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“What’s the short version?”
“There isn’t a short version. Come on, just have dinner with me. It’s something that will benefit both of us.”
I sighed. “When?
“Tonight.”
I didn’t have much food in the house, so I might as well let the man buy me dinner. “Where?”
“I’ll pick you up.”
This house was my sanctuary. The place where I came to get away from the rest of the world. I never invited anyone here. “The island is gated. It’ll be easier if I meet you somewhere.”
“I’ll pick you up at seven. Wear something dressy.”
“I don’t do dressy.”
“C’mon, Casper. Play along. If you don’t have anything in your closet you would define as dressy, you have three hours to go out and get something.”
Play along?What the hell did that mean? Andthree hours?Did he know nothing about Miami Beach traffic? Or women?
“See you at seven.”
“Wait. No.” Three chimes indicated the call had ended. Whether he’d heard me respond or not didn’t matter. Spider would show up here anyway.
When the sun went behind a cloud, I made my way inside to look for something to wear. I was here so infrequently I couldn’t remember what was in my closet.
“Slinky black dress, another slinky black dress. Those won’t work. Way too sexy,” I said out loud as I thumbed through the hangers. The next one was a maxi dress with long sleeves and a high collar. Since it was also black, it could qualify as “dressy.” At least dressy enough.
I rummaged through my shoes, finding a pair of heels all the way in the corner. I hadn’t worn heels since Beau died, mainly because I never did anything other than work and my job didn’t call for stilettos. The other reason I didn’t was my height. At five feet eleven, an extra two inches meant I was taller than most men. How did I know? I’d looked it up once. Only fourteen percent of men were six feet or over.
Beau had been six-three. While I didn’t know exactly how tall Spider was, he was close to my husband’s height. Maybe a little taller. Not that it mattered in this instance. It wasn’t like this was a date. Spider said he had something he wanted to run by me and that it would benefit us both. It had to be work related.
At seven on the dot, the house phone rang. Given no one had the number besides the gatehouse, I knew they were calling to announce Spider’s arrival. I answered and told them to let him in.
I still hadn’t decided how to handle him showing up here but was leaning toward waiting outside so I didn’t have to invite him in. I grabbed my clutch and rushed to the door, reaching it at the same time I heard a knock.
“Hi,” I said, stunned when he stepped forward to kiss my cheek. “Um, do you want to come in?” Wait, hadn’t I just decided not to invite him inside?
He looked at his watch. “We have to leave now if we’re going to make our reservation.”
“Excuse me.”
He took a step back so I could close the door.
After I had, he led me to a red vintage Alfa Romeo Spider. I grinned. “Apropos.”
His cheeks turned almost the same color as the car, and he rolled his eyes before opening the passenger door. “My dad’s idea of the perfect sixteenth birthday present.”
“It suits you.”
He chuckled. “Yeah? I always feel like Magilla Gorilla when I drive it with the top down.”
“Magilla Gorilla?”
“A cartoon from before you and I were born. My grandfather showed me a photo of the character driving a convertible and told me I looked just like it. After that, I couldn’t get the image out of my head.”
He shut my door and walked around to the other side of the car.
