gets kind of stinky. We can bring his bed into your room and he can sleep on the floor by your bed.”

She thought about that for a minute. “Okay,” she said.

“Sara, is it okay for her to go fishing?” I asked.

“Of course,” she said. “I’ll see you at ten.”

I had nightmares that night. A little dark haired girl was being eaten by a giant fish and I was running to save her. I was running in molasses and it was taking me forever to get there. I shot upright, my heart pounding. I was sweating profusely and it was four AM. I got up and toweled off, adrenaline pumping through my veins. I lay back down. It took a while to get that image out of my head, but the next thing I knew it was nine and the alarm was going off on my phone.

I got up, took a quick shower, got dressed and ate a muffin. I was on my second cup of coffee when Tomy got up and went to the door. It rang, right on cue, and Sara was there. “Want a cup of coffee?” I asked her. “There’s one left. Don’t want to throw it out.”

“Got a to-go cup?” she asked. “I want to get started.”

I rummaged around and got two. I poured hers and then put mine in the other. “Can Tomy go?” I asked her.

“Of course,” she said. “Um, would you mind getting him a blanket or something? We’ll have two cars to clean up if you don’t.”

I got the old quilt I used in my car and we followed her out. She had on khaki shorts and a green shirt with the tails tied up, leaving her navel peeking out. It had a little diamond stud in it. That was new. She filled those shorts out to perfection and the way she bounced, I could tell she didn’t have a bra on. She caught me looking and shot me a wicked grin.

One thing we had always had in common was a love of cars. She wasn’t driving the Escalade that day. This must have been her ‘just her’ car. I was impressed. It was silver and I knew it was a Mercedes, but that was it. “What is it?” I asked.

“It’s a 2003 CL coupe,” she said. “Twin turbos, John. 830 ft/lbs of torque.”

“Can I drive?” I asked.

She laughed. “Hell, no. When you let me drive the 442, I’ll let you drive this.”

“Okay, you can drive it,” I said.

She cocked her head and raised that eyebrow. “Right, like I’m really trusting you here. You’ve never let me drive it. I’ll let you drive and you’ll renege, I know you.”

She opened the door and spread the blanket out in the back seat. She stood back and Tomy climbed slowly in. He was already panting and two white strings were hanging from his jowls. She wiped them away with a corner of the blanket.

She started it up and turned the air on high. It wouldn’t matter. He always panted in a car. We drove for thirty minutes, and I knew where we were going.

“Hey, you really are going to kill me and dump my body in the lake,” I said. “Tomy will bite you if you hurt me.”

“No, the puppy would never bite Mamma, would he,” she cooed. He panted happily. It was freezing in the car. I could feel frost forming on my mustache. I looked over at Sara and her nipples were trying to tear holes in her shirt. She saw me. She glanced down and giggled. “Kind of cold, isn’t it? You wanted to bring him.”

I didn’t mind looking at those little buttons at all, but I wasn’t about to let her know. I just grunted and looked away. I looked again after a minute, when I thought she wasn’t watching. We pulled up at the marina and she parked and popped the trunk. I got out and let Tomy out. I snapped his leash on. Most people are a little intimidated when they see a 160-pound beast walking toward them unless he’s on a leash. Sara got a big basket and a cooler out of the trunk. I grabbed one handle of the cooler and she carried the basket. We walked down onto the marina and she nodded to the left. We walked about fifty feet and she indicated a nice cabin cruiser tied up there.

“This is it,” she said. We climbed aboard and helped Tomy on. A worker cast off the lines and Sara idled us out of the no wake zone before she pulled the throttles back and the big boat leaped up on plane. She ran us about five miles up the lake and pulled up into a cove. “Tie us off to that tree,” she said.

She killed the engines and I tied us off. “Whose boat is this?” I asked.

“It’s mine,” she said. “I’ve had it for about six months.”

“Doing pretty good for yourself, aren’t you?” I said.

“I signed a pretty big contract,” she said. “This is my signing bonus.”

“Jesus, Sara, you’re running with the big boys,” I said.

“Want a beer?” she asked. I took one and we moved up to the front deck. We sat facing each other on the cushions and I knew the heavy hitting was about to begin.