Hed been wrong about that, too.
Bennett peered through the rain and pulled into an inexpensive chain motel, his eyes and throat burning from the memories. He paid cash and registered with his fake ID. He took a shower in the flimsy bathtub, and got under the scratchy sheets. Thats when he turned on his BlackBerry.
Bennett knew that making calls or texts from the device would leave a trail of digital breadcrumbs along his route, so he would use his cheap pay-as-you-go phone for that in an emergency. But he would allow himself to use the BlackBerry to look at old photos, to remind him why he was on this journey.
He clicked through dozens, including Margot as a golden-haired toddler, running down to the boat house with her favorite stuffed rabbit clutched in her hand. Then there was Margot as a ten-year-old snowflake in the winter pageant. The dressage competitions of her early teen years, with her beloved Thoroughbred mare. Their father-and-daughter excursion to New Zealand. The Yale years.
There was one last photo of Margot, and it was the most heart-wrenching of them all. It was taken just months before the accident. Bennett had caught Margot unawares as she sat in the morning sun on the east veranda. She looked up from the newspaper, erupting in an openmouthed smile of surprise.
She wore no makeup, yet her face glowed. She was a woman in the prime of her beauty, with plenty of time to turn things around, if she would only apply herself.
Shed shooed Bennett away, laughing. Go away, Daddy! Im sorry I ever got you that stupid thing! Shed smoothed a hand over her mussed-up hair and gone back to her newspaper and morning coffee.
Bennett zoomed in on the image displayed on the small digital screen. He studied it carefully. As always, he recognized the veiled sorrow in his only childs eyes. It was a sadness shed carried since the abortion.
Margot had never forgiven herself for getting rid of the baby. She never would. Shed told him so.
Bennett powered down his BlackBerry and turned off the bedside lamp. He lay there in that cookie-cutter hotel room, in the darkness, listening to the rumble and whine of the interstate. The stinging in his eyes and throat started up again, and this time he welcomed the hot rush of grief it carried in its wake.
Bea, can you just let it go? Please? I have enough on my mind at the moment.
Bea understood completely; thats why she told Roxie not to worry about itif shed just read aloud the license plate numbers from the previous night, then Bea would take care of everything.
It took Roxie a moment to respond. I hate to say this, Bea, but I think theres some kind of weird rescue fantasy of yours at work here. Josie is a thirty-five-year-old woman and she doesnt need us to rescue her! Maybe you should get a second dog or something.
Bea chewed on the pencil she held between her teeth. So youre not concerned about her?
I want nothing but the best for her, Roxie said. But I know that if she let a guy in her apartment, then she already knows who he is. Josie may be a little too gullible at times, but shes not entirely stupid.
Okay. Fine, Bea said, then changed the subject. So are you ready for your meeting with the board next week?
Roxie groaned. Im meeting with a labor lawyer today. Hes going to review my contract and tell me what options I have, if any. Plus, I have the forms I need to apply for food stamps.
Bea laughed. Youre not going to need food stamps, woman. Think big! Your Web site is already burning up the Internet. If the bozos here fire you then you can focus on turning your site into a real moneymaker.
Yeah, Ive thought about that.
Then do it, Bea said. You could sponsor a contest for the worst boyfriend of the week. You can sell T-shirts and coffee mugs and bumper stickers. You can go on the self-help lecture circuit. You can become the mouthpiece for the spurned and burned from every corner of the globe. The phone was dead silent. Did I lose you? Hello?
Bea, Roxie said breathlessly. Youre a freakin genius! /?
[http://I-vomit-on-all-men.com] I-vomit-on-all-men.coma cyber haven for the spurned and burned./ How rockin is that?
Pretty rockin, Bea said, grinning. So, werent you going to read me the license plate numbers?
Oh, hell, why not? Just promise me you wont go launching some intervention without me and Ginger.
Girl Scouts honor.
Roxie read the series of numbers and letters to Bea and they hung up.
Within five minutes, Bea was finished chatting with an old friend at the Motor Vehicles Administration.
She looked down at the chicken scratch in her notepad: /CPS Incorporated of Berkeley, California./ Hello there, Romeo, Bea said under her breath, staring at her handwriting. I sure hope youre on the up-and-up, otherwise, youre going down.
The sun was setting as they walked the last few blocks to Josies place.
I had a great time tonight, Josie said, looking up at Ricks handsome, smiling face. Thanks for bringing the pizza.
Rick wrapped his arm around her shoulder and squeezed tight. Ive loved every minute, he said.
It was a sweet enough moment, but Josie had been sensing a soft hum of uneasiness between the two of them all evening, while they ate their vegetarian thin crust and laughed, while they sat on the balcony and talked, and all during their hour-long walk with Genghis. It was nothing she could put her finger on, really, just an occasional look in his eye or twist to his voice. It could be that Rick was experiencing one of those Oh-my-God-what-have-I-done? day-afters. But it could be something worse.
One thing Josie knew for sure: If she were truly taking a different approach to dating this time around, shed need to come right out and ask Rick what was up. She had to ask even if she was afraid of the answer.
It was a bold move shed never managed with Spike or Billy or Wayne or Lloyd or Troy or any of the others, so shed never had a clear sense of the status of the relationship on any given day. No wonder every one of her liaisons had been a road to nowhere. No wonder the end was always a surprise to Josiea /Starsky and Hutch/ swerve down an exit ramp she didnt even see coming.
Josie smiled back at Rick and squeezed him around the waist, thinking that Rick might not be troubled by their brand-new romance at all. Maybe he was distracted by his work. Or, God forbid, he could be thinking about the danger Mrs. Needleman had warned of.
Theres something Id like to talk to you about, Josie. / Guess I better buckle up./ I really like you. I think youre wonderful and fun and beautiful.
Josie sighed, wondering which breakup clichй Rick Rousseau would select, because, if she didnt count Spikes alien abduction, shed never had a relationship end without one of the Big Three: /This is not working for me. I really think we should see other people. Its not you, its me./ God, did she ever hate that last one.
Rick took a breath. What I wanted to tell you was that Ive thought about it, and…
He was going to pick the last one, she just knew it!
Id like you to come spend the weekend with me at my ranch. Ive never invited a woman there. But I want you to see it because its the place I love more than anywhere else in the world.
Josie turned very slowly and looked up into Ricks face, dumbfounded. Her arm fell away from his waist.
Oh, Rick said. You have other plans. Thats cool.
Josie shook her head.
Look, if Im going too fast, all you have to do is let me know. I completely understand.