Page 98 of Smooth Sailing

“Are we making you uncomfortable?”

She appeared to be thinking about that before she shrugged. “No. He’s nice and he’s all big and strong and tough, and you’re all pretty and soft and elegant. You wouldn’t normally put you two together, but it’s cute.”

I was surprised. Well, not the opposites attract part, that was obvious, another part.

“You think I’m elegant?”

“Well…yeah. You wear fancy shoes every day to work.”

Okay then. If that was the criteria, that certainly was me.

“It’s a little weird, with the timing and all that, but I like him, and he likes me. That said, we’ll try not to be—” I began.

“I crashed your life, Diana,” she said in a small voice. “Don’t let me get in the way of it.”

I inched just a little closer and replied softly, “You didn’t crash my life, Madison. I invited you here. Then I found out you’re awesome, and I’m really glad you trusted me to look after you.”

Her face scrunched, not like she was going to cry again, like she didn’t believe my words.

“I really am,” I asserted.

“I’m a pain in your behind.”

“You are not,” I stated firmly.

She gave me a look of such disbelief, I started laughing.

“Right, well, we haven’t exactly been tiptoeing through the tulips,” I allowed. “But still, I’m glad to know you and it means a lot to me you’re letting me help you out.”

She tipped her head to the side, her blue eyes got cloudy, and she whispered, “It happened to you too.”

I bent my neck so my face was closer to hers, and I whispered in return, “Not as bad, not even close, but yeah, honey. It happened to me too.”

She was still whispering when she said, “I’m sorry, Diana.”

“I’m sorry about you.”

“We girls, we gotta be sorry a lot, don’t we?”

This was a sad lesson of life, and I hated we both had to learn it.

“Yeah,” I agreed. “We have to be strong a lot too, and strong comes in many ways, and I’m afraid I’m going to have to tax yours just a little bit more because I have one more tough thing to give you before we let it go and try to enjoy the rest of our Sunday.”

“Di—”

I did it fast so it would be over.

“Detective Scott talked to your parents. He says they were wild with relief to hear you’re okay and they want to talk to you.”

That was a mini lie.

He didn’t use the words “wild with relief,” those were mine. He also said her mother burst into tears and her dad had to end the first call and phone back, because he was choking up too.

I wasn’t going to tell her that, though.

The other thing that made my statement a mini lie was they did want to talk to her, but they also wanted to see her, and they were so intent on doing that, they reported to Detective Scott they’d be on the first flight to Phoenix.

But we’d deal with that tomorrow.

---