Someone Else's Ocean

I slowly nodded as he took one of the bottles from my hands and I dug through the bag for my corkscrew. “We found a man lying dead in a lawn chair at one of our properties.”

“Oh?” Ian said with interest. “We?”

“Me and my boss, Jasmine.”

I held out an empty glass to Ian who poured generously into one and then the other. We clinked our plastic and took a seat.

Nervous laughter burst out of me. “He was naked.”

His eyes bulged. “Wow.”

“Yeah, nothing kinky. He wasn’t tied to the chair or anything. He probably didn’t expect to die naked on a porch. He was in his eighties.” I felt the lump in my throat threaten and pushed through it. “He was alone. I hate that.”

Ian took a sip of wine. “That’s unfortunate.”

“Yeah,” I said dismissively though my voice shook. “Yeah, it was.”

“Does he have family?” Ian asked.

“I don’t know. I don’t think so. Let’s talk about something else. How is Disco?”

“She was asleep when I left.”

“Oh well, she’ll keep you up all night.”

Ian rolled his eyes. “As she has every night.”

“Got to get her on a schedule, professor.”

“She sleeps with me now,” he said affectionately.

Lucky bitch.

With a glass of wine in hand, we sat for several minutes simply enjoying the view, the sun slowly creeping down before us. The islands were becoming giant black rocks with twinkling lights as their canopy as each minute passed. I had so many questions but decided to start with the one I thought was the safest.

“How long are you staying?”

He paused before he answered. “I’m not sure.”

“How long has it been since you’ve been here?”

“A few years after I got married. The last time I saw you was the last time I was here.”

“You were leaving,” I said, recalling the day he walked out of the Kemp house, keys in hand. I remembered pausing to look at him before I stepped out of my parents’ SUV.

“You recognized me right away,” I said with a grin.

“You had on gold sandals,” he laughed as he studied my feet. “What is it with you and gold sandals?”

I shrugged and sipped my wine to hide my smile and pushed off my sandals to drag a lazy toe through the cooling sand. “Why didn’t you say hi? You just took off.”

“I was in a rush to get home,” he said, taking a sip of his win

e.

“And you couldn’t say hello?”

He sank a little into his chair while an expression I couldn’t place flit over his features. “I was late for my flight.”