“Ok then,” She closed her eyes as she thought. Suddenly she raised a finger. “‘Dances with Wolves’. It’s visually fantastic and a great story. If not the best, it’s one of my favorites. What about you — any Bruce Lee films on your list?”
“Ha! ‘Enter the Dragon’ was a classic! Actually, I love ‘The Shawshank Redemption’. Great acting, but I particularly love the twist at the end where the baddies get what’s coming to them.”
Linda smiled and pumped a fist dramatically.
“I love it when the bad guy gets what’s coming!”
“No argument here — as you will remember.”
Linda brought her hands to her chest and fluttered her eyelids dramatically.
“My hero!”
The discussion moved on to musical preferences before flowing naturally into favourite books. Soon they were embroiled in a good-natured argument about who was a better thriller writer, Lee Child or Robert Crais. As Stone watched Linda talking animatedly about how Joe Pike was a more believable character than Jack Reacher, ‘And anyway, if he was 6’5” tall and over 220 pounds, people wouldn’t keep picking fights with him’, he realized how comfortable he was in her company.
Although they had only been chatting for six hours or so, already he found that he could anticipate and empathize with her every thought. There was such congruence in their sentiments and opinions that listening to her talk felt like re-reading a favourite book, you knew the story, but you still wanted to savor every single word. At first, he had been physically attracted to her beautiful pixie face and athletically sensual figure, but now he was captivated by her intelligence and wit. He wondered if this was how married couples felt after twenty or thirty years together, contented in their familiarity, mutual respect, and love.
‘Whoa! Wait a minute!’ Stone thought to himself, ‘You’ve known this woman for less than half a day and already you’re thinking of love and marriage — get a grip man!’
At that moment, Linda gave a cat like stretch accompanied by a huge yawn. She checked her watch.
“Wow! It’s after eleven, I should be going.”
“You can’t go!” Stone blurted, almost in panic.
Linda patted his hand and smiled gently.
“Don’t worry Eric, I’ll call you tomorrow — I promise.”
Stone relaxed slightly, and then had a more serious thought.
“Actually I was thinking you shouldn’t drive. Between us, we’ve cleared almost two bottles of wine. You could stay here. I can make up the spare room.”
He was expecting her to decline demurely, but her response was a pleasant surprise.
“OK. Do you promise to be a gentleman?”
“You have my word.”
After they cleared away the wine glasses, Linda helped him to make up the spare bed. He gave her a fresh toothbrush from the bathroom along with one of his old sweatshirts to use as a nightdress. Stone stood in uncomfortable silence for a moment, before politely wishing her goodnight. She stretched up and kissed him firmly on the lips, quickly breaking away before he could respond.
“That was a lovely first date, Eric — the best ever! Goodnight.”
When he had finished using the bathroom Stone stripped off his clothes, dumped them into the wash basket and climbed into bed. It was only then, as he reflected on the day, that he realized that he hadn’t really thought about Charles Rathbone and the Wrecking Crew since the funeral. Although he had told Linda about Charles and his suicide, he didn’t feel sad or angry anymore. He wondered if she had somehow healed his heartbreak.
Alerted by the gentle creak of his bedroom door slowly opening, Eric’s eyes snapped open and he sat up. Linda stood in the open doorway, silhouetted by the light from the spare bedroom. Although his sweatshirt was old and baggy, barely reaching to the top of her slim legs, Stone thought he had never seen anyone looking sexier. Linda slowly walked to the foot of his bed and regarded him silently. After what seemed like an eternity, she finally spoke.
“Did you know that more people have sex after a funeral than they do after a wedding?”
Stone realized that he had been holding his breath.
“Actually… I did know that, I think I read it in—”
His words faded as Linda lifted the sweatshirt over her head in one smooth movement and dropped it to the floor. Stone studied her nakedness with open appreciation. Even in the half-light of the bedroom, her athletic curves were everything that he had imagined, and more. Suddenly, so much blood seemed to be rushing towards another part of his body and away from his brain that he could only manage to croak out a single word of appreciation.
“Wow!”
Linda stepped lightly to the side of the bed and slowly pulled the covers aside to reveal his nakedness. She smiled wickedly at his obvious excitement.
“Wow yourself,” she said and quickly smothered any further conversation with a passionate kiss.
Afterwards, they lay in a tender embrace chatting quietly. Stone was on his back with one hand behind his neck, the other was lightly caressing her shoulder. Linda’s head was resting on his chest. Her fingers were tracing lazy circles around the puckered edges of a scar in the center of Eric’s muscular stomach.
“How did this happen?” she asked.
“Someone shot me,” Stone answered in a casual, matter-of-fact tone.
“Really?” Linda sat up slightly so that she could look directly into his eyes. “Who? Why?”
Stone’s heart gave a little thump of joy as he looked at her beautiful face. Although he had kept the secret for some time, he felt an urge to share some of the detail from that dreadful day.
“A friend of mine is a private detective. He was hired to help recover the teenage son of a Saudi Prince who had been kidnapped. My friend asked me to come along as backup, in case there were any fisticuffs. As it turned out there were.”
Stone pointed towards the scar, attempting to make light of what had been a very dangerous situation. Linda didn’t respond. With a shrug, he carried on in a more serious tone.
“We were at the exchange with the money when suddenly everything went egg-shaped. It was dark and there was a lot of shooting and shouting — all very confusing. In the mess that followed, I was shot — well, not shot, more like nicked by a bullet really. It felt like someone had hit me with a hammer, bloody painful, but not too bad.”
“How did you get away?”
“I managed to convince the kidnappers of the error of their ways,” Stone said cryptically, “In the end we rescued the Prince’s son and recovered the money.”
“My hero!” Linda said patting his chest lightly. Then she sat up a little more. Even in the soft moonlight shining through the window, Stone could see the genuine concern in her face.
“Won’t these people want some revenge or something — aren’t they going to come after you?”
Stone considered his next words very carefully. Normally he was a very cautious person when it came to relationships, but for some reason he felt that Linda Smart was someone he could trust — someone he could really trust. In fact, he decided, she was someone that he wanted to trust.
“Don’t worry, Linda,” Stone pulled her into a tighter hug. “They won’t be coming after anyone — ever.”
Linda pushed back slightly and stared directly into his eyes. She stared unblinkingly, as if she were searching for something deeper within Stone’s soul, something to help her validate the implication of his cold proclamation. Perhaps she found something, perhaps she didn’t, but after a moment, she gave a short nod and laid her head back onto his chest. She lightly stroked his scar with her hand.
“Good,” she whispered sleepily, “that’s good.”
Stone gently stroked her hair until her breathing became deep and regular in slumber, as he closed his eyes he thought that, despite the death of his closest friend, he had never been happier.