Hit The Sand

by Duke Stevens Chapter 1 He saw her seem to fly off the pier and hit the sand running. A whirl of pumping legs and windmill arms. To the man lying on the beach-towel, her face held an expression of fear. Quickly rejecting the idea, he wondered if her flight might not be anything more than a subliminal sexual fore-play being acted out in fun. At any moment he might see her laughing beach-buddy leaping over the side of the pier in playful hot pursuit. No one came after her. The man lifted himself up in an effort to see the woman more clearly, his brain toying with a sense of unease. Within seconds, he brushed off the feeling and returned his body full-length onto the beach-towel. His brain flashed seconds of summary examination through his mind. It wasn’t as though she were yelling for help. There wasn’t anything coming out of her mouth but short bursts of slightly labored breath as she ran. Whirling past him, her feet threw sand over the edge of his towel. He saw her blue eyes flicker as though she recognized him. He didn’t know her and told himself that he must have misread her look. She continued running for another ten yards up the beach. Suddenly, without any indication of slowing her speed, she came to an abrupt stop, breathing deeply. Leaning over, her hands on her knees, she turned her head to dart a look toward the pier and then back toward where he lay. Drawing in a deep breath, she pivoted on her left heel and ran back to him. Throwing herself down alongside his body, she quickly burrowed her head near his right shoulder. Startled, but not moving away from her, he remarked calmly, “I thought you had forgotten our date.”

He heard a half-smothered giggle. Then she said in a low seductive breathless rush of words, “May-I-stay-here-for-a-minute?” Lying next to him, she snuggled as close to his right side as she could manage. It appeared to the man, that she was attempting to hide her face from someone who might emerge into view to look over their side of the pier. Not giving words to his thought, he said, “Adverse possession takes five years in California.” She smiled, “I don’t want to own you, just use you.” He chuckled, “There was a time, I’d have said, ‘Please do...’” Her breathing slowed and she became silent, thinking rapidly. She hadn’t missed the implications of the words, “There was a time...” He became acutely aware of the warmth of her body and the softness of her skin. The fresh clean smell of her welled-up between them and began messing with his head, sending messages down into the interior of his body. Making the decision to not move, he wondered what was going on with this lady. Fast minutes ticked by. He glanced down at her, wondering aloud if she had sun lotion on her body. Astonished at such an ordinary question taking place at this moment, she moved slightly against him. He punished the instant desire to draw her toward him and kiss her. She asked, “Is your speciality, cancer?” I'm not an M.D.” Seconds later, he turned his face toward her and playfully whispered out of the side of his mouth, “You're not putting my life in danger, are you?”

For the first time, she saw his face lighten with a smile. She looked directly into his face taking in the warmth of his welcoming but cautious reaction to her.

Rushing another glance at the pier, she looked back into his brown eyes and asked quietly, “Do you scare easily?” "It depends.” “On what?” Wondering where she wanted the conversation to go, he asked, “Is this a test?” She didn’t reply and he asked teasingly, “Nobody dies, if I don’t pass, do they?” A slow, fresh tension came into her body. It brought back unwanted memories to him of Lynette, just before the inevitable, unleashing of irrational, verbal assault, would erupt over his attempt to have a calm exchange of viewpoints. He suddenly didn’t enjoy the unusual encounter with the attractive blonde or their exchange of words any more. Glancing around for a possible stalker coming toward them, he moved slightly away from her, and then quickly shifted his position. Sitting upright on the beach towel, he cast his gaze far out to sea in silence. The woman flashed a look toward the pier. She slowly exhaled a breath she had been holding inside. She moved to sit upright beside him but did not attempt to breach the space he had made between them. He could feel her relax. He reprimanded himself for his immediate negative reaction to the renewed tension he had seen gathering in her. He had imagined that she was angry at him. As rapidly as the thought appeared in his mind, he accepted the only rational conclusion he could reach. It was a ridiculous idea. “I don’t know her,” he witnessed to himself, again. He told himself for the hundredth time that all women were not alike. He felt, once again, a man divided against himself. One place within his mind had increasingly accepted a negative impression regarding most women in connection to himself. Yet, he hadn’t seemed able to escape that other place inside his brain that seemed unwilling to allow an old hope die. The earlier longings would struggle to emerge and he would yearn for a mind that could believe in the old dreams as though they were attainable.

The woman watched him in quiet contemplation. He now felt removed from their strange encounter and he allowed himself to swiftly experience the thing that he longed to forget. His youthful dreams had supported the belief that there would be a woman “out there,” unique for him. A woman able to share an exciting sexual and spiritual intimacy. The relationship, he had once envisioned, would be founded upon mutual respect and rational exchange. It was to be established between them by living life together on an ever-expanding landscape of experience, wherein they would play, laugh and become emotionally secure fellow-travelers, in a mixed-up, often irrational world. It had been fun-loving, often spontaneous Lynette, who had pushed herself into that solitary space where he had most often lived, who had provided that first glimpse of real hope for a genuine intimacy. The relationship had failed miserably. The woman watching him made up her mind. She extended her right hand toward him, saying, “I’m Lucky.” He removed his concentrated gaze from the sea and looked directly into her eyes. He slowly smiled. “Glad to hear it.” His look was so piercing, yet friendly, that she suddenly felt wonderfully pinned down. He released her by looking away. Surprised and internally shaken, but relieved for the light response, she grinned. Speaking within a momentary pause, she said, “Don... a... van. Lucky Donavan.” The man reached for her hand, “I’m Savage.” She allowed her eyes to hold a gentle mocking when she returned, “Really?” He finished, “Jack... Jack Savage.” Their eyes met in the humor shared. They laughed. Minutes later, the slender blonde had slowly walked away from the man who had remained on the beach. Once out of his hearing, she had muttered softly, “Yes, Jack... Mr. Jack Savage, I think this is a possible beginning.”

Jack Savage had risen to stand beside her when she had made the decision to stand up and turn toward the direction of the pier. After brushing off sand from her lower legs, she had looked up into his eyes and thanked him for his availability for the few minutes they had shared. While she had surveyed her surroundings as though she were making a decision on which direction to go, he had the opportunity to examine all of her more closely. Taking in her blonde beauty, he had guessed her age to be somewhere in the mid-forties, maybe early fifties. He concluded that his first impression was probably more correct. The analysis was Jack being observant. Age, for Jack Savage was no more than something that one places within the larger perspective of who a person had chosen to be. This woman had chosen to be physically fit. Her blonde hair falling against the sides of her chin had a slight inward curl to it. She allowed the rest of her hair to hang freely to the shoulder shaped in a simple cut. Her skin was clear of blemish except for a small scar near her left eye. He had already taken note of the light tan earlier. His first impression had been that she resisted the health concerns now emerging everywhere in the culture regarding sun damaged skin; her tan now appeared to him more cautiously watched over. She wore a graduated blending, greenish blue, swimming suit that covered her from a visually pleasing bust-line to lower hip with a slight V upward cut on each side of the upper thigh. He had been stirred by the naturally rounded feminine hip and thigh line, so unlike the surgeon redefined feminine-muted, starved, adolescent boy, hip-line of the modeling world. He had thought the suit did more for her in its modest restraint than any bathing suit he had ever seen on a beautiful woman. She seemed draped in the soft material as though she were a live, supple sculpture of perfect womanhood waiting for the right man to slowly reveal her beauty only to himself. He had briefly felt the desire for her to remain with him and then suppressed it, responding to her, “Thank you” by nodding his head in a, “You’re welcome” manner, replying that it had been his pleasure. She had smiled and had slowly turned as though she had made the decision to walk back toward the pier.

During the time he had watched her movement toward the pier from which she had leaped in such a furious rush only a few moments ago, he thought her familiar in some way he couldn’t pin down. He wondered why he hadn’t asked her to explain her behavior. Perhaps he should have been pointed and simply asked if she had been running from someone. He hadn’t seen anyone who appeared looking for her. The beach was unusually clear of people. Puzzled at her behavior, he surveyed once again, both sides of the beach. He saw four children near the pier being watched over by a white-haired couple following their play. His eyes scanned in a semi-circle but no one caught his attention as having been particularly focused on them. Telling himself there might have been someone viewing the beach, centering attention on them that he hadn’t noticed, he once again looked up and down the beach then toward the hotel. Perhaps there had been eyes watching from under the pier or from one of the hotel windows or an apparent casual stare of surveillance from someone standing on the cobblestone walkway leading to the hotel’s outdoor luncheon area. He examined the possibility that an approach by someone toward them had been restrained by her choice of coming back to where he lay. He wondered what had changed so quickly within the environment, during those few minutes of contact, that had allowed her to suddenly relax and then within too short of time, move casually away from him. He turned back to face the ocean waves and lowered himself, once again, telling himself to let it go. He had come here for relaxation, why complicate the effort, he told himself. It is a beautiful day, he decided. A little hotter than he liked, but the breeze brought a certain refreshing relief to the sun-heated air rolling along the top of the sand, toward him. Lucky had taken the pleasant feeling of the firm grip of his hand with her when she had walked away. She thought to herself, “Yes, he is attractive.... Very.”

Her mind went back over the remembered photographs of this man, Jack Savage. Her father had sent her several pictures of Lynette’s new husband and she compared them with the man she had found here on the beach. Her father had written that Lynette had nailed a tall, dark and handsome man.

In the six year old photos, Jack had appeared to be have been in his forties, at least six feet tall, perhaps taller, strong and fit. In the picture, his brown hair with sparse streaks of gray, shoulder length, had been pulled back. The slightly curled ends of his hair were gathered into a rubber band and could be seen in the photo. What she had seen at today’s encounter revealed to her a body wonderfully firm, inviting touch. His hair, free from restraint, had fallen sensuously against his chin during their exchange. She smiled sorrowfully to herself, thinking, “Lyn, you just couldn’t resist this one, could you?” She noted to herself that the photograph had not revealed the strong masculine “presence” which she had experienced a few moments ago. He had a seductively welcoming manner, residing within an outwardly studied, yet unassuming male exterior that no picture had conveyed. Refusing to focus longer on the sense of pleasure that was her unexpected reaction to him, she was half-way to the pier when she abruptly changed direction and began moving toward the hotel’s cobblestone back terrace. Moving up the walk toward the hotel’s back entrance, she allowed herself to be distracted from thoughts of Mr. Jack Savage, to momentarily, admire the multi-colored plants and flowers, pinks and fuchsia dominating the scene, interspersed with shades of green leaves and other tropical foliage. Sections of the professional planting held examples of luxurious and delicate flowers, cleverly protected from the coastal winds by various sculptures, water falls, large rocks and strategically placed, windbarriers. She walked through the back entrance of the hotel. Entering Room 416, she spoke to the man sitting in the large over-stuffed chair that had been moved near the window so that he could see the beach more clearly. “I hope your idea works,” she said as she walked toward the bathroom. The man’s brows came together in a slight frown, “Your choice. We didn’t think he would be easy to approach if you were not willing to announce your relationship with your step-sister to him. He’s a smart man.” From the door of the bedroom, an angry male voice interjected, “This whole damn thing is crazy! I should never have agreed to this

insanity. Why did you accept my wife’s check? Isn’t there some professional code of ethics that requires you to deny your services to women who are out-of-their-depths?” The man stood ramrod straight. His body bore the look of commitment to its strength and his jaw looked as solid as if it had been formed out of concrete. The man’s features fit the look of his jaw, strong and no flabbiness on this man anywhere that Mr. Evans could see.

Ron Evans, Private Investigator, cleared his throat, pushing down the feeling of irritation that had risen. Resisting the impulse to tell Dan of the men he had refused checks from because they were out of their depths, he replied, “Mr. Donnellan, your wife came to me. We have gone over this in length. You agreed it was worth a try. I told you both of my reservations regarding her involvement. It appears that your wife isn’t easy to dissuade from doing something once she makes a decision. Isn’t it better that a professional investigator is involved, if she is going to do it?” Dan shot a glance of frustration at his wife, “You can say that again!” He looked back at Evans, “Okay! -- Okay!” The snap of the two short words bounced off a wall. Daniel Donnellan appeared to surrender.... again. Entering the bathroom, Lucky closed the door. Drawing the thin straps of her swimming suit down over her shoulders, she felt the released material slide down the contours of her body. She stepped out of the soft material, now lying in a silken mound on the floor and stepped directly into the shower. While the warm water flowed over her, the memory of Jack Savage's tall, strong body near her, swept through her. She arched her back, running her hands upward from the pubic firmness of her lower body toward the fullness of her breasts as a sense of fresh pleasure brought forth an almost unfamiliar sensuality. Stepping out of the shower, she listened for a moment. She could not hear the men talking. The long silence indicated that they had stopped the earlier discussion. Apparently, they were going to wait for her to shower and dress. She explored the best way to approach Dan about going home. Lucky Donnellan, in accepting that she couldn't use her real name when activating a meeting with Lynette’s ex-husband, immediately had

chosen the surname, Donavan. It still felt strange to hear the name emerge from her own lips. She wondered if her hesitation when giving it to Jack Savage had triggered a question about its authenticity. Dan had not agreed to the use of another surname. Consistently, he had challenged every aspect of the suggested outline of her movement into Jack Savage’s life. Long ago, she had realized that Dan was never comfortable whenever she made a decision that did not include him.

In the early years of their marriage, his need for control almost finished the relationship. For a long-time, he had believed that she used decision-making to isolate him and to limit his power. The angry memories between them came at her as though they were a single photo-shot of experience. It remained difficult for her to go back through the fifteen years of their marriage without cringing. It had taken five intense years of counseling for Dan to accept that who she had chosen to be, included the right to make her own decisions, based on rational examination of information that dealt with facts. Her childhood docile acceptance of assumed authority had long been questioned and removed as an automatic response to anyone or anything. She had become convinced that what Dan resented most was that he had no veto power over her decisions, once made, in disagreement with his own conclusions. In spite of the fact that she had often agreed with his viewpoint and had conformed to his preferences, he found it difficult to let go, during any situation when she couldn’t agree with his final decision or viewpoint. In time, Dr. Bowman had been able to persuade her that Dan had worked hard to overcome the idea that her choices, especially when disagreeing with his point of view, did not mean she was dismissing his ideas or conclusions as worthless. During the first years of their marriage, the issue regarding most of her decisions had been an almost constant battle between them. Today, in spite of those assurances from Dr. Bowman, it had been brought into question again, whether or not, Dan had actually won that battle. She reached for the white towel and dried her body. Putting on brown slacks and a light blue shirt, she opened the bathroom door and entered the room where Dan was waiting for her.

**** On the beach, long moments had passed. Finally, Jack Savage stopped resisting the desire to turn and look in the direction she had gone. Sorry now that he had not continued to watch her full retreat, he picked-up his beach towel and headed for his hotel suite. Once inside his room, he showered and dressed. Entering the communal space, he pushed the large beige armchair close to the window overlooking the beach. Sinking down into its comfortable cushions, he placed his feet on the low window sill. His mind kept going back to Lady Luck. Jack Savage had resisted being stirred by any woman for over two years. A few times burned, a thousand times shy, he told himself. He couldn’t escape the reality that he had been burned more than once in a relationship. He had asked himself often, since Lynette, if that had been the reason their failure had been the most devastating to him. Inevitably, the haunting question of the cause behind the failure of their marriage would always come back to himself. Was it his fault the relationship failed? Did he have something dark and allusive within himself that wouldn’t allow him to sustain an intimate relationship? Over and over, he had pursued these questions. He had found no answers.

He began to concentrate on the strange encounter on the beach. “A Dish!” he thought, remembering his father’s muted expression when he acknowledged an attractive woman in their presence. He chuckled at her audacious retreat to where a stranger lay and the memory of her body snuggling next to his. He felt warmth rush into his lower body. His mind brought back the pleasure of her smell and the feel of her skin. He wandered back onto the territory of their encounter. Had he merely been in the right place at the right time for her? Would she have back-tracked to another man lying on the beach, if there had been that option? Asking himself if she been responding to him through an internal biological or psychological antenna, he felt as a viewer might feel when examining a compelling work of art inside an incompatible frame. He felt uncomfortable, restless and unauthorized to harmonize the slight off-balance of the thing he was looking at.

The sun was sinking into the ocean before Jack realized how much time had moved past his awareness. Glancing at the clock, he lifted himself from the chair, stretched, then walked over to the lamp-stand and picked-up the room card before going to the hotel dining room. “Evening, Mr. Savage.” the maitre d’hotel spoke quietly. Jack smiled and responded, “I enjoyed the table overlooking the ocean yesterday, is there one available this evening?” In the subdued but authoritative tone of a past century English butler, the maitre d’hotel replied, “Yes, it is. I've held it for you, Sir.” Briefly questioning if the table had been held for him, he looked around. Sitting down, Jack could see how sparsely peopled the dining area had turned out to be, tonight. Handing him the menu, the maitre d’hotel leaned toward him, “I suggest the porcini dusted skate. It is expertly boned, an elegant wing of fresh white fish crusted with porcini dust and laid beside truffled chive potatoes.” Jack raised an eyebrow and the maitre d’hotel winked and turned back toward the waiting customers. Jack laughed. "He knows I’m an ordinary man," he thought. In a few minutes, the waiter approached him to take his order. She heard the soft sound of the laugh and knew instantly that it was his. Looking around slowly, Lucky spotted him at a corner table, handing the menu back to the waiter. He turned his head slowly to gaze out the window toward the ocean. She sat motionless for a while watching him. The pianist began to play Gershwin’s “That Certain Feeling.” The gathering dinner audience softly clapped their pleasure. Lucky remembered her step-sister's father playing the song, over and over, with a young Lynette quietly listening, humming the tune. She felt a rush of sadness and a deep sense of betrayal. Placing her hand to her forehead, she briefly felt foolish and inept, wondering if she had what it took to stay the course she had chosen for herself. A beautiful black woman in a softly clinging red dress, walked up to the piano to lean against it. She reminded Lucky of the early photo's of Lena Horne. The woman began singing; her voice expressing a sultry seduction, “That certain feeling... The first time I met you. I hit the ceiling... I couldn’t forget you...” Lucky closed her eyes, “How complicated life can be. How cruel! How unfair!” The words whirled through her mind. She wanted to scream. It took all the strength inside her to not rush out of the room,

hurrying past the tables that held friendly chatter just under the lyrical words of the vocalist, and run as far away as possible. She remained seated. Lucky told herself to concentrate on what she had come here to do. She looked away from Jack Savage, allowing her eyes to sweep the room periodically, wondering when Evans and Dan would enter it. When the waiter brought her meal, she focused on it. She ate slowly, taking longer than usual to finish the meal, temporarily withholding the enjoyment of the wine as a means of extending her time at the table. Jack Savage almost missed seeing her. Finished with his meal and moving through the room toward the exit, he spotted her sitting at a table alone, almost directly under a tall, decorative palm tree. A dart of hesitation flashed through his consciousness. He kept walking in her direction, the caution melting. When Jack approached her table, she looked up. Their eyes met. He became aware that the vocalist had begun Gershwin’s, “Embraceable You.” He presented his hand and said, “It's a Gershwin night. Will you dance with me?” She smiled, looked up and said, “Is there a dance floor handy?” “Let’s find our own.” His touch on her shoulder was light and gently inviting. She stood up. He reached for her hand and led her out the exit toward the spacious hotel patio. The music floated through the crisp evening air. They were able to make out the words, “I love all the many charms about you... above all, I want my arms around you... ” Jack turned her to face him and she moved into his arms. They began to dance. “Don’t be a naughty baby... come to mama, come to mama do... My sweet embraceable you....” The words drifted out to them. They held each other, moving to the rhythm of the music. He could not feel a wedding band on her left hand held firmly pressed against the back of his shoulder. A memory of early man-hood embarrassment rushed through him. A flash of irrational pleasure shot through him. He was no longer the man to pursue another man’s lady, he told himself. Now past her movement into the invisible circle that held his waiting for her to enter his space, now moving to the rhythm of the music,

Lucky felt as though her brain had temporarily dispensed with her environment. She was mesmerized by the experience of their uniting in dance. Unexpectedly, she felt a single part of a complete whole. The music seemed to compel the unfolding and remolding of the two of them as a single expression of musical poetry in motion, over and over again.

Moments later, she became aware that she was enjoying the experience far outside her commitments and felt a rush of guilt sear through her. She moved slightly away from him. Instantly, she was aware that his hand had gently increased the pressure against her lower back drawing her once again toward him. She felt a portentous pleasure. She remained once again in the place where he had brought her, offering no resistance to his decision.

Jack, absorbed in the music, the soft, yielding feel of her body against his, slowly felt the rest of the world slip away and he wondered why time had not disappeared like this with any other woman. “Just who are you, Lucky Lady,” he asked himself. The vocalist entered the song’s final refrain, “Embrace me, my sweet embraceable you... Embrace me, you irreplaceable you... Don’t be a naughty baby... Come to mama, come to mama do.... My sweet embraceable you.....” They slowed to a stop. She looked up at him. The warmth of his smile had traveled deeper into his eyes. A light clapping began and they turned to face a small audience that had gathered to watch them dance. Smiling their thanks, they began to walk toward the beach. When the crowd began to break up, a sharp, but muffled, “No!” could be heard. Turning to see where the sound came from, Lucky saw Dan angrily react to the urging of Mr. Evans to calm down. Lucky felt caught and angry at the same time. Glancing down at her, Jack commented, “A disagreement of some kind. It doesn’t look too serious.” They turned their backs to the ruckus already quieting and walked toward the sound of the surf. She couldn’t forget Dan’s angry outburst. She would have to find a way to do this without Dan pacing every step. He was still angry. They had gone over the options that had seemed open to her. Dan had not approved of her intentions. He had been adamant she was not going to involve herself, when she first brought the idea to him. He had

insisted that nothing would bring Lynette back, so why focus on a situation where she had no hope of making a positive impact. Lucky had questioned his sense of justice. Dan had taken this rebuff as a personal assault and wouldn’t examine the implications of his remarks. Eventually, he had agreed not to attempt to stop her, if she wouldn’t try to gather more information about her step-sister’s case, alone. Ron Evans had agreed to take her check in spite of coming up empty after further inquiry about the case. He had expressed doubts they could do what the police had failed to do. Evans wanted her to understand that he felt there wasn’t anything more to go on. Lucky hadn’t brought any information that wasn’t already in the police files. She had convinced him to provide her professional support for at least three months. Lucky cast an upward look at Jack Savage, wondering if she might be wrong about him. She internally shook her head against the suggestion. She had stopped suppressing the possibility that Lyn had been murdered long enough. Two years after her death and the police had nothing.

The detectives had not been able to find anyone who had a strong enough motive to kill her. At least nothing they were willing to share with her. Lynette’s ex-husband had seemed the most reasonable and closest target for Lucky’s beginning focus to find out why her step-sister had died. The police had been reluctant to label Lynette’s death a murder in the first place. Lucky couldn’t understand why. The short, hand-written note, had not been enough evidence for Lucky that her step-sister had committed suicide. Lucky had become convinced that if it had not been for a lack of finding the cause of death within any clear forensic evidence, the police detectives would have written her death off as a suicide from the beginning of the investigation. What had apparently been taken as a suicide note by the police, wasn’t enough for Lucky. The words on it read, “I’m sorry for leaving such a mess.” The bottom portion of the note had been ripped off.

Lucky had read the note, shuddered and thought, “The words could have been written to the housekeeper, referring only to having left the

kitchen an unusual mess.” She was certain Lynette would not have killed herself.

There had been no marks of abuse on Lynette’s body and the usual forensic tests provided no compelling clues for why her major organs had failed. After examining the police report, Ron Evans had used the word "crashed" in his reference to the major failure of her body's organs. What would cause her step-sister's organs to crash that couldn't be found by the forensics, Lucky had asked herself, many times.

She quickly thought of Lynette’s financial situation before her death. Lucky and Lynette had always known that their grandfather’s trust stated that upon either sister’s demise, the trust monies would go directly to the survivor sister and not to a husband or to a child born to them. Lucky asked herself, “What would have been a motive for Lynette’s exhusband to have killed her?”

The police inquiry had slowed. The lead detective ultimately suggested that perhaps Lynette had given herself an over-dose of whatever killed her in the hotel restroom before she had gone to her room to lie down on the bed.

By the time she had been found, the hotel restrooms had been cleaned. Nothing had been found in the room that could explain what she might have consumed before she died. The only finger-prints found were Lynette’s and the maids who had cleaned the room before her entrance into it.

The earlier frustration swept over her. Lynette and her husband had just divorced. Her death didn’t seem possible to have provided a mess for him. He knew of the trust-fund monies and knew he wouldn’t have gotten them. What Lucky had been able to learn, so far, is that Lynette had agreed to leave the marriage with no financial hold over him.

Why should he have killed her? He didn’t appear to be in a financial crisis. If he hadn't killed her, who else would have wanted her dead?

Was he one of these habitually angry men who end-up destroying those he loves?

Lucky had reviewed these questions often and after each reexamination had concluded that there must be something material to Lynette's case that the police had not uncovered in connection to Jack Savage.

Lucky found her mind returning to the suicide note. From the first moment of reading it, she had not been able to accept it as expressing a suicide intention. She could not believe her step-sister would indicate that she was leaving a mess, if she had decided to kill herself. It would be more likely for Lynette, in a rage, to have left a letter out of spite, blaming the husband who had asked for a divorce.

Lucky sighed inwardly. Lynette had long been working on various emotional problems. She had often expected those around her to ignore the negative effects of her personal problems that had spread into their lives.

Lucky had always wanted to maintain a friendly connection to her step-sister. Her sense of family always had been that regardless of the early battles between herself and Lynette, there would be a strong sisterly bond kept in place, if it were up to herself. She had deeply regretted the parting argument that hadn’t healed before Lynette’s death.

It angered her that her step-sister had probably been murdered and someone was apparently getting away with it. She was convinced that if Lynette and she would have been able to overcome their estrangement, before she and Dan left for Paris, Lucky wouldn’t be coming back so empty of information regarding her step-sister’s marriage to Jack Savage; or for that matter, so ignorant of any situation that might have caused Lynette to feel powerless and despairing which had always triggered an intense rage in her.

Lucky couldn't shake the feelings of guilt that tormented her. She should have made a greater effort to make-up with Lynette before she had left for Paris.

Lucky couldn’t understand the apparent lack of interest in finding what had killed her step-sister. The forensic department seemed stumped. Lucky had become convinced, that if she hadn't been so adamant that Lynette would never take her own life, Lynette’s file would have been closed, classified a suicide, long before this.

Her lack of professional investigative skill was a risk-factor that Dan had held over her head. From the moment she had made the decision to try and find out more about Lynette’s death, he had ridiculed the idea she could do anything that the police hadn't been able to do.

Dan had insisted she introduce herself to Jack Savage as Lynette’s step-sister and ask him to go over the case with her. According to Dan’s view, Lynette’s husband would allow Lucky access to her sister’s things and would be willing to explore their recent marriage breakdown experience with her.

Lucky couldn’t agree. If Jack did have something to do with Lynette’s death, this approach would put him on alert that she doubted that she had committed suicide. Lucky would learn nothing from him or get close enough to examine the damaged intimacy that had become the primary part of the remainder of their married life before Lynette’s death.

Lucky had reasoned, that the one thing going for her, was that Jack Savage had never met her during his four-year marriage to Lynette or after their divorce.

The thought that kept entering Lucky’s mind was the notion that she might be able to uncover new information regarding Lynette’s death. She argued that living in Paris for the last seven years might turn out to be of primary importance in the last analysis of her step-sister’s case.

In spite of understanding her limited investigative abilities, she had made the decision; she was not going to look the other way any longer and remain uninvolved in her step-sister’s case. It was at this moment of acceptance that Lucky Donnellan, had made the decision to become Lucky Donavan, for several months.

Strolling toward the surf alongside Lucky, Jack wondered what she was thinking about at this moment. She now seemed distant and aloof from the pleasure of the dance. Briefly uncomfortable, he released her hand, continuing to walk quietly beside her. Coming back to the present, she summed up her thoughts that her husband had to go home.

The words floated up through her brain with a fresh force of acceptance. She knew it was an important step, but it would be more difficult to accomplish than merely wishing for it to take place. Emerging out of her concentration, she became aware that their stroll had come to a stop where the cobblestone walk met the sand.

The low swishing sounds of the incoming and outgoing of the surf could be heard above the now-receding human chatter. The music retreated from their hearing, as though being gently scolded by the breeze, that it had not been invited here.

Removing her shoes, Lucky suggested that he do the same. Jack smiled and took his shoes off. Shoes in hand, they moved closer to the water. Jack took off his jacket and asked her sit on it. She resisted and he said, “Please.” After she had seated herself carefully on his jacket, he lowered himself on the sand close to her.

They continued talking within a casual, friendly banner, choosing subjects that ranged from tommorrow's weather outlook to past vacation experiences. The night became longer. The couple on the beach seemed mutely indifferent to the passing of time.

Becoming aware of the lateness of the hour, Jack turned to her, “When may I see you again?”

Her throat felt dry. Swallowing, she looked away from his gaze to reply, “Tomorrow?”

He lifted his face to the darkened sky, experiencing a wonderful sense of relief flowing through him, and smiled Chapter 2 [Use Right & Left Arrow Key To Center Page - then Down Arrow]

Daniel Donnellan was waiting for her when she opened the hotel door.

“Where in the hell have you been?”

Her husband's tone was demanding and proprietary. She sighed inwardly, drawing in her breath. She recognized the clues that Dan had worked himself up into an unyielding emotional place, where the need for a face to face confrontation, dominated his emotions. She cautioned herself to find a way to stop the situation from spiraling out of control into just another ugly explosion.

“Dan... stop it,” she replied softly.

His eyes flickered with recognition at the warning tone. She moved around him. She could see that as quickly as he had remembered he was being alerted to his rage potential, he had instantly dismissed the warning. His body stiffened. He leaned down, towering over her, bringing his face close to her own, snarling, “Or little Ms Powerhouse is going to do what?”

Feeling revulsion at his angry posture and overbearing tone, she turned away from his contorted face. “I’m not going to play your unhealthy games,” she replied. She completed the move around him and walked toward the bathroom, turning slightly to avoid the corner of the upholstered chair.

Opening the door of the bathroom, she entered its interior. Glancing into the mirror, she saw that Dan wasn’t far behind her. His reflection in the bathroom mirror exposed his struggle for self-control. She hoped he would gain it. He saw her watching him in the mirror and suddenly bolted toward the door. She quickly shut and locked it.

She had shut the door in his face. She waited. Dan leaned his head against the door-jam, his arm fell to his side, his fist in a knot. His jaw tight, he abruptly turned around and walked back toward the small table and sat down in the closest chair.

