“At first when I spotted it lying there half buried in the sand I thought it was a piece of old plastic. When it skedaddled away, it stirred up so much mud that I almost couldn’t tell what it was. How about that blue fish hiding behind that log right after we saw the stingray?”
Azure grinned. “I almost stepped on him before I came up to clear my mask.”
They splashed through the shallows onto the shell-strewn sand, where Azure eased herself down on the edge of a towel and pulled off her swim fins. Lee threw himself down on the beach blanket beside her.
From where they sat, they could see the ship channel leading from the Port of Miami to the ocean. A huge ocean liner was passing by, its decks lined with tourists. Azure had never been on such a big ship; she wondered if she’d get seasick. Feeling totally relaxed, she lay back on the blanket and lifted her face to the last rays of the late afternoon sun. “There were lots of fish. More than I expected,” she said lazily.
“Not as—”
Lee caught himself before saying that there hadn’t been as many as he’d seen at the Great Barrier Reef off Australia last year. “Not as plentiful as I’ve seen in the Keys,” he amended.
“Have you been there often?” Of course he would have; the Florida Keys were made for people who loved the sun and the surf.
“I spent Christmases there when I was a kid,” Lee said, biting off the words in a way that made her open her eyes in surprise. He was gazing out over the water, a flinty look in his eyes, and she raised herself on her elbows to study his expression.
“And now? Don’t you go there now?”
He forced a smile. “My parents used to drag me down to Key West when I’d rather have been home in Michigan going ice skating and skiing with my pals.”
“You’re an only child?”
He nodded, and he still didn’t look comfortable with this topic.
Azure, coming from a big roistering family with few rules and fewer restrictions, couldn’t imagine growing up all alone. She struggled to think of a consoling remark, but Lee went on talking.
“We’d spend the winter holidays in a rented cottage, and my parents went out every night with their friends. There were always baby-sitters or nannies, but I was lonely.”
“Your parents—where do they live, Lee?”
“Mom died when I was a teenager, and my dad lives in Grosse Point, Michigan, in a huge mausoleum of a house where I hate to visit. We’re not on good terms.”
“I’m sorry,” Azure said, and she was regarding at him with such sympathy that Lee wanted to tell her all of it—how his father had sent him to expensive prep schools and been livid when Lee dropped out of college to start Dot.Musix, how his father had never forgiven him for becoming a huge success despite the dire predictions he’d made concerning his son’s future.
But as Lee Sanders he couldn’t tell Azure those things.
Azure fell back onto the blanket and closed her eyes, listening to the swish of the waves upon the shore, the cries of gulls overhead, the rumble of a boat motor far away. Lee was quiet beside her, seemingly lost in his memories.
When he hadn’t spoken in a long while, she opened her eyes and discovered that she was gazing directly into Lee’s clear gray ones, which were thoughtful and filled with—what? She wasn’t sure. Certainly she hadn’t expected this close scrutiny, which seemed ill-timed. Suddenly feeling too exposed, she flipped over on her front, turning her head to the side with the intention of pillowing it on her crossed arms, but that only put her mouth within a whisper of Lee’s.
Before she could turn away, her breath caught in her throat as the air seemed to scintillate between them, seemed to inexplicably draw them into a magical sphere. And then, before she could remember how to breathe, Lee brushed aside a wet strand of hair with one finger and then let that finger graze down her cheek until it tipped her head toward his.
She felt something akin to relief as his mouth found hers.
She’d been aware since last night of a certain edgy heat that would not go away, and she knew it wouldn’t take much to whip that heat into an all-consuming flame. As illogical as this attraction was, she wanted to bring it to its logical conclusion. Not here, not now—but somewhere, and soon.
He kissed with great skill, and he tasted of salt, of excitement and possibility and heartfelt longing. Stunned by her own rush of feeling, she opened her eyes and stole a glimpse of his face intent above her, caught the concentration of his expression and also the passion that he didn’t bother to hide.
As he ended the kiss, she pulled away. Then the children from down the beach ran past and sprayed them with sand, effectively ending the special moment.
