by Jean James
A nurse came into the waiting room. “We realize you’re in agony,” she said. “Please follow me.”
Lee accompanied her into the examination room.
The doctor promptly gave her a shot in her injured foot. “You have a deep wound here. The Novocain should take care of the pain,” he assured her as he probed for barb remnants. “You should already notice a difference.”
“The same Novocain that dentists use?” she asked
“Same thing.”
“What do I do when it wears off?”
“Probably nothing. We’ve discovered that with stingray wounds, as soon as the Novocain wears off, the pain has usually left also. You should treat it like any other puncture wound. The wound itself may hurt somewhat. I want you to soak it with hot Epsom salts and elevate your foot as much as possible.”
When the doctor had finished, Lee helped her out to the Jeep and drove her home. He didn’t ask the way, and she reflected that he must have taken note of it that Saturday morning—that perilous Saturday she wanted to forget.
“You should sleep for a while,” he said after he had helped her inside. “When you wake up, it’ll feel much better, and you can soak it. I’ll get your car.”
She started to get her car keys but realized he had never returned them.
“Thank you for helping me,” she said, as he went out the door.
He smiled his goodbye.
Two hours later, she awoke to a soft tap on her door.
“Your car’s in your drive and locked.” He handed her the keys. “How does your foot feel?”
“Perfect. Well, almost perfect. Good enough to go to work.”
“You’ll regret it.”
“I’ve never been stung by a stingray before. If I stay here, I’ll miss all the sympathy I’m going to get.”
“I knew you did it for sympathy,” he said, grinning. “That’s why I didn’t fall for it. Any girl who would deliberately hook herself with a fishhook is capable of trying anything for attention.”
She noted his tongue-in-cheek expression and laughed.
“Really, you’ll wish you’d stayed off your foot by the time you get home today. I know. I’ve been hit by rays before. Did you ever see a grown man cry?”
She looked at him dubiously and noticed the mischief in his eyes.
“I can’t miss work today. I’ve already made plans for my day off this week, and I don’t want to lose it.”
“Remember I warned you,” he said as he started to leave. He leaned towards her and looked straight into her eyes. “You leave too much slack, and you don’t use enough weight.”
“I-I what?” she stammered, taken aback.
“You leave too much slack line and not enough sinkers,” He repeated.
Mischief glistened in his eyes, and she knew he was poking fun at her casting. She slammed the door and couldn’t help laughing again.
8
More than once during the remainder of the day, she wished she had listened to Lee and stayed in bed. With the torture of work finally over, she grabbed her briefcase and headed home, but she didn’t expect to find Lee parked in her driveway. Before she could turn off her ignition, he had her door open and his arm out for support. He laughed when he saw the high heels on the seat beside her.
“Bad day?” His innocent expression said much.
“Long day.” she grimaced as she gingerly stepped out, shoes in hand.
He helped her into the house and into a soft chair. It took him only seconds to find a box and pillow to place strategically in front of her. He lifted her injured foot onto it and went back to his Jeep for the largest box of Epsom salts she had ever seen.
She started to rise, but he placed his hand on her shoulder.
“You stay here, Kate—this is my department.”
So he had taken it upon himself to name her.
“Kate?” she asked, bemused.
“On your key chain—Kate Gale.”
“Katherine Gale. Katherine wouldn’t fit on, so I had to settle for Kate.”
“You’ll have to settle for it again because Katherine is too long for me, too. Besides, I already know you now as Kate.”
He walked into the kitchen, and she could hear him opening cupboard doors and rummaging. She sank back into the chair and decided she liked this man. Surely he wouldn’t engage in Amano type activities. Someday, if she had a chance to know him better, she would ask him why he had parked in that alley.
When only an extended silence came from the kitchen, she hobbled out to see if he needed help. She found him looking down at something by her telephone. He hadn’t heard her approach because he turned sharply when he saw her.
“It’s about ready. I’ll be right in.”
When he finally returned with a pan of hot Epson salt water, he wore a frown, and his friendly manner had all but vanished. Brisk and businesslike, he submerged her foot into the water.
“Oh! Too hot.” She jerked it out.
“Keep plunging it in until you can keep it submerged, and when the water cools, reheat it and soak your foot some more. I have to go, now.”
He was out the door before she could thank him. Stung by his sudden personality change, she wondered what upset him.
An hour in the Epson salts took away most of the soreness. Restless and unsettled, Katherine decided to work for a while on her boat. Restless and unsettled, she loaded cleaning supplies and tools, even bedclothes, into her car and headed to the marina.
By the time she arrived, it had grown dark out. She plugged the boat into the dock’s electric and turned on the only light in the cabin, a bulb hanging from the ceiling. The cabin had always looked depressing, but now it looked even worse with that bare bulb exposing all its shortcomings and a lifetime’s accumulation of dirt. Apparently, no one had ever attempted to clean or improve the cabin’s appearance. It had served as a place to stow fishing gear and the other paraphernalia of the fishing business.
