Hah! And let him pat my head and tell me how ungentlemanly that would be? Cassie gave her a slow smile. Im simply going to walk into the presentation and show them my stuff.
What if he fires you on the spot?
He wont.
Uh-oh. This is starting to sounddare I say it?impulsive.
Cassie stopped. This isnt impulsive. No, not at all. Its going to be a well-planned attack in the name of all thats fair and good in the world. And Im going to be honest about it. You know I cant stand dishonest people. She slid the key into Rogers doorknob.
Pam whispered, Wouldnt breaking into Rogers office fall slightly under that category?
Of course not. I have a key. No breaking anything.
Cassie, what if someone catches you and youre arrested? Were arrested? Well be in the Police Beat section of the paper. We could be shot by a trigger-happy cop whos out to prove himself!
We wont. Cassie opened the door. The office smelled like Rogers last splash of cheap aftershave. When I chose a career in marketing, I decided this was something I was going to stick with, follow through on. She flicked on the light.
Pam took up a lookout position near the door. Youre thinking about your ex-marriage, arent you?
Of course not. Im thinking of that cross-stitch thingee I started five years ago. It sits in my wicker basket and reminds me of all the puzzles, paintings and hook rug kits I didnt finish. Every Sunday, I put three stitches in the thing. At least Im making progress. Oh, stop looking at me with that I-know-you-better-than-you-do smirk of yours. Okay, yes, I am thinking about my ex-marriage. You dont know how scary it was for me to realize Id become my mother. Shes hopped into and out of so many marriages, Im surprised she isnt perpetually dizzy. As a matter of fact, she is, God love her.
Youre nothing like your mother.
Not now, but I was then. I was suddenly married to a gorgeous stranger. The first blush of excitement turned into the reality of bills, routines and the mention of babies, and I panicked. Probably the same way Mom did in her seven marriages. I wasnt ready, I ran away andI hurt Dan. She was sure the thickness in her throat was the result of eating too many butter rums. I swore I would never start something I cared about and not finish it. She consulted the small, leather-bound notepad she wore on a chain around her neck. I have $12,420 to save before I can escape this place and start my own company. In 1.4 years, I should be able to bring you aboard. This is what being sensible does to a person: (a) concrete goals and (b) no broken hearts.
Sensible. Yeah, well, I know youll never have a broken heart again.
Cassie smiled. Thanks for your vote of confidence.
Because youll never find anyone wholl fit that compatibility list you have.
Hey, youre supposed to support me.
Im not your bra, Im your friend. Im telling you, youre going to be a lonely old woman before you find a man who matches the criteria on that list, watching The Rockford Files reruns and conversing with your nine cats. Youll be one of those people who never throws anything away and youll be dead a week before anyone knows it. Theyll have to wade through thirty years of trash to find you. Or something worse.
No, I wont. At least I wont be a seven-times-divorced lonely old woman without goals or a career. Like her mom, dragging her daughter all over as she skipped from place to place, living wherever an acquaintance or boyfriend would permit until she got bored or wore out their welcome. No roots, no traditions, and no sense of being able to depend on her mom when she needed her. Not even a father to provide a speck of stability, since three years after her mother had divorced him, hed died in a sailing accident. She blinked back the thought and opened one of Rogers drawers. She pulled out a wrinkled tube of Preparation H. Would I be totally evil if I put Ben-Gay in here?
Pam screeched in laughter, then quickly sobered. Yes. Totally.
Cassie tossed it back in with the other junk in the drawer: wart remover, corn pads and an assortment of nasal sprays. After rooting around in the papers on his desk, she held up a brochure for the Naples Snook Rodeo, a fishing tournament starting the next morning. Ugh, at seven oclock. The weirdest thing in the world is for someone to get up before dawn all excited to go fishing. It was a phenomenon I never could figure out. She flipped open the brochure, pushing away the memory of Dan tiptoeing around their bedroom in all his naked glory as he got ready. Whew, is it warm in here? She fanned herself, forcing her attention back to the brochure and not Dans bare butt in the early morning light. Hey, its sponsored by the Lure Em In Tackle Company. Isnt that handy-dandy?
Perfect! So youll go talk to some of the fishermen, maybe even the company officials?
