Part 32 (1/2)

”Yeah, he does.” Mary Lou sat next to him.

”Then maybe he's not so nice, after all.”

”Maybe he's just really lonely.” She knew what that was like.

He nodded. ”Maybe. Still. A good, honest man knows that he shouldn't have dinner with another man's wife.”

”Part of me really wanted to say yes,” Mary Lou admitted. ”Sam's not going to be home until late tonight and... Do you think I'm awful?”

He shook his head. ”No.”

”I used to be really pretty,” she told him, wanting him to understand. ”Men used to ask me to dinner all the time.”

Ihbraham looked at her. ”Motherhood has taken away mere pretty. It has made you truly beautiful. It has revealed your generous nature.”

Mary Lou had to look away from him. Lord, she was actually blus.h.i.+ng. It was the weirdest thing. There was nothing even remotelya”what was that word he'd used with her before?a”salacious in his eyes, and yet she'd never felt so completely overwhelmed before just from gazing back at a man. It was as if he could see inside of her, clear through to her soul.

She wondered what it would feel like to kiss a man with a beard like Ihbraham's. What would it be like to make love to a man with such warm, all-seeing, yet gentle eyes?

Not that that would ever happen.

”Maybe you should go to a meeting tonight instead,” he suggested. ”Especially if you didn't get to one last night.”

”I did,” she said. ”After lunch, I called Rene. My AA sponsor.” Desperate to talk to someone after spending all that time with Bob, she'd actually called Ihbraham first, but he wasn't at home. ”Haley and I went over to her placea”she asked us to come out, so we did. We had dinner with her, and then went to a meeting together.”

”That's good,” he said.

”No, actually it's bad. She wanted me to come over so that she could tell me she's moving to San Francisco next month,” Mary Lou told him. ”It's too far away for her to be my sponsor anymore. I mean, maybe we could do it with long-distance phone calls, but... that would be pretty expensive. And Rene thinks I need to find someone right here in San Diego. She thinks I'm not ready yet for a long-distance sponsor.”

”And what do you think?”

”Well, I guess I think she's right,” Mary Lou said. ”I'm just... I'm real sad to see her go. I don't have a whole lot of friends. Not since I stopped drinking.” She looked at him. ”In fact, it's down to you and crazy Don, now. And slimy ol' Bob, who probably has his radar set for pathetic, s.e.x-starved married women who just want someone to want to be with them. I'm not having dinner with him. Not ever. He's no kind of real friend. Unless he seriously wants to be with me. In that case, he's looking pretty good.”

Ihbraham just looked at her.

”I'm pathetic,” she said. ”I'm just completely pathetic. Someone should just kill me now.”

”Don't say that.”

”Yeah,” Mary Lou said. ”I know. I didn't mean it. If I wasn't here, who would take care of Haley? Not Sam, that's for d.a.m.n sure.” She stood up, brus.h.i.+ng off the seat of her jeans. ”I'll let you get back to work. I've got to wake up Haleya”we've got an errand to run. They put a new trunk lid on my car, and it actually locks now, but there was only one key. I figure I better get it copied before I do something stupid and lose it.” She paused. ”You wouldn't happen to know if there's any place around here that copies keys?”

Ihbraham stood up, too. ”There's a gardening center with a hardware section about four miles from here. Near my apartment. I have to go there this afternoon to pick up some gra.s.s seed. If you wish, I can take your keya”copy it for you.”

”Would you really?” Hope flared, but then quickly died. No, that wouldn't work. ”But then you'd have to come all the way back.”

”Are you going to a meeting tonight?” he asked. ”We could plan to meet there.”

”I guess I am,” she said. ”Over at the Catholic church.”

”Good then,” he said. ”This way you don't have to wake Haley.”

”Are you sure you don't mind?” she asked.

”It will be no trouble, I a.s.sure you. In fact, I'll look forward to seeing you and Haley later.”

Mary Lou nodded as she took her set of keys from her pocket and pulled the trunk key off the chain. She would look forward to seeing him, too. Way more than she would've looked forward to dinner with Bob Schwegel.

As he took the key from her, his fingers were warm against her hand. Warm, and very dark brown.

”Oh,” she said. ”I should give you the money to pay for it. Let me run inside.”

He waved her off as he pocketed the key. ”You can give it to me later. I'll bring you the receipt. One key won't cost very much.”

”Thank you,” she told him. ”You're a good friend.”

Who would have ever thought in a million years that she would become such good friends with a nearly black-skinned Arab man?

Who, for that matter, would have guessed that she could marry the man of her dreamsa”a real-life heroa”and get exactly what she'd always wanted in terms of a home and financial security, and still be dissatisfied?

Life could be pretty d.a.m.n weird.

Chapter 16.

It was 1748 that night before Muldoon found Joan.

Upon his arrival at the Hotel del Coronado, he was escorted up to a s.p.a.cious suite that was, he was told, his room. He was told to please wait here.

Despite the fact that he didn't particularly want or need a room at the hotel since he lived only a few minutes away, it was nice enough. It had a third-story view of the ocean through sliders that led to a balcony.

But with the windows closed, the sound of the cras.h.i.+ng surf was muted.

Ten minutes of waiting in that hushed, thickly carpeted, don't-put-your-feet-on-the-furniture silence was all he could stand, and after calling Joan's cell phone and repeatedly getting pushed over to her voice mail, he opened the door, intending to wander out into the corridor.

A man about his own height and build and dressed in a dark business suit was standing right outside the door. He had an earphone in one ear, the cord disappearing under his jacket collar, and a bulge under his left arm from a shoulder holster. ”May I help you, sir?” he asked Muldoon.

He was Secret Servicea”no doubt about it. But was he there to keep the unwanted, potentially dangerous riffraff out?

Or in?

”I need to speak with Joan DaCosta,” Muldoon said. ”She doesn't seem to be coming to me, so I thought I'd go looking for her. I know she's around here somewhere.”

”I'm sorry, sir. You've been asked to stay here, in your room.”

”Actually, I haven't been asked anything,” Muldoon said, just as pleasantly. ”I've only been told.” He was running very low on patiencea”particularly after seeing his picture all over CNN and finding out that certain White House staff members were planning his wedding to a woman he'd never even met.

”I'm sorry, sir.” The agent sounded anything but sorry. ”But I can't let you out into the hall without authorization.”