HAM WALKED INTO the kitchen where Ginny was cleaning the fish he’d caught early that morning. One of the reasons he loved her was that she would clean his fish, something he hated doing himself. Daisy was asleep on the floor beside her.
“How would you like a little vacation?” he asked.
“Would I have to clean fish?”
“Nope.”
“I’d love it. Where you want to go?”
“Why don’t we get in that airplane of yours, and you fly us out to the Bahamas.”
“Where in the Bahamas?”
“You know them better than I do. Where’s the fishing good?”
“Ah, ah, ah,” she said, wagging a bloody finger.
“Oh, right; no cleaning fish. Where can we go that somebody else will clean the fish?”
“I know a little resort on Cat Cay that has its own airstrip. You could give your fish to the restaurant and let them worry about the cleaning.”
“Sounds good to me. Why don’t you stick those fish in the freezer and throw your toothbrush and a bikini into a bag, and let’s get out of here.”
“Right now?”
“Right now.”
“I never knew you to be so spontaneous. Who was the phone call from?”
“Just a guy.”
“C’mon, Ham, what guy?”
“It was Stone.”
“And Stone suggested we take a vacation?”
“Sort of.”
Ginny began wrapping the fillets for freezing. “I want to know the whole story, Ham.”
“What whole story?”
She put the fish in the freezer and came and put her arms around his waist. “You know, you’ve been working on that poker face of yours for so long you think you can fool anybody, but you can’t fool me.”
“Why not?”
“Because I can see right through your eyes into your brain, and right now I see deception.”
“Not much deception. After all, can it be so bad if I’m offering you a trip to the Bahamas?”
“Seems to me I’ve heard you say more than once that the Bahamas are boring, all that sun and sand.”
“Not if I can fish.”
“And what do I do while you’re fishing?”
“I don’t know, what do you do here while I’m fishing?”