Talk? She wrote down details on a receipt for Dramamine. The box was still sitting on the desk. Im going to learn everything I can about fishing lures, fishing and fish by hanging out with one of the contestants.
What if the guy gets fresh, and youre out there by yourself? Dangerous, dangerous indeed.
He wont. Besides, all Id have to do is show him my egret legs, and all thoughts of seduction would go flying out of his mind. She lifted a leg sheathed in dress pants.
I think youre a little hard on yourself and those legs of yours.
Cassie knew Pam was also picturing the white bird with spindly legs and an S-shaped neck.
Dont worry, Im not going to approach just anyone. Ill ask one of the officials to hook me up with someone reputable. Hookget it? Cassie giggled. I am going to be so good at this. If youre worried, come with me.
No can do. I promised Andy Id help him do yard work this weekend. But Ill go to the docks with you.
Thatd be nice, Cassie said as she closed up Rogers office. Besides Marion, a neighbor in her apartment building, Pam was her closest friend. Cassie didnt mind that they both tended to mother her a bit. She stopped in front of the chart. Roger, you little weenie, you dont know it yet, but Ive just declared war.
DAN MCDERMOTT double-checked his fishing poles, making sure each one was snug in its holder. Then he checked the coolerenough beer to last him the weekend. Checked the rods again. Something was missing. He poked his head down into the cabin where his little dog, Thor, was studiously chewing his pigs eara gruesome gift from Granny.
So it wasnt Thor or the beer, or his poles, sunblock, shades or anything else he could think of.
Maybe he needed a bigger boat. Women were always saying size didnt matter, but a guy could never have one that was too big. A boat, that was.
Hey, Dan, gonna be weird you not competing this year, Jessie said, stopping on the way to his boat.
The sun had barely peeked over the horizon, but the city dock was crowded with men who definitely had a say about bigger being better. Fish, that was.
Yeah, its killing me. But it wasnt. And it should be. He should at least be excited about spending a whole weekend fishing. But he wasnt. He should be pleased as punch with his life as a successful, freewheeling bachelor. The damned of it was, he wasnt.
Jessie laughed, his brown hair blowing over his face in the breeze. Well, gotta let some of the other guys have a chance.
Jessie laughed, his brown hair blowing over his face in the breeze. Well, gotta let some of the other guys have a chance.
Yeah, I suppose so. Good luck, Jess.
Dan had a feeling the Rodeo committee would have made him retire even if he hadnt voluntarily backed out of the official competition; hed won the last four years in a row.
Champion. Yeah, thats what he was. The Snook Rodeo champion. The fishing god.
Dan, you look like an ant, his father Hal said as he paused by the boat. Not many people remembered that Hal was Dans dad. Not even Hal and Dan. Hal had only been seventeen when his girlfriend took off for Las Vegasand left their baby with him. Even when Dan was just a kid, they were more like friends than father and son. So much so that Hal preferred to be called by his name than Dad. I just dont feel like a dad, hed said when Dan was six. Dan had agreed. Even Hals mom, Granny, hadnt been the typical grandma.
As usual, Hal looked like hed just rolled out of bed. Youve checked that cooler five times. Are you brewing your own beer in there, or what? I havent seen you this edgy in a long time, and you aint even competing.
Ill still catch more fish than you, even if they dont count. Better to divert the conversation than admit he was restless.
Hal wagged his finger and laughed that deep laugh of his. Put your fish where your mouth is, buddy. See you on the water.
He gave Hal a halfhearted wave, and then caught himself checking the poles again. He didnt like this restlessness. It had started a few weeks ago, when hed seen Cassies picture in the paper. His ex-wife, the woman hed woken up next to for seven whole months, and there was her picture, as though she were a virtual stranger.
He didnt know shed gotten into marketing, but shed won some kind of award for one of her campaigns. Hed started thinking about her, wondering what else shed been doing in the last five years, like getting married, and whether she still had Sammy.
Whether she thought about him.
Her beautiful face smiled at him from the refrigerator door every morning when he fixed his egg sandwich, and every evening when he checked to see what leftovers were waiting within.
Those seven months had been crazy, full of stormy seas and lightning. Now his life was on an even keel, no waves, nice and calm just the way he liked it. Or the way he should like it. Theyd had little more to their name than a marriage license, yet hed been happy. In love for the first time. For the only time. He hadnt realized it until hed seen her picture. The damned of it was, he was still in love with her. And so hed put his plan into motion.
