listened and nodded and seemed honestly interested in every word she had to say—which was probably why neither of them paid much attention when Toby rolled himself into a ball on the deck and stopped using Bernie for a pillow.
After that, Bernie sat and stretched and padded over to starboard, where he hefted his front paws onto the padded bench and stared at the patio boat that still drifted on the slow currents several hundred yards away.
Four
“The first time was chancy, Kate,” Sterling said. “But this time is pure folly. And would you please put down those binoculars? We’re close enough that the sunlight could reflect off the lenses and tip them off about what you’re up to.”
Kate pointed at the canopy overhead. “I’m in the shade.” She adjusted the focus on the binoculars. She could see Bernie, looking back at her. And when she scanned to the right just a little, she could see the back of Rick Dalton’s head and Natalie’s sweet, gentle face. They were leaning close to each other, apparently deep in conversation.
“Kate.” Sterling reached out and snared the binoculars from her hands.
She glared at him. “Sterling, really.”
In two long strides he was at the stern, stowing the binoculars in the built-in chest there. “That takes care of that,” he said, with way too much satisfaction, as he returned to sit beside Kate.
“Oh, all right. Have it your way.” Kate retied the scarf she wore and adjusted her dark glasses. Then she produced a snowy handkerchief and blotted her brow. “It’s much too hot to argue with you, anyway.”
“You shouldn’t be here.”
“I know, I know.” She patted his hand. “But I couldn’t resist. I had to see the man and the boy for myself, that’s all. And now I have. And I feel wonderful about them. They’re going to be much more than just perfect tenants. Wait and see.”
Sterling grunted. “Fine. Let nature take its course with them, then. We have some much more serious problems to deal with than whether Natalie will find herself a new boyfriend or not.”
“Nothing’s more serious than love.”
“Do you know how low the company stock has fallen? Yesterday it closed at—”
“I know where it closed yesterday.”
“The shareholders are screaming. And every employee you’ve got is terrified about what will happen next. Security has been breached. Badly. The Secret Youth Formula…”
Kate waved her hand and Sterling fell silent. “I know, I know.”
The Secret Youth Formula was Kate’s pet project at Fortune Cosmetics, an as-yet-unperfected gel blended of certain herbs and vitamin extracts that could actually reverse the aging process.
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