After showering, brushing her teeth and putting on her white cotton night-gown, Lucky entered the bedroom and sat down on the edge of the bed. Dan was sitting quietly, his right elbow on top of the small table, starring at the floor. She felt a rush of compassion flow through her. Briefly, she examined the thought that it might be a good idea to talk to him now, about the thing that was on her mind.

She waited to see if he would talk again. Without lifting his eyes from a spot on the floor, Dan felt the inward panic subside. He knew that Dr. Bowman had been right to warn him that his need for control could be classified as a pathological disorder. For years, Lucky and he had been battling his intense reaction to their disagreements. Whenever Lucky went out on her own regarding decisions that he felt were impracticable or unwarranted, his inability to change her mind triggered an unrelenting anger. He rose from the chair, stepping behind it. Placing his hands on top of its tall back, he leaned slightly forward to remind her, “I feel dismissed and ignored whenever you won’t talk to me about the possible consequences to us regarding what you are trying to do.”

Lucky felt relief flow through her. Briefly she wondered about the implications that hung over the words, ‘consequences to us.’ She said, “I’m sorry, Dan. We have talked about this situation and when you wouldn’t or couldn’t support me in it, I had to make some attempt toward finding out about Lyn’s death, myself.”

Dan's eyes swept toward her face, his voice raising, “Look! I came around to your way of doing this. But, I’m not ready to accept the idea that you get into a relationship with this guy. You’re my wife. You’re not a professional investigator and it is risky for you... for us.”

Lucky suppressed a second reaction to the repeated thought in his words, “...it is risky for you... us.” She wondered how he could think she could be drawn into an affair with a man who may have murdered her step-sister.

She made the decision to not increase the potential for a stormy debate and turned to face him directly, replying, “We have already spent a lot of money for professional investigators. Nothing new emerged. Finally, Mr. Evans has been willing to provide supportive technology and his know-how for three months. It’s Mr. Evans that found Jack Savage. We are here because he located his vacation destination. We are down to me attempting an entrance into his life in an effort to learn more about the man and their marriage."

Dan’s face tightened, "Don't include me in that sentence...”

Lucky looked out the window. Turning back toward him, she continued, “I don’t think it is a good idea that you remain here. You should go back to New York and I’ll do what I can for the next three months. If I come up empty or don’t find anything helpful that I can give to Ron, I’ll quit. I’ll try to forget that my step-sister has probably been murdered and no one is going to pay for it.”

Dan felt the renewal of panic. She was so focused. Stubborn. Unreachable. He felt anger course through him as he gripped the top of the chair. “This is not what we agreed to do.”

Controlling a surge of exhausted patience, she refused the desire to raise her voice, replying, “ You do not want to be here. You do not want me to be here. How can you not see that you are stretched to the limit already? I have barely gotten noticed by Jack and your anger has flared up. This is merely the beginning. I just met him...”

She paused, then finished, “There is enough tension inside me now. How can I continue with you here... and angry all the time?”

“Too distracting...?” Dan snarled. He struggled for control Gripping the top of the chair, he fought the piercing impulse to throw the chair through the window. Instead, he suddenly dropped back down on it.

Lucky smiled sardonically. Shaking her head in wonder that he had agreed to come with her in the first place, she said, “ This is what I mean. I can’t concentrate on getting information about their relationship or even attempt it under the constant pressure of your reservations or disagreements regarding strategy. You are hovering negatively over every step that either I or Mr. Evans suggests to do."

Unexpectedly, Dan took a deep breath, got up from the chair and walked to the bed. He pulled back the blankets, speaking quietly, “Let’s talk about this tomorrow. You’re tired. I'm tired.”

Sliding under the covers, she noted to herself that nothing was settled. The decision regarding what Dan would do or not do would have to wait. For the first time since they had begun discussing her stepsister’s death, she felt an uncomfortable sense that Dan was hiding something.

He had not reacted the way she had expected when she emerged from her bath. It was unusual for Dan to become that angry and then let it go so quickly or had he, she wondered. Her mind now drifting toward sleep became aware of the slowly rising thought that perhaps no human being is ever able to really know another human being.

She felt terribly alone.

******

The Mother of “Lucky” Harrington, who had grown up to become Mrs. Lucky Donnellian, had been the only child of the wealthy, criminal attorney, Nathan Grey, of New York City, New York. It had been long rumored in their circle of society that Lucky's grandfather, Nathan Grey, had come from the blood-line of the famous, Betsy Grey, who, with her brother along with her lover, fought and died at the battle of Ballynahinch in County Down, Ireland.

Within the family history, Betsy Grey had been remembered as a beautiful girl, dressed in green silk, mounted on her gallant mare, wielding her burnished sword above her head, who, side by side with Munroe, had led one victorious charge after another.

Lucky never knew if this family tale had been started by her Grandfather, merely because he fancied it or because there actually had been truth to the story, but she had always enjoyed his often repeated daring tales of this single-minded courageous woman, Betsy Grey.

Lucky’s Mother, Geraldine Grey, Nathan Grey’s single offspring, grew up, carrying the nick-name, “Racy,” through-out her lifetime from nothing more than the mundane circumstance that she had loved horseracing from the time she had seen her first pony race at the age of four years.

By the time Lucky's mother had become an adult, she had never seemed to have flushed out any of her father’s alleged genes that might be considered a genetic encouragement toward great daring, such as that

which had been within Betsy Grey or that which had emerged, if, of less esteemed motives and practices at times, from within Nathan Grey, himself.

Racy's daughter, Lucinda Harrington, picked-up her nick-name “Lucky” when she fell out of a tall tree during childhood without breaking her neck. The nick-name stuck.

Lucky had grown up watching her usually quiet and unassuming Mother, live out her life for the most part, in quite acceptance of what happened to her. Later, Lucky would wonder if there could have been some greater courage within her Mother that hadn’t been tapped.

Lucky accepted the reality that she would never know if her Mother would have attempted to rise to meet the needs of the circumstances of her second daughter’s death, with or without courage, or perhaps with nothing more than Lucky's own stubbornness. For some reason, Lucky wished she knew which it would have been.

Lucky had never thought of Lynette as anything, but her sister. Her step-sister had entered the world because Lucky’s mother proved that love could activate an unusual risk-taking in her.

During a brief period of rare personal daring, Lucky’s usually unassuming and quiet Mother, had left Lucky’s Father, Jim Harrington, with quick notice. Soon after the divorce, she had married the man who would become Lynette’s father, Ian Green.

Ian Green had chosen to become a self-styled piano man. A versatile pianist who loved nothing more than entertaining an audience within a range of songs from broadway plays to every Irish ballad that had ever been published or remembered songs that had come down to him through family lore.

He especially enjoyed the irony expressed in the lyrics of The Ballad of Pat Brady.

"Now me name is Pat Brady, I'm just twenty-eight. A curious story to you I'll relate. Just before I left Ireland, me mother did say, Now remember, young Patrick, that crime does not pay. I'm a strapping young fellow and not known to shirk, And I found me a job at the building site work. I saved up me money each week in a jar, 'til at last I'd enough for to buy an old car. Well, now parking in London's not easy to do, Though you might want to wait but a moment of two; And wherever I went I was on yellow lines, Which is how I began to accrue parking fines. Well, I next lost me job and I had to sign on, So the money to pay off the fines was all gone. So I said to meself, just sit tight and don't pay, And then if you ignore it, it might go away. But now things didn't work out the way that I'd thought. For non-payment of fines I was summonsed to court. For non-payment of fines the old justice did say, We will send you to prison for twenty-eight days. Well, the thought of that prison, to me it was hell, For they did not discern who they put in your cell, And I shared with this fellow, a reprobate thief, Who was doing three years there for robbing a safe. Still, I learned everything about safes that he knew, So that when I came out I knew just what to do. I went straight to a bookies, and blew the safe wide, And a thousand green smackers were waiting inside. Now I'm living in style off me ill-gotten gains. Scotland Yard have not caught me for all their fine brains. Some people may tell you that crime does not pay, But with me it worked out just the opposite way."

Early, Lucky had heard the history of her mother’s life. It had been a childhood, much like Lucky’s own, lived out under the financial security

provided by her Grandfather Grey. Later, at Lynette’s birth, her life had turned out to be supported by that same financial legacy.

Lucky’s upbringing and later Lynette’s, had been filled with the best schools, the most qualified nannies, the safest tourist destinations and in the end, for Lucky's mother, a failed and abandoned marriage, which, had from its beginnings, been directed and obtained for her mother by Lucky's grandfather to the famous criminal lawyer, Mr. James Harrington.

Her Mother’s sudden and open rebellion to that directed marriage, five years after Lucky had been born, had startled the immediate family and their wider circle of family friends.

The relationship with Lynette’s father, Ian Green, had brought her mother a unique happiness, lasting until her mother’s unexpected death, four years ago.

“Now Lynette is gone as well,” she thought.

Her mother's divorce from her father had not impacted Lucky's love for her father. He had been and would always be her mentor on many levels, especially on how to examine life's problems within a carefully examined rational perspective. His, was a wisdom learned and honed by the experience of his law practice.

Lynette’s father, Ian Green, loved life within an exuberant and ironic humor, that had brought a contented joy to Lucky's mother; and Lucky, in spite of her loyality and love for her father, couldn't fault her mother for falling in love with him.

Lucky had tried many times during her growth toward adulthood to find fault in her mother's choice to divorce her father. Yet, whenever she looked for fault, she couldn’t overlook the reality that her mother hadn’t chosen her father to marry in the first place. She had been an

obedient daughter complying to her, sometimes overbearing, father’s wishes for her.

Lucky had wanted to talk to her father about her decision to investigate Lynette’s death, herself. She had refrained from involving her father because of the stress it might put on him. He had just gotten out of the hospital after having a recent heart attack. He hadn’t yet learned how this would effect his future case load.

Lucky’s final decision had been to not involve him in her attempt to find out more information regarding Lynette’s death.

****** At the hotel, the next morning, Lucky had showered and dressed by the time the in-room breakfast she had ordered, arrived. Dan’s breakfast was to be brought up to their suite later. She left him a note suggesting that he fly back to New York as soon as possible and she would keep in contact by phone. Moving out into the hotel hallway, she carefully shut the door behind her, wondering if the note request might work where argument had failed.

Entering the waiting taxi, she heard a spirited, “Welcome to Cal - e fornia.” from the muscular man behind the wheel.

She smiled, “Are you related to your governor?”

He laughed outright and said, “My mother wouldn’t tell me if I were...” and with an added deep-throated chuckle turned back to look for a way to enter moving traffic.

She settled back into the seat and said, “La Brea and Melrose...”

He glanced into the rearview mirror, “Got Ya.”

They moved out into the traffic toward the offices of Ron Evans. She listened with half an ear to the taxi-driver’s willingness to provide tourist information regarding the area she was going into. She heard him explain that the area had become a hot spot for art galleries with many restaurants and commerical buildings built in the 1930’s of Spanish and Art Deco vintage designs. She wished she had time to explore the art galleries.

After the taxi-driver’s initial introduction regarding the area which held the offices of Ron Evans, P.I., she felt herself drift away from listening to his tourist spiel and wondered if the trip to the offices of Ron Evans would prove worthwhile before she met Jack Savage to share lunch at Noon.

Fifteen minutes later, she arrived at her destination. Leaving the taxi, she entered the office building and located the offices of Ron Evans. Entering the office suite, she found him standing by the desk of his receptionist with a cup of coffee in his hand, talking to her.

The receptionist turned her head to see who had entered the office and said, “You must be Lucky Donavan.”

Lucky smiled at her, nodding her head in agreement. Ron Evans was dressed casually in bluejeans and white T-shirt. Of medium build and in spite of a slightly-receding hair line, reddish brown hair turning into grey, he had managed to retain a youthful appearance through a committment to daily workouts. Smiling at Lucky, he waved his free hand toward the door of his office. He waited until she approached him to walk alongside her toward

his office. At his office door, he suggested she go in and then followed her through the doorway. Entering his office, she heard the sound of classical music cascading softly into the atmosphere. Tall bookcases, filled full of books and magazines, covered three walls. The outside wall held a large window that overlooked the street. A fresh smile spread across her face, “That’s Mozart’s, 'Cos ‫ ى‬fan tutte,' isn’t it?”

He grinned, “Yes... roughly translated, Women are like that.’”

She lifted one eye-brow and revealed a sardonic smile. He chuckled at her gentle show of scorn at historic generalities. He reached the desk and placed his coffee cup on a small heating plate. While he was looking through a desk-drawer he had opened, she glanced around the room, taking note of the titles of many of the books on the shelves.

There were books covering law, history, literature, forensics, medical research, several referencing the emergence of western civilization, the Bible, religious ideas, paganism, philosophy, poetry and music.

The thought passed through her mind that he either had a genuine wide interest in reading materials or he was passively marketing his own intelligence. Perhaps this display was expressive of both his intelligence and his skill in the marketing of himself.

Ron found the folder he had been looking for and handed it to her, saying, “This is the report I thought you should see before you meet Mr. Savage today. I didn’t think it was a good idea I bring it to the hotel.”

She reached for the folder, thinking that he was probably right in keeping their meetings absent of Dan. Each meeting they had arranged at the hotel had triggered Dan’s anger more. She sat down in the chair in front of his desk before opening the folder.

Ron Evans watched her focus intently on the material, wondering what she was like when she wasn’t under the tension of attempting something she knew nothing about. After he had met her husband, he wondered why she had married him.

Ron Evans wondered about a lot of things.

Ron Evans didn’t like Daniel Donnellan, but he was experienced in looking closely at relationships. He knew that it probably wouldn’t matter to his client that he might not like her husband. Lucky stopped reading and looked up at Ron to remark, “You said that this is new information?”

“Yes.” he replied.

She paused, then said, “When you had finished the initial investigation into Lynette’s husband, you hadn’t found anything that suggested that he had a violent past.”

He nodded, “I said we hadn’t uncovered a violent past. Investigative process consists of implementing a long series of professional undercover methods through which accurate information may be provided to a client. There are people who protect their privacy so well that sometimes facts that might have been known don’t get uncovered for years... maybe never in some cases.”

He glanced toward the window and finished his response to her remark by reminding her of something, he believed, she already understood, “While it is easier today to find out personal information, people still have a right to privacy in this country and it is reasonable that they would use it to their advantage.”

Lucky found herself experiencing an unexpected feeling of sadness within a fresh sense of alert caution. She went back to reading the information in the folder.

To Ron Evans, she had a look of alarm on her face. Her body posture, itself, now seemed as alert as a startled deer.

He made the decision to provide her an opportunity to reexamine her personal attempt at becoming involved in her step-sister’s case, “Mrs. Donnellan -- Donavan. The material that you have examined in the folder does not provide proof of a violent nature in this man. It does provide new information that we hadn’t uncovered earlier, that in the past, a woman had accused him of being an abusive man. He has never been convicted of any crime that we know of... ”

He paused and then added, “You can step back from this idea of personal involvement with this man, any time.”

Lucky stiffened in her chair, “Am I right in assuming you wanted me to see this information before I move any further into his life, because you really believe, I should leave Lynette’s case in the hands of the police?”

She stopped speaking for several seconds, then asked, “Or are you thinking this new information is good enough to re-activate the police investigators into solving my sister’s murder and would take me out of the picture entirely?”

Ron Evans withheld a clear response to her comments, “Not in my view. I doubt that it would carry much weight with the police. It happened a long time ago and he was never convicted of any violence regarding this incident. They would probably feel it isn’t material to your sister’s death.”

Glancing down at the folder, she stared at it for several seconds. Bringing her eyes back up to meet Ron Evan’s steady gaze, she asked, “If you felt that this information is not particularly impressive enough for the police to be interested in it, I’m wondering why you wanted me to see it before I begin this relationship with Jack Savage. Did you get me here today because you are covering your sueable ass and recording that I have seen this folder before I meet Jack Savage today?”

Ron Evans felt a renewed respect for her flow through him. He said quietly but firmly, “I am obligated to cover my sueable ass.”

Lifting her head, she laughed. When she brought her head forward a small strand of blonde hair fell over her left eye. “Cute!” he thought. The earlier tension he had seen in her a few moments earlier had disappeared.

“I am thinking, Mr. Evans, that you may not be confident that the contract we signed goes far enough to protect your firm in case anything unpleasant happens to me.”

Lucky got up and placed the folder carefully on his desk, “You and I both know that I could have done what I’ve started without you. You have an excellent reputation, Mr. Evans, that is why I came to you. But if you are uncomfortable with me going through with this personal effort regarding my sister’s case, we can tear up our contract regarding your consultation services.”

Mr. Ron Evans, private investigator, had learned early to make quick decisions. It had been within his experience that most of these decisions had been good ones.

Mr. Evans had made another quick decision the moment she had leaned back her head and laughed outright.

He lifted himself from his desk chair. Placing his hands on the top of the desk, palms down, he said, “No, Mrs. Donnellan, our contract holds. I could have simply continued taking your money and allowed you to believe we felt that more pertinent information could have been uncovered by us. I’m not a dishonest man. I don’t take money under false pretenses."

Wondering why he began this explanation, he paused, looked toward the bookcases, then continued, "We covered every known base and came up with nothing strong enough to present to the police investigators. When you insisted arranging another contract, I went along with it because in spite of your limitations of having no professional investigative training, I do hope that you uncover information strong enough to attract a renewed interest in the case by the police. No doubt, stranger things have happened.”

It had been a long speech. He reached out to shake her hand. Ignoring the outstretched hand, Lucky asked, “You will make every attempt to find this ex-wife of Mr. Savage, so that I may talk to her?”

Ron Evans cleared his throat and assured her that in spite of it being an early marriage and the likelihood that she had remarried long ago, including the possibility that she also may have remarried, divorced and remarried again, they were willing to keep looking for her.

For several seconds, she captured his eyes within a look of quiet observation. She shook his hand. She turned around and left his office. Mr. Evans sat down, adjusted the alert organ between his legs and remembered that he loved his wife.

Walking toward the exit of the building, Lucky was feeling torn between relief that Lynette’s husband might have a history of violence that the police had not yet uncovered and the unexpected intensity of an emotion that had erupted within herself when she had realized that she didn’t want to believe it.

“I’ve got to maintain perspective,” she repeated over to herself when the information in the folder made a bid for her attention once again. The accusations of abusive behavior had made by Jack’s ex-wife at the time of their divorce.

Lucky couldn’t remember her father talking about Lynette mentioning an earlier marriage for Jack Savage. Apparently, if the information turned out to be correct, there had been at least one failed marriage and combative divorce, long before Jack had met Lyn. Not exactly unusual.

After hailing a taxi and settling back into her seat, she went over the information contained in the folder. Jack had married early. The paperwork noted that he had been nineteen years old and enrolled in college at the time. Two years later he was divorced. No report of any child having been born to the couple.

It was a bare-bones report with nothing significant about the girl he had married, in it. She realized that if there weren’t another undiscovered marriage after this girl, he must have waited nineteen years before marrying again. This time it was to her step-sister. Their marriage lasted four years.

She leaned her head against the back of the seat. Lucky glanced out of the taxi window without focused awareness of what was passing in front of her eyes, deep in thought, wondering about the short duration of either marriage.

She pictured Jack in her mind. She couldn't accept the idea that there hadn't been other women in his life during those nineteen years between his first marriage and Lyn.

Asking herself if he might be a man not easily satisfied, she concluded, arguing with herself, "Sure, that's possible, but did it automatically follow that Jack Savage has a hidden dark side?"

Lucky had known her step-sister well during her early childhood, teen-age years, and through her young adult period. She wouldn’t have been surprised that Lynette would have been drawn to a man who was as emotionally misdirected as she was, herself.

Lynette had grown into a woman who did not enjoy a lasting peace. If excitement disappeared from her life, Lynette would see to it that all hell would break loose. Most of her life, lynette had swung between exhibiting a sweet and caring personality to presenting an impatient, demanding, often arrogant, grandstanding display of self-serving behavior.

Lynette had always reminded Lucky of the child in the poem, she remembered as, “When she was good, she was very, very good and when she was bad, she was horrid.”

Lucky had accepted early in Lynette’s teen-age years, that Lyn had become, in her own words, an adrenaline junkie. Her “extreme sport” had been, for the most part, wrecking havoc in her life and those she knew.

When Lynette had passed the teen-age years, entering early adulthood, it hadn’t surprised her that her step-sister had remained unmarried and that none of her many relationships had lasted for any length of time.

It had surprised her when her father sent the message that Lyn was finally taking the “big” step. Later, when the wedding date drew closer, her father had informed her that he liked Lynette’s choice for a husband and that, Ian Green, Lyn’s father had taken to him also.

It had been the one statement from her father that had almost brought her back to the States for the wedding. If Lynette would have invited her, she and Dan might have been at the wedding. It hadn’t happened.

Back at the hotel, Lucky entered the suite, expecting to be confronted by an angry Dan. Instead, she found the note he had written, folded under the hotel telephone with a hastily written reply from Dan. It was short and not sweet, “You win again! I’m outta here!” She could feel the anger in it.

Taking her cell-phone out of her purse, she called him. He didn’t pick-up. She left a message, “Thank you, Dan. I’ll call you later.” Dropping the cell-phone back into a corner of her purse, she glanced at the clock. She had thirty minutes before meeting Jack Savage for lunch.

Moving toward the bathroom, she thought, “Why does Dan have to see most contesting situations between us as either a win or a lose?”

After freshening up, changing to bluejeans, a white shirt, and replacing her earrings to small, dangling, silver-plated ringlets, she slipped into a pair of soft white leather-like moccasins.

Picking-up her cell-phone, she placed it into the side pocket of her jeans. At 11:45A.M., she entered the hotel hallway and rode the elevator down to the lobby. The two men in the elevator took quick note of her. She was concentrating on how to get at anything Jack may have kept of Lynette’s. She didn’t notice their obvious appreciation of her good-looks between themselves.

Jack Savage was waiting for her. They spotted each other at the same time. When their eyes met, Jack felt an instant refreshed sense of that earlier question on the beach; Who is this attractive Lady? He had wanted to ask her about their unusual beach meeting from the moment he first saw her. Watching her walk toward him, he made the decision that finding out what had been behind her behavior on the beach could wait. Moving toward him, she drew into some deeper part of her womanhood, the magnetic picture of his tall masculine form, his virility as vibrant as a glorious sunrise on a mountain peak, his quiet strength of presence seemed to flow out of him as consistently and soothingly as a cascading waterfall.

The bluejeans, sneakers and blue shirt with its opened collar, the shirt sleeves rolled half-way up his arms caused her heart to pick-up its beat. His brown hair fell below the collar of his shirt revealing a slight curl at the ends.

A sensual picture.

She found herself fighting the urge to touch him, the closer she came to where he was standing. The thought crossed her mind that Dan may have had some correct instinct about this man and herself that she had refused to consider.

Lucky shook off this idea to instantly drive home within herself that she was recognizing the male appeal of Jack Savage, and that was all there was to her reaction to him.

When she reached him, he smiled at her and said, “How about lunch?” She looked up at him to say lightly, “I’m ready.”

Entering the restaurant, he asked for a table that overlooked the ocean. At the table, Jack pulled back a chair for her. He pulled out the chair next to her instead of accepting the restaurants’s place-setting across from her.

Reaching for a Menu, he opened it with a flip of his finger, handing it to her, then reached for the second Menu, placing it open in front of himself.

Glancing toward her, he asked her if she knew what she wanted. Lucky was struck by the irony of the question. She suddenly wanted to laugh and say that no, she wasn’t really sure what she wanted.

Telling herself to stay on task, she kept her eyes on the Menu and chose a chicken sandwich with a bowl of vegatable soup. Jack Savage chose the same meal, choosing iced tea, instead of her choice of coffee. While they were waiting for the order to be brought to their table, Jack’s eyes met her own and he said, “I would like to know all about you.”

Experiencing the seductive allure of the statement, she told herself that she couldn’t afford to fall prey to the lure of a word embrace. She felt a shiver of caution run through her and once again realized how inexperienced she was in presenting a fabricated account of her life.

She responded with a soft laugh, “Where would you like me to begin?”

He smiled and said, “Let’s start with where were you born...” She said, “That’s easy enough. I was born in Vermont. Later my family moved to New York.”

Lucky wanted to shift the conversation toward Jack and away from herself. She asked, “Now you know where I was born. Tell me where you began your life.”

Looking at her thoughtfully, he said, “I’m a son of the midwest. Born in Chicago, pre-teens were spent near Cleveland. Raised on a farm, I was drawn early to the city. Thinking about college, I decided to pursue a couple of degrees. This choice ultimately produced a Masters in Economics and a Masters in Business administration.”

“Did the education take you where you wanted to go?” she quickly asked.

"Pretty much. I ended-up working for a brokerage firm in New York. A job that is known in the business as a high-profile account manager position. It was fast-paced and finanically rewarding. Long hours, yet, excellent opportunties toward a comfortable retirement.”

He paused, looking at her carefully before continuing, “Not always a job that is necessarily supportive of a happy family life, however.”

Lucky leaped into the opening, “You have been married?”

A sparkle erupted in his eyes. He asked, “What makes you think I’m single now?”

Lucky asked, “Are you?”

Jack smiled , “Yes.”

Before she could think of another question to continue to keep the focus of the conversation on himself, the waitress brought their order placing it in front of them.

They quietly ate their meal for the first few minutes, thinking their own thoughts. Lucky felt a contentment in the comfortable silence she hadn’t felt for a long time. A few minutes later, Jack picked-up his iced tea and after taking a long drink of it, said quietly to Lucky, “She died.”

Startled, she hoped her face didn’t show the surprise that she was feeling. He had abruptly brought her step-sister’s death into open view. Lucky turned to look at him directly and said with a gentle tone, “I’m sorry. You are speaking about your wife, aren’t you?”

He nodded, “The police believe she may have committed suicide” Lucky’s throat felt thick, “When did...?” She began, then hesitated and went in another direction, “Did you say, ‘may have...?’”

He recognized where she was going and replied quickly, “It’s been over two years now since it happened. In spite of what the police accepted as the reason for her death at the time, the case isn’t officially closed and I am glad that it isn’t.... Lyn would have never killed herself.”

Lucky felt as though someone had thrown a glass of ice water into her face. Would a man who had murdered his wife, deny she died of her own hand? Everything that had seemed logical within the possible scenario she had built-up in her mind about her step-sister’s death for two years, seemed to evaporate into thin air.

She felt as though she had been climbing a solid staircase for months, and now, attempting to put her foot out toward the next step, she had found only empty space. She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

She did neither.

Lucky realized that Jack had continued speaking. She forced herself to once again concentrate and heard him finish his remarks with, “I’m sorry, I don’t know why I got started on Lyn’s death. I suppose what happened is still raw. We had gotten a divorce, yet, I never wanted any injury to come to her.”

She said, “I’m sorry, Jack, perhaps we moved into the personal too quickly.”

The ocean drew her eyes for several seconds. Bringing her eyes back to meet his, she said, “There might be some comfort in talking to a stranger about what happened. If you want to tell me about it, please feel free to do that.”

She glanced down at her plate and finished her thought, “We have the rest of the day, don’t we?”

He turned slightly away from her steady gaze. When he didn’t reply to her question, she wondered if his mind had left the conversation. She decided to remain on the subject of Lynette’s death, “When suicide, accident or murder happen to people we have known and loved, it is always a traumatic event that doesn’t go away.”

Jack turned back toward her. He did not acknowledge that he had heard what she had just said. He smiled a slow lopped-sided smile, “Yes, we have the rest of the day, if you want it.... I want it.”

She nodded yes.

He suggested, “Let’s get out of here?”

Jack wanted to be moving. He felt the tension increase in him. He didn’t feel comfortable continuing the conversation regarding Lyn. Walking toward the restaurant exit, Jack realized that Lynette’s death still had a grip on him.

He argued with himself that he didn’t find anything appealing about his vacation time focusing on the painful past. Glancing toward Lucky, he reminded himself that what happened is over.

For the first time, in a long time, he was cautiously enjoying what was taking place between himself and “Lady Luck.” Chapter 3 [Use Right & Left Arrow Key To Center Page - then Down Arrow] Jack opened the passenger door of the Black Lexus, LS 460. Lucky got into the car. Before closing the door, he leaned over and asked her if she would enjoy visiting Santa Monica beach. She felt an unusual flash of lightheartedness spread through her.

She grinned up at him, “Yes.”

Snuggling back into her seat, she glanced at Jack. He lowered himself into the driver’s seat. Looking over the interior, she said, “Nice!”

Pleased, he smiled and nodded his head in agreement, “Zero to sixty miles per hour in a little over five seconds.”

She responded playfully, “If we ever have to leave someone far behind us that will come in handy.”

He chuckled softly. His light laugh was pleasing. She felt the sense of that pleasure flow through her as though he had reached over and briefly touched her

Her remark brought back the memory of her dash on the beach and in what he remembered as an apparent instant decision, her return to where he lay on the beach towel. He wondered if now would be a good time to ask her about it.

Deciding to wait for the right moment for that conversation to take place, Jack manuvered the car into traffic and headed for the freeway entrance toward Santa Monica; letting the idea go.

After entering the freeway, he glanced toward her, “Have you been married?”

She sat quietly for a moment. Thankful that he had assumed that she was not married at the present time. She replied, “Yes.”

Instead of presenting a perspective on her married state within a past scenaro, she made the decision to move directly into what she had been doing the last seven years. It was an attempt to avoid talking too directly about marriage, itself. She hoped he hadn’t heard much about her during his marriage to Lynette.

Taking a chance that Lynette had been too absorbed with her new marriage to provide an account of their estrangement, Lucky made the decision to stick as close to the truth as possible.

“I enjoy painting. I love the impressionist style of art. An amateur, sad to say. I have lived in Paris for the last seven years. I've wanted to spend a decade in Paris for a long time. Not quite a decade, but it finally happened.”

She glanced at him quickly before continuing. She noticed he had smiled at her last comment. “Recently, I decided to come back to the States. I am now back in New York. I have some friends in California and I decided to come out here to see them. It is an extended vacation.”

She paused and then concluded, “I’m glad I came back to the States.”

“How long is your vacation?”

“Three months.”

Jack felt a sense of expectation rise up to meet his increasing interest in her. He changed the direction of their conversation by asking, “How did you like living in Paris?”

Lucky felt a sense of relief flow through her. He had not exposed any obvious reaction to where she had lived as being something her stepsister might have talked about regarding a member of her family.

“It was wonderful! Lots of interesting areas to explore, people to meet, events to attend. Most of the people we met in Paris would accept us within a beginning stand-offish manner that could be broken down in time to a more friendly acceptance.”

Jack asked, “We?”

Her heart skipped a beat. She hesitated then replied, “My son came with me and I met several Americans in Paris. We became friends.”

“Yet, you missed the States.”

“Yes.”

She saw an expression cross his face that implied something had caused him to move deeper in thought. She wondered what she had said that might have triggered the response. Perhaps he doubted rightfully, that it had not been merely friends or her son, who had explored Paris with her.