IT WASNT A DECENT HOUR for any human being to be up and about, and already the Southwest Florida summer heat and mugginess drenched the air. Cassie and Pam stepped out of the one status symbol in Cassies life, if you didnt count its ancient age: her buttercup-yellow Mercedes-Benz. A banner over the Naples City Docks entrance rippled in the breeze as pink light seeped across the eastern sky like a wine stain.
Are you sure this is a good idea? Pam said, taking in the men carting fishing gear and cases of beer.
Its the only idea I have. Besides
I know, I know, youre no quitter. Ill bet thats your bedtime mantra.
So what if it is? Cassie lifted her chin. Its better than living your life on the wind.
Have you heard from Andromeda lately, speaking of?
Cassie laughed. Last I heard, she was living on a boat with some young scuba diving instructor down in the Dry Tortugas. Her mother had legally changed her name from Bernadette to Andromeda, after the wife of Perseus. Oddly enough, shed named her daughter after Cassiopeia, Andromedas mother.
Cassie tucked her curls over her ears and leaned in the car. Come on, Sammy. Hope youre up for a day on the boat. She scooped her Yorkshire Terrier into her large bag. His little bell jingled pleasantly as he settled in. I wonder if he remembers when Dan and I used to take him out on the boat. She nudged away the annoying softness in her voice. You liked that, didnt you, boy? She touched her nose to Sammys little wet one, then tapped him down into the bag. Stay hidden. Dont want to turn off any potential boaters.
And speaking of that, I cant believe youre actually wearing shorts.
I decided to take my chances. She glanced down at her skinny legs. Men, be afraid. Be very afraid, she intoned, making Pam giggle. All right, lets go fishing for a fisherman.
Once they walked through the entrance, they found the tournament sign-in area. So had fifty other men who were standing in line, not to mention many others milling around. Voices and laughter rivaled footsteps echoing on the wood planks of the pier. Everyone was trading jokes and patting backs, all that manly kind of thing. She tried to dredge up all that fury shed felt yesterday to stave off the nervousness.
Having second thoughts?
Cassie lifted her chin. No way, uh-uh. They both knew she was lying and left it at that. She popped a butter rum in her mouth and slipped her hand in the bag to scratch Sammys head.
You are nervous, arent you? Pam said a few minutes later.
Why? She peered over the rim of her sunglasses. Im making noises, arent I?
Sucking furiously on those things is a dead giveaway.
Cassie anchored the candy ring against the roof of her mouth and scanned the boats, the crowds and the fishing poles spearing the air.
Pam leaned closer. It occurs to me that despite your claims of sensibility, this whole thing is extremely impulsive. Might I remind you of the last time you did something really impulsive and what trouble that got you into. And Im not talking about the limbo contest that sent you to the chiropractor. Or dyeing your hair black. Or
Cassies gaze skipped to the next boat, and thats when she saw him. Dan, she said on a breath.
Exactly. Look at these men. You dont even know them. Once they have you alone on their boat, they could take you out to the horizon and ravage you andgood heavens, why are you smiling?
Dan McDermott, with his brown hair lit reddish by the sun, white T-shirt moving in the breeze and muscular, tan legs. Her canvas tote dropped to the wooden planks, and she leaned to the side when Pam darted in front of her so as not to let Dan out of her view for a second. She even heard bells! A couple of men stopped to talk to him, and Dan ran his fingers through his hair and laughed. Lordy, when had he gotten so gorgeous?
She blindly reached for Pams arm, unable to utter anything other than a sound vaguely resembling a whimper. She tried again to reach Pam, and then had to wrench her gaze away to find that Pam wasnt even standing there. Then she remembered Pam darting in front of her, and as her gaze sought Dan again she felt annoyed that her friend wasnt there when Cassie really, really needed to verify that she wasnt imagining Dan, that he was really there, that
Good grief, woman, didnt you notice that you dropped your tote bag and your little fuzzball led me on a merry chase between twenty pairs of hairy legs?
Cassie blinked, taking in a breathless Pam holding a panting Sammy. So thats where the bells came from! She opened her mouth, but her voice still wasnt cooperating. Dan was waving goodbye to the men and resuming whatever it was he was doing that required him to bend over and show off that cute little butt of his.