got the whole thing worked out.”
“We do,” Steve said. “Like Lisa says, it’s time for me to grow up. Take on the real world. I can’t be Peter Pan forever.” He kissed her again, lightly on the cheek.
The waitress came back to take their dinner orders. Taylor stole another look at Ben, and he wasn’t disguising his worry in the least. Lisa seemed like a very nice woman and all, but this was nuts. Steve would be miserable working in sales. He hated that kind of thing, and without an ocean nearby, he’d go stir-crazy.
“It seems like all this happened pretty damn fast,” Ben said.
“It all just fell into place,” Steve said. He held on to his drink with both hands. “I’d been thinking a lot about my life, what I was doing with it. Sure, it’s fun helping a bunch of rich guys catch trophy fish, but, I don’t know…”
“My father took to him from the moment they met.” Lisa smiled. “Just like I did. He saw the potential in Steve. He’s a brilliant salesman. There’s no reason on earth he can’t use those talents in the real world. He could take Daddy’s business to the top.”
“It sounds lucrative.”
“Oh, yeah.” Steve nodded. “I’ll be making more than I ever dreamed of.”
“I didn’t know you dreamed about money.” Taylor wished she could say more, remind him of how he’d laughed at all those poor schmucks chasing a dime. But it wasn’t the time or the place. She needed to think. If this truly was the direction Steve wanted to go, then who was she to butt in? Although it felt wrong. Seriously wrong.
“Of course I think about money. Who doesn’t? I mean, if it was just me, it wouldn’t matter. But with a wife and kids… How could I put the time into the boats? You know the life. Living at the pier, away for days at a time, no regular schedules.”
“I suppose so,” she said.
Ben lifted his glass. “To new roads.”
She joined in the toast, all the while feeling like her brother wasn’t heading down a new road, but off a cliff.
BEN HELD THE TAXI DOOR for Taylor, unable to look away from the expanse of thigh her short dress revealed. Despite his genuine and deep concern for his friend, a large part of him had been preoccupied with the woman at his side. No matter what was happening with his frontal lobe, the primal part of his brain had locked on to Taylor, her scent, the way her hair cascaded down her shoulder, the curve of her breasts.
His plan was to ditch Steve and Lisa, which wasn’t going to be too difficult, as Lisa had already said she was beat, and get Taylor to himself. So they could talk. That’s all. Talk about Steve.
Steve paid off the cab, then turned to the small group. “We’re going to our room. We have to be up at the crack of dawn to pick up Lisa’s mom at the airport.”
“When’s our mom coming in?” Taylor asked.
“Tomorrow afternoon.”
“Do you need me to get her?”
“Nope, we have it covered.” Steve kissed his sister on the cheek. “But thanks. Why don’t you and Ben go have some fun? Win a little dough.”
“Right,” she said. “You know how lucky I am with cards.”
Steve laughed. “Okay, so don’t play poker.”
“I still maintain that you cheat every chance you get.”
He held his hand up to his chest as if shocked. “Me? Never.”
“Yeah, right.”
“Thanks for the dinner, you two. We’ll catch up with you tomorrow,” Ben said.
“Great.”
Lisa said good-night, then took Steve’s hand. Taylor watched them walk into the hotel. Ben watched Taylor.
“This is weird as hell,” he said, as soon as they’d entered the lobby.
“I’ll say. Did you have any idea?”
He shook his head. “Last I heard, he was thinking about buying another boat.”
“He asked me to quit my damn boring job and come work for him. He said I was a fool for wasting my life,” Taylor added.
“So what changed?”
Taylor shook her head. “Love?”
“I don’t know…”
Ben wanted to touch her again, as he had on the way out. Gently, palm to the small of her back. He wanted to feel her quiver. Instead, he put his hands in his pockets.
“I want to talk to Mom about it,” Taylor said. “Maybe she knows.”
“Good idea.” He stopped just before they reached the main casino floor. “Are you too tired for a drink? We could go outside by the pool.”
She smiled and he thought he detected a slight blush. “That sounds great.”
“Good.” He took her hand, which might have been better than touching her back, and led her through the youngish crowd. Everyone was on the right side of dressy, trying to look hip. The music, loud enough to make people shout to be heard, was only the coolest rock. Right now they were playing Stevie Ray Vaughn from his second album. Although there were lots of people playing video poker and slots, they were mostly silent, concentrating on whatever voodoo they had to mesmerize the machines. The real hubbub came from the craps tables.
Ben and Taylor threaded through the winners and losers until they got to a hall leading past a couple of high-end restaurants, to the door to the pool. A guard stood at the exit, and they had to show their room keys.
After that, they stepped into a lush, green paradise. The pool area, one of the prettiest in Vegas, had a lot of night swimmers gliding about, mostly by the swim-up bar and the water blackjack tables. But that’s not where Ben wanted to be. He led Taylor past the purple lounge chairs and the swaying palms ’til they passed the huge bar. Once there, they climbed a few steps to reach the cabana level. He hoped he’d find one empty, and luck was with him. During the day, the cabanas could be rented for a bundle, but after ten, if you were lucky, you could homestead. The refuse from another party still cluttered the small round table, but that wasn’t a problem.
He ushered Taylor to one of the green padded chairs, and he sat next to her. The television in the corner was off, which was what he wanted, and the overhead fan was on, creating a nice breeze in the semiprivate space. He’d like it even better if he could close the curtain, but he didn’t want to scare her.
“This is unbelievable,” she said. “I haven’t been here before, but I’d heard about the cabanas.”
“They’re not easy to reserve,” he said, “although sometimes you can get lucky.”
She leaned back in her chair and crossed her legs. It was a sight he wouldn’t soon forget. The long stretch of bare thigh, the perfection of her knee, the subtle curve of her