“I wish we didn’t have to, but I suppose we’d better go,” he said.
She didn’t want to leave, either, but judging from the complexity of emotions that she’d seen reflected in Lee’s eyes, there would be another time and place.
On their way back to the car, she thought about how sad Lee must have been when he was a little boy. Since she’d grown up, she’d learned a lot about loneliness, about that hollow feeling deep inside that was never filled by friends or family no matter how much they loved you. Did Lee feel that too?
When they had stowed the snorkeling gear in the car trunk, Lee bought them cups of conch chowder from a vendor with a cart, and they perched companionably side by side on a table under a spreading ficus tree to eat it. In the distance, the rush-hour traffic was beginning to die down, and close by, people were returning to their cars after a day at the beach.
Lee asked casually, “When will you go back to Boston, do you know yet?”
Azure stirred little bits of conch up from the bottom of her cup. “I finally got tired of waiting for my client to contact me and gave him a call.”
Lee’s mind switched into overdrive. “And what did he say?” he asked cautiously.
“That we can get together on Friday. That suits me fine.”
“I see,” Lee said. Clearly she did not yet know that he was her client. On the spur of the moment, he could only think of one explanation for Azure’s making an appointment to see him on Friday, and that was that she had somehow managed to talk with Fleck.
Azure went on talking, oblivious to the questions she had raised in his mind. “I have the next couple of days to do some sightseeing. I’ve told the rental company to cancel the car until Friday, and I’m going to make it a limo with a driver so I can pick up my client and impress him by taking him to dinner.”
“Oh, a limo would impress him, all right,” Lee said, trying to hide his astonishment at this unforeseen development and hoping that Azure didn’t detect his wry humor. Fleck would no doubt be thrilled to be driven around by Azure in her hired limo.
“The account is very important to my boss.”
As Lee digested this information, the parking lot lights began to wink on overhead, and the chowder vendor packed up his cart and left. A dog snuffled around beneath the nearby oleander bushes, and somewhere a child started crying. Lee knew he’d better talk to Fleck, and soon. He wished for his cell phone, and he thought about using a public phone to call Fleck on the Samoa. But if he used the public phone at the edge of the parking lot, Azure might want to listen. Not a good idea.
“Lee, this chowder is wonderful, but how about dinner? Paulette’s left for a four-day seminar, and I was thinking that we could go back to her apartment and dig something out of the freezer. She saved leftover food from the wedding in neat little packets, all ready to pop in the microwave.”
Lee thought that going back to the empty apartment with Azure seemed like a great idea, but if he did, how would he manage to talk with Fleck? Well, once they were there and she was preparing the food, he’d make an excuse to run out to the car and hunt up a pay phone on the street. Or maybe he’d be able to sneak the phone out onto the balcony while Azure was otherwise occupied and talk there unobserved.
Azure chatted most of the way back to the Blue Moon, saving him from making co
nversation. It was just as well, he thought, since he had perhaps said too much back at the park when he was telling her about his childhood. That time of his life had never been one of his favorite topics, and he seldom mentioned it. He was still surprised that he had wanted to talk about it with Azure.
When they reached the Blue Moon, Goldy was simultaneously scarfing down a take-out dinner from a carton and talking on the phone. She treated them to a friendly wave as they headed upstairs.
As they rounded the corner from the stairwell, they heard someone chanting a very long “Ommmmmmmm,” which Azure immediately identified as a yoga chant. To their startled amazement, a man was sitting in front of Paulette’s door in a Half-Lotus position and a full-grown yellow chicken was pecking around on the carpet. The man wore his hair in a glossy slicked-back pompadour and looked vaguely familiar.
“Who are you?” Azure demanded.
The man opened his eyes. “I’m Kevin. I’m testing the vibrations in this hallway. The spaceship is supposed to land on the beachfront here, you know, and those of us who are believers want to rent rooms at the Blue Moon for the occasion. The rooms have to have the right vibes, though. Any room simply will not do.”
“And the chicken?” Lee said warily.
“That’s Fricassee. She needs a home.”
