Page 28 of Mail Order Splash

“Xavier, you are so wonderful to devote your life to animals. Go on to your rescue, this can wait,” Aunt Victoria said.

“Call me tomorrow. Good evening.” They nodded.

Hold on, I’ve seen that guy before. Did he call me Triton?

“Who was the girl?” I asked my aunt.

“He said her name is Dr. Schaffer. Earlier she told me her name was Kleine. It’s an interesting name, is it not?” Aunt Victoria asked.

“She kept looking at me all night, as if we know one another. I feel like I may have insulted her by not remembering. How do we know of her?”

“She came here tonight as a guest of Dr. Garcia to find a sponsor for her business.” Aunt Victoria explained her presence. “She’s not one of those socialites, so I invited her back to visit with us. You may be interested in funding the sponsorship for her little facility.

“Dalt, come on, you said you’d dance with me.” Murphy cupped her mouth, calling me.

“Do you mind telling me about it tomorrow? Murphy has been begging all night.”

“Definitely, tomorrow. Go have fun. If anyone knows how to, it’s Murphy.”

She was not the socialite I’d thought and was incredibly pretty up close. I could swear I’ve met her before, though. Why Triton? Should that mean something to me?

Chapter Nine

KLEINE

“That was Triton. He looked different, but it had to be him,” Josh whispered.

“He was cleaned up. I was looking at him all night trying to decide if it was him.” I kicked off the heels in the car. “He didn’t recognize me, though. So much for first impressions.”

“That might not be fair. You always have the full gear on, then sunglasses. How would he recognize you?”

“Stop being logical; I want to be frustrated.”

“You wanted him to be wowed by you.” He pulled into traffic. “I was watching him watch you most of the night. I can say with certainty that he was wowed.”

“I think he was trying to figure out who I was too. He had an odd look on his face once I was introduced.” I huffed out a breath. “It was surreal to hear me introduced as Dr. Schaffer.”

“Nice job, Dr.Garcia. You should use that title more often. He could open doors for you.”

“Doors to what, a table at a fancy restaurant? No, thanks, give me a picnic on the boat floating in the water any day.”

“The stubbornness in you has gotten out of control. Who are you and where is my fun friend?”

“I’m fun. We laughed all night Wednesday.”

“It’s sad that you can pinpoint the exact night we laughed. It means we don’t do it enough.”

“Well then, let’s go have fun. We’re all dressed up.”

“I thought doc needed your help with an emergency?”

“Nah, he said he knew I wasn’t comfortable there, so he gave me an out.”

“Hold on a minute. You’re saying I could still be there eating jumbo shrimp and oysters, maybe dancing with women, but we left because you didn’t want to stay?”

“It sounds bad when you say it like that. You wanna go back? I’m sure we could.”

“What would you say? ‘Oh, sorry, the emergency wasn’t important, so I came back for free stuff’?”

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