Lucky felt a brooding sense of emotional wariness flow over her. Once again, she experienced the reality that spinning a tale that must avoid so many areas of her life, brought a hyper-vigilant stress to the situation.

She attempted a conversational move away from herself by asking, “You said you were on vacation. Do you still live in New York?”

He glanced at her, “I retired early and moved to Wyoming. Picked-up a small ranch about an hour's drive from Laramie. I do consulting through the net to stay in touch with the business.”

Lucky smiled, “Quite a change from New York.”

Steering the LS460 into the off-ramp, he nodded, “Yeah, it is.”

A swift picture of Jack in ranch-clothes stepping into the saddle entered Lucky’s mind. She smiled inwardly, thinking that he would look good in anything or nothing. Her eyes followed the fleeting signs of rippling muscles under his shirt.

Jack Savage was now focusing on weaving his way into off-freeway traffic toward the Santa Monica beach. He drove with calm concentration. In spite of a small truck nearly side-swiping them, his reactions were fluid and spontaneous within an apparent easy and instant response. No outburst of irritation or even a frown appeared on his face.

Watching him drive, Lucky thought, “He is too good to be true.”

Images of sudden and angry outbursts from Dan during many driving situations popped-up in her memory as though she were clicking herself to and from different web sites stored in her brain. It flashed through her mind that no surname seemed less connected to what appeared to be real about Jack Savage, than his own name.

When he turned the car into the Santa Monica Pier Deck looking for a parking space, she glanced around the pier environment. The sky was clear with the sun overhead sparkling off the water.

They entered an environment where laughter and the mixed sounds of human activity of men, women and teen-agers, younger children running away from their parents and back to them, all walking and talking together, choosing their entertainment, filled the air around them.

The relaxed atmosphere worked on Lucky to activate a relieving escape from reality perhaps only to be found within the moments of their chosen activity here.

Finding an open space, he turned the car into it. Taking the key out of the ignition, he glanced toward her. When she reached for the doorhandle, he said, “I’ll get it.”

He swiftly clicked the seat-belt free and was out of the door in what seemed one fluid move. She smiled up at him as he opened her door. “I thought you were on vacation. How long do you keep up this gallantry?” she asked.

He smiled, “I do this for free the first month of getting to know a woman.”

“And after that...?”

“You’ll see,” he grinned. Lucky felt a weakness flow through her as the implications of his words caught her off-guard. Something was taking place between them that couldn’t be explained by the romance of the dance.

They walked in the direction of the ferris-wheel. He asked her if she would like something to drink. She smiled, “Maybe after the ride?” He nodded.

The ferris-wheel security bar snapped into place. Jack placed his right arm across the back of their seat. His hand touched her shoulder lightly as though establishing a presence of immediate response, if needed, for her. She felt an almost child-like sense of safety. It was an emotion she had forgotten could exist within her personal experience.

The ferris-wheel cars began their ascent which allowed an increasingly opened-up view of the water. When they hit the peak of the ride, Lucky looked out over the panoramic view of the ocean. Turning her face toward his, she saw that Jack was gazing out to sea.

“Isn’t it beautiful?” she said.

“Yes, it is,” Jack replied. “It has always seemed to me to be a vast work of ‘art’ in motion.” He turned toward her, looking directly into her eyes and smiled.

Returning his gaze far out to sea, he spoke quietly, “This glorious ocean of water rushing forward to embrace the shore, then receding into the horizon within an almost live, pulsating rhythm, is irresistible. It draws me back to it, again and again.”

His voice carried a tone of supreme compliment to the ocean panorama before them. His eyes seemed to draw her inside his reverie, as seen by him, as irresistible as the ocean view.

She felt as though he had reached out and embraced her. She experienced a slow, emerging fear uncoil itself from some unknown space deep within her. Lucky had known this man for only a few hours and she felt at this moment, gripped by a terrible, unyielding desire for self-imprisonment to any place where he might choose to be.

Her mind flashed back to her step-sister. She brought into view, within a new clarity, the early suspicion that it had been Lynette, who

had destroyed her marriage to Jack. To Lynette, self-imprisonment was a place only naive fools dwelled within.

Lucky felt regret when their ferris-wheel car jolted to a stop. Lifting the security bar, he stepped out onto the platform. Turning toward her, he gave her his hand. She put her hand in his and stepped out onto the platform next to him.

Walking back toward the pier deck, he playfully challenged her to a few competitive games in the Playland Arcade. She laughed and accepted the challenge.

Stopping to pick-up a couple of soft-drinks, they walked into the arcade. Playing the games, they found themselves laughing and yelping whenever they fumbled their plays or were the victorious winner. Jack delighted in her easy laughter. He enjoyed watching her focused concentration to best him.

He felt a rush of gratefulness that she had made the decision on the beach to run back to where he lay. When in her excitement, she bumped into him, he fought the desire to pull her to him and kiss her.

Leaving the arcade, they walked out onto the pier and sat down on one of the wooden benches fastened to the rails of the pier. Enjoying the sound of surf and the feel of the breeze playfully pulling at their hair and clothes, Jack bent slightly over to place his elbows on his knees. He turned his head upward to look into her face and asked, “What is your son like?”

“He is fourteen. His dream is becoming a lawyer. He is an excellent student. I’m proud of him.”

“Nice.” Jack responded. “I’ve wanted children. It didn’t happen. I’ve missed that.”

Lucky's mind turned back to her step-sister. She remembered that Lynette had not wanted children. She explored the implications to what Jack had said. Lucky had never known Lyn to have hidden her lack of desire for children from anyone. How could this man have so misread Lynette, she wondered? Or had he? Surely, if his comment reflected his genuine desire for children wouldn’t he have known that Lynette had been the wrong woman for him from the start of their relationship?

Lucky felt as though she had been walking through a maze of confusing hallways leading only to a blank dead-end. What could she trust and what couldn’t she trust about this man? Could her step-sister have possibly hidden her lack of interest in children from Jack?

Lucky couldn’t imagine it happening. If it were true, what would have been behind Lyn’s choice to allow this man to believe she did want children, when she had never allowed any other man to believe it?

Jack reached for her hand, “Let’s walk to the end of the pier.” Lucky got up from the bench keeping her hand in his. They strolled toward the pier’s end.

She liked the feel of his hand around her own. She wanted his fingers to open momentarily so that she could move her fingers through his and feel his fingers enclose her hand once again. She was afraid to open her hand. He might think she wanted him to release it.

Wondering how far she would allow this relationship to go, she felt a ribbon of guilt wind it’s way into her determination to involve herself in her step-sister’s case by moving into Jack’s life. Perhaps getting to know Jack Savage wouldn’t provide any direction at all regarding Lyn’s death. It might turn out to be that the only thing she was doing was experiencing the man who had married her step-sister.

Wondering if she were on the wrong track, Lucky decided to plunge back into his marriage to her step-sister. “You weren’t married long enough to have a child with your wife before you decided on divorce?”

“We were married four years. We could have had a child, but after we were married, I found out that she had no real interest in children for herself.”

“...after we were married....” The words explained that her stepsister had kept her lack of interest in having a child from him before they married, but why, Lucky asked herself. She said, “I’m sorry.” He squeezed her hand gently.

They walked the rest of the way toward the pier’s end in silence. The wind became stronger the closer they got to the end of the pier. Walking around the corner of the Mariasol Cocina restaurant they moved under its awnings for more shelter. They watched the waves increasing in strength. The ocean spray flipped-up around them with greater energy.

Staying a while longer, enjoying the moment, he looked down at her. Since their encounter on the beach, Lucky had entered his life within a mystery that had now become a lure to him. Their encounter had intrigued him. Her beauty attracted him. Her laughter delighted him. Their dance had mesmerized him. Her sensuality excited him.

He realized, watching her, that he wanted the answer to her unusual behavior that had begun on the beach. After hours with her, today, he felt a stronger committment within himself that he was not going to walk away from this woman, if it could be helped, without solving the mystery that was his “Lady Luck.”

Lucky moved closer to him. He asked her if she would like to go back. She nodded, smiling. They began slowly to walk back toward the pier’s entrance.

Approaching the Playland Arcade, she felt the vibration of her cell phone in her jeans pocket. She thought she had turned the phone off. Not wanting to answer it in front of Jack, she said, “I would like to find a public rest room.”

Jack replied that there was one in the aquarium and turned them toward the building that held the carousel. The aquarium had been built underneath the carousel building. Entering the aquarium lobby, she spotted the women’s rest room and entered. She walked into the nearest open stall. Pulling her cell-phone out of her pocket, she saw that the call was from Dan.

Listening to the message, she heard Dan say, “Hi Baby, I got your call. Sorry I didn’t pick-up. I was still burning from being forced out of your ‘adventure.’ Call me when you ‘get’ a minute.” His sarcasm was heavy. Dan was still using his classic battle voice. A small sigh escaped her lips. She turned off the phone and put it back into her jeans pocket. Leaving the toilet stall, she washed her hands, combed her hair, and reapplied a light gloss to her lips.

Jack had visited the men’s rest room. When she saw him waiting for her, she noticed that he had taken the time to comb his hair. He caught her looking at him and pointed toward a sign that invited people to Rusty’s Surf Ranch where live music and dancing were offered nightly. He suggested they eat dinner there and do some dancing before they call it an evening.

She agreed, “I would like that. How about taking a break and go back to the hotel for a while. We can meet again in the hotel lobby for the dinner date.”

He said, “Good idea.”

Lucky added, “I’ll call your suite when I’m coming down.” He nodded in acceptance.

Walking back to the Lexus, she considered the three-hour difference in time between New York and California. Going back to the hotel would mean that she could call Dan within a reasonable New York time. If Jack and she stayed out late again, she would have to call Dan the next morning and he would see it as another slight.

Lucky decided not to take a risk of activating a response in him that would make things more difficult for her.

Once back in the hotel suite, Lucky slipped off her shoes, poured a small glass of milk and sat down on the upholstered chair before making the call to Dan. She heard Dan’s “hello” within seconds of dialing his cell phone.

“How are things at the restaurant?” she asked.

Dan laughed, “I called Glenn. Didn’t have to go in. I hire good managers, remember? Glenn is the best.” She smiled, relieved that that he sounded in a good mood. Dan quickly referred to the situation in California, “So, what gives? Learn anything important?”

“It will take some time. I am limited by the fact I am playing a part. It is even more stressful than I thought it might be. I have to be careful what I reveal and I can’t make what should be an ordinary conversation sound like a ‘grilling’ session about his marriage to Lyn.”

Dan squashed a desire to say, "I-told-you-so." His voice became cautious, “What did you learn from the appointment with Ron Evans?”

Lucky felt instantly alert, wondering how long it would be before Dan’s voice held an unpleasant tension.

“Ron received a delayed report about an earlier marriage Jack had nineteen years before he married Lyn. No children, but the divorce appeared to be combative. She accused him of being abusive.”

“What does that mean, exactly? Were there charges against him?” Dan’s voice remained controlled, but the tone of his voice cooled.

“The report only mentioned that he was never charged.” she replied.

His voice now held an edge, “Look, Baby, I know you have heard this all too much before, but this choice of going after Jack is too risky for you. Doesn’t the fact that he was accused of being abusive, bother you at all?”

“It would bother me more if he had been charged with abuse by the police. He wasn’t, apparently.”

Abruptly, Dan raised his voice, “For God’s sake, he is a womanizer! You think he may have murdered Lyn. You know almost nothing about him.” His finish was filled with exasperation, “You don’t know what the hell you’re doing!”

The implications of his words struck her with as much force as if it had been a blow from his hand, “How do you know he is a womanizer? You even questioned the idea that he murdered Lyn. You have always believed she killed herself -- that my ideas were chasing wind. Now, all of a sudden, you are claiming you know something about him.”

Dan’s voice dropped low in reluctant surrender, “Lyn told me.”

Lucky felt as though she had stepped outside the real world, “You talked to Lyn about her husband? Why would you keep this from me

when you knew how upset I was that the police thought she had killed herself. You knew I believed that she had been murdered... perhaps by her ex-husband.”

Dan’s mind whirled with irritation at himself for his display of anger that had initiated the exposure of his deceit, “I thought it would merely give you another reason to suspect him. I didn’t want you to get involved, remember?”

Lucky felt herself internally contract with revulsion. “Don’t you ever get tired of attempting to manipulate things?”

Her mind rushed to sort out the implications of the information he had kept from her and why. Several seconds of silence hung between them. Speaking slowly, she said, “Glenn has been with the Restaurant for ten years, yet for seven of those years, you have been coming back to New York to provide management support? When did he become this perfect manager?”

He held his breath, she was too much like her father. He knew what was coming next. She had paused. He pressed the phone to his chest and looked up and sighed. Hearing her voice speaking again he brought the phone back to his ear.

“During our seven years in Paris, you divided your time between there and New York. You told me that you were going back to New York periodically to check-out the restaurant and to run interference when things piled-up for Glenn. Are you now telling me now that you were in contact with Lyn all during the time that she and I were estranged? Why didn't you tell me at the time?”

He cursed himself for allowing this to happen, “I didn’t see her every time I got back. Glenn is good, but you know there are times, he needs me around. I didn’t tell you when I saw her because she asked me not to tell you. You two weren’t speaking, remember?”

Lucky felt a sense of betrayal and anger rush through her, “It would have been nice if you would have ‘remembered’ which one of us you were married to. What else have you kept from me? Were you having an affair with Lyn?”

Dan felt panic flare-up inside him, “No!”

Lucky didn’t believe him. She placed his response somewhere she could look at it later, “What else did Lyn tell you about Jack? I would like to know all of it.”

Dan quickly examined what was taking place between them and made the decision to give it to her, “You know Lyn. When she talked about other people she usually went for the throat. They weren’t getting along. She mentioned that it shouldn’t have surprised her. She claimed he was a womanizer. The more she talked the more would come out about him.”

“Such as...?” Lucky asked.

“You’re questioning this, aren’t you? Why are you questioning this? You must have considered that he probably didn’t remain without a woman for that long between marriages. Nineteen years is a long time. Didn’t that imply to you that he must have had other relationships during that time?”

Lucky understood the implication to the words, “Nineteen years is a long time.” She held the thought, “She told him that too?” Aloud, she interjected, “Does that automatically prove that he was a womanizer?”

Dan snapped back, “Come off it, Lucky! Some of the relationships were with married women and if none of his relationships with single women worked toward a marriage until nineteen years later, what does that logically tell you?”

“It doesn’t prove that he is a womanizer. You are taking Lyn at her word and you should have known that was risky to do. I’m not saying that all of her statements to you were probably lies, but certainly they are suspect. You don't know what his single years mean.”

She knew Dan well enough to know he was smiling his incredulity behind his cell-phone.

“Interesting, you now want to defend him.” he quipped, his voice ice.

“You aren’t suggesting, are you, that it is unreasonable to look at someone’s history within some semblence of fairness?”

Dan snorted, “Before you met him, you were thinking he might have murdered Lynette. You appear to have made the decision he isn’t capable of doing that. So, why aren’t you here?”

Before she could reply, Dan decided to shelve the mocking tone, “According to Lyn, he had many women before he met her, and after.”

Lucky ignored the renewed challenge regarding her reasons for staying in California, “Did Lyn actually say he was cheating on her?”

“Not in so many words. That's what I picked-up from her conversation.”

Dan was through talking. Kicking himself for the direction their conversation had taken, he wanted to get off the phone. “I’ve got to go. I’ll talk to you later. I’m sorry, Baby. I messed up. I love you.”

Frowning, he punched out of the call and flipped the cell-phone shut. Lucky shut off her cell-phone with his words, “I love you,” moving around in her brain looking for a solid place to find footing. She couldn’t find it.

During their marriage she had never before consciously doubted that Dan loved her. In spite of recognizing that they were very different people from very different backgrounds, she had believed that it had been the love between them that held them together. Dan had pursued her with diligent determination until he won her over to his view their marriage could work.

Their life together hadn’t always held such tension. During the early years of their marriage there had been many pleasurable days of adventure, fun and shared sensuality. She had believed that their lifestyle choices had been worked out within a genuine desire to meet the requirements of his career choice and her desire to live in Paris for a decade. Lucky had provided the financial backing through her grandfather’s trust to get the restaurant established. He had agreed, once that had been accomplished, he would live in Paris for seven years.

Agitated, she got up and began pacing the floor. She looked around the room. Such little space for a pacer. She thought briefly of circling the table. She gave it up and sat back down in the chair. Making an effort to concentrate, her brain felt overloaded and she tried to relax.

Moments later, she attempted to move all else out of her focus but their marriage history. She examined once again the problem areas they had been willing to work on together. She went over in her memory the many counseling sessions they had both agreed to attend.

In spite of their many problems, she had continued to believe throughout their difficult marriage that Dan had remained with her because he loved her. She had loved him for his unwillingness to give up on them. It had been this acceptance that love remained between them that had brought to her mind a powerful sense of guilt when she had responded so strongly to Jack Savage.

This conversation had profoundly changed that perception. She could no longer believe that her husband loved her. He had wiped out years of automatic trust. She could see now, it had been blind trust on her part. “What is wrong with me to have not seen more,” she asked herself.

Lucky couldn't stop thinking about their conversation. There emerged a small comfort in recognizing this newly revealed truth. It suggested to her that this fresh sense of what is real, against what had probably never been real, may explain her unexpected reaction to Jack Savage within a greater depth. It seemed to present a more reasonable perspective beyond the initial attraction she felt for Jack Savage that day on the beach.

During their shared movement through today, she had experienced the same affinity between them, she had felt on the dance floor. She wondered if what had been taking place between them could be explained by an unrealized reality that she had been living within an emotional void for years and she had finally met a man who was able to fill that lonely and empty space.

Lucky got up from the chair. She stretched herself out on the bed. She felt stranded on an island of illusions. She wandered around within a new concept. Could a wounding emptiness that she hadn’t been willing to admit existed, until now, have been the thing that had made her so vulnerable to Jack Savage?

Picking up the clock, she set the alarm for thirty minutes in case she fell asleep. Emotionally drained, she didn’t doubt that Dan and Lynette had an affair. “I wonder when the affair with her started,” she questioned of the past. Her eyelids closed and she drifted off to a fretful sleep.

The clock’s alarm was tinkling its warning that thirty minutes had gone by. She woke with a start. The first thing that presented itself in her mind was the suspicion Dan had activiated during his conversation

with her, that he had been seeing her step-sister, when he had flown back to New York.

“We were in Paris for seven years. How long was it before you contacted Lyn or she contacted you, Dan?” she asked aloud. She doubted that their affair had started before her step-sister had married Jack.

New questions emerged in her brain. Had Dan initiated the affair some time after her step-sister’s marriage? Had Lyn initiated it? Could he have impacted Lynette’s new marriage so seriously that it had caused her step-sister to walk away from her husband? Lucky knew that Dan could be charming and fun when he was in the mood. She had seen the draw Dan had on women many times. She wanted to know how serious the affair had become.

Walking to the window, she gazed out of it with no clear visual awareness of what the scene held. She hadn’t thought Lynette angry enough at her to sleep with her husband. How could she have been willing to do that to her? It was something Lucky would have never contemplated doing to her step-sister.

Turning away from the window, her mind remained on the conversation she had with Dan. Lucky's estrangement with her stepsister had continued in spite of Lucky’s early effort to end it. She wondered if the affair explained why Lynette hadn’t been interested in repairing their breach. If so, it may imply their affair had begun not long after Lynnett’s marriage to Jack Savage.

Lucky made a turn in her examination and explored a new perspective which included the possibility that her step-sister’s marriage to Jack may have been mere camouflage to provide a screen protecting Lynette's affair with Dan. If that were possible then their affair may have begun before Lynnett’s marriage to Jack Savage.

Lucky was gripped by the implications within this scenario. If Dan had wanted Lyn, why hadn’t he simply asked for a divorce, and married

her step-sister at some point after the divorce from Jack? Lucky kept trying to put the puzzle together. It crossed her mind that Lyn may have wanted Dan on a permanent basis but he hadn’t wanted her on a permanent basis. If that were the right “take” on their affair, could the rebuff by Dan have caused her step-sister to threaten to tell Lucky about their relationship.

She turned away from the window with a chill flowing through her. She spoke into the room, “Could Dan have killed Lyn?”

Looking toward the clock, she could see that she had to make a quick psychological adjustment before meeting Jack Savage. She wanted to calm her racing mind so that she would appear unchanged and rested.

The more she tried to leave this new information, the more she held on to the need to explore her past. The questions kept rushing at her to be examined. Why would Dan kill Lyn merely to keep their affair a secret from her? Dan had never expressed any strong view against divorce itself, so why would he feel so threatened by divorce from her? Marriage to Lyn would have placed him within the same financial position that he had been in married to Lucky. He would have had possible access to the trust-fund monies that were marked for Lynette’s use, if she would have gone along with any of his financial interests.

Lucky moved now within the conviction that she could not have been loved by Dan within any foundational sense of that essential intimacy that real love requires or he wouldn’t have had an affair with her stepsister. Lucky wondered how long Lynette had been attracted to Dan.

Wandering around in the past, she examined the possibility that the estrangement between them may have taken place because Dan and she had married.

Lucky now considered that it was possible Lynette had wanted Dan for herself before she and Dan had married. In Lucky’s concluding view, Dan could never rationalize away this affair with her step-sister.

She had never believed women or men who claimed to have forgiven their spouse for infidelities. Lucky found the idea that adulterous affairs had made marriages stronger, bizarre and beyond comprehension. She had always been convinced that there were other reasons the claims were made.

Walking slowly around the room, Lucky felt addicted to the past. She couldn't stop thinking about it. She remembered being tempted to indulge in several sexual escapades during their marriage. Exploring the art world in Paris had taken her away from Dan for hours at a time. His interest in art hadn’t been as important to him as it had been to her. She had often wondered if he had ever had any interest in art.

Their marriage had been a roller coaster, not a glider. She had encountered handsome and intelligent men who had found her enchanting. She had felt the pull of the sexual power in the moment. She had always backed-off from beginning an affair because of a simple concept that she had never been able to displace.

To Lucky, marriage had no real meaning without faithfulness. She had wanted her marriage to mean something real. She shook her head as though she might be able to shake the ideas rolling around in her brain into some consistent framework.

Walking into the bathroom, she brushed her teeth, ran a comb through her hair, washed her hands and patted moisture creme lightly onto her face and hands.

Walking out of the bathroom, Lucky breathed-in deeply. She struggled with the idea that Dan would have killed Lynette out of fear that she would expose their affair. What seemed now as a resolution that Dan couldn’t have murdered her step-sister, had a calming effect on Lucky. She had learned early in their marriage that Dan had struggled with anger issues for most of his life.

The longer Lucky looked back at her step-sister’s death the more she accepted the idea that premeditated murder was a long way from the low tolerance for enduring frustration that Dan exhibited by his flare-ups of anger. She was convinced that if Lyn’s death were murder, it had to have been carefully planned. “And that is not the way Dan would kill someone,” she said aloud.

Glancing at the clock, she saw that it was 6:14P.M. She rang Jack and asked for fifteen minutes more before she meet him in the lobby. He replied, “Great... I’ll be there.”

She changed into a light blue cotton skirt with a slight flare near the bottom hem, a white blouse and a short matching jacket. She put on a set of silver earrings with sparkle. Looking at her choice of shoes, she decided to wear a pair of light blue leather shoes with two inch heels. “Blue for a ‘blue’ Lady,” she thought.

Turning to pick-up her purse, she walked out the door.

Jack Savage replaced the hotel telephone receiver. He stepped away from the bed with a question going over in his mind, “Why didn’t she want him to pick her up at her hotel suite door?” He walked into the bathroom, brushed his teeth, washed his hands and combed his hair.

Sitting down on a chair, he waited for the minutes to roll by. “It may be a way to control our separation ‘moment’ at the end of the evening,” he suggested to himself aloud. He went along the trail of this possibility for several seconds. Telling himself that it may be her way of maintaining a vacation relationship without losing control of it.

Aware that vacations aren’t usually the best way to meet someone who might stay in your life, he decided that her choice where they met and departed had been reasonably cautious. “She is an intelligent and careful woman,” he mused aloud.

Getting up from the chair to get a drink of water, he concluded, “She doesn’t really know much about me.” Chapter 4 [Use Right & Left Arrow Key To Center Page - then Down Arrow] He saw her enter the lobby before she noticed him.

He was transfixed. She seemed to glide toward him on a cloud of female sensuality. Her blue eyes seemed a deeper blue, than he remembered them, only a couple of hours ago.

The soft smile lines on the sides of her face reminded him, she loved to laugh. An instant desire to feel them under his lips while remembering that laughter had created them, shot through him.

The blue heels presented her body within a fresh artistic form of unfolding feminine gracefulness that shook him to the depths of his manhood. He longed to draw her into himself as he drew life inward with every breath. His body rushed to react to the longing that swept through him. He felt caught in a net he could not escape.

Lucky glanced around the portion of the lobby she could see during her approach to its entrance. Drawing closer to its interior, her eyes quickly scanned the lobby area and within a few seconds of greater focus, she spotted him.

He stood near a wall on the south side of the large room, watching her walk toward him. His eyes gave off an exciting masculine vitality. His body presented an image of a man held in the grip of a focused interest. She felt her heart pick-up its beat. A fresh perception of this man caught her in its embrace and she wanted to draw this image of him into her permanent memory.

She saw him, tall and ruggedly handsome, freshly shaven with a welcoming smile directed toward her. He had changed to a white shirt, brown cotton slacks and dark brown leather shoes. She felt the sensual draw of his toned thighs that the brown pants couldn’t hide.

Lucky enjoyed the shiver sliding down into her body that looking at him brought her. He was standing. Leaning slightly toward one side of his body, his thumbs were hooked into the side pockets of his pants.

He presented a deceptive image of casual waiting, he didn’t feel.

He wore his wrist watch low near the top of his left hand like a Roman gladiator’s protective wrist armor. His white shirt opened at the collar drew her second desire. She put down the longing to reach out and open his shirt and run her hands across his bare chest. She cautioned herself when she felt her body begin the recognized sexual melody that hummed within a newly forming inner throb.

Jack reached out and drew her to his side when she entered his personal space. Lowering his head, he whispered, “You look gorgeous!”

Smiling up at him, she allowed her hand to slid across his back slowly tightening in a gentle hug. Leaning closer to him, she whispered, “Thank you. You look great yourself.”

While walking toward the hotel exit with Jack, she silently scolded herself, “What an understatement, you ninny!”

****** In New York, after their telephone conversation, Dan’s mind raced. He felt out of control and sought for a way to calm himself. He knew

Lucky hadn’t believed him when he had denied the affair with her stepsister. He cursed his stupidity for having allowed Lucky to get that close to the truth, “How could I have been so utterly stupid?” he said aloud moments later.

His fist slammed down on the arm of the chair. Dan fought off a sense of impending doom. He was convinced that Lucky would never let the information he had given her about seeing Lynette during the sister’s estrangement simply disappear between them. He remembered telling himself at the beginning of the affair with Lynette that he would never allow her to become a threat to his marriage.

Dan had recognized that Lynette had been too much like himself to have ever enticed him to leave Lucky for her. She was fun and sexually adventurous when she was in the mood. She hadn’t always been in the mood.

Dan had seen, first hand, that there had never been any peace that survived inside her for long. She had seemed to be bored by anything that interfered with the “rush” of some new situation or some unusual escapade.

Time and again, Dan had experienced her restlessness. When she hadn’t gotten her shot of adrenaline by outside experiences, she would ambush some innocent by-stander, family friend or intimate, into a confrontation that plugged her into a quick, self-entitling, power surge.

He wondered why he had not taken her father’s words more seriously years ago. Dan had met Lynette’s father, Ian Green at his wedding to Lucky.

During a moment of conversation with her father, Dan had noticed him looking at his daughter. He had remarked to Ian, “The two sisters are very different, aren’t they?”

Ian Green had turned to look directly at him, “I blame myself for Lynette. You have the better woman. Perhaps she had the better father.”

Dan had been surprised at the statement, asking him what he had meant by it. Ian had replied, “My daughter is lovely, but she is spoiled rotten. I blame myself. From the moment of her birth, she wrapped me around her little finger and I’ve been there ever since.”

Dan had realized that he hadn't been trying to be funny. During that moment, Dan had felt a sense of discomfort enter the conversation. Attempting lightness, he had asked him, “It won’t last, do you think?”

“She is five years younger than Lucky. She has been an adult for a long time.” Ian Green had finalized the eternality of Lynette’s spoiled childhood within that one statement. Dan later understood within a fundamental clarity what it meant that Lyn had been spoiled rotten. Lynette had been openly seductive to him before he married Lucky. It hadn’t seemed to matter to her, that it was Lucky, who he was marrying.

She had continued to present enticements to meet her alone for months after he had married Lucky. Dan had never taken much of what had emerged out of her mouth too seriously. Lynette had reduced her seductive behavior toward him only for a time after Nathan was born. When the Paris experience began she had revived it again. Dan hadn’t doubted, that it had been his wife, who carried the enduring sensuality. He had come to see Lucky as a woman who lived within a smoldering passionate nature. When it had locked him into its heat, he had often felt consumed by its power. During such moments, he had been surprised to find that he resisted its grip on him. He had never been able to get to the bottom of this resistence to the strength of her passion.

He had recognized the depth of her intellectual powers. He had understood quickly that she was the only woman who had seen something in him worth fighting for. It had been her consistent

willingness to stay in there battling his demons with him in an effort to save their marriage. It had confirmed in him the value of their relationship as something to be sustained in his life. Running his fingers through his hair, he felt anxiety increase as he explored the risky personal choices of the past. He didn’t believe that Lucky would divorce him without finding proof of the affair with Lynette. Thinking about it longer, he accepted that unwanted consequences might still be a result of her search for the truth in spite of not being able to find evidence that the affair took place. He now wished that he had not agreed to meet Lynette the day she had called him at the restaurant. She had appeared to have been in a pleasant mood. Swinging from laughter to seemingly serious urgency, she had asked for Dan’s help in ending her estrangement from Lucky. Lynette had convinced him that she had regretted the confrontation that had separated the sisters for years. She had told him that she wanted him to help her bring about a reconcilation with Lucky.

Later, he realized it had been no more than a ploy to get him to meet her alone A few days later while she was gasping with orgasm in his arms, she had giggled and told him that she had always wanted to sleep with him and was furious Lucky had gotten to him first. She admitted to him that she had created the estrangement with Lucky so she could find a way to him without his wife being so instantly available.

