Page 14 of Code Name: Michelangelo

My grin matched hers. “Perfect.”

5

BUTTERFLY

Ihad no reason to be nervous about seeing Blair Dumont again, but I was. Maybe it was more that seeing my father always made me anxious.

I couldn’t predict how he’d react to the news that his girlfriend had gone to the same boarding school as me at the same time I had. Maybe he already knew. But if that were the case, wouldn’t he have mentioned it? Frankly, Blair was a couple of years older than the last woman he’d married, so it wasn’t like he was trying to hide her age.

By the time we got through the queue at the rental counter, it was shortly after noon on a beautiful day by LA standards. The Santa Ana winds didn’t typically commence until later in September, but when our flight had landed from the opposite direction it normally did, I knew they were blowing. The nicest thing about the warm breeze was that it pushed the smog inland, so the skies were clear, and you could see for miles. It made me understand why so many had flocked to the state back before overpopulation and the number of vehicles on the road changed the visible landscape.

“We have a few hours. What would you like to do?” Brand asked.

We’d rented a convertible, so I suggested we put the top down and drive south, since tomorrow we’d be heading north. “Maybe we should figure out where we’re going to stay tonight first.”

“Maybe we should wing it.”

I laughed out loud when his left eyebrow raised. “Yeah, it happens when it’s a good secret too.”

Brand lowered his head and shook it, but he was smiling. “I already took care of it.”

“Fabulous.” I sat back in my seat. “Do you need me to navigate, or do you know where you’re going?”

He turned toward me. “You don’t want to know where we’re staying?”

“You meant for it to be a surprise. I’m good with that.”

We took the freeway as far as Seal Beach, then drove to the coast, deciding to stop for lunch in Newport Beach. At this time of year, the weather was slightly cooler and kids were back in school, so the beaches weren’t crowded, and it was easy to find somewhere to park.

I took him to a place at the end of the pier famous for its chili. I liked it because they served breakfast all day and we could sit outside, watching the surfers trek along the boardwalk and the dory boats coming in after spending the morning catching the fish they’d sell to restaurants this afternoon.

“It seems like you know a lot about this place,” Brand said while we waited for the food we’d ordered to arrive.

“This is where my mom’s family is from. I used to visit when I was a kid, before my grandmother died.”

“I don’t remember you talking about it.”

“We didn’t come very often, which shouldn’t be a surprise, knowing my mother. Actually, you don’t, do you?”

Brand shook his head. “Never had the pleasure.”

“It wouldn’t have been,” I muttered under my breath. “Anyway, Oma—that’s what I call her—lived in a bungalow about four blocks from here. It’s probably been leveled so someone could build a god-awful monstrosity in its place.”

“When were you last here?”

“Right before she died. I think I was fourteen. While both my grandmothers were loving, she was more so. I remember finding it surprising since my mom didn’t seem to inherit the same parental gene Oma possessed.”

“How did she die?”

“You know, I’m not sure. I guess I always assumed it was because she was old. Now that I think about it, she couldn’t have been much over sixty.”

After we finished lunch, Brand asked if I wanted to take a walk down the boardwalk. I was hesitant at first. While I expected the bungalow to be long gone, I wasn’t sure I wanted to see what had replaced it.

“Oh my gosh,” I exclaimed when we reached Sixteenth Street and I saw it was still there, looking almost exactly like it had the last time I saw it thirteen years ago. Even the flower garden looked the same. It was such a disparity from the yard-less houses surrounding it.

“Hello,” said an older gentleman who walked out of the screened-in porch when he saw us standing near the fence.

“Sorry to be nosy, but your home is beautiful. How long have you lived here?”

---