“Oh,” Azure said, remembering. “I’ve seen you before, walking the chicken on a leash.” It had been only yesterday, when she was waiting at the curb outside the Blue Moon for Lee to pick her up.
“That’s me.” The chicken pecked its way over to Kevin and hopped into his lap, where he petted it consolingly. “Don’t worry, sweetheart. We’ll find you a home. And it won’t be any old chicken coop, either.” He blinked up at Azure. “I rescued her from a box where people dropped in fifty cents and she played the piano. A chicken with this much talent shouldn’t be in a carnival sideshow, right?”
“Right,” Azure agreed. “Um, Kevin, I don’t suppose you’d consider moving so we could get into the apartment?”
This seemed to upset the man considerably. “I’m supposed to chant seven more Oms and then I have to meditate for at least an hour. My crystals said that this is the place. If I move, I start all over again.”
Lee narrowed his eyes. “Does Goldy know you’re here?”
“I came up the back stairs. Goldy doesn’t have to know everything. She knows me, though. I come here for the yoga class on the roof every Tuesday night. I’m a little early today, that’s all.”
“Keep him talking,” Azure whispered to Lee, who was starting to look annoyed. “I’ll go speak to Goldy.”
She ran down the stairs and reached the lobby desk as her uncle Nate came ambling through the front door. “Azure, where have you been keeping yourself? You look wonderful, dear. Leah wants you to come for dinner before you go back to Boston.”
“Uncle Nate, I—” She realized that Goldy was still on the phone, and since the woman was gesticulating wildly and treating someone to a discourse on the healing powers of copper bracelets, she doubted the wisdom of interrupting.
She turned to Uncle Nate. “We’ve got this guy who is meditating in front of Paulette’s apartment. He won’t move. His name is Kevin, and he’s a little strange. He says he’s here for the yoga class.”
“Oh, Kevin. Everyone knows him. He’s peculiar but harmless. Want me to come up and talk with him? He might want to join in a game of pinochle. I’m on my way to meet my buddies right now.”
Azure grabbed her uncle’s arm. “Will you? Oh, that’s great.”
Uncle Nate climbed the stairs behind her, complaining that he never got to climb stairs anymore because Leah wouldn’t let him. “That woman—and she’s a wonderful woman, mind you—she wants to make a lapdog out of me. I tell her, ‘Leah, a man’s got to be a man.’ And then I go out and climb stairs anyway.” He chuckled.
Kevin was still sitting in the Half-Lotus position and earnestly carrying on a conversation with Lee about the merits of liberating animals from places where they shouldn’t be. This included insects, including a tarantula once kept as a curiosity in a roadside petting zoo west of town.
“Not that anyone petted the tarantula,” Kevin said seriously. “But it didn’t like being cooped up in a cage. So I let it loose in the Everglades. I’m sure it’s much happier—oh, hello, Nate. I haven’t seen you around lately.”
“I been sick, but I’m fine now. Say, Kevin, the boys down at the café have been asking about you. How about coming along with me for a little game of—”
At that moment, the chicken, which had been hunkered down near the fire extinguisher, rose up in a flurry of feathers and squawked loudly. Then it flew directly at Uncle Nate, flapping its wings and cackling.
“Get this chicken off me!” Nate yelled, flapping his arms and batting it away.
Lee shoved Uncle Nate behind him, and Azure moved to help Kevin capture the chicken. The chicken subsided with a last resigned squawk and glared balefully at Nate from the protection of Kevin’s arms while making disgruntled noises deep in its throat.
“What’s going on here?” demanded Goldy, who was puffing her way up the stairs. “Did I hear a chicken? How could I hear a chicken? Oh, it’s you,” she said when she saw Kevin.
Uncle Nate ventured out from behind Lee. “I wish someone would tell me what I ever did to make a chicken hate a lovable guy like me,” he said, looking hurt.
“Are you all right?” Azure asked anxiously.
“Of course I’m all right. I’m just surprised, that’s all. And if Leah hears about this, she’ll never let me out of her sight. Attacked by a chicken! In Miami Beach! It’s a tapestry.” He brushed off his shirt and looked indignant.
