Джерри Хилл - Gulf Breeze

"Martin, thanks again," Carly said. "I know it wasn't exactly in your job description."

"No problem, Dr. Cambridge."

"Carly, please. I'd like to think we've become friendly enough to use first names."
"I'm sorry. Habit."

"Martin, I enjoyed spending time with you," Elsa told him as she walked him to the door, much like Carly had done Pat.

"Me, too. Goodnight, ladies."

"Buenas noches," Elsa replied.

Elsa closed the door and leaned against it and closed her eyes.

"I don't know what it is, but he does something to me," she finally said.

"Martin?"

"Yes, Martin. Who else?"

"Well, I had hoped you weren't just flirting with him all day for the fun of it," Carly teased.

"I was not flirting." She began clearing away the empty pizza boxes, then looked up. "Has he been married?"

"Yes."

"Oh, good Lord, he's not still married?"

Carly laughed. "No. Actually, I think he's been single for quite awhile. I got the impression he was married and divorced down in The Valley. He's been living in Corpus for about five years."

Elsa digested this news with a frown. "Must be a reason he's still single, then."

"Elsa, you're still single," Carly pointed out.

"Well, he just seems like a normal man, you know. They're kinda hard to find these days."

"Yes, Martin is wonderful. Very dependable, trustworthy. He came highly recommended when I was looking for help with this project."

"And I'm certainly glad you hired him. Now, what about Pat?" Elsa asked, changed the subject.

"What about her?"

"You seemed to get along with her today. I didn't notice any quibbling, other than the argument over the herons," Elsa said.

"They were egrets. Who can't tell the difference between a heron and an egret?"

"Obviously your photographer."

"I think she just likes to argue with me. She seems to get great joy out of irritating me."

"So I noticed. But it was really nice of her to help out today."

"Yes, it was. I mean, we're all practically strangers to her, but she fit right in."

Elsa smiled at her, then patted her cheek. "Good."

"Good? Good, what?"

"Just good."

"Elsa…" Carly warned.

"Elsa what?"

"I know what you're thinking."

"You couldn't possibly. Your thoughts don't go in that direction, remember?"

"I can still beat the crap out of you," Carly warned.

"In your dreams, chica."

Pat found her aunt sitting on the deck, sipping a Bloody Mary while she read the Sunday paper.

"Pat? My, my, back from church already?"

Pat grinned. It was a running joke with them.

"Yes. I see you took in the early Mass."

"And I sang in the choir. Needed a little something to soothe my throat," Aunt Rachel said, pointing at her drink. "Want one?"

"Sure. Breakfast?"

"No. It is past the breakfast hour, you know that.. Brunch. Alice is making omelets. Let her know you're here. Oh, and freshen this up, will you?" she asked, handing Pat her nearly empty glass.

Aunt Rachel put the paper aside when Pat rejoined her at the table.

"Perfect," she said after sipping the fresh Bloody Mary. "I taught you well."

"You know perfectly well this is Angel's recipe," Pat said.

"Oh, pooh. I was making these before Angel was even born. Now, tell me what you've been doing all week. Mrs. Davenport says you sneaked onto her property one day."

Pat laughed. "Where was she hiding? I wanted to get some close-ups, which is impossible to do with her running her mouth the whole time."

"What about Dr. Cambridge? She hasn't called to complain, so I assume you kept your appointment."

"Yes, Aunt Rachel, I kept your appointment. And as I suspected, she was a little on the nutty side," Pat said.

"What do you mean? She's perfectly normal."

"Normal? I meant her views. I called her an environmental wacko and it didn't even phase her."

"You what? Patricia, Dr. Cambridge is so…wonderful. She is so passionate about her cause."

"Patricia?"

"She genuinely cares about this land and the wildlife. She has no hidden agendas. She's not out to make money by scheming donations from poor, old widowed women like me. And believe me, you would be surprised at how many people try to take advantage of that."

"Poor? Aren't you exaggerating?"

"I didn't mean poor, as in no money."

"Yes, I know what you meant. And aren't you exaggerating? You're the least helpless woman I know."

"Why, thank you. I think that was a compliment. Now, tell me what you're doing to help Dr. Cambridge."

Pat shrugged. "I helped her move."

"I meant with your camera. Move where?"

"To the top floor of the ranch house. The bottom floor will be offices, but she's going to live upstairs."

"Why did you help her move?"

Pat shrugged again. "I was out there anyway. She wants to put the first brochure together this week."

"So you've already been taking pictures?"

"Yes. I've been out there quite a bit this week. In fact, I'm supposed to go out today and we're going to go over the prints that I have and decide which ones she wants to use."

Aunt Rachel smiled and grabbed her hand.

"Thank you, Pat. I knew once you met her, you would warm up to this idea. It's hard to say no to her."

"Yes. I found that out."

"So, I know you said you had some deadline," Aunt Rachel said. "Can you do both? I would really feel terrible if this is going to take up too much of your time, you know."

"I'll manage. Thanks to Mrs. Davenport," she added. "I've got my ten nests. The clouds this morning aren't helping, though. And it's supposed to rain this week, so that'll cut into my time."

"Oh, well, we can't control the weather. I should warn you though, Mrs. Davenport has listed all the nests on the birding hotline."

"Son of a bitch! What in the hell is she thinking?"

"She's thinking you don't own them."

"Goddamnit! That woman is going to drive me completely insane!"

"Oh, calm down. She helped you, didn't she?"

"The woman's a fruitcake," Pat said. "I think she just likes the attention."

"Yes. You may be right. Although, you should really be nicer to her. I think I've got her talked into donating money to Dr. Cambridge."

"And what does that have to do with me?"

"Well, I may have mentioned that you would be happy to show her around the new place, maybe take her…"

"What? Have you lost your mind? Aunt Rachel, the woman is damn near crazy. I'm not going to show her around the ranch."

"Pat, she's worth millions, surely you know that."

"I don't give a shit! That has nothing to do with me."

"Think of Dr. Cambridge, then."

"Oh, Jesus…Aunt Rachel, why do you do this to me?"

"Because I don't have any children of my own to torment."

Carly was unpacking yet another box. She hated moving. But it wasn't like she'd gotten used to the apartment. In fact, she hated the apartment. Especially her upstairs neighbors, who were apparently night people, and came and went at all hours of the night. That, she would not miss.

She stood in her living room and looked around. It was coming together. She had spent the entire morning putting her kitchen in order, then moved to her office. She'd actually hooked up her computer last night and unpacked several boxes of books. Once she had everything set up, she did remember to print out the brochure, just in case Pat stopped by today.

Now, after stopping long enough to eat canned soup for lunch, she was tackling the living room. The first thing she did was hook up her stereo. She sorted through her box of CDs and pulled out a Sarah McLaughlin, setting the volume high while she stacked her CDs, all in alphabetical order. Then, she added the few DVDs she owned.