Katherine tried to remember how that other cabin looked, the one she toured on her first Sunday in Naples, and made plans as she scrubbed away at the grimy surfaces. The tedious work progressed slowly in spite of the small area. When she finished, she discovered the cabin surfaces wouldn’t need further attention. The light gray walls and floor looked freshly painted.
Right away, she saw other possibilities for improvement. She would have to discard a few items and buy a few things, but she would enjoy that part of the job. The tiny galley intrigued her most. That area had taken the longest to clean, but now she could hardly wait to buy kitchenware and fix her first meal there.
“Fish. I’ll cook fish,” she told the shiny stove.
For a wistful second she thought of how she would like to invite Lee over to share that first meal, and then promptly stopped such a thought.
Weary from her ultra long day, Katherine decided to spend the rest of the night aboard. She felt tired enough to sleep anywhere, but the low-built, storage-box bed immediately made known its inadequacies. She could actually rest her hand on the floor while lying prone, and the inch-thick, plastic covered mattress didn’t sufficiently mask the unforgiving qualities of the wood.
“Tomorrow I’ll buy foam.” She groaned and tried to get comfortable. Before long, the awe of her presence there in the boat outweighed her discomfort. She listened to the gentle lap of the water, and her thoughts soon turned to Lee. He interested her immensely, but Katherine couldn’t understand his mercurial personality. Half asleep, her thoughts drifted waywardly. Sometimes he seems…nice…
In the middle of the night, she awoke, confused. Mentally she traveled from the Chicago apartment, to her car, and finally, to the Florida house. In her state of grogginess, nothing fit. She reached a hand off the side of her bed and touched the cool, wet floor.
“The pump! I forgot it!”
When she rushed to turn on the bilge pump, she slipped on the wet cabin floor and banged her head hard against unfamiliar surroundings. With pounding heart, she recover
ed her balance and located the switch Captain Dale had shown her. Probably four or five days had passed since she last pumped it. When the pump had drained the bilge, she crawled back onto the hard bed, nursing her new hurts. After that, she checked for water every few minutes. Finally, with one hand resting on the floor, she fell asleep.
Morning came and she hurried back to the house to get breakfast and dress for work. When she straightened the kitchen counter, she noticed that her copy of the bank clipping sat there in full view by the phone. She had left it there after her talk with Laura. Was that what Lee studied when she caught him unawares? Did it mean he was involved with the Amanos, and, like Johnny, watched her?
Surely I’m not threat enough for two people to watch me. I’m down here now, and I haven’t any reason to cause them further trouble.
Lee had seen her furtive departure from the office that morning. If he was caught up in the Amanos’ dealings, if he had told them where and when he saw her, they would realize what she overheard. An icy chill traveled over her body. She tried to think more rationally. Probably Lee hadn’t looked at the bank picture. Maybe he happened to glance down just when she walked into the room. She folded the picture and stuffed it into the bottom of her purse.
It was Tuesday now. If Lee was involved, he would already have told Buzzy and Johnny about Saturday morning. Since Johnny didn’t act suspicious when he saw her at the docks on Sunday, she felt certain that neither he nor Buzzy knew of her presence in the office that morning. She could risk going to work, though it would be a trial just to step through the office door.
Katherine pushed her thoughts into happier channels and remembered she had something special awaiting her that night after work. A local store, Marine World, advertised that they gave lessons on diving, underwater photography, boating, and navigation. When she asked about the boating-navigation course, she found that they held the class at their Ft. Myers store, meeting every Tuesday at seven o’clock. She immediately signed up for it.
A remnant of soreness decided her to skip the beach. She needed the extra time to dress, anyway. There would be no time to go home and change after work, so she would need attire that could double for work and an evening out—something a little special since she planned to take in a movie or go out to dinner after the class. This would be her first night to go anywhere since her arrival in Florida, and she felt like celebrating.
She chose a thin, aqua colored dress, an old favorite. When she added the earrings that she always wore with it—tiny drops of crystal that hung at the end of short, gold threads—she was pleased with the image in the mirror. The dress complimented her new suntan, and the almost invisible earrings that peeked in and out of her dark hair flashed all the hues of the sea.
At the office, Johnny’s and Buzzy’s cars were both there.
Even with all her resolve to act natural, Katherine couldn’t subdue a shiver as she opened the office door. Her entrance instantly attracted the attention of both men. Their obvious approval of her appearance disgusted her and at the same time heartened her. They didn’t seem suspicious. She could generally read people, well, everyone but Lee.
The vacuum she’d left out was gone. Not emotionally ready to step into the kitchen, she went straight to her desk without her usual cup of coffee.
With difficulty, she kept her mind on her work. By eleven o’clock she had formulated a plan to free her permanently from the office-cleaning job. She tapped at Buzzy’s half-open door.
“Do you have a minute?”
“Certainly…certainly,” he said effusively and smiled. “Come in. Sit down.”
She didn’t intend to sit down, not while he blatantly leered at her, so she started right in on her speech.
“I had problems cleaning the office. I have allergies, especially dust allergies. This last time I had to leave before I’d finished everything. It hasn’t been thoroughly cleaned, so please don’t pay me for the extra hour.”