He remembered the first strong feelings of guilt flying through the sexual pleasure. He had understood within a flash of reality what a fish hooked at the end of a lure, experiences. Later, an inner part of himself, had allowed the experience of her deceit to be seen as a compliment. This view, seemed to lessen for him, his part of playing the fool. They had continued to meet whenever he flew back to New York from Paris. He began to see the affair as being little more than his own vacation from Lucky’s “dream decade” he had agreed to share with her. Knowing that he could never live with Lyn within any serious relationship, it became to him a harmless exercise in sexual play. It had taken Dan months before he realized she had been far more serious about their relationship than he had ever been. During sex one evening, she had told him, she wanted him for herself. Later, he had asked himself, if it had been the fact that they were so much alike that

drew her to him. He had long recognized that he had no more underlying peace inside himself, than she had, inside herself. He had been as impulsive, as open to constant stimulation, as accepting of self-entitlement over the rights and feelings of others, as she had been. It now occurred to him that Lynette may have never wanted anything more than to take something that Lucky had, away from her. “We deserved each other,” he concluded sadly. Leaning his head against the back of the chair, tears formed in his eyes when he remembered Lucky’s patience with him during their years together. "She doesn’t deserve to have a man like me in her life,” he said aloud. Within minutes Dan swept himself back into the impending crisis of his own life that Lyn’s death had threatened to expose. It hadn’t been long after their affair had begun, he learned she had loved to gamble. He had enjoyed watching her excitement rise while she watched the games work through their mechancial functions to project whether she was a winner or loser. When she won big, she had hit a new emotional high. Their lovemaking had taken on an added intensity after each win. She would enter their hotel room and gleefully begin their love-making. Laughing, he would grab the blankets off the bed, pick her up and together they would fall on the bed to begin the sex without restraint. His gambling appetite had increased, not only in the time spent gambling, but in the amounts placed. He began to lose heavily. Fivethousand dollars became easy to lose, then it became a ten-thousand dollar loss. The losses kept mounting.

For a while, Lynette had covered his losses from trust fund advances. At one point, she had made the decision to use his losses as leverage toward activating him to get the divorce from Lucky. He couldn’t go to Lucky to explain his heavy gambling losses. He began taking money out of the restaurant that had been earmarked for budgeted items, believing that when he won, the funds would be replaced. Dan had begun riding a roller-coaster of winning and losing. His wins didn’t provide enough money to replace the large amount of cash he had pulled out of the restaurant accounts. The restaurant began to lose money when Glenn no longer had access to enough money to make the needed purchases. Bills began piling up,

unpaid. He and Glenn had fought. He hadn’t wanted to lose his restaurant manager. Desperate, Dan asked Lynette for a loan from the trust funds. At first, Lynette said that she had not changed her mind about the trust fund money not being used to pay his gambling losses. Within a few days, she had approached him with fresh pressure for him to ask for a divorce. This time, she had become coy, hinting that she would cover all the gambling losses and provide him new funds to get the restaurant back on track, if he would leave Lucky.

Dan had blown-up. He had fought to suppress a soaring, ballistic rage. He reminded her, that they had been over and over this discussion, that he had never pretended that he loved her or wanted to marry her. She had erupted into a rage of her own, throwing anything she could reach in his direction. She had ended the shouting match by storming out of the hotel room.

The confrontations between them began to flare-up with increasing frequency and Dan had begun to delay flying to New York, taking the flights less frequently. The restaurant barely survived and had continued to sink into heavier debt. At one point, he had been on the verge of telling everything to Lucky, just to be finished with Lynette’s demands. Before he had acted on the idea, he had received an email from Lynette, telling him of her coming marriage to Jack Savage.

On one level of tension, relief had rushed through him. He had experienced a sense of freedom from her, for the first time, within a self-reminder that he now must find another way to save the restaurant from bankruptcy.

He had made up his mind that he was not going to risk asking Lucky for more of her money to be invested in the restaurant. Dan had become familiar with the influence her father had on her. She would work to find out every particular for why it was going down in failure. The request for a loan from Lucky, would lead to a careful examination of his books. Dan knew that at some point, her inquiry would expose the heavy gambling losses. Dan didn’t doubt that once the gambling losses were exposed, the affair would come to light.

Within days of the announcement that Lyn would marry Jack Savage, Dan had lost all of the initial sense of narrow escape from personal disaster. He had received another email from her, claiming that the announcement of marriage had been merely an effort to make him jealous. She missed him. She wanted him back in her life. She had hoped it would bring him running to her and galvanize him into finally divorcing Lucky. Dan hadn’t been able to believe what he was reading, “She’s insane.” he had thought. Running his hands through his hair in rising despair, Dan had taken a deep breath. Moments later, he had decided to take time to examine her obsession with him more closely. This time, he had explored ways to use it to his advantage. Telling himself that if he could activate her help on the loan for the restaurant, he might be able to repair the damage done by his gambling losses. He had made the decision to take a large risk. When he sent the return email, he had asked her, if she were going through with the wedding. He then told her that regardless if she got married or not, he was now off-limits to her, unless she would provide the money he needed to save his business. He had received an immediate reply, “Blackmailer!! I’ll get back to you. Love, Lyn” For the first time, in a long time, Dan had smiled widely. Within minutes of the first email, the second one flew in from her. He quickly opened the second email from Lyn, to read, “Yes, I’m going through with the wedding. You are married, I might as well be too. I’m still thinking about the loan. P.S. You are not invited. Grrrr.. Lyn.”

She hadn’t taken back the words, “I’ll get back to you.” regarding the loan. Dan had wondered what her next move would be concerning him or the loan. He had made the decision to wait for a reply from the “I’ll get back to you,” email, before he contacted her again. Four days later, she had emailed him. “Two-hundred and fifty thousand dollars being transferred to the restaurant account today. You owe me a major romp after the wedding. I’ll tell you where. Love and kisses, Lyn.” Dan had read the message over and over. No mention of loan particulars. He had wished it had been a larger loan, but had accepted that Glenn would have to make this work for them.

Whispering to himself, he had said aloud, “Lyn, I’ll give you a romp to remember.” Shutting off the computer, he had laughed outright. He had walked out of the room remembering the words, “The world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel.” To his surprise, Lynette had not contacted him after her wedding. Dan remembered waiting for directions where they would meet. For two years there had been no more attempts to meet with Dan from Lynette. During the two years of not hearing from her, Dan had accepted that her husband must have been able to entertain Lyn within her requirements or he would have heard from her. Lynette's attorney had contacted him regarding how the loan process would be handled. Dan’s restaurant manager had used the loan money placed into the accounts, wisely. Dan paid off the remaining gambling debts with the rest. Lucky and he had continued to work together to make their experience in Paris more fun. For the most part, lucky and he had moved through those two years within a newly relaxed intimacy. Dan had stayed away from gambling and reduced his flights to New York. His angry outbursts had diminished and he had begun to feel safe from any negative consequences of having had the affair with his wife’s stepsister. Coming back to the moment, Dan got up from his chair and began to walk around the room. He brought up the memory of the email from Lynette after two years of no contact between them. Surprised to hear from her, he had opened the email with a revived sense of caution. “So! Where’s my romp? Love, Lyn.” It had passed through his mind that another man might have been pleased. Dan had told himself that he understood her too well to not know that her marriage had to have been on the rocks or he wouldn’t have been hearing from her after a two year silence. He had experienced a fresh sense of anxiety for what it would mean to his life if Lynette's marriage had gone down the drain. He hadn’t replied for two days. Dan had used the two days to explore his reaction to the email and the implications to himself if he would refuse to make contact with her. He had decided on a short response to her email, “What gives?” The clarity of her reply couldn’t be missed, “No Body Does It Better! Love, Restless” When Dan had read her email the sense of her erupted in him so strongly that she seemed to have entered the room. Within a rush of memories of her, he had spoken aloud, “Hell, Lyn! You’re bored again.”

He had grappled with the possible consequences to himself if he simply told her that their affair had been finished for two years and it should stay finished. Dan had known for years which woman he wanted to live with in his old age. He had been forced to accept that as long as she lived, she would always be a threat to his marriage to Lucky. ******** In California, after parking on the Santa Monica pier deck, Jack and Lucky had made the decision to walk around the area before entering Rusty’s Surf Ranch Restaurant to have dinner and dance. Lucky tried to put out of her mind the implications of Dan’s telephone call. She looked up at Jack. He had not reached for her hand. She slipped her hand into his. When her hand entered his, he smiled down at her with a sweet accepting smile. She felt her legs weaken as she smiled up at him in return. Their eyes held momentarily in a searching stare. She found it difficult to believe she hadn’t known him all her life.

Removing his eyes from her face, Jack turned his gaze toward the water, his mind toying with an idea that wouldn’t go away. Strolling beside him within a fulfilling contentment, Lucky reminded herself that she still must find a way to learn more about Jack and Lyn’s marriage and the trigger that had activated the divorce.

She hadn’t given up the desire to look through her step-sister’s belongings that had remained with Jack in spite of the divorce. She wondered if he had thrown them out by now or had given them to charity. Her mind went back over the loss of Lynette’s computer. The police file had revealed that no computer had been found. Jack had told the lead detective, that Lynette had owned a laptop computer, but he hadn’t known what happened to it. A new idea slipped into Lucky’s mind. She stopped walking. Jack halted alongside her and asked if she wanted to sit on the pier bench for a while. She nodded yes. They moved toward the side of the pier to sit down. Her mind kept going back to the conversation with Dan. After she had gotten off the phone with him, she had realized that in his admitting a connection to Lyn during her own estrangement to her step-sister, he had made his computer a focus of interest.

Lucky's brain quickly walked through this idea. If Lyn and Dan were having an affair he may not have deleted all of their email exchanges. Lucky had rarely used Dan's computer. She had a laptop for her own use. When she flew home she would look for an opportunity to explore his files.

The sun was fading into the horizon, painting a highway of sparkling gold -dust across the water. The surf echoed its beauty in sound. Jack leaned backward on the bench. Placing his arm across the top of the rail, he resisted the urge to slide her inside the arch of his arm or move his body nearer to enclose her in it. Glancing toward her, he asked, “Which impressionist artist is your favorite?”

She looked out across the ocean, “My favorite of them all is Claude Monet. I especially enjoy his ‘Fisherman’s Cottage on the Cliffs.’”

Lucky turned her head and looked into his brown eyes, “ Another one of his paintings that speaks to me, is ‘The Artist’s Garden at Vetheul.’ She hesitated and then asked, “Do you have a favorite artist?”

He let out a low deep-throated chuckle, “I like James Blunt. Especially his, ‘Good-by My Lover’.”

She smiled, understanding his humor.

His eyes smiled within the confession, “I am not that familiar with the art world. I have explored many art museums and on occasion have read a biography of someone as talented as Monet.”

She nodded, smiling “Art isn’t everything. It can be counted as one of the pleasures in life that is easily shared. Beautiful art especially has the ability to seduce the viewer into a mystical love affair with the

artist. Once struck, you find yourself trying to discover every painting the artist created.”

His eyes drank her in and he thought swiftly about the passion deep within him that had yet to be fulfilled. He said, “I’m an ordinary man, Lady Luck.” He held her with his eyes. The long buried craving sought release within a haunting question that had refused to go away since that first moment of seeing her, “Who is this woman?”

He had become restless to explore her life beyond the tantalizing clues as to what kind of a woman she had chosen to be. He wanted to know what made her tick, what she wanted out of life, what excited her, what inspired her, what aroused her sexual interest. He wanted it all.

Shaken at the unspoken intensity of the moment taking place between them, she broke out of the grip of his eyes and looked toward the sudden outbreak of pier lights being activated by the darkening sky. She suggested, “Maybe we should go into the restaurant now?”

Entering Rusty’s Surf Ranch, they walked through the front patio and into the main dining area. Jack noticed the band taking their places on stage. Lucky taking in the busy atmosphere looked up to see vintage surfboards hanging from the ceiling, surfing memorabilia covering the walls and monitors playing surf videos.

Jack surveyed the stage backdrop, painted as a barn with a hayloft and chickens. His eyes moved toward the ‘lifeguard tower’ that was being used as the sound booth.

They were offered a table in front of the stage. Lucky and Jack ordered a seafood dish with salad and coffee. Lucky glanced around the restaurant and saw that there were pool tables in the back of the restaurant along with another patio.

She asked, “Do you play pool?” He followed her eyes toward the back where the pool tables were lined up, “I have. Do you?”

“Do you want to take me on?”

“Do I ever...”

She winked at him, holding back the rising laughter, “Okay, after we dance, let’s see what you can do?”

He chuckled, “You’re on.”

By the time their meal had arrived at their table, they had heard the first sounds of the throbbing, tribal tom-tom beat of the surf song, “Walk Don’t Run” begin to pulsate through the air toward them. The sign in front of the band read, “Local Talent.”

Lucky asked, “Do you think that sign is advertising the name of the band?” Jack glanced toward it and smiled, “It may.”

When the waiter came back to their table Jack asked about the sign. “Yes, it’s the name of the band and they are also local talent,” he replied, smiling.

The trebly, metallic, twanging guitar began its accompanying sound with the tom-tom beat. The drummer began to sing, “I see the sand... fall through... my hand....a subtle picture.... quiet reminder....we’re staring through... this hour glass... when will it... run out...?”

Munching slowly through their meal, they spoke to each other within a casual informality about their surroundings, the history of Santa Monica pier, the songs being played.

Throughout the meal, Jack kept struggling with the desire to find out more about her. Sorting through his reluctance to increase the inquiry into her life, he recognized that he didn’t want to make her uncomfortable. She might perceive his questions as an intrusive delving into her private life.

Lucky, in turn, felt guilty for not directing their conversation toward his past. The style of music shifted from the band’s initial surf-sound to the sound of the blues. They became aware quickly that the musical style change had brought a gathering presence of diners venturing out onto the dance floor.

When the blues melody of “Kind Hearted Woman” broke through the air, Jack stood up, extending his hand to Lucky, “Ready for a dance?” She stood up and put her hand into his.

Jack glanced down into her eyes when the words, “I got a kindhearted woman, do anything in this world for me....” swept across the room. Lucky held his penetrating stare for several seconds then sought refuge within a retreat from the question in his eyes.

She felt a reverberating question of her own, press itself on her conscience, while they moved in a pleasing unity to the music. She had been finding it increasingly difficult to believe this man had killed her step-sister.

Her mind wandered back into her decision to enter his life within a falsehood. During each moment with Jack Savage, Lucky had experienced, what had seemed to her, as a thoughtful willingness by Jack to be transparent to her. She had begun to regret that she had chosen the type of approach to him that she had acted out on the beach.

Dancing with Lucky again brought the return of that sense of wholeness Jack had experienced the first time they had danced together. Their eyes met and held momentarily again. He sought for some way to turn their conversation toward her life’s experiences. He wanted to understand her past, so that it would expose to him, what it was that she had always wanted out of life.

He whirled her outward, then back toward his body, to the call of the melody. When she had once again entered the embrace of the dance, he pressed his lips briefly to her cheek. She felt the pleasure of the touch of his mouth rip through her to the depth of her toes. She whispered softly into his ear, “A few hours isn’t a lifetime.” Turning his body slightly, he smiled down at her, “It could be the beginning of one?” Lucky felt a rush of panic,“What have I begun?” Fresh thoughts rushed through her mind. Asking herself if she should simply walk away from him and not look back, brought an inner sorrow she fought to deny. When he had pressed his lips to her cheek, she had suppressed the instant desire to turn her mouth toward his. Lucky grappled with the speed of their encounter. From the first moment, it had raced toward a bonding unspoken sensual intimacy. It seemed surreal to her that such a short period of time with this man could have produced an overriding sense that she had known him all her life. She was abruptly brought back to the moment by the sound of an unfamiliar male voice asking Jack in slurred speech if he could dance with his woman. Jack stopped dancing and turned toward the man, “She’s with me.” His words seemed to bring her into himself. Lucky felt a wonderful cascading sense of protective belonging she had never felt before with any man. The man was Jack’s height, muscle-bound with striking blue eyes. He wore a white t-shirt and tight jeans. He looked to Jack to be in his twenties. Wobbling slightly off balance, he spoke with deliberate slowness, “I-want-to-dance-with-her.” Jack smiled, “She doesn’t dance with kids who drink beyond what they can handle.” The man shook himself off like a wet dog to say with an offended tone, “What’daja mean ‘kids’... I’m a man.”

He ran his eyes over Lucky from the top of her head to her feet, “She’s hot, Dude!” He stepped in front of Jack and punched a finger cautiously into Jack’s chest, “Don’t ya know that age is jost a number, Dude?” Jack chuckled, “Maybe so... but she isn’t going to dance with you.” Lucky wondered where this confrontation was going to lead and felt relief when the man turned around, tipped a hat to her that he didn’t have on, saying, “Listen...Hotty, get rish of this guy and come bash in.”

He turned away from them, leaning to the left and with care for each step, walked off the dance floor. Lucky admired Jack’s coolness, he hadn’t seemed at all threatened with where the confrontation might have led. They began to dance again. Jack asked her, “Do you have a set agenda for your vacation time?” Lucky almost laughed aloud at the irony within the question. “Not exactly.... mostly, I wanted to enjoy the time away from New York. I had allowed my life to become too full recently. It began to feel like a race to nowhere. I needed to take time out.” He whirled her outward and then back to himself. When she once again entered his space, she added, “Part of the vacation 'agenda' is a visit with my California friends. I was hoping for some quality time together with them.” “And, your son....” Before Jack could finish his question, Lucky said, “He is spending the summer with his grandfather.” The music stopped. They walked back to their table, her hand remaining within his. Jack pulled her chair away from the table. Glancing around to see if the man who had interrupted them were anywhere near them, he pulled his chair away from the table and sat down. He mused on how best to approach the subject that had been rolling around in his mind for the last twenty-four hours. He hadn’t yet found the reason for his hesitation to make the suggestion he had been thinking about. When he looked at her closely, he again, made the decision to wait. The evening became a world of its own. Dance and laughter dominated the rest of their experience there. At midnight, people began drifting out of the restaurant. Jack and Lucky wandered back toward the pool tables and decided to play a game before they ended the

evening. Lucky picked up a cue and turned to Jack, I want you to know that I’m not any good at this. I was bluffing.” Chuckling, Jack asked, “Are you hustling me, Lady Luck?” She laughed, “No... honestly.” Jack was the better pool player. He liked the way she went at her game. She was concentrated, watchful and willing to laugh at her mistakes. He thought she tackled their different abilities in playing pool within the same determination she had tackled their competition at the Playland Arcade. Ending their third game of pool, Lucky laughed, “You see, I was bluffing.” Placing the cue back into its holder, she turned to him, “That was fun, Jack. Thank you!” An immediate picture of his life with Lynette rushed into view. She had never thanked him during or after any entertainment they had ever shared. Regardless how many times he had sought out and found ways to make her life fun within an unusual experience, she had never been satisfied for long. He had learned quickly that she lived within a selfentitling world that he couldn't satisfy. Within two years, their marriage had crashed. Two years later, they were meeting with divorce lawyers. Shaking off the memories, he turned to Lucky, “Thank you! Lady Luck.” Entering the hotel lobby, Lucky glanced toward the clock; it was 2:00A.M. Jack saw her taking in the time. “Are you tired?” She returned the smile, “Yes, a wonderful tiredness.” He wanted to turn her around toward him and kiss her. He asked her instead, “May I say good-night at your door?” She felt a swift desire bring a refreshed energy to her body. She chose caution, “It might be better if we parted at the elevator?” He stopped walking and turned her around in front of him, “Lucky, I’ll never ask for something, you’re not willing to give.” Strength was a stream flowing out of her. Her body sought support. She leaned against him, her head falling against his shoulder, “Jack, it is too much too soon,” she said softly. Her mind felt drowning in choices between desire and caution. Jack Savage placed his hand against the back of her hair, pressing her head gently into his shoulder, startled at the emotion she had brought alive by

what he took to be a quiet threat of her loss to himself, he said softly, “Lady Luck, don’t walk out on me now.” Surrendering to the moment, she lifted her head, turning her face upward toward his, “Kiss me, Jack.” she whispered. His heart pounding, he placed his lips on her mouth gently. A hush came over her world. Her lips gave back to him a welcoming sensual pleasure. Jack lost awareness that there were people standing not far from them. Neither Jack nor Lucky were aware that the two men at the front desk had stopped their work to watch them, a slow smile spreading across their faces.

Jack slowly released her and walked her to the elevator. He opened the elevator door for her, kissed her lightly on the cheek and asked, “I’ll call you tomorrow?” She said, “Yes.” Waiting for his elevator, Jack went back over their evening. Their lips meeting for the first time had been as sweet as it had been gratifying. Her response to his lips had seemed to welcome him into her sensuality. The experience had solidified a growing conviction that something unique had been taking place between them. He held the memory in his mind, experiencing it, again and again. He wanted to place the memory of his mouth pressing against her lips with her sexually alive welcoming response somewhere in his brain where it could never be forgotten. All of him had become connected to the moment. An unusual radiance seemed to have spread deeply into his inner man. He recognized that he had embraced this moment between them within a wider perspective then sexual attraction alone. He hoped that she would come to believe what had been taking place between them, had more depth, than a mere vacation romance stimulated by playful sexual contact and momentary pleasure. Jack walked into his hotel suite. He felt an old hope struggle to enter the moment. Chapter 5 [Use Right & Left Arrow Key To Center Page - then Down Arrow] Entering the hotel suite, Lucky took out her cell-phone and listened to the messages. Four were from Dan, one from her son, Nathan.

Snapping the phone shut, she placed it on its charger. She would call them tomorrow. Walking toward the bathroom, she smiled to herself, “It is tomorrow.” Lucky entered the bathroom, brushed her teeth, undressed and put on her nightgown. Leaving the bathroom, she nearly stepped on her clothes that had ended-up on the floor. She picked them up and placed them on the bed she would not be sleeping in. Tired and emotionally drained, she slipped under the bedcovers, remembering the lingering sensual experience of Jack’s lips on hers.

Stretching out, her feet sliding down the smooth sheets, she turned over in her mind the difficulty of forming and maintaining a personal relationship under ordinary circumstances. She had learned early that developing a new relationship carries its own psychological tension, but she hadn’t realized until these hours with Jack, how emotionally costly it could become to the person who attempts to live within a deceptive persona. Rolling over on her side, she went over the time spent with Jack, accepting with new insight, that acting out a deceptive role had forced her to live within a constant, hypervigilant, watchfulness. It had become exhausting, both physically and emotionally.

Jack hadn’t been the first man who had kissed her after she had married Dan, she thought sleepily. There had been many times during social situations, too much alcohol flowing, too late of an hour, had found her pushing off some guy wanting to bed her.

Most often she had gotten out of their fumbling attempts to corner her, but there had been times, she had either been curious enough or slow enough, that she’d shared another man’s lips; ending it there. These experiences had extracted little responding emotion from her. The most that she had thought about them, had been that some were more interesting, than others. Only a few men had brought a genuine temptation to wander from faithfulness to Dan.

Jack Savage had been the first man to send the rest of the world away. His lips had sent an extraordinary sensation through her of what it means to be a woman within an entirely new experience.

The next morning, Lucky opened her eyes. The cell-phone was ringing. Picking the phone up, she saw that it was Dan. Punching open the line, she glanced at the clock, “Hello.” “Hi Baby! I left four messages yesterday. Are you turning-off the phone?” Looking toward the clock, she said, “Dan it’s 6:00A.M. I would have appreciated a later call.”

“Sorry... I got concerned when you didn’t return any of the calls. I wanted to connect with you before you go off with Jack again.”

He paused, then asked, “What time did you get in? The last time I called, I rang the hotel and asked to be connected to your room phone. You didn’t pick up. It was 1:30A.M., there.”

Lucky heard the new edge to the tone of his voice. She replied, “We got back around 2:00A.M.” She looked up at the ceiling, “Dan, this is difficult enough without having me go over it again, with you.”

Resisting the desire to snap a biting, “I’ll bet,” back at her, he said quickly, “Okay!-- Okay! You have obviously spent a lot of hours with him, already. So... What have you learned about his marriage to Lynette?”

“I’m still trying to wake up, Dan.” Feeling constrained by her earlier conversation with him and the implications of his remarks regarding Lynette, Lucky found a new reluctance to talk to him, about Jack, her step-sister or anything else.

She said, “I’m sorry, but I need to clean-up and eat before I talk about the time with Jack Savage. When something comes up that seems

relevant to Lyn’s case, I may call you and fill you in. Until then, please do not keep calling.”

Without saying good-by, Dan punched out of the call with the words, “...may call you and fill you in...” reverberating in his mind. He felt it confirmed that Lucky hadn’t believed him when he denied having an affair with her step-sister. Her tone had been cool. He knew her well enough to know she had not wanted to talk to him at all. In minutes after the phone call to Lucky, Dan walked out to his car, knowing that if he couldn’t convince her there had been no affair, their marriage could be over.

Renewed panic struck him like a physical blow. He told himself again, that he faced serious financial implications to himself because Lucky had made the decision to explore Lynette’s life in an effort to understand her death. He refused to think about Nathan. He wished he had not gotten the money from Lynette in the first place. He felt caught in a trap, knowing that at the time, he had no alterative but to have taken the loan. The idea that he could save their marriage began to roll itself around in his head. He began the attempt to convince himself that their marriage could survive if she never found proof that the affair took place. If she found evidence of the affair, it would become important for him to talk to her before she asked her father to file the divorce papers. Telling himself that she still responded to his powerful presence, his mind worked over ways to get to her quickly if Lucky found out about his long relationship with Lynette. Going over the difficult years of counseling, he reminded himself that she had always stayed in there with him. He struggled with the alarm going off in his brain that if he couldn’t save their marriage, the restaurant would surely fail. Yet, he couldn’t risk asking Lucky for the money now. Dan kept stirring around the idea that he might be able to get a loan from her or her father in spite of her knowing the truth about Lynette. Glenn had been adamant that the restaurant was again in a life and death struggle to survive. All of Lynette’s trust fund monies had gone to Lucky. Dan knew that if Lucky learned about the loan from Lynette, she would begin asking questions about it.

He explored Lucky's focus of attention. Before her decision to become personally involved in her step-sister’s case, she hadn’t expressed any interest in examining Lyn’s trust-fund accounting history. He cursed himself for not being able to stop Lucky’s renewed interest in finding out why Lynette had died. Things were moving too fast for Daniel Donnellan. ****** In California, Lucky heard the phone call disconnect. She placed the phone on its charger and got out of bed. Finishing her shower, she dressed, entered the living room area and called to order an in-room breakfast. Going to the window that overlooked the ocean, she spotted Jack, two other men and three women, jogging on the beach. He wore dark green shorts and a grey hooded sweatshirt.

Small strands of his brown hair flew freely just outside the hood. His legs, long and strong, sent a thrill through her, bringing back the sexually exciting memory of his lips on hers, waking up areas of her body. She turned away from the window and put down the feelings welling up inside her, “I’ve got to think clearly... this isn’t helping.” After finishing her breakfast of scrambled eggs, toast, drinking a glass of orange juice and having her usual morning cup of coffee, she pickedup the cell-phone to return her son’s call. When she heard his voice, she said, “Hi Darlin,’ What’s happenin’?” He laughed, “I wanted to tell you that granddad wants to take me to the cabin. We’re gonna do some fishing and exploring. His doctor said it was okay. What do you think?” “I think it sounds great. Dad will pace himself; don’t worry. You do want to go, right?” “Yeah, I just wanted you and Dad to know where I was. Dad said I should call and tell you. Have you seen the Warren’s yet? Tell Karen I said hello, okay?”

“No, I’ve not seen them, but I think I will today. I’ll do that. Hope you have a great time, Honey.” “Thanks Mom. I love you.” Lucky smiled, “I love you too.” Hearing the click ending his call, she shut down her phone. She felt a warm pride in her son’s sweet nature. Picking up her coffee cup, she walked over to the window. Whitecaps were rippling across the ocean’s surface. The entire body of water seemed alive, stretching and turning slowly, as though waking up to meet the day. Lucky thought about Kathy and Jim Warren. She hadn’t seen them since they had moved to California. Before Lyn had died, they had flown to Paris to see her. Their daughter and Nathan had hit it off. During their visit they had mentioned visiting Lynette in New York earlier. Lucky found herself grateful they had never met Jack Savage. She wondered if Jack had ever seen their photograph.

She stared toward the beach with half attention. It began to fill with tourists eager to find the best spot on the sand. She had learned that many of the early visitors would stay until noon, then leave. During their first days in California looking for ways to meet Jack, she had noticed that there would be another group of people entering the beach later in the afternoon. Jack had usually chosen the earlier part of the day to visit the beach. The room telephone rang. Before she lifted the receiver, she sensed it would be Jack, “Hello?” “Mornin’ Lady Luck! Is the day on?” Lucky tightened her hold on the phone. She pushed back a longing to be with him. Attempting to sudue it, she experienced a fresh flow of sadness emerge within her. She heard a voice that didn’t seem to be her own, say, “I think I’ll take a rain-check, Okay?”

He said, “I’m sorry. I was looking forward to more time with you. I hope its not something I did or did not do.” The disappointment in his voice increased her desire to be near him. Her lips trembled. She said, “No, Jack, I loved the time with you. There are no complaints. I’m going out with friends here, today.” His silence became an embrace.

Long seconds, later, he said, “If there is any way I can help you, let me know, okay? Call me when you can make time for us again? I’ll be here.” She felt a painful sweetness enter her as though it were a live thing cradling her in its arms. Nothing seemed as it had before she met him. Tears welled up in her eyes to slowly flow down her face. She fought the coming break in her voice, “Thank you, Jack. I will -- call you.” She sat down on the side of the bed. Covering her face with her hands, she allowed her erupting sobs an unmuted voice. The mounting stress of living a lie had presented her an exacting emotional experience, coiled up within a suspenseful waiting for the unknown to appear. Lucky felt as though she were drowning in a whirlpool of long suppressed emotions erupting onto the surface of what she had never known. Jack Savage held the humming phone line. Coming to himself, he placed the receiver back on its cradle. He walked to the armchair and sat down to stare out to sea. ******** Kathy Warren answered the call. She yelped with delight to hear Lucky’s voice. They briefly exchanged family information. Lucky learned that their daughter, Karen, was away at summer camp. She asked Kathy to give her daughter, Nathan’s greeting. Winding down the conversation, Kathy suggested that she and Jim pick her up and have her stay as their guest for the rest of her time in California. When Lucky told Kathy she would love to see them, but that she wanted to keep her hotel suite, Kathy replied quickly, “No problem! Maybe we could come to the hotel and share the afternoon. We would enjoy taking you out to dinner, too.”

Lucky smiled, “That would be great.”

After the phone call, Lucky explored ways to suggest to them that they not stay near the hotel or its surrounding area. She was hoping that they would not run into Jack Savage.

At 11:30A.M., her room phone rang. A male voice said, “ This is the front-desk. A Mr. and Mrs. Warren is here Would you like to meet them in the lobby?”

