“Yes? What?”
“He has a new tooth,” she told him. “Right here.” She pointed to her own teeth.
“No kidding!” Erik laughed. “That boy’ll be eating steak before long.”
Kathleen laughed, too. “He already does.”
“Yeah?”
“Ground steak, of course.”
“Oh, of course.” Erik chuckled. “I guess I don’t know too much about babies.” The words had been said lightly, but they hung between them.
Kathleen
looked away from him as she mumbled, “No, I guess not.”
Only the sound of the rain alleviated the silence until Erik said, “I’ll park your car if you’ll give me the key.”
“Thank you.” Kathleen dropped her keys into his outstretched hand without touching him.
“Stay close by, with this weather the way it is.”
“I will.”
He nodded and then turned, opened the door and dashed out into the rain.
* * *
Kathleen finally got all the clothes and accessories back into their proper boxes just before it was time to go to the dining room for the evening buffet. She thought about having a tray brought to her, but decided that would call more attention to her than if she went to dinner and tried to cover her despondent mood. She didn’t think she could stand too many private moments with Erik the way they had been this afternoon. For him to be so close to her physically, but so far away in every other way, was a torture she didn’t want to bring on herself if she could help it.
She dressed, went to the dining room and joined a trio of the models at their table. When she was finished eating, Kathleen excused herself and returned to her room, trying to become engrossed in a made-for-television movie being broadcast from a Miami station.
Convincing herself that her despondency was the result of fatigue, she went to bed early, but tossed restlessly for a while before she decided to take a stroll out onto the fishing pier. Maybe that would tire her enough mentally to put her to sleep.
She stepped into a short terry-cloth jump suit and, walking barefoot, skirted the pool area and made her way along the shadowed walkways toward the pier that extended out over the crystal-clear water. The rain had stopped momentarily, but heavy, rolling clouds still scuttled overhead, only letting the moon shine intermittently.
It was during one such moonlit moment, just as she was turning around to go back to her room, that she saw Erik. He was lying on a blanket, very near where the water was lapping the beach with a lacy foam.
There was no mistaking his form. She would have known it on the darkest night. He was wearing only the briefest of bathing trunks and, supporting himself on his elbows, was staring out over the water. A deep chuckle rumbled out of his chest. Kathleen glanced at the sea, searching for something that he could have found so amusing when he was all alone.
But he wasn’t. Tamara was rising out of the water, naked and shimmering in the moonlight. Her hair looked like a silver stole thrown over her shoulders and back.
“Aren’t you afraid you might step on a sea urchin out there in the dark?” Erik called to her.
“If I do, you’ll come save me.” Their voices carried across the water and it was apparent they didn’t know they had an audience.
“Like hell I will,” Erik said. “I’m too relaxed and lazy.”
Tamara’s tinkling laugh reached Kathleen’s ears like the sound of splintering glass. “I know how to get you unrelaxed.”
“You can try,” Erik challenged. By this time, Tamara was standing over him, dripping water on his torso.
“That’s the most fun part,” she said.
Kathleen couldn’t bear to watch any more after Tamara collapsed onto the blanket beside him. She ran with stumbling footsteps to her suite.
“I ought to fire that bitch!” she screamed to the walls. “After all, I am Mrs. Kirchoff. I’m in charge, aren’t I? Don’t I represent Seth? And Seth hired Erik. I’ll go out there right now and fire her.” But even as she turned and put her hand on the doorknob, her resolve evaporated. She wasn’t about to return to the beach, knowing what she’d find there. And she wouldn’t fire Tamara either. She wouldn’t give Erik the satisfaction of knowing she was jealous.