Page 13 of Sound and Deception

“You bet.” He winked at me, before another potential customer pulled his attention.

Painting tucked under one arm, I headed for the door, unhurried, while Noah walked next to me. He watched his feet for several moments before looking up at me. “I’m sorry about the other night. I honestly didn’t expect an ambush.”

“You and me both.”

Noah stepped forward and pushed the glass door outward. He motioned for me to go before him, and followed behind. “Maybe we could try again, if you’re up for it.”

“Just not Salty’z.”

“Hear, hear.”

Sunlight, and a 38-degree chill snapped at us when we left the building. The usual cloud cover had dissipated for the moment, leaving behind temperatures a little lower than normal. Rain was expected to return in the evening. “Don’t you have some more DJ type stuff to do in there?”

“Not much longer. I have some announcements…” he glanced at his watch, “…to go through shortly, but I’ll be breaking down shop pretty soon. I’m sure they can get through the last couple of hours without me.”

I crossed to my little SUV parked near the street, and opened the back hatch to stow the painting. “So, what made you start a radio station, here, of all places?”

“Because no one would hire me on the mainland.”

“Seriously?”

“No.” He smiled at me and my stomach fluttered. “But we could talk about it. Want to try again tonight? We could go for Thai.”

“My Thai”was one—of two—places folks went to when they wanted to actually hear their dinner partner. The other was a high-end seafood place a half-block from Salty’z.

“I’d like that.” The words jumped out before I could review them, as if my unconscious was trying to pull a fast one. My inward sigh lost itself in some belly flutter vibrations, and as a grown woman, I could admit the teenage reactions were getting old. But it was too late. I couldn’t back out now.

For the barest of moments, I think he was startled by my response. He covered it a second later, the smile broadening into a grin. “Cool. I could pick you up at the farm…?”

He faltered. “Or do you just want to meet there?”

“That works. We can meet there.” It would be more of a friendly get together, and less a date, that way. At least, that’s how my treasonous mind decided to spin it. “Just don’t announce it over the radio.”

Noah widened his eyes in mock innocence, but didn’t respond to the mild reprimand. “Cool. 7:00 okay?”

“Sure.”

He nodded, seemed to hesitate, and then leaned toward me. His woodsy scent flowed over me when he kissed me on the cheek with soft, gentle lips. Before I could react beyond the instant uninvited gooseflesh, he’d turned to head back toward the recreation center.

Chapter Fourteen

Manicured salt and pepper eyebrows twitched up, jerked down, flew back up, stuck for a moment, dropped, and repeated the cycle. Words flew at me in rhythm with the frenetic movement above his eyes. Mr. Pennington and his younger cohort had arrived late morning to find his bungalow as he’d requested, complete with massage oil and wine, but he felt compelled to bluster his disappointment in the farm’s location.

“This is absolutely ridiculous! There should be an ocean view!” His voice croaked with cigarettes and indignance. His trophy stood just behind his left elbow and nodded in agreement.

“I’m sorry, sir, but in fairness, that isn’t something we mention on the website.” I’d done some context tweaking not long after I got back, but other than adding a few new pictures, not much needed to be done. Gram and Sunny would never do any kind of false advertising.

“But this is an island, isn’t it?” He squeaked on the last word and his doughy jowls quivered.

I stared at him. At less than thirty square miles, the island was small, sure, but with its share of pastureland and forests to balance the two small mountains, the idea of ocean views from every inch was ludicrous. I wondered how he dressed himself in the morning and then remembered the young woman behind him.

“Maybe you should be more upfront about the complete lack of water views.”

“Thank you. I’ll take that into consideration.”

He studied me, perhaps trying to figure out if I was being flip, which I was. I just tried to be subtle. “I think we deserve some sort of compensation. We made the trip all the way here on one of those ferry boats and it was far from smooth sailing, I can tell you that. In fact, Iris here, felt a little seasick.”

My temper began to burn, but I kept my voice even. “I’m sorry that you feel disappointed sir, but we’ve never advertised ocean views. We advertise private bungalows in a bucolic farm setting.” Not that it had been a real farm in a very long time, but our chickens and little herd of alpacas still gave it some credence.

---