“Yes, please tell them I’ll be right down. Thank you!”

“I’ll do that,” he said, ringing off.

Lucky saw them before they noticed her entrance into the lobby area. They looked much as she remembered them. Jim with a few more white streaks in his hair, Kathy a bit heavier. Jim saw her first. Walking to her, he hugged her. Lucky turned toward Kathy to put her arms around her. They stayed in the lobby chatting for a while about Jim’s job, Lucky’s vacation plans and what to do next. Lucky glanced around the room to see if Jack were around. She soon became uncomfortable. She was relieved when Jim suggested they take a drive and decide what they would do next. After getting into the car, Jim and Kathy looked at each other within the unvoiced language of the perfectly matched. Kathy accepted his signal for her to suggest the direction their afternoon would take. “Would you first like to go to a shopping plaza?” She smiled at her husband, “Jim will drive us to my favorite center.” “That’s a wonderful idea. Thanks.”

During the drive toward the shopping mall, Lucky noticed a box beside her on the seat. A sweater had been placed on top of it. While Kathy chatted about how they loved the California lifestyle and commented on how quickly their daughter had become a Californian, Lucky moved the sweater off it’s top.

Startled, she saw Lynette’s name with an unfamilar post office box number written on the upper left-hand corner. The full date of delivery had been smeared, but she could see the year. It had been sent two years ago. She didn’t recognize the name of the person on the address label.

Lucky could feel a sense of forboding making its way into her mind. Her thoughts began to race and she suppressed the desire to ask about the box. She made the decision to wait for Kathy or Jim to explain the package to her.

They entered a large shopping plaza parking garage. Jim found an open parking space and slid the car into it Kathy hopped out, grabbed Lucky’s door-handle and opened the door for her. Lucky stepped out onto the parking center’s concrete floor and began walking toward the plaza entrance between Jim and Kathy.

Listening with only scant attention to Kathy and Jim’s exchange coming from both sides of her body, she found it difficult to concentrate on remembering that she was supposed to be on a vacation. Desiring to be out from walking between the couple, she suggested they go into the cosmetics store she had spotted when they had entered the Plaza. Increasing her pace slightly, she was able to move to one side of Kathy in an effort to extricate herself from having to walk between them. Jim Warren stopped in front of the store window and suggested he do something else while they shop. They nodded acceptance at his suggestion and he began walking toward a Starbuck’s Coffee Shoppe with an outdoor seating area. The instant he was out of hearing, Kathy turned to Lucky. “Lucky what’s wrong. You don’t seem at all like yourself?” Lucky signed in relief, “I’m sorry, Kathy. It is just too much to go into right now. If I can work my way through the next three months, I will explain to you both what has been going on.” Kathy paused, looking at her intently, “Okay, Just remember, we are around and we would be willing to help in any way we can.” She glanced toward the interior of the store, “Did you really want to buy something in there?”

Lucky smiled, “No.” Kathy laughed, “Let’s stroll around for a while. There is always something interesting to see. Then we’ll spend the afternoon wandering around Old Town and just relax, okay?” Lucky hugged Kathy again. Kathy had set the perfect pace for them. The longer the day moved forward, the more Lucky found herself enjoying the afternoon. It had helped for Kathy to have been willing to come directly to the point and allow Lucky the opportunity to open up to her. She felt grateful for such long-time friends. By the time the sun had dipped lower in the sky, they had made the decision to have dinner at a nearby restaurant. Choosing an Italian restaurant, they went inside. After freshening up in the rest-room, they entered the dining area. The host walked them to a booth. Slipping into the well-kept vinyl seats, they briefly looked around and then examined the menu. By the time the waiter approached, they had made their decision and gave him their orders. The restaurant held a low murmur of voices that was not intrusive. “Roma Capoccia” was playing softly. Lucky leaned her head on the back of the seat. She felt tired, but unexpectedly, she also felt refreshed. Being herself again had brought a few hours of relief from the constant self-surveillance, she had placed herself under, during her time with Jack Savage. When their meals came, Kathy and Lucky chose an accompanying red wine with their food. Jim asked for coffee. They began to eat. In minutes, Jim said, “Excellent Chef, here.” Lucky wondered how Jack would like the restaurant. The thought of Jack brought a sudden piercing aloneness. Refusing its occupancy, she ran away from the memory of Jack Savage. Half an hour later, their meal almost finished, Kathy nodded at Jim. He cleared his throat, “Lucky, we are glad you contacted us. We always love to see you.” Lucky returned his smile, “I wouldn’t have wanted to miss you guys.” “We want to talk to you about something. You may have noticed the box in the back seat. It was sent to Kathy’s Mother two years ago. Lynette sent it. We didn’t get it at the time because circumstances worked against its delivery.” Lucky’s heart began to beat faster, “Sent to Kathy’s Mother?” She turned to look at Kathy, “ I didn’t know she knew your maiden name. I don’t know it.”

Kathy said, “It’s Shelton.” Jim nodded, “ We both feel terrible about what we have to tell you. We are so sorry that it took this long to find out about the box, but we didn’t know Kathy’s Mother had received it from Lynette, until recently.” Kathy interjected, “Apparently, she had decided to mail it to Mother because we were moving around so much. We lived in motels a lot that year and she must have expected Mom to give it to us when we visited her at Christmas. Only we didn’t get there that Christmas. Our plans changed and Mother put it in a closet and forgot all about it until she found it again.” Jim continued, “She hadn’t opened it, just placed it on the floor of the closet and things got thrown in around it. When she uncovered it recently, she felt terrible about forgetting it was there and forwarded it to us right away. There was another taped box with a note from Lynette on it, inside.” He reached into his pocket and opened a folded piece of paper. He read it aloud, “‘If anything happens to me, give this only to Lucky. Do NOT give it to Dan.’”

He handed the note to Lucky. Lucky reached for it and read it aloud. She put her head into her hands, exhaling the words with a rush, “I-knew-she-didn’t- kill-herself.”

Jim touched her hand, “It was only when Kathy and I went over what she had written here that we began to wonder about it, ourselves.”

Lucky sighed, “Did you open the box? It has to be her computer.”

“No, it wasn’t sent to us or for our eyes. She wanted us to see that you got it and not Dan. When you called, we were glad that we are able to give it to you personally and that we are able to explain what happened face to face.”

Pausing, he inhaled, then added, “We know we are friends, but that isn’t something either one of us would be willing to do. It didn’t even

cross our minds to open it. We are very... very sorry that this delivery took so long.”

Lucky nodded, she could see the question in their eyes. They were wondering why Lyn hadn’t wanted Dan to have access to it.

Lucky thought she knew.

****** In New York, Dan got into his car. He had finished his meeting with Glenn. His restaurant manager was insisting that Dan must find a way to either market the restaurant more widely, redesign the interior and hire new employees, including a new chef or the restaurant wouldn’t make it. All of the suggestions called for a fresh supply of money. Dan wasn’t going to risk opening up the history of Lyn’s loan to him by asking lucky to save the restaurant. Any effort toward obtaining a loan from Lucky would induce her to go in and talk to the people who handle the funds and Lyn’s loan to him would be exposed. It would be the first item toward establishing proof of their extended affair. He knew that Lucky would surmise that if there had been no affair there wouldn’t have been any need for secrecy regarding the loan. In Dan’s mind, asking for money from Lucky or her father had to remain a last-ditch effort to save the business. Driving his BMW out of the restaurant parking lot, Dan’s mind kept wandering back to Lucky. He wanted to blame her for the restaurant’s failure and for his affair with her step-sister. He told himself that if she could have been content with visiting Paris instead of living out her “dream decade” none of this mess would have gone down. Once Lynette found out that he had been flying back to New York alone, she had revived her pursuit of him.

Dan turned to look out his side window before turning a corner. Making the turn, he directed his mind back to surveying what had happened to his marriage. It abruptly came to him that he should stop playing the blame game. He admitted that he had been lying to himself. The longer he examined the past, he had realized that he could not get away with suppressing his character flaws any longer. He had flown back to New York, not to help Glenn out, but because Paris had bored him. He had long recognized he had no genuine interest in art or in Paris. He had found the locals in Paris cool and rarely congenial. Lucky had been better received, but it had been slow going for her. Her love of impressionist art had opened many doors of acceptance. To Dan, the french could have Paris, he loved New York. Daniel Donnellan had lived in his teens and twenties within the myth that his problems had been caused by others. Every negative situation he had found himself in during those years, he had blamed on someone else. It had taken him a long time before he had connected his selfcentered decisions with the often painful consequences they had brought into his life. He realized he still was fighting being held responsible for his wrong choices.

Signing deeply, Dan reluctantly accepted that everything taking place now had been the result of his love of taking personal risks. He was a man easily bored. He had allowed the extended affair, the excessive gambling, the self-empowering pull of living a secret life to take place with little resistence.

The truth was that he had enjoyed making love with Lucky’s stepsister. He had the freedom to walk away from any smothering intensity. He had not been able to count sex with Lynette as being unfaithful to his marriage. She had pursued him at every opportunity that had presented itself to her. Dan had always considered unfaithfulness much more than sexual activity.

The sexual experience with Lyn had always vanished quickly from his mind after the orgasm. He had placed sex with her in the same category as a shot of whisky. A quick fix. A pleasing jolt for the moment, but rarely long-lasting.

Shortly after their affair had begun again he had experienced a warm flush of virtue flow through him. He had made the decision that he would never break up his family merely to have Lynette. The longer he looked at their affair, the more he accepted, that Lynette had not been anything more to him than a diversion from routine. He had always known that she could never have replaced Lucky. He shuttered at what growing old with Lynette would have meant for him. There had been surprises in their relationship. Gambling with an excited Lynette at his side had unexpectedly ignited a thrilling suspense of risk-taking over and over again. Her wins had acted as an infectious challenge for him to out-play her in an effort to out-win her.

Dan found over time that when back with Lucky, he had experienced a fresh adrenaline rush with every close-call of the affair’s exposure. He believed that he had run a perfect line of defense against every potential threat to his marriage.

He had often patted himself on the back that Lucky never had a clue about the affair. He had lived most of their married life rolling-out the dice of personal risk as one continuous gamble. Each time he had escaped detection, he felt a powerful sense of his own cleverness.

The arguments that Lucky had found so offensive and abusive to rational conversation had been a stimulus to Dan. He enjoyed doing battle and then making up. He had never intended that he lose Lucky, have his son live outside of their family situation or that his restaurant, The Cafe Donnellan, would be a fatality of his personal risk-taking. He was now being forced to see that the facade that had been covering his secret world might collapse.

He had created a lifestyle based on what he could get away with in life. Dan felt a repugnant helplessness flow through him. He had not merely risked his financial stability, he had risked every aspect of his relationships with the people in his life that should have mattered more to him than anything else.

Turning the car into his driveway, he shut off the engine and continued exploring what was now taking place between Lucky and himself. For the first time in his life, Dan had become curious of the cause and effect factors that work in children to result in such different adult personalities. What produces an adult, Lynette Green or a Daniel Donnellan, he wondered.

“Who am I, really?” he asked himself aloud.

****** In California, Jack Savage had gone through the day without Lucky within a new emptiness. He had driven along the coast making frequent stops along Pacific Coast Highway. He had strolled around the various beach communities vibrating with human activity. The people he met had been friendly and helpful whenever he had asked directions. The thought had floated through his mind that he should have been able to appreciate what a beautiful day it had turned out to be.

He had stopped to eat lunch at a local restaurant, his mind never far from Lucky. He wandered continually back to their hours together. He seemed to carry her within him as though she had entered the deepest part of who he is. He felt helpless to remove her.

A restaurant sign that cautioned the customer, everything worth while takes time.” brought the cautioning thought that a day without her might be a needed introspective break from his growing desire to fully know her.

Telling himself to go slower, he reminded himself that he didn’t know much about her. For the next few miles, he had pondered the inner caution that penetrated his experience with her, “Where am I going in such a hurry, anyway.”

The longer the day had gone on within her absence, he had felt the fullness of what life might be with her. It took an unyielding hold on him. He sought for some relief in the conviction that he couldn’t simply check-off their encounter as a mere vacation experience and go on from there.

He concluded within an ensnaring finality that he didn’t want to go back to Wyoming without her. He didn’t want her to walk out of his life as though they had never met. He began thinking about Nathan, wondering if her son could find Wyoming to his liking. Could she? He wondered if he could go back into the New York lifestyle.

Walking back to his car after stopping at a beach access for several minutes to walk along the ocean’s sandy shore, he opened the car door asking himself, “What in the hell, am I thinking?”

Jack Savage had never been an impulsive man. He had grown up within a serious frame of mind. His early childhood had carried an assumption that he would accept personal accountability for his choices. By the time he had developed into a man, he had embraced this idea as a reasonable framework in which to live out his life.

When he worked, he worked hard. When he played, he played with verve and imagination within a whimsical playfulness. That his early marriage could die so quickly, had shocked him. It had brought a sobering challenge into his view of himself as being a responsible human being.

He hadn’t blamed his young wife for the failure of their relationship. He had blamed himself. He had been forced to accept that he could fail and fail big. Jack hadn’t liked the emotion of failure. After its failure, he had spent almost two decades avoiding confining relationships with women.

He had focused on obtaining the two college degrees within a studied seriousness. It had been time-consuming and sometimes stressful. He had given up many things during that time for a greater financial return in the future.

The years had flowed swiftly away from the first marriage. He had noticed that his time-absorbing investment in college work and then his new career, not only worked toward providing him financial stability, it had provided a welcome buffer against the inevitable requirements of more intimate relationships with the women he had allowed into his life.

The avoidance of another serious relationship had left him deeply lonely. He felt the growing possibility he would have no children of his own enlarge his hidden sadness. To Jack, it had seemed that his relationships had come and gone in the same way a revolving door brings people into and out of a space.

The words of the last woman before Lynette entered his life had reverberated through him, “You are one of the most courageous men I’ve ever known when it comes to any physical situation. But, Jack, you can’t deal with intimacy and that makes loving you, very lonely.”

He had been forced to realize that he had subconsciously been dating women he liked, while also knowing that these were women, with whom, he wouldn’t fall in love.

It had been this more careful examination of his relationships with women that had finally ignited a more profound self-exploration. One by one, he had walked through the memory of the women he had developed relationships with in the past.

He had uncomfortably faced the truth that he had been dishonest with the women who had longed to love him on a fundamental level. It had turned out to be a punishing view of himself. His memory brought back the women he had earlier allowed entrance into his life.

Jack Savage had realized that he had never exposed to them his own hopes for how he had wanted his life’s goals to be played out. He had not been willing to look closely at their own dreams. Disappointment in himself had followed the realization that there are many levels and many paths to personal failure.

The moment had cornered him. He had asked himself, “What do I really want out of life? The answering arrow flew toward the target. It flashed through his mind, “Stop running. You have chosen to be the kind of man you are today. If this isn’t working, change directions.”

Jack felt the realistic grip of this haunting view of his past capture him. Wrestling with the idea that he hadn’t chosen wisely for himself, he felt caught inside a maze that seemed to have no exit. He experienced a profound longing to know why his relationship choices up to this time had never resulted in satisfying his deepest needs.

His mind kept returning to his spellbinding reaction to Lucky. Why hadn’t he ever reacted to any woman as he had responded to Lady Luck?

******* It was 9:00P.M., when Lucky walked through the hotel lobby with the box from Lynette in her hands. Leaving the elevator, she walked to Room 416. Putting the box on the floor, she removed her hotel room card from her purse and entered her hotel suite. She noticed a greeting card lying near her right shoe. Picking it up, she smiled when she read, “Soon?” written on the envelope. She opened the card to see a drawing of a sad human face with the words, “Miss you.” under it. She felt a pleasing warmth flow through her. She turned back around and brought the box through the open door.

Shutting and locking the door, she walked over to the table and placed Lynette's box on its surface. Pulling out a chair, she sat down,

kicked-off her shoes and thought about the card’s message. The day with Kathy and Jim had allowed her a reprieve from the unexpected strength of her feelings that Jack had evoked within her.

During the afternoon with the Warren's, her sense of relief from the emotional roller-coaster she had been riding, encouraged her to reconsider the thing that she had begun.

Lucky knew that she was no longer capable of maintaining the needed objectivity for the part she had chosen for herself. She didn't doubt that if her father knew what she were doing, he would insist that the moment she had experienced the powerful attraction to Jack Savage, she should have gotten out, then and there.

She smiled remembering his early explanation for why many depictions of American justice is of a blind-folded woman. He had leaned down to answer her question and said, “Justice can’t take place when there is no objectivity.”

She hadn’t understood what he meant and asked him to explain it again. He had smiled, “I mean that if you care too much or care too little you could be persuaded to believe a lie.” It hadn’t been long before she understood what he had been teaching her.

Lucky’s eyes wandered back to Lyn’s computer. Starting to open the box, she felt the pull of tiredness overtake her. She stared at the box thinking, “I’ve waited this long, I guess I can wait a while longer.”

Lucky struggled with an inner voice that suggested she call Jack. Glancing at the clock, she doubted that he had called it a night. Slowly, she put down the nagging desire to hear his voice. Instead, she walked into the bathroom, showered and went to bed.

Jack told himself, that he must have glanced toward the hotel telephone, twenty times in the last two hours. He wanted to hear her

voice. He had stopped himself from calling her several times. He wondered if she were in the hotel now.

The memory of the day spent without her rolled around in his mind as flat and devoid of that essential presence she had brought into his life.

At midnight, Jack Savage slipped under the blankets thinking, “She has changed me.” He slowly fell asleep wondering if the rest of his life would ever be the same.

Chapter 6 [Use Right & Left Arrow Key To Center Page - then Down Arrow] The moment Lucky woke up, she glanced toward the box that she suspected held her step-sister's computer. Flinging back the covers, she got out of bed and walked hurriedly toward the bathroom.

After showering, she quickly applied a light makeup over her face and neck, brushed her teeth, dressed and then applied a soft pink shade of gloss to her lips.

Walking out of the bathroom, she moved toward the small table that held the unwrapped box. Removing the outer packaging, she held her breath. She ripped the tape off the two top flaps of the box. Spreading them apart, she saw the laptop.

Lucky slowly lowered herself onto a chair. She drew in a deep shuddering breath. Within seconds, she had lifted herself from the chair, reached over to pick-up the loose outer packaging and tore the address labels off. She threw the rest of the material in the waste basket. Picking up the computer she brought it up and out of the box, placing it flat on the table top.

Her heartbeat quickened. For several seconds, she couldn’t control her shaking hands. Without warning, it seemed a hand had tapped her on her shoulder. She experienced a piercing doubt that she should continue what she was doing without a witness.

She began pacing the floor, wondering if she should call her father for advice or Ron Evans. “Calling Dad might be premature. He doesn’t know what I’ve been doing,” she recalled aloud.

Lucky knew her father well enough to know that he would want her to bring him up-to-date on what she was doing. She doubted that he would suggest anything other than that she should notify the police right away that her step-sister’s computer had been found; yet she couldn’t be sure.

Not wanting to take the time to explain her recent decisions to him, she decided she wouldn’t risk calling him. Thinking of Ron Evans, she went over the idea that he might be a qualified witness. He had no personal interest in her step-sister’s case.

Lucky stopped walking for a moment to remind herself to go slowly in considering an eye-witness. She argued with herself that she probably shouldn’t open it before getting it to the police.

Lucky concluded that she might not want a witness to her reaction to what may be on it. Urging herself to make sure she didn’t change or delete any files, she explored the possible implications of looking through the computer on her own.

The telephone in the suite, rang. Instantly thinking of Jack Savage, she hesitated in answering it. She felt torn between her desire to find out why Lynette had sent her the laptop and her longing to talk to Jack. She decided on Jack. The computer investigation could wait a couple of more hours.

“Hello?”

“Hi. Are you open to having breakfast with me?”

Realizing she was hungry, she smiled, glad she had answered his call. “Okay! Give me ten minutes and I’ll meet you in the lobby.”

“Great!”

Putting down the telephone receiver, Lucky felt a flash of excitement shoot through her. Entering the bathroom, she brushed her hair, flipped the curl up that had fallen forward on her forehead and took one last survey of her appearance. Satisfied, she picked-up her purse, the room card and the laptop.

Walking over to the wall safe, she glanced inside to see if it were large enough to hold it. It wasn’t. Taking the computer with her, she walked through the hotel suite door and headed for the elevator.

Getting off at the first floor, she walked to the check-in counter and asked if the laptop could be placed in the hotel safe. Filling out the paperwork, she put the receipt into her purse. Turning around to look for Jack, she saw him sitting on the marble bench that surrounded the three-tiered waterfall.

Seeing her approach him, Jack experienced a sense of renewed wellbeing flow through him. A curl of her hair had fallen forward on her forehead. She wore jeans, white sneakers and a short blue shirt that barely touched the top of her jeans. A portion of her skin near her waist revealed itself briefly as she moved toward him. Her eyes sparkled with welcome. He fought down the desire to pick her up bodily and take her back to his room. “Whoa....,” he cautioned himself.

Standing up, he put his arm around her, “Good to see you. I missed you.” She passed her arm under his, her hand pressing again his back. She leaned toward him, “Sorry. Old friends...”

Glancing down at her, he leaned over to whisper in her ear, “Just really glad to see you,” as though apologizing for what his first words to her may have implied. He had not intended a rebuke. She felt the brush of his lips against her cheek ignite a fire she rushed to put out.

Entering the restaurant, they saw that the table they had shared earlier was available.

He grinned, “Let’s begin a tradition with this table. For the rest of our vacation we’ll try to get this table for breakfast. Okay?”

Smiling, she nodded yes. A warm appreciation for his sentimental sweetness rushed through her. She sat down looking toward the ocean. “I love this view.”

Pulling the chair beside her away from the table, he sat down, “Yes, the view is beautiful...” She knew that he was talking about her, not the ocean.

Their breakfast order arrived. They took time out to eat their meal speaking to each other within casual observations about the weather, the food, the hotel service.

Picking up his coffee cup, Jack Savage responded to the tug of inquiry about her that had simmered just below the surface of their lighter conversation.

“Do you sell your paintings,” Jack asked her. She looked at him, wondering how far he wanted to go with this question. She decided again to stay as near to the truth as possible.

“I have a few of them on display with a gallery. I’ve sold some of my paintings. Being an amateur impressionist isn’t very lucrative....at least not for me”

He smiled, “Do you paint on scene or do you have a studio? Do you have a preference?”

“I have a studio and I also paint on scene. I enjoy both ways of putting together a piece of art.”

“Now that you are back from Paris, does this mean that New York is your next favorite place to live?”

She laughed, experiencing a fresh sense of pleasure flowing through her, “I’m comfortable with New York, if that is what you mean. I’ve lived there a long time except for those seven years in Paris. The art world in New York is alive and flourishing. The answer is yes, New York is my next favorite place to live.”

Jack had picked-up on her reluctance to name the gallery. Wondering how far he could go in his effort to find out more about her without seeming to pry, he made the decision to once again rein-in his desire to know more about her life. He would try again later.

Finished with the meal, they hovered over their coffee, lingering at the table.\ Jack turned toward her, “Is the rest of the day ours?”

“I’m sorry, Jack. I’ve something planned today... at least for a few hours.”

He looked at her questioningly. She said quickly, “I might be free later. Would you be willing to see me around dinner time?”

“Yes...” he said. Thinking a moment more, he added, “I'll give you my cell-phone number. If I’m away from the hotel when you are able to meet me, give me a call.”

He took out his business card and handed it to her. She smiled accepting it, “That’s a good idea. Thanks, I will.”

Putting the card in her purse, she pushed back her chair to stand up. Standing beside her, they walked back toward the hotel lobby. Lucky said good-bye to Jack. He wanted to reach out and draw her to him. He changed his mind. She seemed to have something on her mind that didn’t have anything to do with him. He walked away. She turned toward the hotel counter to pick-up the computer.

Entering the hotel suite, she shut the door intent on exploring Lynette’s computer. Unpluging the suite phone, she also picked-up her cell-phone and turned it off. Walking rapidly toward the table, she put down the laptop.

Lifting the lid, her heart racing, she turned the laptop on. The first thing that caught her eyes when the screen unfolded its desktop was a file folder with her name on it. Before she got into the folder bearing her name, she decided to look quickly through the documents file for folders that Lynette had placed there for quick access.

Swiftly noting that the contents of the documents files held various letters of information regarding Lynette’s trust account and an appointment file, Lucky moved on to open the programs menu. She recognized the software her step-sister had on her computer as being nothing unusual.

Noticing a file labeled, “passwords” she found a list of passwords for Lynette’s email files. Opening the folder on the desktop that held her name, she saw a large number of files. She clicked the file, “OpenThisFirst.” It was a letter to her from Lynette.

Lucky felt a surge of nausea hit her. Her heart began to pound. Inhaling deeply, she began reading Lynette’s letter. “To Lucky, If you are reading this letter, I am probably dead or missing. If I am not dead or missing, you should stop reading, shut down the laptop and get it back to me. If you can’t do that, then understand that this is not the way I wanted you to find out what is in this letter. There is a large part of me that is sorry the way things have been between us. There is also that core inside me that knows I couldn’t have changed things. It isn’t your fault that you and I have been estranged for so long now. It is mine. I have never been able to not be jealous of you. You were the big sister that always seemed to have what I wanted. And what I’ve wanted for years is your husband.” The words, “..for years...” struck Lucky like a bomb exploding inside her head. She felt the blood flow away from her brain. She stopped reading. She put her head between her legs, hoping she wouldn’t faint. Speaking to herself aloud, she repeated, “Don’t faint. Don’t faint.” The implications of what she had read sent cascading images of her life through her mind. From childhood with Lynette to her marriage to Dan. She remembered Dan’s strong denial when she had asked him if Lyn and he had an affair. Lucky’s mind raced through these images flowing rapidly through her brain. She had never considered a long affair. The thought that now gripped her mind was that she had been wrong about Dan. Dan must have killed Lynette. She felt the blood flow back into her brain. She brought her head up from between her knees to let it fall gently against the back of the chair. Her body felt weak. She tried to think and couldn’t focus her mind.

Trying to grasp some steadying influence in her memory, she sought refuge in something her father had said to her when she had been terribly afraid, “You can’t think when you are feeling afraid. If you can’t think, you can’t help yourself.” Taking a deep breath, Lucky cautioned herself to stop plunging into assumptions regarding her step-sister’s letter that implied a personal horror for her son, herself and her family. Lucky felt the calming effect of her father’s words and knew that she had to finish reading Lynette’s letter before she began to study it closely. She found herself thankful for Dan’s earlier words. They had brought her the first suspicion that Lynette and he had an affair. He unknowingly had provided some small merciful preparation for what she was now reading. Lynette’s words, “for years.” rolled around in Lucky’s brain. She lifted her head to stare at the letter once again, the words, “...for years...” tore at her and she sought to find an actual date in her past when their affair might have begun. She couldn’t find it. Returning to Lynette’s letter to her, she read, “I knew that you crossed-off my seductive behavior toward Dan before and after your marriage to my immaturity. You thought that I was shallow and uncontrolled in almost everything I did those days. Okay, maybe so. But Dan was the one man that kept coming back to haunt me. I never saw him for you. He isn’t like you. He is like me. Why you married him always puzzled me. You thought I didn’t marry before Jack Savage because I loved excitement and one man couldn’t keep that going for me. Maybe so... but it was Dan I wanted and I Knew that. It pissed me off that he had chosen you. He is an adrenaline junkie just like me. He was attracted to me before he married you. He knew that before you guys were a done deal. Why in the hell had he gone ahead and married you? I’ve asked myself that question countless times.” It crossed Lucky’s mind that Lyn may have been telling the truth, but not the whole truth. She wondered if she could find a way to separate Lynette’s fact from Lynette’s fiction. Lucky stopped reading for a few minutes and looked out toward the ocean, thinking that perhaps her step-sister did pick-up a reality about Dan that Lucky had not considered. The sister's estrangement happened early in Dan and Lucky’s marriage. Lucky thought the statement had a ring of truth which supported her step-sister's contention that their affair had been of long duration.

Lucky’s mind stumbled toward the reasons why she had married Dan. It entered her mind that she had married Dan because he had convinced her, he loved her and needed her. She had believed that he had shown her a vulnerability that he had not allowed others to see. It had strengthed their growing bond. Lucky brought memory after memory into view. They had fun together. Dan had talked of wanting children. She had thought, at the time, that her response to his determination that they marry had been because she had learned to love him. She had loved him. Dan could be persuasive when he wanted something badly enough. He had showered her with attention. When Nathan was born, he had been a good father. When the outbursts of anger emerged with new intensity, Lucky accepted that she had not thought of his anger issues as a “fix.” Lucky had seen only what they had appeared to serve. The way he used his voice, his angry outbursts, his powerful body language, had seemed to her, to be the way Dan controlled those around him. She hadn’t thought of him as an adrenaline junkie. “I wonder if Dan’s willingness to unleash his anger worked both as an adrenaline fix and as a way to control others,” she asked aloud. Lucky’s eyes went back to her step-sister’s letter. “Our relationship began before Nathan was born. Yes, that early! Dan was bored, as usual, and I was available (of course). It stopped for a while after he was born. Then it began again. You made it easier by moving to Paris! Your mistake was in letting him come back to New York alone! At some point, push came to shove and Dan wasn’t having it. He threatened me at one point that if I told you about us (which I never had any intention of doing), I would lose all access to him. Anyway.... it stopped for a while after I married Jack and yes, it began again.

By the way, I’m not going to apologize throughout this letter. That is not why I wrote it. My aim is to give you information that you haven’t had before now, in case I’m not around later.

There are many reasons why I want you to know these things. I may tell you some of the reasons. I may not. You may figure

them out. Right now I’m typing whatever comes to my mind because I’m going to a meeting with Dan at ‘our’ hotel and I don’t know if I’ll return. I am more stressed than usual because he is already very angry with me and I am going to apply more pressure for him to leave you. I’m tired of waiting. I’ll risk his rage, if I have to. You’ve seen his rage!

You may be wondering why I haven’t told you of our affair years ago. If you are thinking that, then you have never had a clue what makes me tick. Dan hasn’t understood this about me either. It would have been no victory for me to have told you. I knew that you would probably leave him if you knew about us, but you leaving him is not what I wanted, then or now. I want him to leave you for me! For you to have cast him out because of our affair would have meant that I got your leftovers!” Lucky felt tears well up into her eyes. She stopped reading. Shaking her head, she couldn’t understand the anger in her step-sister. Lynette had never gotten anything left over of Lucky’s. She had access to the monies from her own trust. Lucky wondered what was really behind this kind of anger. She hadn’t been able to understand Lyn for a long time. Lucky wondered if her mother and Ian had fought about her mother’s money. Had there been some jealousy, the child Lyn, had picked-up against Lucky’s family from her father? She had certainly been her father’s little girl.

