“For how long?”
“Twelve years.”
She turned in her chair to look at him. “Are you saying you spent twelve years traveling around the Middle East and now you’re going to open a business office in little Summer Hill, Virginia?”
“I am.”
Terri turned back toward the water. There were more flashlights now and three silent rowboats. “When you were in the Middle East with Kit, I guess you were working in glamorous embassies, and traveled in limos, and—” When he gave a snort of laughter, she looked at him.
“Kit grew up mostly in Egypt. He’s as at home in a Berber tent as he is in an embassy. He fit right in.”
“And you were with him.” There was wonder in her voice. “I’ve never been out of the US. One time Aunt Aggie and I drove up to DC to see the cherry trees in bloom, and I’ve been to Fort Lauderdale twice to see her. We drove up to Boca Raton and that was nice.” She reached down to pick up a white bag and handed it to Nate. “Fried apple pie from Sherry. She runs the kitchen at the Club.”
“Thanks,” he said as he bit into it.
They were silent for a moment. “This was nice of you.” He motioned to the beer, the burrito bag and the pie. “I’d planned to eat some of your cereal, then shower and sleep. I have an idea you weren’t too happy about what I did.”
“You could say that. After everyone told me you’d done all my chores, I was pretty angry.”
“More than the way you were with your dad?”
“About a hundred times worse.”
“Remind me to never get on your bad side. Not again, anyway.”
“I was halfway back to the house when it all hit me. I knew you had to have heard me with Dad, and...” She looked at him. “You sweet-talked Anna into giving you my list, didn’t you? My guess is that you were there because you found my notebook and took it over.”
“I did. It fell off the table by the front door. So you gave Anna another list. But there was only one thing on it: clean up the shop. Since I thought it was your job on your list, I kept expecting you to show up.”
“Couldn’t have even if I’d wanted to. The Roper family and all their possessions fell off the big dock. I had to save a dog, a five-year-old and three picnic baskets.”
“A five-year-old, huh?” Nate said softly. “He okay?”
“We’ve learned to require kids under seven to wear life jackets. The child was floating along and smiling. He thought it was all part of his vacation. It was the parents who were screaming. I swear that hysteria causes more problems th
an the accidents.”
Nate finished his pie and looked out at the water. “Can we talk about the coming three weeks? I’ll pay—”
Terri’s groan cut him off. “Now I really am sorry you heard what I said. I think I should apologize about Stacy.”
“For saying she’s perfect? She is. She’s gracious and kind to everyone. Did you know that she helped Uncle Kit write the play they put on last summer? She was supposed to do all the sets and supervise the costumes, but she was with me so she couldn’t. She—What the hell are all those lights?”
There were now over a dozen of them moving along the paths and through the water. “Dad and I call it The Dance of the Players.”
“What does that mean?”
“You see,” Terri said slowly, “when a man and a woman really love each other, they come together in a very special way that sometimes creates babies. It’s—”
Nate was looking at her to cut it out. “You mean they’re meeting for...for assignations?”
“If you mean sex, yes. Pretty much. I guess. I mean, I never look, but based on the evidence they leave on Moonlight Beach, I’d say yes, definitely for sex. I do know that sometimes the sand bothers the women in an...uh, intimate sort of way. Dr. Jamie might be able to tell you more about that.”
Nate’s face showed his shock.
“Husbands and wives are separated all summer,” Terri said. “I imagine the ones who stay in the city are fooling around too.”
“You seem very blasé about this.”