Later, Isaac found out she’d wanted to be present for the whole thing but had arrived late because of traffic.
“I heard your entire speech, though,” she assured him. “And the ceremony was on KFWB. Daddy always listens to news and talk radio- oh, here he is.”
A big square truck of a man stepped out from behind the departing media hounds. White hair and mustache, outdoor skin. Iron grip. Then a small, slender, vivacious woman, young-looking for her age, who Heather resembled strikingly.
Heather would age well.
Nancy and Robert Salcido thanked him, then turned to converse in Spanish with Irma and Isaiah Gomez Sr.
Somehow, Isaac and Heather drifted away from the crowd, over to a shady spot just north of the steps. Somehow, she got him talking about himself.
“A Ph.D. and an M.D.,” she said. “That’s ambitious- that’s unbelievable! Don’t tell anyone, but I’ve been thinking of med school, too. My grades were good and my adviser thought I should apply. But all those years seemed daunting. I thought the R.N. would be enough for me, but now I’m not sure.”
“You should go for it,” he said.
“Think so?”
“Sure, you can do it.” As if he knew what he was talking about.
“Well,” she said, “thanks for the vote of confidence. I don’t know. Maybe I will… well, it was nice seeing you again.”
“It doesn’t have to end.”
She gave a puzzled look that made his heart sink. Then a smile that inflated the damned hunk of cardiac muscle.
“As in lunch,” he said. “As in now.”
Smooooth… stupid!
“Now? Okay. I’ll tell my parents. They were figuring to go out as a family, but I like your idea better.”
At a loss for a restaurant, phony cool guy that he was, he was grateful when she came up with Leonard’s. Despite the fact that it would empty his wallet. Reyes had intimated some kind of reward would be forthcoming. Maybe true, maybe not. What the heck, live dangerously.
Now he watched Heather slice pink meat off the bone, chew, swallow. Everything she did was adorable.
She said, “What?”
“Pardon?”
“You got really quiet, Isaac.”
“I’m just enjoying myself,” he said. “The peace and quiet.”
“Of course,” she said, reaching over and placing her hand atop his.
He felt his skin go hot.
She said, “Life’s so funny, you know? You plan and scheme and then, out of nowhere, something happens.”
“I know,” he said. “I’m so sorry you had to go through that.”
“Oh, no,” she said, squeezing his fingers. Smiling. “I wasn’t talking about that.”
Jonathan Kellerman
Jonathan Kellerman is one of the world's most popular authors. He has brought his expertise as a child psychologist to numerous bestselling tales of suspense (which have been translated into two dozen languages), including thirteen previous Alex Delaware novels; The Butcher's Theater, a story of serial killing in Jerusalem; and Billy Straight, featuring Hollywood homicide detective Petra Connor. His new novel, Flesh and Blood, will be published in hardcover in fall 2001. He is also the author of numerous essays, short stories, and scientific articles, two children's books, and three volumes of psychology, including Savage Spawn: Reflections on Violent Children. He and his wife, the novelist Faye Kellerman, have four children.