It didn’t seem possible that the soft-spoken Ian Green had ever had problems with the financial differences between himself and her mother. They had lived well.

Lucky couldn’t believe that Ian had paid much attention to the source of his family’s comfort. She could see that it was possible that Lynette might have begun to feel deeply the financial contrast between Lucky’s father and her own father. Lynette could have felt the financial differences represented a demeaning distinction against her father’s image within her mother’s circle of family and friends.

Dan flashed before her eyes. The image of Dan, turned her toward the memory of her step-sister’s reaction to him, the first time they had met. She pictured Dan in that earlier time.

Lucky understood the pull that Dan would have had on her sister. Lynette had immediately reacted to him. It hadn’t surprised Lucky at the time. Dan was handsome. He had kept himself healthy and fit. He was an extrovert who loved nothing more than playing a crowd. He could be funny and inviting. Lucky had always seen this in Dan as the best side of his personality.

Lucky had seen many women attempt to seduce him. He had flirted openingly and outrageously at times. She had never felt threatened by any of them. Lucky had always believed that it hadn’t been another woman that had put their marriage in jeopardy... it had been his anger problems. If he had affairs, he had been a genius at hiding them.

Suddenly, Lucky wanted to laugh at the bitter irony in that thought. She was finding out fifteen years after the fact, that he had very effectively hidden at least one affair; a long-time affair with her stepsister, Lynette.

Lucky, feeling the weight of the painful years with Dan, asked herself, if she and Dan had lived the same life. Time seemed to hold still. Truth descended in a flash of clarity when she realized they had never lived the same life but had only occupied similiar levels of experience in their social and family environment.

Wandering around in her past with Dan, she considered the possibility if her blindness could be narrowed down to a more simple reality that she had not wanted to see any clue to his infidelity.

The longer she thought about Dan and Lyn together, the more Lucky couldn’t accept this reason for her ignorance of their long affair. Neither Dan nor Lynette were unintelligent or careless in arranging their lives. It seemed clear to her now that he had been extremely clever in the deceit.

Bringing herself back to a rational consistency of thought, she felt a determination grip her, to refuse to blame herself for their married life being filled with constant struggle. She had not been aware of what had been going on behind the scenes of her life with Dan because he had made certain she hadn’t seen it. Lucky told herself that the only person who is to blame for such deceit is the person doing the lying.

Her memory roamed back into the years of their marriage. She had always believed that It had been his anger issues, along with his need for control, that had thrown their marriage into an early crisis. Now it seemed that larger pressures had been acting within their marriage for a long time. Yet, he had stayed married to her. Lucky spoke into the room, “If Lyn is telling the truth now, why did Dan stay with me?”

Wondering if he had told her step-sister why he had stayed in their marriage, she went back to Lynette’s letter.

Lynette had continued: “I couldn’t figure out why Dan stayed with you. You two were in counseling for years. But, nothing I said or did shook Dan’s resolve to remain married to you. I thought for a while it was because of Nathan, but later I doubted that was the reason. He had nothing against divorce per se. He didn’t even like Paris. He had never wanted to leave New York. Did he tell YOU that? He told me! I went over our emails and our many fights trying to find some clue, some compelling reason for his choice not to leave you. Our sex was great! I’m not saying that to hurt you, just so you can see, there isn’t any real reason he shouldn’t have left you. I have as much money as you do. He enjoyed me. He admitted I was his 'high' many times! Yet, he stayed with you.” Lucky couldn’t read any more. She felt swallowed up whole. She didn’t recognize herself. She had recognized only bits and pieces of Lyn’s description of Dan. It had been enough to accept that the affair had happened.

Lucky went back in memory to when she and her step-sister had parted their ways. She couldn’t remember the exact date. Going over their marriage, she knew that Dan had never exposed his anger problem in front of Lynette when she had been around them early in their marriage. His difficulty in controlling his anger hadn’t emerged all at once. Lucky couldn’t remember one time during those early years that Dan had shown Lyn his anger problem when Lucky had been on the scene. The information Lynette had given about Dan’s anger issues were confirmation to Lucky that the affair had been of long duration. She shut down the computer and walked away from the table telling herself that she would finish reading it later. Lucky wanted to find some resolving certainty about Dan and their marriage. Her head felt full of rotating ideas, all pressuring her to look at each of them more closely. She slowly lowered herself on the bed.

Lucky placed a pillow under her head and tried to bring up early memories of their marriage. They had met at a street fair on a warm summer night. She couldn’t have missed him. He had been twenty feet away from her and taller than any of the people around him. She had always been attracted to tall men. She had caught him looking at her. He had made his way through the crowd to where she stood and introduced himself. They had begun dating and she learned that his parents owned a health food store in Manhatten. He had a college degree in business and he wanted to own a restaurant in New York. He had never been married. She had learned he was a man with ambition. She thought about what that word had actually meant to him. He had worked hard to get the restaurant up and running. It had been successful and in the early years he had talked about expanding into several more areas of New York. He had been fun to be around. She had liked his family. He had often remarked how long his parents had been together. “Through thick and thin.” he used to say. At the time, it had seemed to be a source of comfort to him or had it become a fundamental source of his personal and family pride, she wondered now. Lucky’s eyelids lowered. Her mind began to wander away from the past. She longed to escape what she had been reading. She fell asleep. An hour later, she woke with a start. Her cell-phone was ringing. Looking at the clock she saw that she had been asleep an hour.

Lucky glanced down to see if it could be Nathan calling. It was Dan. She felt a rush of anger that unrolled into an empty space where feeling is only a memory. She held the phone for long seconds. Lynette’s words about Dan intruded into her mind. She shut the volume off to her phone. She didn’t trust herself to talk to him. Placing the cell-phone back on its charger, she walked over to the kitchenette to make herself a cup of coffee. She would look at his message later. Maybe much later. ******* In New York, Dan snapped his cell-phone shut. He was angry that Lucky wouldn’t take his call. He had spent all morning attempting to get a loan for the restaurant. He hadn’t liked either manager he had talked to about a loan. Both of them had flipped through his accounting sheets too rapidly and seemed unimpressed with the early success the restaurant had achieved. They had seemed like twins, both of them had focused on questions for why the restaurant had lost money the last five years. They asked about the loan from Lynette, wanting to know what had prompted that loan and why it hadn’t improved the business more. Neither had seemed impressed with his answers to their questions. Dan wondered if he had been too brusque and impatient in his replies. They told him they would get back to him. He didn’t believe he'd get a loan from either bank. He thought of calling his father-inlaw. Seconds later he nixed that idea. He knew that his father-in-law would dig more deeply than either one of the loan managers. Feeling a helpless rage fly through him he made a supreme effort to focus on controlling it. Dan’s emotions escalated from a sweeping anger to an overriding drive to get to Lucky. He thought about flying back to California and hitting her suspicions about the affair with her step-sister, head-on. Phone calls would never do it. He had to be standing in front of her. Without proof of their affair, he believed that she might be able to be convinced that Lyn had long wanted an affair, but he had refused. She knew that Lynette had often been whimsical and vengeful when crossed.

The emerging view of his financial future without Lucky, repulsed him. Dan knew he would be able to find a job if the restaurant went into

bankruptcy. His years of experience would bring an opportunity. What he didn’t want to lose in his daily life was the prestige and deference that being a New York restaurateur and a marriage to Lucky had brought him in their social circle.

Dan had never been careful with his investment choices. He had known from the beginning of their marriage that Lucky’s grandfather had made sure that no husband of his granddaughters would have direct access to their trust-fund monies. It had been comforting to him that his wife would always have financial security. Their pre-nuptial agreement had been a necessity of the trust requirements.

Dan had enjoyed the expanded financial landscape that Lucky’s trustfund monies had allowed them to play on. Lynette was dead. Her trust monies had gone to Lucky. Starting over with a different woman did not appeal to him. He thought about a life without Lucky. Dan realized that Lucky and their son had provided him with an inner security amidst the familiar surroundings of everyday life, that he had never experienced outside their relationship.

Everything outside Lucky and his son had been mere bling. Dan had never had any regrets until now. For the most part, he had lived the fifteen years with Lucky on an adrenaline high.

Surveying the past, Dan remembered the years of getting the restaurant started as challenging and exciting. He liked coming out on top of any problem. He had wanted a life full of personal risk.

He had feasted on the seductiveness of any interaction with a beautiful woman. He had always known, if he’d had more free time, Lynette wouldn’t have been his only significant sexual affair. Dealing with her for years had been both exhilarating and exhausting, but timeconsuming.

Dan had seen the routine of life as a death sentence. The gambles he took within his daily life had brought with it secret pleasure and a sense of escape from the mundane.

He remembered only brief periods where it had crossed his mind that the affair might have been feeding a fundamental rage against any weakening or dismissal of his personal power with Lucky. He had never admitted to their marriage counselor that he'd been having an affair with Lynette.

He wondered now why he had never before had qualms regarding the choices that he had made. When years had passed without the affair being detected, his confidence had grown that nothing would change his life with his wife and his son. He had never been able to conceive of abandoning Lucky and Nathan under any circumstances.

To Dan, temporary emotional or sexual escapes had little to do with real faithfulness. He had told himself that he would never cross that line of permanent separation from his family. He had carried with him the certainty that Lucky and Nathan had been the only thing in his life that held lasting value.

******* In California, Jack Savage had walked back to his hotel suite lonely. He examined his feelings. Lady Luck had confused him. She had taken time with her California friends yesterday. The rest of the morning and most of this afternoon, she would be involved in something that could not include him. Whatever it was that she was going to do hadn’t appeared to have anything to do with her California friends. He thought if it had, she probably would have mentioned it. Jack knew that she owed him no explanation for anything she might decide to do or not do. He found himself wishing that such a bond of intimacy existed between them. During breakfast, she had appeared to Jack to be preoccupied and somewhat distant in spite of her initial warm welcome to him when they had met for breakfast. He toyed with the thought that she had formed new reservations about continuing to see him. He hoped that wasn’t it.

Jack Savage entered his hotel suite carrying a decision to look around the net to see if Lucky’s name would be brought up by a search engine. He also decided to search for art museums and art centers in Los Angeles County that exhibit Impressionist art. He was hoping she might enjoy exploring them with him at some point.

Opening his laptop, he typed in “Lucky Donavan, Impressionist art” and hit the enter key. He watched, as site after site, popped-up in the Yahoo search engine. Nothing came up that caught his attention as being connected to her.

He added, “New York” to the search terms. He found a New York gallery that carried several paintings by a Lucinda Donnellan. Jack liked the paintings. He read the brief description of the artist. “Born in the northeastern United States - A long-time New York resident.” Jack found no photo of the artist and clicked off the site.

“Donavan is not Donnellan,” he muttered aloud. Jack wondered if she hadn’t wanted her paintings to be placed on the net. He took more time to search for her name using different search engines but nothing came up that triggered a suggestion that his Lucky Donavan was on the world wide web.

He changed his search terms to “Impressionist art, Los Angeles.” Jack left his hotel suite carrying a list of addresses that would take him into the art culture that had seemed to be thriving within Los Angeles County.

****** Lucky glanced toward the clock. It was six hours before she would meet Jack. Realizing she hadn’t eaten lunch, she looked inside the refrigerator and found a quart of milk and an apple. She didn’t want to go down to the hotel restaurant.

Remembering a can of chicken soup on a shelf in the kitchenette, she found it, opened the can and poured its contents into a small bowl. Microwaving the bowl of soup, she poured herself a glass of milk and ate the heated soup, trying to concentrate on the ocean view from her hotel window, instead of what else might be on her step-sister’s computer.

After finishing the light lunch, Lucky wiped off the table and slid the laptop toward herself. Re-opening the file that held Lynette’s letter to her, she located the place where she had stopped reading.

Lynette had continued: “I married Jack Savage to get back at Dan. I know! I know! I’m a bitch! I thought finding out I was getting married would make Dan jealous enough to finally leave you. He didn’t. I thought I could give Jack some good memories and then if Dan left you, I would leave Jack. But, I had underestimated Jack. He worked hard to meet my needs. He was fun and romantic. He turned out to be more than I had expected, so much so, I didn’t contact Dan for almost two years.

Then I began to miss Dan. Jack couldn’t keep up with my requirements or by then he didn’t want to try anymore. The last two years of our marriage, Jack knew I was seeing someone. He never knew it was Dan. I didn’t talk about your family. Why should I have? Our social crowd had rarely been yours anyway. Dad liked Jack, but he didn’t talk about the Harrington family to him either. It was just a matter of time Jack would ask for a divorce and I knew it and expected it.

Don’t get me wrong, Jack is handsome and smart! I liked him. He is strong in a lot of ways; but he isn’t much like Dan. His sense of humor is more intellectual. Irony is a large part of his humor (I gave him some, huh? Only he didn’t think it was funny!). Dan’s humor is crude and slapsticky (as you know).

Jack’s love-making was terrific. My wanting Dan came from within me. When I think about Jack now, he makes me think of you in a lot of ways. Jack is poetic and kind. His button can rarely be pushed. He isn’t a push-over, BUT, he is no adrenaline junkie! He found peace fulfilling. Ugh! My God, I missed the “rush” --- I know what you are thinking, but peace isn’t my thing, Luck!!

Fate did us dirt!! I should have had Dan and you should have met Jack Savage before Dan. I’ll bet Jack Savage would have captured your attention. Too bad you didn’t get to meet him.”

Lucky covered her face with her hands, tears rolling down her face, thinking, “It had nothing to do with fate, Lyn”

When Lucky had read Lynette’s use of the nick-name “Luck” in place of “Lucky,” her step-sister had come to life. A confusing flow of emotion surged through her. The piercing emotion of loss struck her.

Lucky realized that she had missed the mischievous, playful always ready for adventure, Lynette of their youth. Shaking her head back and forth between her hands she wondered how Lynette had gone from that light-hearted, fun-loving youth to the adult who had become so obsessed with a need for constant attention and unrelieved stimulation that peace had seemed nothing more to her than a prison.

Lucky wondered what had convinced her step-sister that if Dan would have married her, that he would have been enough to fill her incessant need for drama. She didn’t believe that Dan could have taken Lynette on a daily basis.

She felt the searing hurt and quick anger at her step-sister’s behavior, yet, she couldn’t find it within herself to hate her. How could she blame her step-sister for Dan’s unwillingness to say no. She felt an overpowering sense of emptiness where once playful

little Lynette had stood within Lucky’s life, and yet in that place, would stand no more forever.

Lucky looked out to sea. She said in a whisper, “Lyn, I have finally met your peaceful, Jack Savage.” Lucky felt a deep sorrow for her step-sister shoot through her. She suspected that her stepsister’s life had once held gold and she had foolishly exchanged it for gloss.

Lucky wandered through conflicting emotions. Her mind resisted what Lynette had written. She didn’t want to think about Dan’s part in all this right now. She felt caught in a maze of contradictory family histories. “Which history is true,” she asked herself, aloud.

Turning away from the hotel window, she walked back to the table, “How can you drown without dying,” she thought. Chapter 7 [Use Right & Left Arrow Key To Center Page - then Down Arrow] Jack Savage opened the door of his hotel suite at 2:10P.M. He washed up and poured himself a glass of orange juice. Pulling up a chair near the window overlooking the ocean, he glanced toward the hotel’s swimming pool.

There were few people in or around it. He thought he saw a flash of blonde hair. Looking closer he saw that it was a blonde woman walking out from under the shade of the hotel’s canopy. She seemed familiar. He realized in seconds that it was Lucky.

Jack watched her stride to the edge of the pool, drop her towel, slide the beach robe off her shoulders and dive in. Jack wondered if she had finished with what she had been wanting to get done. He leaned forward in his chair to get a better view of the pool.

She was swimming fast, circling the pool without stopping to rest. His eyes followed her movements. He noticed that her body seemed taunt and driven as though she were angry.

“Something is wrong,” he muttered aloud.

Jack wished he had brought up the pair of binoculars he carried in his car. He wanted to look more closely at the expression on her face. He held himself back from going down to the pool area. The longer he watched her forceful swimming, the more his apprehension grew that she was battling something that had dismayed her. It didn’t take long before he had accepted that her swim had not been for simple pleasure.

Calming his sense of unease, he decided to watch her throughout her swimming activity, assuring himself that if anyone approached her who appeared unfriendly, he could get to her within minutes.

The picture below brought back the memory of their first encounter on the beach. Jack spoke softly to himself, “Lady Luck what is haunting you?” He wondered how long it would take for her to trust him enough to tell him.

Fifteen minutes earlier, Lucky had been sitting in her hotel suite thinking about Dan and Lynette. She had shut down the laptop not wanting to read more of her step-sister’s letter. Walking to the armchair, she had lowered herself into it. Her mind had attempted to grapple with all the new information in Lynette’s letter that had seemed to destroy all that she had thought had been true about her own life.

Lucky had felt a surge of anger rush through her. She had tried to relax the tightness in her jaw. Her teeth had been clamped so tightly together that they had begun to ache. She had jumped up from the chair and began pacing the floor. Lucky had gone over in her mind what she should do with this information. Her brain felt sluggish. She hadn't realized how long it would take to explore her step-sister’s computer.

It had crossed her mind that she could give up the idea of seeing Jack this evening, so she could keep at it. She had shut off this line of thinking quickly. Lucky had recognized that she couldn’t maintain the scrutiny of the laptop without frequent breaks.

Glancing out the window she had noticed that the hotel swimming pool had few people in the water or around it. Walking rapidly into the bathroom, she had taken off her clothes and put on her swimming suit.

Grabbing a towel and her beach robe she had left her suite hoping that she could reduce most of the tension building up in her by the time she met Jack for dinner.

*******

In New York, Dan had just walked through the door of the restaurant, when he was met by his distressed manager. Glenn said urgently, “We’ve got to talk.” Irritated at Glenn’s brusque manner in front of customers, Dan walked back toward the office with him, “Something new come up?”

“We’ve been threatened with a lawsuit from our meat supply distributor.”

Dan ran his fingers through his hair, “How does something move from being a holding-on strategy to a crisis in a matter of a couple of weeks?” Dan asked.

Glenn frowned, “Dan, we have been having this conversation for the last few years. What do you mean two weeks? The restaurant makes just enough money to keep going.... barely. It has been getting worse for months. The loan you put in the place three years ago wasn’t enough. That paid some back-debts but we didn’t make any real changes to the restaurant. We are behind on several invoices.”

Sighing, Glenn continued, “The bills just keep piling up. We haven’t paid the meat supplier in full for months. They aren’t going to continue extending such large amounts of credit. I’m convinced that it is just a matter of time before this place goes belly-up.”

Dan felt rage tear through him. His body stiffened, “Does this mean you are bailing?”

Glenn looked away from Dan’s eyes, “I can’t afford to continue much longer. The stress is killing me. To much of the running of this restaurant is like flying by the seat of our pants. It wears you down. My wife misses me if you know what I mean."

Looking at the ceiling, his eyes came back to meet Dan's angry stare, "I’m always thinking of this place. If you could find more money for the needed changes it could be a success again. But, that hasn’t happened. Sorry, Dan.”

“Are you giving me notice?”

Glenn sat down in his office chair, “No, not yet. But you gotta know I’ve been thinkin’ about it... a lot.”

Dan whirled around and stalked out of the office, slamming the door shut.

Striding toward his car, he jerked open the door, got in and jammed the key into the ignition. He drove out of the restaurant parking lot with a new sense of angry desperation.

Talking to himself, he said aloud, “I shouldn’t have gone to California. It took three weeks before she even got to Jack. The months arguing about Lyn’s death didn’t stop her. All that fighting did nothing to even slow her down. I should have been concentrating on the restaurant not her fuckin’ hare-brained ideas on how she was going to play detective.” He slammed his fist onto the steering wheel. ********

Lucky felt better after the swim.

She walked back to her suite feeling calmer. On entering the room, she glanced toward the clock. It read, 3:00P.M.

Speaking to an empty room, she said, “I’ve got three hours to focus on the laptop, an hour to relax and then clean up again before meeting Jack for dinner.”

Changing her swimsuit for bluejeans and a white blouse, she walked back toward the computer to continue her examination of its files. Once again, opening the letter to her from Lynette, she found her place and began reading. “Okay, I’ve got to wind this letter up. Time is moving! Bottom-line is that Jack did ask for the divorce. How could I blame him; I was ready for it. I want to say this, Luck, I am sorry for the fight between us. I thought it would serve what I wanted most.... and it did... but

there were a lot of times I wished we could laugh and talk like we used to do when we were kids. Right! I’m screwed (I know what you are thinking) ... but there you have it! That is what I wanted and still want. Life is too damn short! Who really understands sexual attraction? You know it when it happens! And it happened the moment I laid eyes on Dan! If you are reading this and I’m dead or missing, just know that I wanted you to have this computer before anyone else gets to it. Do what you want, Luck. Erase it all if you want to or expose the bastard! It’s been a long time coming!!!

Your Crazy Little Sister, Lyn P.S. Don’t say I’ve never done you a favor. I just did!” Lucky got up from the table. Walking toward the window she fought down early memories of Lynette. She was glad that she was through reading the personal letter to her from her step-sister. She looked out toward the ocean for several minutes, turned around, stretched, wiped the tears from her cheek and then walked over to the refrigerator and took out a small bottle of water.

Lucky spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the files on the laptop. She found a large number of emails, from Dan to Lyn and from Lyn to Dan, stored there. She began to read them.

They were explicit testimony to the long-duration of their affair. They were filled full of sexual memories and hints of more to come. Lucky found very few that made reference to her. She felt a brief moment of relief that Dan had at least not shared their intimacy with her step-sister in the emails.

Then, as if she had slapped herself awake, she said aloud, “As though that means a damn thing!”

In spite of a burdensome bitterness threatening to overwhelm her, she continued to open and close the sexually charged exchanges between her step-sister and her husband.

After a while, she felt herself losing grip on her control and got out of the file that held Lyn’s and Dan’s email. Making the decision to come back later, she closed the files suppressing the emergence of a smoldering rage.

She no longer felt like crying.

Lucky saw that she had an hour before she would call Jack to make plans to connect. Shutting down the laptop, she walked over the side of the bed and sat down. Trying not to think about Lynette or Dan, she picked up the television remote and clicked on the television set.

Lifting her legs onto the bed, she pushed a pillow under her head. She told herself to try to relax before she got dressed for the evening.

The hour went by quickly. She couldn't remember anything that had been on television. Taking out Jack’s business card, Lucky dialed his cell-phone.

“Hello.”

“Jack! Will you be back to the hotel in an hour?”

He chuckled, “I’ve been back. Do you want to meet in an hour? That’s fine with me.”

“That would work. I’ll see you then?” She heard him say, “Great!” She smiled and and punched out of the call.

Walking toward the rack where her clothes were hanging, she looked through them.

Lucky suddenly wanted to be the sexiest woman Jack Savage would see tonight. The Lobby Lucky took his breath away. She seemed to glide through the entrance-way on air. She wore a shimmering black silk dress that exposed a promising sensuality as it caressed the curve of her hips with each step she took. Small sparkling earrings dangled from her ears. Her blonde hair, brushed away from her face, moved slightly with the stirring of the breeze around her. The neckline of the dress presented an alluring exposure of a portion of her breasts.

His eyes embraced the fullness of her womanhood from the top of her head, down through the feminine contours of her body, to her shapely legs in the black hose, which blended together in a single unit of loveliness.

He thought her extraordinarily beautiful from the top of her head to the toes of the black high heels which brought her to him. His heart began beating rapidly. He wondered if she could see its movement inside his chest. He glanced away from her seeking a steadying emotion.

Lucky felt an exciting thrill shoot its way into the depth of her body the closer she got to Jack. She felt a flowing warmth of his sexual attraction penetrate the deepest part of her. His masculine presence overwhelmed every memory of another man’s attracting influence.

His white shirt over the powerful chest, sleeves rolled up, the shirt opened at the collar, his hands loosely placed in the side pockets of his slacks, his welcoming gaze, all provided her internalized pain a comforting affirmation that she continued to be that woman who she had once longed herself to be.

Jack’s expression told her that years of Dan’s deceit had not redefined who she had always been; an attractive, intelligent woman worthy to be loved. She came to a stop directly in front of him.

For seconds he couldn’t move. He didn’t want to move. He felt pinned to the floor. Smiling up at him, she placed her right hand gently on his chest, lightly rubbing the bareness of his skin at the opened collar with her forefinger. Looking up into his eyes, she said softly, “Hello, Mr. Jack Savage.”

He drew in a shuddering breath. Looking down into her face their eyes locked in an intense recognition of their powerful attraction for each other.

Leaning down, he brushed his lips across her cheek to say in a gentle tone that seemed to welcome her into himself, “Hello, My Lady Luck...”

Jack marveled at the transformation that seemed to have taken place in her. He wondered what had happened within the last few hours that had changed a woman who had appeared to be struggling with some underlying suffering into such a vision of peaceful loveliness.

He quickly looked at the idea that what he had just experienced was not real.

“But if it isn’t real,” he asked himself, “...what role is she playing and why?” Jack moved his thoughts back to the moment. “Would you like to have dinner here and then go dancing? The Centerfield Nightclub at Huntington Beach have a live band tonight.”

Lucky smiled, “I’d like that.”

Walking with her toward the hotel restaurant, Jack glanced down at her. “You know more about me than I do you. I hope you will tell me more about yourself.”

Lucky wasn’t surprised that he had brought the focus back to her. She knew that he had to have been aware that she had been avoiding details about herself. She had been surprised that it hadn’t come sooner. They had spent hours together. His restraint had surprised her. She concluded that his time for leaving for Wyoming must be moving in on them.

Lucky wondered how long she could put off the personal questions about herself and move him toward further disclosure of his marriage to her step-sister. When they entered the restaurant they were escorted to a small table for two.

Jack made a quick survey of the room and saw that the tables with an ocean view were already occupied. Their table, situated at the far side of the room, had been positioned out of the flow of customer traffic. This placement allowed greater privacy for its occupants.

Jack pulled out a chair for her and walked to the opposite side of the table. Bringing out his chair, he sat down. Placing a menu in front of each of them the host turned to Jack, “When you are ready to order, please signal your waiter.” Jack nodded.

Lucky opened the menu. Her mind took quick assessment of Jack’s decision to sit across from her. His words to her while walking toward the restaurant had seemed to her somewhat provocative. She thought that he had made a decision not to wait any longer about finding out more about her. He was now openly seeking more indepth information.

Looking at him, she wondered if there had been an underlying strategy in his choice of sitting across from her. He hadn’t made the decision to sit beside her this time.

To Lucky, it had brought a new unease to the moment. It forced her back to the real reason why she was sitting across from Jack Savage. She felt caught in her own trap. She asked herself if she wanted out of it.

Lucky now found herself weighting the consequences of admitting who she was to Jack Savage. Would he be so offended that he simply would walk away from her and never look back? Her mind whirled with the attempt to find an answer to her own questions.

Every choice that she would make from now on impinged on the question about Dan. Had he killed Lynette? If Dan had killed her, then telling Jack Savage the truth about her relationship to Lynette, could be nothing more than explaining why she had approached him in the manner she had chosen. She went over the possibility that if he were an innocent man, he might find the entire situation amusing.

Lucky stared at the menu without seeing the words. Her mind stayed on the implications in her step-sister’s letter that Dan might have become enraged enough to kill her.

Lucky couldn’t shake off the feeling that Dan would not have murdered her step-sister.

She had explored the possible motives for Dan. He had always known she would inherit Lynette’s trust-fund monies. Yet, Lucky couldn’t see this as benefiting Dan. She had her own trust-fund monies. She couldn’t grasp that he would have killed her step-sister because she threatened to tell Lucky about their affair.

No matter how long she had looked at Dan as the possible killer, she couldn’t find a strong enough motive for him to murder Lynette. Money

is often the motive behind murder, she had told herself, yet, she could find no reason that Dan would be desperate for money.

Every area of examination had problems for her. The more she thought about the situation she had created with Jack Savage, reluctance to admit to him who she was, held onto her. If Dan hadn’t killed her step-sister then Jack might have killed Lynette after all.

Lucky knew within a fresh significance that their intense attraction to each other had only made her situation more dangerous.

Jack shut his menu and waited for Lucky to close hers. He surveyed the room without focusing closely on the things that crossed his vision, thinking how beautiful and inviting, she looked tonight.

Lucky lifted her eyes from the menu. She told him her preference. Jack turned his head toward the waiter and nodded.

After ordering, he smiled, “Tell me about yourself?”

Her eyes met his, “That might take longer than you have time to give.” A twinkle flared-up in his brown eyes, “Begin and we’ll see...”

The sparkle in his eyes, the way he held his head and the amused tone of his voice rushed a remembered screen moment of Timothy Dalton, the actor, into her memory. She thought that Jack was built on a more muscular frame but he reminded her strongly of the handsome Dalton. Coming back to the moment, she felt a brief flow of relief that he had not asked a more pointed question.

“For the most part, I liked my childhood. We lived in a safe and comfortable environment. We did the ordinary things that most families do. I was fortunate in having a protective Nanny until I was a teen-ager.

She became a friend for life. It was her interest in the art world that began my amateur painting effort. Family life brings many changes, but my parents made an early choice to not expose their disagreements in front of me and so I never had to endure open battles or hurtful words as many children endure today in broken families.”

“Broken families?” Jack asked.

“When I was five, they divorced. I loved them both. They each told me what had been happening between them and I cried not really understanding anything, but that my father would not be around our home as often as before the divorce. I missed him... often. But, in the final analysis, they were both kind people and were never cruel to each other in their parting. They were always supportive of me.”

Jack reached out and touched her hand, “What a fine set of parents. I’m glad, Lucky.”

She choked back tears, surprised they were so close to the surface, “Thank you, Jack.”

He wanted to walk around the table and take her into his arms. He didn't. He wondered about moving the conversation to another subject. Something inside him resisted. He asked her, “How old were you when you moved to New York?”

The waiter approached their table and placed their meal in front of them, asking if they would like anything else.

Jack replied, “We’re fine. Thank you." The waiter nodded and returned to his station. Jack and Lucky ate their meal in silence for a few minutes. Then Jack asked again, “How old were you when you moved to New York?”

"I was fifteen. I had to learn to love New York. For a long time, I hated the crowds. I disliked the enormous buildings that seemed to swallow up the sky."

She stopped speaking.

He waited, wondering if she would continue. Within seconds she had begun talking again, "The bustle of the city seemed endless. Central Park had been allowed to deteriorate. Now there is a conservatory for its repair and update. The longer I experienced life there, the more I came to admire many of the people who lived and worked in the city. The vibrant culture of the arts and sciences hooked me. It finally became home.”

She glanced away from his gaze and back, “You lived there for quite a while, right? What do you think of New York?”