“He means it’s a travesty,” Azure said in a low tone to Lee.
Kevin, who had sprung up out of his yoga pose when Fricassee went into attack mode, sidled closer to Nate and sniffed. “It’s as I suspected,” he said. “You’re wearing Old Spice aftershave. Fricassee hates Old Spice. The smell of it throws her into a rage every time.”
“I never heard of such a thing,” Nate said.
“Well, I never did, either, but who knows what torment she has known?” said Kevin, smoothing Fricassee’s ruffled feathers.
“Well,” said Nate. “There’s torments and there’s torments. You’re tormenting yourself by trying to keep a chicken in Miami Beach.”
“She needs someone to love her,” Kevin said in a wounded tone. He added hopefully, “Maybe one of you would like to keep her.”
“Chickens are not allowable pets at the Blue Moon,” huffed Goldy.
“The chicken could stay for a while, couldn’t it? While I take Kevin out of here—” Nate emphasized the last three words “—for a game of pinochle with my buddies?”
“I see the wisdom of that,” Goldy said thoughtfully. “I suppose the chicken could stay in a box beneath my desk. Until you come back and get it, that is,” she said to Kevin.
“I’m supposed to meditate, not go off and play cards,” Kevin said stubbornly. “I’m supposed to go to yoga class.”
“You said you’d have to start your meditation over if you got up. You got up,” Azure pointed out.
“And as for the yoga class, I heard it’s been canceled,” added Goldy.
Kevin looked disconcerted, then rallied. “Perhaps the crystals lied and this wasn’t the perfect spot for my meditation. You think that could be it?”
“Definitely,” Goldy said. “Crystals can be wrong.”
“Okay. I’ll accept that. Let’s go, Nate, I’ll buy you a beer.”
“All right, but only if no one tells Leah about the beer. She thinks I shouldn’t drink anything stronger than Kool-Aid.”
They all trooped downstairs, and Goldy found a cardboard box that fit under her desk. “The chicken will be perfectly safe here,” she assured Kevin.
“Take good care of her, won’t you?” Kevin said plaintively as Uncle Nate shepherded him out the door.
“No problem,” said
Goldy.
“That chicken would make great chicken salad,” Lee muttered, but Azure shushed him with a look and hurried him upstairs before he got any ideas.
Once they were in the apartment, Azure went and changed out of her damp beach clothes. Then, while Lee poured them both a glass of wine, she dug the food left over from the reception out of the freezer. After she heated it in the microwave oven they both heaped their plates and feasted on health food hors d’ouevres until they couldn’t eat any more.
After they rinsed the plates in the sink, Azure began to load the dishwasher in a series of moves that neatly delineated her derriere under the loose two-piece outfit she wore. Watching her, Lee felt a familiar stirring in his nether regions and promptly tried to quell it, more or less unsuccessfully.
She caught him looking at her. “Is anything wrong?”
He’d felt the beginning of the headache when they were facing off with Kevin. “Too much sun today, I think. I—well, I don’t suppose you have any aspirins handy?”
“Sure.”
Azure went to get the aspirins, and Lee washed them down with the rest of his second glass of wine.
“Come into the living room,” Azure said. “You’ll be more comfortable on the couch.”
He followed her, and she arranged a couple of pillows under his head. The sunwashed scent of her almost got to him, and he would have pulled her down on the couch beside him but she deftly sidestepped his reach. He didn’t know if her evasion was by design or not, but he rather thought it wasn’t. If he had read the signs correctly, she wouldn’t be averse to upping the sexual quotient of this relationship. He had intended to pursue that course, but the aspirins were beginning to kick in, and all he wanted to do was to lean back against the soft pillows and close his eyes.
She went away briefly. “How are you feeling?” When he opened his eyes, she was standing above him, her forehead furrowed with concern. With the kitchen light behind her, he could see the outline of her figure underneath her clothes.
“I’m a little sleepy,” he admitted. Belatedly he remembered that he’d meant to call Fleck to find out exactly what he had told Azure while he was pretending to be Leonardo Santori. But at the moment, he didn’t feel like moving from this couch.
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