“Oh, that explains why Janet found the vacuum out yesterday. I’m sorry, Miss Katherine. We’ll have to make other arrangements.”
“If you’d like, I can at least clean the kitchen during my day in the office. That shouldn’t bother my allergies.”
“Don’t worry about it, my dear.” He ogled her shapely legs, stepped close, and took her unwilling hand. “You’re working out well here.”
“Thank you,” she said as she stepped back into the open doorway and removed her hand.
She had hardly reached the refuge of her desk when Johnny sauntered over. Until that moment, she hadn’t realized the immensity of his stature.
“Some getup—too nice for this dingy old office. Who’d have thought a girl as pretty as you would like fishing and boats?”
His uninhibited gaze was disconcerting, but instinct assured her this was not a suspicious Johnny, and logic told her he had watched her other times. How else would he know that she fished? Yes, he would watch her, but not because of someone’s instructions. He watched because there was nothing subtle about Johnny. She acted moderately friendly, but kept up her wall of reserve.
“I do love to fish, but it’s difficult to find time. I’ve been so busy lately,” she added, anticipating the possibility he might ask her out. She turned to her telephone. Lacking encouragement, Johnny wandered off.
At the close of the day, she had to type the inevitable last-minute contracts and got a late start to her class. Students still entered the store when she arrived, and she hurried into the room with renewed excitement. Here she could associate with people of similar interests and prepare for her captain’s license at the same time.
She gaped in astonishment when Lee walked into the room. Why had he come to the class? Her heart beat faster, and she could feel the color in her cheeks. Suspicious that he had followed her, she was surprised when he turned out to be the instructor. He hadn’t seen her, so she settled back to study him and not feel self-conscious about it.
He wore loose fitting khakis and a day’s growth of whiskers that gave his tan a deeper tint than usual. His almost-black hair curled slightly—as if it had just dried in the breeze. Suddenly he saw her and his piercing gaze challenged her so personally that she looked down and began to doodle on her note pages.
At the culmination of the class, she rose quickly. Under no circumstance did she want him to think she had come to the class because of him.
“Kate.”
She recognized his voice and hesitated.
“Wait a minute, Kate,” he called again, with laughter in his voice.
She couldn’t be rude, not after he had rescued her twice. She waited.
When he finished answering the other student’s questions, he walked over and picked up her notebook before she realized his intent. “Let’s see what you’ve learned,” he taunted and opened her notes. “Oh, no. Was I that boring?”
Chagrined at her marked up pages, she jerked the notebook out of his grasp. She looked down at the notes and laughed in spite of herself.
“By the way,” he continued, “excuse my asking—it’s none of my business—but why a boating class?”
“I excuse your asking. It is none of your business. And I own a boat.”
That seemed to surprise him as much as it delighted her.
“What kind of boat? Speedboat? Sailboat? Ship?”
“Cabin cruiser.”
That left him thoughtful for a second. He examined her through squinted eyes. “Come to dinner with me. We’ll talk about your boat.”
“I’d like that very much.” Once outside, Katherine grew apprehensive. Though she thought she had adequately established Lee’s innocence, she kept hearing Buzzy and Johnny’s ominous, early-morning conversation. She wondered if she would ever again feel safe alone with someone. “I’ll follow you—wherever. That way you won’t have to bring me back to my car,” she suggested and hoped she sounded natural.
He looked at her dubiously for just an instant and grinned. “Great idea, let’s go.”
&
nbsp; He drove to a rickety looking restaurant that sat right over the water. After he spoke with the hostess at the counter, he led her to a rustic outside table where he pulled out a chair for her, but remained standing. “If you like seafood, you’ll have to sample some of everything so you’ll know what to order next time.”
She couldn’t squelch a slight thrill that he spoke as if they would come there again.
“I like everything. You can’t go wrong with me. Besides, I’m starved.”
“Coming up,” he assured her as he headed towards the kitchen.
The chef evidently knew him well. They talked and laughed together as he mounded two platters with an assortment of seafood.
“Well, for once in my life I’ll finally get enough seafood,” she said when he placed the overloaded platter on the table.
“If you don’t, I’ll go back for more.”
A server arrived with iced tea and salads.
When they were alone again, Lee looked at her with challenge in his eyes.
“Will you say the blessing, or do I?”
She bowed her head and prayed quietly—”Thank you, Lord, for this food. Amen.”
“You’re not a person of many words, are you?”
“Don’t men find that a virtue in women?” She sampled one of the crab legs. “Um—umm, good. You won’t get much talk out of me tonight.”
“No talk, no food,” he teased, and then became more serious. “Tell me about this boat of yours.”
“It’s old and made of wood. How long have you taught this boating class? Do you work for the store, or is this something you do on your own?”
“It’s my store.” He didn’t look up, but continued eating.
“I’ve been to the one in Naples. Is it part of a chain, then?”
“I have eleven. I guess you could call it a chain—a small chain.”
Taken aback, she ate in silence for a minute. She felt better about him now that she knew he owned a business, but she also realized that business ownership didn’t prove honesty. After all, Buzzy owned a great amount of real estate, and people considered him a reputable businessperson.