“My view isn’t as complimentary as yours. And, I agree, there isn’t any way to dismiss the importance of New York. It is a major center of human culture and contribution to the arts and sciences. It is also the world center for commerce on many levels. Yes... the city never sleeps.”

He looked down at his plate and then brought his eyes back up to meet hers, “I suppose the work with my brokerage firm required... or I allowed too many of those long hours at the office. I’m sure I didn’t take enough time to explore the New York that you love.”

She thought about her step-sister’s reaction to those long hours he spoke about. She felt a renewed sense that she had barely scratched the surface of who Jack Savage is. She wanted to know more about him.

Lucky found herself resisting bringing the focus back to Jack and wondered briefly if she unconsciously wanted him to find out more about

her life. They fell into a comfortable silence while they finished their meal.

At Huntington Beach, they strolled around taking in the activity all around them. They could hear the music pouring out of the Hurricanes Bar and Grill and spoke of stopping in at some point during their time here.

Women looked admiringly at Jack. Two men walking together nudged each other when they approached Lucky. When it happened in quick sequence, Jack and Lucky burst out laughing looking at each other approvingly. Leaning over to her, Jack said, “We make a stunning couple.”

Entering the Centerfield Nightclub, they could see that the dance floor was full of couples jiving to the blues beat. Jack paid the cover price, picked out a small table and pulled out a chair for her, “Would you like a drink?”

“Maybe later?”

Jack nodded.

They listened to the live dance band playing the blues, “Angel Eyes” and “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.” When the band began to play, “A Kiss To build A Dream On,” Jack, seeing that the dance floor had opened up, reached for her hand. She placed her hand in his and they walked out onto the dance floor.

The words, “Give me a kiss to build a dream on... And my imagination will thrive upon that kiss.... Sweetheart, I ask no more than this.... A kiss to build a dream on..,” flowed out toward them.

She stepped into his arms. He held her close, moving to the rhythm of the music, thinking he could dance with her for the rest of his life.

She experienced an extraordinary and exquisite sense of belonging. Lucky was afraid to look at him. His body thrilled her. He held her tightly against himself. She fought the impulse to reach up and unbutton his shirt so that she could gently intrude her hand under its cloth to feel the firm flesh of his chest under her fingers. It floated through her mind that dancing with Jack was like experiencing sexual foreplay while in a public place.

The words of the song seemed to fall on them like tiny drops of stardust carrying mystical enchantments, “Give me a kiss before you leave me... And my imagination will feed my hungry heart.... leave me one thing before we part.... A kiss to build a dream on....”

The music drifted through its final refrain. Jack felt a firm tap on his right shoulder and a deep male voice say, “”How is it possible that the love of my life is in someone else’s arms?”

Jack turned around to see the man who had wanted to dance with Lucky at Rusty’s Surf Ranch. He was staring intently at Lucky. Jack said quietly, “Well... if it isn’t the under-age drinker from Rusty’s.”

The man frowned and turned toward Jack. His body stiffened. He pushed his face closer to Jack’s, “Haven’t had a drink tonight, Dude!.... and I’m not underage, ‘Dad!’”

Lucky took in his appearance, tone of voice and his words. He was dressed in a light brown shirt, dark brown dress pants, dark loafers and he was sober.

Hearing an edge to his voice, she asked him lightly, “ ‘Dad?’ I thought you said age is just a number?”

He turned back toward her, offering his hand, smiling, “Dave.” When she didn’t accept his offer of a hand-shake, he tipped an invisible hat to her as though to tell her she had remembered his words correctly, “Will you dance with me? I’m sober tonight.”

Lucky smiled toward Jack, “I’m dancing with this man.” Lucky’s pointed pronouncement of the words, “...this man..” didn’t escape Dave’s notice.

Jack felt a rush of boyish pleasure. He thought he saw a flash of irritation in Dave's eyes when Lucky had given her answer to him.

Unexpectedly, Dave laughed, “I deserve that..., Foxy Lady! I did drink too much at Rusty’s. I apologize for my behavior.”

She laughed, “Accepted.”

Dave turned away from Lucky to walk back toward his table. Walking by Jack, he leaned toward him and whispered, “My God!” Jack didn’t miss the sound of awe in his voice. Jack responded with a low, deepthroated chuckle .

Jack leaned toward Lucky, “You're my kind of woman.” Not replying directly, she smiled, “Did you think for a moment he might hit you?”

He shrugged, “I couldn’t tell what he was going to do.” His eyes carried a smile, “Actually, I think he is a nice guy. I know he has great taste in women.” She hugged the pleasure of his compliment to herself.

Lucky said, “You know he is right? He is a man.”

Jack laughed lightly, “I know.”

Curious about how Jack would have responded if this man would have pushed him, she asked, “Would you have fought him if he would have started something?”

Jack buried his curiosity for why she had asked the question. Drawing her closer he whispered into her ear, “Maybe... The way I see it, fighting because you don’t like some comment, is stupid... I only use force in self-defense or to protect someone else. Using your brains, not your fists, should be the first response, shouldn’t it?”

She rested her head on his shoulder, “I’m glad.” Flashes of Dan erupting in a public anger had flashed into her mind when Dave had confronted Jack. She had experienced a familiar flow of fear. Living on thin ice, isn’t fun. When Dan’s anger had been triggered, he had rarely considered that people in a public place have a right to enjoy their space in peace.

Jack and Lucky strolled back toward their table. Instead of sitting down in her chair, she looked around the room for the Ladies Rest Room, spotted the sign and then turned to Jack, “I’ll be right back.”

His eyes followed hers. He nodded, “Would you like me to walk you through the crowd?” Her eyes held happy amusement, “I’ll make it, thanks.”

He watched her. She seemed unaware of her own seductive appeal. When she passed the tables toward her destination, whistles and several male compliments showed attempted approach by men to her. The comments were restrained and playful. He relaxed.

Lucky came out of the Ladies Room just as the the band began playing, “Banana Split For My Baby.” Walking toward Jack, she could see that he was standing by their table talking to a tall, sharply-dressed black woman.

When Lucky approached them, the woman turned toward her and asked in a liquid voice, “Does this Tiger belong to you, Sweetie?”

Lucky laughed, “Not exactly.”

She purred, “Well, Darlin’ -- if I came here with this -- I would NEVER leave him alone.” She reached out and touched Jack’s shoulder, running her fingers caressingly down his arm. Turning, she winked at Lucky and strolled away with one eyebrow raised and a backward longingly head-totoe look at Jack.

“Did she try to pick you up?”

"Yes, but I told her that I already had a Lady.”

Lucky looked up into his eyes, “You do, don’t you?”

They held the look between them for long seconds. He fought the desire to kiss her. Lucky held herself back from placing her lips to his. They spent the rest of the evening in light conversation, dancing occasionally whenever the music fit their mood. The longer the evening wore on, Lucky felt torn between her enjoyment of time with Jack and the constant awareness that what was taking place between them had all been based on lies. Jack was feeling restive. He recognized how easily it had become to be in the same space with Lucky within a rich contentment. Since he met her, he had been gathering their growing intimacy into an inner sanctum where he had placed no one else. Jack couldn't shake the

questions about their first encounter on the beach. It had become a cautionary signal for him to go slower with her. Looking at the clock, Jack saw that it was 1:00A.M. The music had stopped playing. The band stopped playing to take a fifteen minute break. He asked Lucky if she wanted to leave. She said, “One more dance...?” He nodded and smiled. He had been hoping she would feel that way too. Fifteen minutes later the band returned and took their seats. Looking toward them, Jack got up from his chair and said, “I’ll be right back.”

Her eyes followed him. He walked over to the band leader. After talking to him for a few seconds, he turned around and came back to their table. The band leader spoke into the microphone, “This one’s for Lucky. ‘No More Cloudy Days.’ "

He started to turn back toward the band then abruptly came back to the microphone. Looking around the room, he smiled, "I heard the Eagles' Glenn Frey sing this song. Copyright is held by Red Cloud Music. You'll like it!"

The music floated through the room. Couples began walking onto the dance floor. She smiled her thank you. Dancing close to him, she leaned her head against his shoulder experiencing a comforting sense of belonging unroll itself within her.

The words, “Sittin by a foggy window.... starin’ at the pourin rain.... fallin’ down like lonely teardrops.... memories of love in vein...” brought back the memory of broken dreams that had been smashed long before she had known they had never been real.

“These cloudy days... make you wanna cry.... it breaks your heart when someone leaves... and you don’t know why..,” brought back to Jack, Lynette becoming increasingly distant over several months and finally confessing that she had been having an affair for two years.

“I can see that you’ve been hurt... Baby I’ve been lonely too.... I’ve been out here lost and searchin’... lookin’ for a girl like you...” When the words, “Lookin’ for a girl like you...” reached them, Jack slid his hand from her waist to her upper back in a gentle caress. Lucky felt tears promise to make an entrance into her eyes.

“Now I believe.... the sun is gonna shine... don’t you be afraid to love again... put your hand in mine...” Jack squeezed her hand gently. Lucky struggled to keep back the tears when the words, “Baby, I would never make you cry.... I would never make you blue.... I would never let you down... I would never be untrue....” soared through the room toward them.

Jack lowered his head and pressed his lips against her ear, singing along softly, “I know a place where we can go... where true love always stays... there’s no more stormy nights.... no more cloudy days....”

Lucky felt the tears begin to overflow. She didn’t wipe them away. Jack felt his shirt become wet with her tears. He fought down his own, holding her closer. He couldn’t keep singing along and listened in silence, “I believe in second chances... I believe in angels too... I believe in new romances... Baby, I believe in you...”

Giving-in to his desire, he put his hand under her chin, lifting her face slowly toward his. Their dancing slowed to a stop. Their eyes met. With tears still flowing down her face, he kissed her. Lucky felt suspended in time. Jack heard Dave's voice faintly above the sounds of music, “Kiss her again for me.” So, he did. A light laughter rippled through the nearby dancers. They began to dance again. She pressed her face against his shoulder with the words, “These cloudy days.... are comin’ to an end.... and you don’t have to be afraid... to fall in love again...” igniting a small glimmer of something that felt like hope in her. When the last refrain of the song began, Jack knew he needed to think of some way to find out what was going on with his Lady Luck, soon.

Letting the words of the song say it to her, they finished the dance, “Baby I would never make you cry.... I would never make you blue... I would never turn away... I would never be untrue... I know a place where we can go... where true love always stays.... no more stormy nights... no more cloudy days...” They walked to the car in silence. During their drive back to the hotel, Jack examined his options. His vacation time was coming to an end. He could stay in California longer, but work waited for him back at the ranch. The laptop offered quick access to computer-stored information, but he wasn’t comfortable committing to working while on the road. He didn’t want to use his cell-phone for business calls. It would take him two or three days to drive the thousand miles back to his ranch. He wandered around in his mind looking for a way to get past her resistance to trusting him. Lucky leaned back against the head-rest, the memory of their last dance remaining with her. A deep, haunting sadness threatened to overcome that brief moment of hope she had experienced on the dance floor. Glancing toward Jack, she watched him for several seconds thinking how serious he now looked. The memory of her dead step-sister floated up between them. The thought went through her that she needed to explore more of Lyn’s computer before she continued this relationship with Jack Savage. Close behind, came the idea that she had been more content in her ignorance of who killed Lynette, than she was right now. Everything seemed so much more complex than it had when she first decided to find out more about her step-sister’s failed marriage to Jack. Lucky saw that her stubbornness had been bearing fruit that frightened her. Perhaps Dan had been right, she should have let ‘well-enough’ alone.

Her thoughts swung between a pendulum of doubts. Only it hadn’t been ‘well-enough,’ she reminded herself. She knew now, why Dan hadn’t wanted her to continue looking into her step-sister’s life. He knew that if she found Lynette’s computer, she would also find copies of his emails on it. This proof of his long-time affair would certainly add more incentive for the police to look into Lynette’s death. At the moment, she wondered if she wanted them to have it. An affair isn’t proof of murder or that Dan had killed Lyn, she told herself. She glanced toward Jack again thinking how fast things can change in life.

What she had never expected was her reaction to Jack Savage. At the hotel, Jack walked her to the elevator. When it opened, she stepped inside. She turned around and smiled at him. The doors clicked to begin its closing sequence. Without warning, she reached out and drew him toward her. She punched the fourth floor button. Jack felt his heart jump. During the ride up, she leaned against him. He put his arms around her. Silence rode up to the fourth floor with them. When the elevator stopped, she took his hand and they stepped out of the elevator. At the door of her suite, he put his arms around her. She looked up into his eyes, placed her fingers to his lips and turned back toward the door. Opening it, she smiled and once again reached for his hand and drew him inside the room. The door closed behind them. Surprised, Jack realized that he had believed that she had been allowing a more simple privilege than what had just happened. Without speaking, she looked into his eyes. She could see a question in them. He felt fixed in space and time. She reached up and drew his head down toward her face and brought her mouth up to meet his. Jack felt his body surge with sexual hunger as passion swept through him. She moaned in sweet acceptance as his lips moved over hers. He drew the pleasure of her responding mouth into the deepest part of himself. He gently kissed her neck, the side of her mouth, her cheek, rushing back to capture her lips in a welcoming surrender to their mounting passion. Lucky began unbuttoning his shirt. His left hand caressed her neck. His fingers moved up into her hair. His right hand slid down into her lower back pressing her pelvis deeper into his. She thrust her hips up to move against his hardness. Their clothes were fences. She longed for him to lift her up and put her on the bed. She wanted his clothes off his body. The urgency in the movement of her hands were sending electrifying shivers through his body. He felt a rush of wanting her within a breathless waiting of expectation for her full acceptance of him. In a split-second an unexpected caution shot through him. He fought to ignore it. Unable to let it go, he felt his body begin to shake, fighting the rising passion. He struggled to stop the escalating desire spreading throughout his body. He slowly entangled his fingers in her hair, tightening their grip.

With a great streadying effort his body came back under his control. The fingers entangled in her hair, gently draw back her head so that her eyes met his, he whispered, “I can’t do this.” Only moments ago, Lucky had reached the final button on his shirt. As though he had not spoken, she had opened the shirt, placing both hands against his bare chest. Running her eager fingers across the firm flesh, she had delighted in the fire spreading throughout her body. She had felt his body begin to shake. His hard erection against her body fed her mounting desire. It had sent her heart racing, inflaming her soaring need into a driving thirst. Her body had weakened as desire met her longing to explore every part of his body. She had longed for his hands to claim her own body.

His words, “I can’t do this,” seemed to be traveling down a long, hollow, echoing tube to where they stood together. She had not been able to distinquish the words from meaningless sounds. Her mind had felt sluggish, preoccupied. The feeling that she had just been shakened awake from a strange surreal dream swept over her. Jack had stopped kissing her, waiting for her to respond to what he had said. His body had become still. Her fingers had slowly touched his face as though she were checking to see if he were real. She had tried to think, “I don’t... understand... What do you mean?” When she had placed her hands on his chest, her fingers caressing his body had set ablaze his need to have her. He had desperately wanted to experience their flesh uniting in passion. He had longed for her full surrender within an eager acceptance. The caution had come without warning. Jack had felt his brain attempt to take over his body. An alert had swept into the moment between them. He had forced himself to beat down a desire to pick her up and place her on the bed to finish what their passion had ignited. Lucky, not understanding what had happened to Jack, reached up to draw his head back toward her face as though she had not spoken aloud. She longed to have him kiss her until he claimed all of her for himself. She wanted back into the dream that had almost disappeared a moment ago. His fingers tighten his hold on her hair. Lucky urgently moved her body against Jack’s, “What is wrong. I thought you wanted me.” Steadying his breathing, he touched her face gently with his fingers, “I do.”

His now silent stillness seemed a rejection of what she had been offering him. His words had dampened the fire building between them. Her mind struggled to understand what his sudden quietness meant. His behavior seemed to her, to be a repudiation of what had been taking place between them from the moment they had met. Within the space of a few days the inexplicable had exploded once again in her face. Her life with Dan crashed into the moment like a cascading avalanche. The fifteen years of Dan's lies, had made her kept vows of faithfulness to him, meaningless. Her resistance to sexual experiences outside her marriage, now appeared ludicrous. Anger and grief that her step-sister had been an accomplice in her marriage being void of meaning fell over her. She wanted to be unfaithful to Dan. She wanted to smash all the years of faithfulness to Dan within one exploding, annihilating moment. Lucky felt an overpowering rage erupt inside her. An internal scream soared through her mind wiping out everything with Dan into the unreal that it had been. She pushed Jack away from her, crying out, “You’re a liar! Get out! Get out!” Jack felt grief pouring into the room like molten metal. He reached out for her. She slapped his hands away. He grabbed her and held her tightly to himself. She struggled to become free. The more she fought the tighter he held her. Slowly, he felt her weaken in his arms. Tears welled up in her eyes and rolled down her cheeks unchecked. Jack felt her shudder. He saw her lose final control of the deep sobs that had been imprisoned inside her. It seemed to Jack that some terrible pain had exploded outward from an internal private cavern of stored suffering. Through her sobbing he heard her cry out, “You don’t want me.... you are just another lying bastard!” Tears surfaced in his eyes. He picked her up in his arms and walked to the large armchair. He lowered them down into it, cradling her on his lap. He placed his lips against her face and whispered, “I do want you. I’ve wanted you from the first moment I saw you.” She covered her face with her hands, shaking her head back and forth, “No... No...” A gathering sense of outrage made its way into his brain. “You are just another lying bastard.” She had cried out. Jack felt helpless in his lack of information about her. He felt that she must have been thinking

about a man who had caused her to profoundly doubt her own value. Jack wanted to pound this guy in the dust and grind the dust to finer particles until nothing was left. His jaw ached. He spoke gently to her, “Lucky, you misunderstand what just happened between us. There was a time when nothing would have stopped me from taking what I wanted.” She didn’t look at him. The words, “There was a time...” floated alongside the tears. She had heard these words from Jack before. What did they mean, she asked herself fleetingly. Long minutes later, her sobbing slowed. Her fingers clinging to a corner of his opened shirt brought a portion of it up to press against her tears. He chuckled softly, “I knew this shirt was more than just another handsome face.” Embarrassed, she glanced up, dropping the corner of his shirt. She slowly smiled sheepishly when she saw the laughter hiding in his eyes. He brought the corner of his shirt back up and wiped her tears away. His easy kindness seemed to melt her frozen pain. Jack weighted his words carefully, “I want our bodies to be shared for the right reason.” Sighing deeply, he glanced at her, “Why do I feel something else is going on inside you?” Shock ran through Lucky. Jack looked into her eyes for long moments, “I knew something was out of sync the day we met. Beautiful women don’t usually run along the beach as though they are running away from someone and then backtrack to a stranger without providing a rational explanation for their behavior.” Lucky lowered her eyes. “When we met again in the restaurant, I couldn’t walk away from you. I thought about it. I’m glad I didn’t. The evening turned out to be extraordinarily wonderful. I’ll never forget it.”

Jack’s eyes sought hers again, “I felt chosen by you for something. I just didn’t know for what..... I still don’t.” Lucky remained silent. He spoke again, “I’ll never forget you, Lady Luck, regardless what your choices turn out to be from here on in.”

Leaning his head against the back of the chair, he finished, “When you wouldn’t see me this morning, I wondered if you had changed your mind about me. It crossed my mind during those hours without you that you were now regretting whatever motivation that prompted you to approach me in the first place. I thought you were going to walk away for good.” Lucky covered her face with her hands, turning her head back and forth in silent denial.

Bringing his head up, he saw her denial. He felt a reaffirming pleasure mingle with his lack of understanding, “I came back to the hotel early today. I saw you enter the swimming pool area. I pulled up a chair near the window overlooking the pool area in my room and watched you. Lucky, you were not swimming for pleasure.” Lucky peeked a glance at his face. He was looking directly at her. Jack lowered the side of his face against her hair, “I wish you would trust me and tell me what is going on. Maybe I can help.” Tears threatened to begin again and Lucky couldn’t speak. Silence hovered between them. Then, she said haltingly, “Jack... I can’t tell you. I’m sorry.” Relieved that she had not denied that something deeply troubling was happening to her, he said, “I’ve been wanting to ask you this. Why don’t you cut this California vacation short and come with me to Wyoming. You might enjoy the ranch. You may even learn to trust me.” She was no longer looking at him. He finished, “You said that you have three months before you go back to New York. Let’s use that time for us.” Slowly raising her face to his again, she said, “Jack, I have only known you for a few days.” He smiled, “We have been together over thirty-two hours of the four days we’ve known each other. That is equivalent to sixty-four days of intimate connection between the average married couple today.” Jack’s words placed her back inside an ordinary world. She tried to focus on what he had just told her. A look of skepticism swept across her face, “What do you mean?” Leaning his head back, he stared at ceiling, “ I read that married couples spend an average of half an hour a day in intimate connection.

Real connection. Sharing intimacy..... looking into each other’s eyes, walking together, talking together, love-making. Doesn’t that mean that I have known you over two months?”

Bringing his gaze back down toward her, he finished his thought, “Some people get married after knowing each other two months.” She hid her face in his shirt. She felt a relieving child-like desire to giggle.

Suppressing the urge, Lucky brought her face up to his again and whispered, “You are an incredibly wonderful man,” and pressed her lips to his mouth. He fought a renewed yearning to have her, surge through him. Instead of acting on the resurrected desire, he lifted himself from the chair with Lucky in his arms. He lowered her to a standing position in front of him. His arms around her, he said, “Please, think about what I’ve suggested? Call me when you are willing to see me. I’ll come.” He kissed her within a new restraint. She sensed that inside this moment, he was not going to risk arousing her. Looking at him, she realized she was glad the evening had ended as it had. A rising thought met the years of Dan’s unfaithfulness on better grounds. She understood now that she had meant tonight to be the ultimate destruction of her years of faithfulness to Dan. Jack seemed to have understood her better than she had understood herself. She accepted the truth making its way through her mind that she had been offering herself to Jack Savage within the desperate need to destroy all her years of faithfulness to her unfaithful husband. She had wanted to use Jack Savage to repudiate Dan. She felt a penetrating question pierce the moment. Had Jack not been willing to share a night of passionate sexuality when he had not been the all-encompassing focus of her desire? Had he wanted her for himself, alone, she wondered. If they would have shared their sexuality tonight she knew that Dan would have been in bed with them. Her mind sought some directive insight she couldn’t find. Jack didn’t know she was married. She experienced a sense of wonder. She tried to find her way into the mind of Jack Savage and how he could have known that her husband would have been between them in their love-making.

Her mind struggled to comprehend the depth of this virile man who had wanted her within a passionate longing, yet who had appeared to have rejected her body, so that he could place her on his own throne. Closing the door, Jack walked out into the hotel hallway gripped by the correctness of his choice in stopping their rising passion. His body called him a liar. With the entrance of Lucky into his life a reckoning seemed to have come to him. He felt as though she had entered into the substance of who he had chosen to be. He didn’t want to share her with any man, past or present. He wanted her within an excruciating exactness.

He felt haunted by what he didn’t know about her. An earlier frustration mingled with the new information he had learned tonight. She was suffering. It had brought only a slightly larger view of her life. He walked toward his hotel suite, going over what he thought he knew about her. Married at least once. She had mentioned her son, Nathan. Her father is alive. She is a beautiful, intelligent and creative woman. He felt punished by not knowing about the relationship with the man who had been her husband or other men she might have once loved. What he thought he knew kept stumbling over what he didn’t know. She had admitted to him that something painful was taking place in her life but she was unwilling to explain any of it to him. It was clear to Jack that whatever it was, it had filled her with an underlying anger which had culminated in a tremendous sorrow. “Or is it the other way around,” he asked himself aloud. He wondered where he fit into the picture of her life that she was painting now. In spite of knowing so little about her, the idea that he did fit into her life, wouldn't let him alone.

Chapter 8 [Use Right & Left Arrow Key To Center Page - then Down Arrow]

In New York, Dan had spent the day trying to make a decision about the restaurant. The last four days had brought an increasing sense that

things were spiraling out of control. He wasn’t getting enough sleep. He had spent sixteen hours a day working on saving the restaurant. Regardless of what he had been doing each day, he had felt hounded by the thought of Lucky with a man who had been Lynette’s husband. He couldn’t forget that Lynette had found Jack far more interesting and sensual than she had initially expected. Once Dan and Lynette had started their affair again after her marriage, she had enjoyed nothing more than accounting some special intimacy with Jack to him whenever Dan had not lived up to her expectations. Dan felt inexorably caught in an undertow toward bankruptcy, his family’s destruction and the loss of important long-time social connections, if he and Lucky divorced. He had told himself often within a deep bitterness that he didn’t need his wife off running around involving herself in some stupid misadventure. The financial advisors he had talked to were disappointing in their opinions. He knew that this would be the worse time in his life to invite inspection of his business problems by his father-in-law. He couldn’t risk it. He had called his lawyer and asked him to look over the papers regarding the threatened lawsuit. Once in his office, his attorney had little helpful advice. He let Dan know, that the most he could do, would be obtain more time for Dan to find new funding. He had shaken his head and told Dan he should find a way to pay the suppliers in full as soon as possible or file bankruptcy. His last appointment with his attorney had ended with a reminder to Dan to pay his secretary on his way out. Dan had wanted to hit him. He had written the check and tossed it toward the secretary when he had finished the consultation. He had fought an increasingly stronger battle, day after day, to remain in control of himself. No matter what Dan was doing, his mind kept going back to Lucky and her reaction to a bankruptcy. A bankruptcy now would be the last thing that she would expect. Telling himself, he had gone over this before, Dan could not forget that her first reaction would be to talk to her father. He had no doubt that her father would ask for access to the books and have a consulting accountant provide a full audit. They would ask about Lynette’s loan, the reason for it and Lucky’s suspicions would hit a new high. The longer he carried around the regurgitation of his fears, the more he felt as though his life had been encapsulated in a fragile glass bottle and it was heading straight for a brick wall. Dan had never been willing to live solely on Lucky’s trust monies. He saw this type of life for any man as demeaning and humiliating. He felt exhausted from exploring the restaurant’s past without finding any way to loosen the tension that had

been building in him for three years. He had been struggling daily with moments of panic since he came back from California. He had been forced to concede in his arguments to himself that he wasn’t finding this type of personal risk at all satisfying. Since Lyn’s death, he had smashed into dead-end after dead-end in his effort to save the business without involving either Lucky or her father. ****** In California, Lucky woke up to her cell-phone ringing. Jack was the first image that entered her mind. Trying to focus on the right-now, she picked up the phone. Looking at the calling number, she saw that it was the office telephone at the restaurant. Dan rarely called her from his office. She quickly examined her feelings about talking to him. She knew that he would be angry that she hadn’t returned any of his recent calls. Five calls from him remained on her cell phone unanswered. Wondering why he would use the office phone, she decided to take the call. “Hello?” “Mrs. Donnellan?” “Yes?” “This is Glenn Stokes.... I’m sorry to bother you but I’ve got to talk to you. Do you have time to talk right now?” Lucky felt adrenaline rush through her body. She had felt alarm when she heard her husband’s restaurant manager’s voice, “Has something happened to Dan?” “No... No, Mrs. Donnellan. I saw him yesterday. I, huh... need to tell you some things. It might take some time and so I want to make sure you have the time to give me.” Her mind whirled with the possible reasons Glenn might decide to call her and not call Dan. She wondered if Dan and Glenn had fought again, “I have the time. Go ahead.” “I am quiting the job, Mrs. Donnellan and Dan doesn’t know it yet. Yesterday, he left our meeting thinking I was staying, but I can’t stay. I realized that soon after he left the office... I’m going to try to explain because Dan isn’t himself and you know how angry he can get even when he has things under control....” He paused. Lucky felt her mouth go dry.

After clearing his throat, Glenn began talking, “I know he hasn’t told you that the restaurant has been steadily losing money for over four years. He insisted that the business is his business. The story is long and winding...” Lucky could hear his voice fade away and come back, “Sorry... I thought I heard a knock on the office door. I decided to call you because I can’t leave without alerting someone about Dan’s state of mind.” “What do you mean?” “Well..huh...," his voice dropped. "The business problems began when he lost all that money gambling...”

Lucky drew in her breath, “He lost money gambling? When did this happen?” “I believe it started when he began taking your step-sister, Lynette, gambling. He began to lose and he told me that she had covered his losses for a while and then stopped.... Some time later he came in and took money out of the restaurant’s accounts to cover his losses. It has been downhill, here, ever since.” He paused listening for Lucky’s reaction. “Are you willing to explain 'downhill' more fully?” Lucky tried to keep her mind focused on the conversation. Relieved she had remained on the line, he continued. “The way I understand it... is .... your step-sister finally gave him a loan to pay the accounts that hadn’t been paid and pay off the rest of the gambling debts. Anyway, the loan is on the books for the restaurant. The bottomline is that after Dan paid off his gambling debts, the rest of the money went for the restaurant's unpaid bills. But that barely kept it going... ” Lucky sighed. Glenn responded, “I know.... it has been a daily nerve-racking grind ever since. I’ve been constantly worried. I’ve tried to keep this business afloat and its been nothing but conflict with Dan. He kept promising to get another loan, pay off the debts, hire more employees... update... you know, provide the kind of money that is needed to repair the losses the gambling debts caused. It hasn’t happened. Now a lawsuit is pending against the business... and there may be more soon.” Lucky knew why it hadn’t happened. She felt relief in the middle of Dan’s crisis. She had finally found another piece of the puzzle that helped make more sense of the fifteen years of her life with Dan.

