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“Listen to what?”
“Chi-Chi. It’s Chi-Chi,” he repeated in a whisper.
“Cullen, get a grip. What are you talking about?” She put the phone on speaker.
“Just listen.”
Luna looked up at Gaines and shrugged her shoulders. All she could hear was music in the background. A woman was singing.
“Cullen? Are you still there?”
“Sshhhhh,” he whispered again.
“I think he’s had too much to drink or he’s having a stroke.” Luna looked pleadingly at Gaines. Then it hit her. It was Chi-Chi singing “Sweet Love.” “Holy smoke. I thought it was Anita Baker,” Luna whispered.
When the song ended, Luna could hear the applause in the background and someone saying, “Ladies and gentlemen, that was Lebici Stone.”
“Gotta go.” Cullen clicked off the call.
“Well I’ll be a monkey’s uncle,” Gaines said with relief and surprise.
“Wow. I wonder how he got her to do that,” Luna mused. She couldn’t help but send him a text.
How?
He typed back.
Dunno. Big surprise. Gotta go.
“You can be the monkey’s uncle, and I’ll be his aunt,” Luna said.
“That woman has some set of chops.” Gaines was truly impressed.
“For real. But I could kill Cullen. He had me frightened half to death.” Luna pouted.
Gaines thought that was a good opportunity to put his arm around her. Pretend he was offering comfort in her time of distress.
She snugged into his chest as if it were something they had done together many times before. The lights began to flicker. The flickering became more constant until the lights went completely dark.
“Oh, here we go,” Gaines said, but didn’t move. “Whenever we get a few gusts of wind, we lose power.”
“Does that happen often?” Luna asked. But she didn’t seem to mind.
“Often enough that there’s an investigation going on. Someone is asleep at the switch, and no one is writing checks for maintenance.”
“How long does it usually last?” Luna thought it rather romantic. “At least we have a fire.”
“And a couple of candles.” With all the activity, he had forgotten to light them. “Don’t go anywhere.” He got up and put one on the fake cocktail table and lit the one on the mantel.
He sat back down. “Now, where were we?”
Luna was happy to recall exactly where he was sitting, took his arm, and put it around her shoulder and nestled in closer. She rested her head on his chest, and he brushed the few wisps of hair from her cheek.
“I’m really happy you came out here,” he said in a soft voice.
“Mmmm . . . me too,” Luna cooed. With the power out, the only sound was the crackling of the fire and their breaths in rhythm with each other.
She looked up at him. “Did anyone ever tell you that you look a little like Jay Hernandez? The new guy onMagnum P.I.?”