She said, “You mean that Dan couldn’t get a loan from the usual sources?” Glenn stammered, “I... I ... Yes. I’m sorry Mrs. Donnellan but I wasn’t sure how much you knew about Dan and Lynette. Dan made it clear to me that I was never to mention seeing them together or talk about the loan from her to anyone... including you.” “Don’t worry about me, Glenn. Are you suggesting that Dan may be dangerous to himself or to others?” “I’m no psychologist. But, I’ve had a lot of experience working with people and have learned something about human reactions. Since Dan got back from California, huh..., he has been having difficulty in tracking things normally. He isn’t getting enough sleep. He has forgotten or is unwilling to remember how long-standing the problems here have been. He has anger control issues. I know - this isn’t unusual, but he seems like a bomb ready to go off now. I’ve never seen him this bad.” Lucky heard him speak to someone. She heard a muffled reply, then he said, “I’ve called in a friend of mine who will take over the job until Dan can find someone else. He has a lot of the same experience I have. I’m leaving a letter of resignation. I’m sorry, Mrs. Donnellan, but I don’t want to deal with Dan anymore. If Dan doesn’t want him, then he will need to find someone who will take the job. My wife has been asking me to quit for a long time and after yesterday, I realized, I’m exhausted... I can’t continue.” “I’m sorry, Glenn. I’m glad you called. I hope you can find a way to repair the stress you have been living under...” She could hear him breath-in deeply, “I hope you won’t tell Dan I’ve told you these things. But, I know I’ve no right to hold you to something like that. It was my decision to call you. I wouldn’t have betrayed his confidence, if I thought he could handle the stress.... I’m convinced he may break and I don’t know what that might mean. I can’t just leave and say nothing at all to you about what has been going on.” “Thank you, Glenn.” She paused, then said, “I’m sorry I can’t promise he will never find out about this conversation.” Glenn sighed, “I know.... Thank you, Mrs. Donnellan. Take care of yourself... and Nathan...” Glenn broke the phone connection. She felt fresh anxiety rush through her. The tone of Glenn’s voice told her that he had concerns for her safety and her son’s safety. She looked at that thought closer. No matter how much she had been willing

to look at the possibility that Dan had killed Lynette, she hadn’t been able to hold the idea for long. Lucky asked herself if this information would change that viewpoint. Could Dan hurt her or Nathan, she now asked herself. He had never struck her. He had never been violent with Nathan. His anger had always focused on physical objects, use of words, the tone of his voice and the threat to use his physical strength, to do battle. Memories rushed through her mind. When angry, Dan had used his voice like a hammer, pounding away at whatever issue happened to be between them in loud and threatening tones. It crossed her mind that Glenn may have wondered if Dan had killed her step-sister. If Glenn had begun to suspect that Dan could be a murderer, it would have been another factor adding daily pressure to his interaction with Dan since that time.

After shutting off the cell-phone an after-thought had struck her that she should have asked Glenn more precise questions. Asking herself if she should call him back, she began slowly walking around the room trying to put the new pieces of information about Dan into their past together. She accepted that Dan had a motive to kill her step-sister. If Glenn had reported things accurately, Lucky knew that Dan must have been in desperate need of money for a long time. Dan had always feared business failure. Lynette had provided a loan to Dan and the loan hadn’t been able to save the business. Glenn had presented a picture of things going from bad to worse and now failure was threatening Dan’s earlier success story. This description of Dan’s long, daily stress, implied to Lucky that Lynette had made the decision to no longer agree to be a source of financial support for Dan’s business problems. Lucky came up against the real possibility that they may have had a terrible fight over her step-sister’s refusal to continue helping him. Dan had to have realized that his acceptance of the first loan from Lynette had given her more power over him. If she had pushed him about breaking up his family again, on top of his failing business worries, Lucky didn’t know what he might have been capable of doing. Lucky felt as though she had slammed into her own dead-end. How can you live with someone and never know them, she wondered. The thought unrelentingly pursued the idea that if he had never been who he had pretended to be, how could she be sure he could not murder her step-sister?

Lucky could see that after her step-sister's death it became impossible for more money to come to him from Lynette. If he couldn’t get funding from other banking sources that left only her father or herself for Dan to approach for help. “He couldn’t ask us. He knew the loan from Lynette and their affair would be uncovered,” she said aloud. Lucky stopped walking to look out her hotel window. She longed for her mind to stop thinking. She felt weighted down by crushing memories. She wanted to run away from memories of Dan. She wanted to stop thinking about Lynette. She felt caught between a draining sadness and gratefulness for finally finding out what was true against what had never been true. How could her life so completely change in less than a week, she asked herself. Remembering her father’s words, “Don’t begin something you can’t finish,” she knew that she had willingly opened Pandora’s box and she couldn’t shut the lid again. Lucky watched the ocean roll steadily forward onto the sand then roll back out to sea, drawing with its movement, scattered shells on the sand. It seemed a metaphor of the last few days. She had been exploring ideas that would roll forward to be examined within the light of some new information then they would be rolled back, disappearing in a conflicting memory or insight. Lucky realized that she was yearning for a silent peace amidst a beautiful scene she could bring to a canvas. A time out. Lucky was swept along within a flood of intense longing for a few hours of simple pleasures that didn’t include the intruding throughts she had brought with her from the beginning of her quest to find out why Lynette had died. Just to relax on the beach now seemed like some ethereal impossible dream. She worked to focus on the moment, wondering if she should talk to Ron Evans about what she had learned. New ideas were floating around the memory of her talk with Glenn. She didn’t want to talk to Dan, yet the five messages he had left on her cell-phone had sounded increasingly angry. Sitting down on the edge of the bed, Glenn’s words began running around in circles in her brain. The real Dan now seemed invisible to her. Who is this Daniel Donnellan, who had lived with her as a husband and father, she asked herself. She couldn’t see him within any clarifying distinction from a stranger. Dan's long betrayal of their marriage was at the most fundamental of all the levels of intimacy between them. She fought back nervous laughter, saying aloud, “Will the real Daniel Donnellan, please stand up.”

Her husband had become some ghostly abberration floating without recognizable features through her past. Unexpectedly, Lucky felt a painful, desperate, desire, tear through her. She wanted to see Jack. She wanted to touch him to see if he were real. She longed for her hand to be secure inside his stronger one. Some small erupting hope had begun to surface within the deepest part of her that what she had experienced with Jack Savage was the only real experience she had ever had with a man. In the flash of a moment, she wondered if she were losing her mind, when an awake dream-like vision had shot through her brain. She felt out of her body momentarily watching a scene of Jack finding her crushed and broken in spirit. He had reached down and lifted her up into the sunlight of his immovable love.

Her mind immediately sent a challenge to that tiny ray of hope that had brought the mystical experience. She asked herself how she could trust her own senses now. Hadn’t she married a man she had never known? She had lived fifteen years of her adult life with a stranger. Her husband had turned out to be a deceitful role-player who had defined both their roles in marriage within a casual indifference of what should have been real between them. Lucky gasped at the despair that had erupted deep inside her. How could she ever trust what she sees again? She fought furiously to gain control of a driving urge to scream. Her legs felt weak, her body shook with the effort to control the scream’s explusion from her lips. Her hands trembled. Her eyes swept around the room. She fixed her gaze upon the pillow lying on the bed. She wanted to press her face into its muting softness to let the agonizing scream expel the pain and long betrayal into it. Her mind raced toward a calming influence. Suddenly, Jack’s struggle to dethrone his immediate passion because he had chosen to enthrone her on his hope, surfaced in her memory. He had taken her into his arms, his words, “I do want you. I’ve wanted you from the first moment I saw you,” breathed life into death and the words of Blake crept comfortingly into her suffering, “Love seeketh not itself to please, Nor for itself hath any care, But for another gives its ease, And builds a heaven in hell’s despair.”

An hour after the phone call from Glenn, Lucky had made up her mind to call Ron Evans. Within seconds after he took Lucky’s phone call, Ron Evans knew by the tone of her voice that something serious had happened to her. “Sure, come on in. I’m alone in the office.” Lucky said, “I’ll be there in an hour, Okay? I’ve something to do before I see you.” She heard his acceptance of the time she would be there and shut off the cell-phone. She walked out of the hotel suite carrying her step-sister’s computer. Forty minutes later, Lucky walked out of the computer store and into the waiting taxi. She had purchased a new laptop and copied her stepsister’s hard drive onto the new computer. On the way to talk to Ron Evans, she thought about what she wanted to find out during their meeting. Looking out of the taxi window she tried to think of other things than Dan and Lynette. Jack kept coming back into her mind. She longed to see him but she wanted to change the atmosphere of their time together. Lucky didn’t try to deny to herself that her intense attraction to him had sabotaged her focus. If Jack hadn’t stopped the passion rising between them last night, she knew she would have slept with him. She couldn’t escape the reality that If they would have crossed that line of intimacy a new dynamic between them would have taken place. She could almost hear her father telling her to get out of this deepening relationship now. Recognizing that she couldn’t free herself from the feelings that Jack ignited in her, she cautioned herself to try and change the direction of their relationship. She felt the mounting pressure that time was running out for their being together in California. She needed to find ways to get Jack to talk about his marriage to Lynette. Lucky struggled to become objective toward what she had been learning. She hadn’t yet found a way to convince herself that Dan had killed her step-sister. If Dan had killed Lynette, she wondered how she would be able to see Nathan through such a painful life experience. She knew that if Dan would be arrested it might be years before the legal battles would finally be over. She dreaded the possible consequences on her son’s life. Justice now seemed filled with ominous consequences to her son’s life and to her own. Ron Evans heard light tapping on the outer office door. He walked into the reception area. Opening the door, he beckoned Lucky inside. She walked through the doorway holding a computer in each hand. He gestured her toward his office.

Following her inside his office, he waited for her to sit down in the chair in front of his desk before he seated himself. To Ron Evans she looked tired within a new feminine vulnerablity. This picture of her tugged at his sense of gallantry. He wanted to rescue her from whatever it was that had injured her confidence. His experience told him he might not be able to do it. He waited for her to speak. Lucky placed the two computers at her feet. Glancing around the room, her eyes came back to meet the questioning gaze in Ron Evan’s eyes with the words, “I’ve found Lynette’s computer.”

Startled, he responded, “Hmmm... And you want me to get it to the investigators in New York who are handling your step-sister’s case?” She didn’t reply right away. Ron could see she was thinking about something that was bothering her. He said, “I can give you a receipt for it that will include documentation regarding where and how it came to be in my possession. It will include the fact that you rquested I deliver it to the detectives who are handling your step-sister’s case in New York. You will need to sign and date it. I have a man flying to New York tomorrow. He can deliver it to them and get a receipt for it. I’ll get that to you” He looked away from her for several seconds, “They will probably want to talk to you. They may want you to go in and give them a recorded statement. You should be prepared for a reaction from them regarding your step-sister’s computer. I’m assuming they have your cellphone number.” She remained silent. He let her continue to think about what he had just suggested. She lowered her eyes. For several more minutes Lucky didn’t speak. Moving her eyes up and away from Ron Evans, she finally said, “My husband was having an affair with my step-sister.” Ron Evens felt a chill run through his body. Too many things had happened in his long career for this news to shock him, but he knew now why Lucky had changed so much, so quickly. Her eyes swung back to his face, “Aren’t you going to ask me if I have tampered with or deleted anything from her computer?” Ron looked at her directly, “No.”

He smiled kindly at her, “Sometimes it is better not to ask questions. I am assuming this is how you found out your husband and your step-sister had been having an affair?” Lifting up Lynette’s computer, she put it on his desk, “It holds the proof. If I asked you to examine its contents would you?” Ron Evans thought about what she had asked. He said, “It could hold evidence that may impact an on-going investigation.”

He took a deep breath, “I don’t think anyone from this office should look inside her computer. I’ll put a lock on it, box it and we’ll get the paperwork done explaining how it came into your possession and mine. Larry Underwood, one of my best people, will deliver it tomorrow or the next day depending on his arrival time in New York.” Ron looked down at the remaining computer near her right foot. He wasn’t going to ask her about it. He didn’t want her to tell him what was on it. He didn’t doubt that she had copied her step-sister’s computer files onto it. She may want to give it to a divorce attorney. He suspected that she had wanted him to look at the contents on her sister’s computer. By asking the right questions, she had just found out that he wouldn’t do it. He knew that she would be taking the second computer away with her. He felt compassion for her flow through him. Wondering if her husband had killed her step-sister and she had been right all along that it hadn’t been a suicide, he suggested, “An affair, does not automatically, a murderer make.” Tears welled up in her eyes. He said, “You do know, don’t you, that even if the police find out that he is recognized by someone who had worked at the hotel at the time, it doesn’t mean he killed her. They were having an affair. Careful people having an affair often don’t go together into the rooms where they meet. They also have the option of leaving the hotel at different times.” He paused, then finished, “After finding the information about the affair on her computer, the police will have to take a look at your husband. They would be delinquent in their duty if they didn’t. Was he in New York when she died?” “Yes.” she responded softly. She sighed, moving her head back and forth as though to support the logic of what she was about to say, “It

seems impossible that a threatened exposure of an affair could trigger an act of murder.” Ron Evans felt confirmed in his view that Lucky had placed herself in a situation that had become far more complex and emotionally exhausting than she had ever supposed it would. It was clear to Ron Evans that she was resisting the idea that her husband had killed her step-sister. He knew that her desire to deny her husband could be a killer had nothing to do with her intelligence or her courage.

He saw her more narrowly within his experience as a determined sister of the dead woman who had entered her search for more information unprepared. Her lack of expertise in criminal investigation, her relationship with a husband who had anger issues, her long-time estrangement with her step-sister, all had worked to leave her vulnerable to the shock of what she had found on her step-sister’s computer. Ron Evans admired her grit but he wondered if there would come a time that she would regret ever beginning this inquiry into her stepsister’s case. Clearing his throat, he said, “Mrs. Donnellan, I am assuming that you have found something in the computer that implied to you that this was the motive behind her dying. I have no way to know if I would agree or disagree with you. Frankly, I don’t want to know. If your step-sister’s death had been a closed case, I might feel differently. But, it is still an open case.” He stopped speaking. He watched her closely. He noticed that she was staring at the large Bible that had fallen open on a shelf. Wondering if he could help plant her feet back into the real world, he continued, “People kill for innumerable reasons. People have killed because someone offended them or for twenty-five dollars or because they were drunk or insane. The reasons people kill are endless. The motive only has to make sense to the person who makes the choice to murder someone. King David ruled a vast empire, but apparently he murdered a man to hide an affair. There have been arguments about his exact motive ever since.” He saw a sad smile flicker across her somber face. “I suppose I sounded simple-minded, didn’t I?”

“No, you sound like you have been dealing with an unexpected and new traumatic experience that you are attempting to grasp within some rational framework. But most killers don’t react rationally or they would find other ways to solve their problem. Some kill out of arrogance. They believe they can outwit professional law enforcement. Some have. Just keep in mind, hiding an affair is one thing, murder is another thing entirely.” Lucky shifted position in her chair, “Thank you, Mr. Evans. I can see you are trying to be kind.” He looked away from her, “Are you going back to New York and let the investigators take it from here? If she didn’t kill herself, the computer may provide evidence they need to solve her case.” “I’m not going back yet.” Ron Evans mentally shook his head in wonder. He wasn’t going to argue with her. He lifted himself out of his desk chair, walked into a closet and returned with a small padlock. He placed the lock on Lynette’s computer and whirled the dial. He asked her to explain how she had located the computer. She told him. He opened his laptop and printed a one-page document and asked her to read and sign it. Lucky read it carefully, nodded, and signed the paper. Picking up the remaining computer beside her chair. She held out her hand to Ron Evans, she said, “ Thank you.” He shook her hand, “I’ll call to let the New York detectives know the computer is on its way... Stay in touch.” She nodded, turned around and left his office. Watching her walk away from him, he leaned back in his chair and sighed. He knew that in earlier days he would have examined her stepsister’s computer before turning it over to the police. He wouldn’t do it today, not even to satisfy his own curiosity. If he were called to testify about what he knew regarding Lynette’s computer, he wasn’t going to know anything about what was on it. Lucky left his office understanding that Ron Evans was a careful man. He had quietly resisted her direct involvement with her stepsister’s case from the beginning. He had appeared genuinely surprised that she had found her step-sister’s computer. He had shaken his head in near disbelief when he heard that it had been in a closet for two years.

She wondered if it had gone through his mind during their meeting today that she had a motive to kill her step-sister. Lucky felt a wave of relief that she had been in Paris when Lynette had died. She told herself that it was possible for the police to believe she had hired someone to kill Lynette. They only had to believe that she had known about the affair at the time. She opened the door of the taxi. Feeling confident that Ron Evans would conclude, if he hadn’t already, that she wouldn’t have begun this attempt to find out more about her step-sister’s death, if she had been behind Lynette’s dying. She would never have given him Lynette’s laptop. Lucky concluded that he must know that she would have allowed the case to be defined a suicide, if she had been behind Lynette’s death. She looked at Ron’s assumption that she would now end her search for information regarding Lynette’s death. She wasn’t confident that merely finding the computer would expose Lynette’s killer. She would stay in California. Accepting that Dan had murdered Lynette had been a stumbling block Lucky kept tripping over. Doubt had crawled into every examination of that possiblity. Her brain couldn’t process it as likely. She swung back and forth between her inability to believe Dan would kill Lynette and the reality that he had been able to deceive her for years. “Okay,” she thought, “I’m pretty much on my own regarding the next move; if I stay.” Getting out of the taxi at the hotel entrance, Lucky felt relief that she had copied Lynette’s files onto the new computer. Entering her hotel suite, Lucky marked the time. It was still early in the day. She could call Jack and see if he would meet her for breakfast. “Hi!” “Good morning!” Jack responded, relieved to hear her voice. He had feared that she might not see him after last night. Once back in his hotel suite, the memory of their passion had made sleep impossible. It had hurt him to remember the pain flowing out of her while he had held her on his lap. He had tossed and turned the rest of the night. From the moment of their parting the night before, to hearing her voice this morning, he had carried last night’s sexually charged and excruciatingly exacting, emotional experience with every breath he had taken. Relief flowed through Jack when he heard Lucky say, “Give me fifteen minutes and I’ll meet you for breakfast?”

Jack smiled to himself, “You bet!” When he heard that their table overlooking the ocean was open, he grinned down at her. She smiled up at him, “Too bad we can’t buy this table.” He smiled. Walking toward the table with Lucky, he glanced toward her. He thought she looked tired and blamed himself. After they were seated and had ordered, he turned to her, “How about just relaxing today? We could spend the day at the beach doing nothing but enjoying the ocean, talking, eating, snacking, kissing... and.... huh, ... kissing?” He questioned lightly. Lucky couldn’t resist the teasing eyes. She felt a welcoming relief at the suggestion. She realized within a warm glow that he was taking care of her. Lucky wanted to put her mouth on his and feel his arms draw her closer to him. It was in her eyes. He smiled and did it for her.

Jack wanted to tell her that he loved the way her mouth enjoyed his and thought better of it. Resting her head on his shoulder for a moment, she asked, “I do look tired, don’t I?” Smiling, he said, “You look beautiful! And, yes, tired. I would enjoy just being with you, doing nothing. How about it? Is it the beach today?” Lucky nodded yes. She hoped that a day spent relaxing on the beach might help her feel more normal. Moments later, she went over the idea that it also might be the right setting to encourage him to talk about his marriage to Lynette. After breakfast, Lucky and Jack changed their clothes and met at the back of the hotel. They walked toward the beach together. He carried a large beach umbrella, two pillows and a small container holding water and soft drinks. She carried the food take-out order in a small picnic container and a blanket. He suggested she choose a spot she liked and he would set-up the umbrella there. She found a place that provided the greatest amount of privacy for the moment and asked what he thought about it. He nodded his acceptance and placed the umbrella into the sand while she spread the blanket out under it. Her eyes began to send sensual sensations to her body as she watched him work to set up the umbrella. Wrestling down the quick desire to touch him, she looked away, telling herself to try to focus on

what she had come here to do and not on the man, himself. She lowered herself on the blanket. Jack sat down beside her. She had stretched out on the blanket. Jack found himself trying to forget what she looked like in the swim suit. His gaze transferred to the ocean for several minutes. Lowering his body beside hers, he went over his committment to provide her a relaxing and enjoyable day without pressure. He wondered how badly she wanted to know why he had stopped their lovemaking the night before. He recognized that he had not left behind his own longing to know more about what had been the real catalyst behind her outpouring of grief last night. Turning his head toward her, he placed his hand over hers. She smiled back at him and slipped her fingers lazily through his. He hoped that today would be what she needed. Listening to the swishing sounds of the incoming and outgoing surf, Lucky and Jack felt their bodies relax. A breeze gently played among the beach’s instant community of umbrellas. A murmur of voices echoed in the background. Near-by, people talked and laughed among themselves. Lucky felt a new sense of contentment enter the moment. The warmth of the day mixed itself among the sun-bathers. Beginning to feel sleepy, her hand relaxed in his. He glanced toward her. He watched her fall asleep, her mouth slightly parted. He wanted to trace her lips with his finger and refused the desire, knowing it would wake her. He allowed himself to relax, content in her nearness to him. He was almost asleep himself when he felt her hand slide up his wrist onto his forearm. Her hand moved up to the crook of his elbow and stopped. He liked the feeling. He looked at her and realized she was still asleep. Wishing she would explore the rest of his arm and slide her hand up over his chest, he smiled. Within minutes he had fallen asleep. Lucky heard giggles. Two women were walking by admiring Jack. She glanced over at him. His long, muscular body was stretched out full length on the blanket. He was asleep. They looked at Lucky, raised their eye-brows, gave her a thumbs-up and winked. She laughed lightly, put her finger to her lips and nodded agreement. They scurried on by, giggling like a couple of kids, with their hands over their mouths. Looking around, she saw that the beach was getting crowded. She felt relieved that their spot was still maintaining a level of privacy. Aware that her throat was dry, she reached into the container holding

the water and soft drinks and picked-up a small bottle of water. After drinking half the bottle, she lowered herself down onto the blanket. She looked at Jack. His eyes were open. He said, “Tell me you’re an angel and I made it to heaven?” She laughed outright, “Angels are not female. You are still on earth and angels were always men when they entered space and time.” He smiled, lifting himself up, “You know that, do you?” She said lightly, “I’ve heard a few sermons.” He chuckled. Lucky thought she had never heard a more alluring and sexy chuckle from a man. Stepping off the blanket, he asked her if she would like to go back to the hotel for anything. She said no. He said he would be right back and turned to walk toward the back entrance to the hotel. He used the public rest-room, inquired about beach chairs, picked-up two of them and walked back to their spot on the sand.

Lucky reached for one of the beach chairs, “I was thinking a few minutes ago that we should have had a couple of these to lean against. Thank you.” Jack thought, “There she goes again, thanking me. I could get used to this.” Lucky settled against her chair and asked him if he would like a drink. He sat down against his beach chair, “I’ll take a water.” She handed him a bottle. They settled back into their chairs looking out across the water without saying anything more. Several attractive women walked by. She watched for his reaction to their fluttering eyelashs when they noticed him. He was looking at her. “You get a lot of attention out here,” she said, glancing around the beach. He responded, “You aren’t missed by any man, Lady Luck.” She smiled, not looking at him. Lucky felt a new restfulness. She breathed-in deeply and let her mind return to the reason she had spent these many hours with Jack Savage. It amazed her again how much can change in such a short time. Wondering how she could get him to talk about Lynette, she decided to be direct, “If you are willing, I’d like to know about your marriage. What was your wife like?”

Her direct request surprised him. He swiftly thought about what she had asked. He hadn’t wanted to press her today about anything he was curious about because he had hoped she could have a restful time with him. He made the decision that if she wanted to tread on that territory he would take her there. “Okay... I met my wife a year before we married. Lyn was attractive, fun, spontaneous and smart. Her full name was Lynette Green, but no one we knew called her anything but ‘Lyn.’ At first, nothing seemed to bother her for long. Our dating year was full of fun. She seemed able to bounce back from a disagreement. We learned to make trade-offs regarding our likes and dislikes." Jack stopped for a moment, glanced down at the sand and then brought his eyes back toward hers, "At least, at the time, I thought we were making trade-offs. I was still in New York at that time. I was deep within the work of maintaining my career and at the same time, I was lonely and ready to meet a woman I could take seriously. We met at a private party. She had been invited by the wife of one of our brokers. She sought me out and I soon found she was to my liking.”

He stopped talking and asked her, “Are you interested in this much detail?" She nodded. “She was funny, interesting and loved nothing better than finding that unusual experience. We were attracted to each other. We married near the end of that first year.” He stopped again, “Do want the real or the bottom-line version of what went wrong?” She looked up into his eyes. A sadness had taken up room in them. Her fingers lightly brushed sand off the top of his hand, “I prefer the real.” Drawing in his breath, he continued, “I’ve mentioned the long hours at the office. She soon found my business work restraining to her sense of adventure. I had entered the marriage knowing she loved new experiences, so I am to blame for not realizing the depth of that need in her. The months began to pass. She let me know she was not interested in a family. I was disappointed, but I cared enough about her that I knew it wouldn’t destroy our marriage. I tried harder to please her, but at some point, nothing I suggested would satisfy whatever was driving her. By this time, I had begun to wonder about her increasingly daily anger. It crossed my mind that perhaps something had her in its grip that she hadn’t been willing to tell me. At one point, I wondered if she might be seeing a psychologist and preferred not talking about it, to me.”

He paused, looking out across the water, thinking about the irony in his experience with Lucky. Beginning again, he said, “In summary, I would say that we had an exciting first year getting to know each other. Or... at least I thought I was getting to know her. The next two years of our marriage brought many pleasant experiences. By the third year something was happening I couldn’t place my finger on. She was becoming distant, often gone for long hours. She was offended if I asked where she had been. I’m not a man to hold on to a woman if she has lost interest in our relationship. I figured if she wanted out of the marriage she would tell me. I had no evidence that her hours away from me included another man. Things went along like this for another year.” His words brought alive her step-sister’s letter to Lucky. The picture Jack was presenting of their marriage squared with what she had read. She held her breath for brief moments afraid he would stop talking about his marriage to Lynette. He didn’t. “One evening, she said simply and matter-of-factly that she had been having an affair and it had been going on for some time. She wouldn’t talk about who the guy was. She gave no particulars. She was strangely apologetic about it. It hurt me. Yet, I had lived with a sense of a change in her behavior by the end of the second year of our marriage. She hadn’t seemed to want me to understand her. By then, her words were not a total surprise.” He glanced toward Lucky. She was looking out to sea and didn’t respond. Lucky saw everything within a split-second. She understood why Lyn had been apologetic when admitting the affair. Her step-sister hadn’t had the courage to tell Jack that Dan had always stood between them. Lucky didn’t doubt that Jack had, without knowing it, forced her step-sister to feel small and selfish. Lynette hadn’t wanted him to know that she had defrauded him by marrying him in the first place. Lynette had to know that to tell Jack she was having an affair would mean he would ask for the divorce. Lucky was sure that Lynette hadn’t wanted to ask Jack for the divorce. There was some small self-punishing aspect about her step-sister’s desire to have Jack ask for the divorce. Lucky was convinced that something in Lynette had loved Jack in spite of her obession with Dan. She felt a sadness for her step-sister penetrate her sense of betrayal by her. Jack continued, “I asked for a divorce. I could see that is what she wanted me to do. There wasn’t anything in me that could believe in her or us any more. I had lived with an emptiness for a long time. I knew something was wrong when she hadn’t filled that lonely space inside me. It was punishing for me to know I’d not made her feel a part of me. It was difficult not to blame myself. I appeared to have married a woman

who had hidden her real self from me. At the time, I only wondered why she hadn’t wanted to give me something of herself.” Lucky shook her head. She fought the desire to assure him that none of that marriage failure had been his fault. Lucky knew that he couldn’t have known, who he married, because her step-sister had refused to show him the real Lynette. He saw tears surface in her eyes. “Do you want me to stop talking about this?” She said, “No.” He reached for her hand. Holding her hand, he finished the narration of his failed marriage. “The last time I saw Lynette she had been drinking. She was in top form. Angry, spiteful and out for war. I knew something had not gone the way she had wanted it to go. She hadn’t been willing to talk about this guy before or during our divorce negotiations. It crossed my mind that he might have walked out on her. That would have infuriated her.... I suppose it was curiosity that held me there. I thought she couldn’t surprise me any more than she already had, but she did. She began to laugh. She spilled the drink on her dress and told me that she had two lovers, not just the guy she had referred to during that moment of honesty between us. She began a shaky nervous laughter about the irony of the whole situation. She said I should be enjoying this. She kept repeating that she had done to him what he had done to her. I felt sorry for her. I tried to put my arms around her, but she pushed me and staggered away, laughing bitterly to herself. I watched her walk away and thought in a moment of revived sorrow, ‘Talk about irony...’” Lucky felt as though she had experienced an earthquake. His words hit her with the shock of a boulder moving out of its place to land in a loud thud, nearby. She tried to absorb their meaning. Everything Lynette had written in the computer to Lucky had been focused on her long obession with Dan. Stunned, Lucky couldn’t speak. Her brain raced through Lynette’s computer files the way she remembered them listed. She knew that she had to go back and look for deleted files or personal files she had overlooked. Lucky guessed this second man had been married. Had the second lover also rejected her step-sister. Question after new question popped into Lucky’s mind. Could Lynette have threatened to expose the affair to his wife? Perhaps this man had been less confident of his power over Lynette than Dan had been. He might not have been willing to take any risk of exposure. Lucky’s mind kept coming back to the idea that Lynette may have deliberately set-up Dan for a fall more punishing than a divorce.

Lucky asked herself if she were being jerked around by her dead step-sister. If so, it might explain the reason Lynette had made sure she got her laptop. Lynette must have wanted Lucky angry enough to focus the spotlight directly on Dan. For the first time Lucky wondered if her sister had killed herself. Jack saw the look of shock on her face, “That must be the look I had on my face. She had never hinted at two lovers. There could have been more than two; I wouldn’t have known. New York is a big city. When I later examined our life together, I felt like a blind man. I had never known her. I had lived with a stranger.” Lucky tried to steady her mind. She needed time. She once again felt the pressure of her situation. Wanting to comfort him, she leaned over toward Jack kissing him gently on his mouth. He felt the warmth of her flow through him, “What is that for?” She said, “I’m sorry you had to go through that.” Lucky was telling the truth. She understood what had happened to Jack because something similar had happened to other men who had once been seriously interested in her step-sister. Jack had been the only one of them her step-sister had married. Lucky understood that it was Jack Savage who had been in the wrong place at the wrong time in Lynette’s life. Lucky found herself wishing that it would have been someone else. Lucky asked, “I’m wondering why you don’t believe she could have committed suicide. She appears to have been caught in a web of her own making and was desperately regretting it. That last time you saw her, sounds like she was on the emotional edge.” Jack replied, “If you had known her, it would be easier to understand why, I think, she would never kill herself. Lynette was on a high one moment and outraged the next. Often the reason for the outrage wouldn’t have been seen by many people worthy of such a reaction. I would try to suggest why her reaction might have been misplaced. She rarely agreed with me.... I finally accepted her right to feel what she was feeling. I did feel badly for her, but I also understood that the next day might see her in an entirely different mood. Breathing in, he finished, "Lyn was involved with life, not death. I can’t imagine her choosing to end her own life.”

Chapter 9 [Use Right & Left Arrow Key To Center Page - then Down Arrow]

Jack and Lucky became aware that the beach had been losing some of its tourists. Hunger had lured many of the beach visitors toward local restaurants. They decided to eat the lunch they had brought from the hotel. After the meal, they began walking along the shore line, letting the incoming water flow over their bare feet, enjoying the surf rushing up to meet their approach. They strolled along the edge of the water. Laughing and relaxed. When a large wave would rush toward them, they backed quickly away from it before it reached their toes. Jack walked alongside her, holding her hand. Jack's mind wasn't far from their conversation about his marriage to Lyn. He wondered what Lucky had thought about his description of his marriage. He had tried to be fair to Lyn within the reality of what had happened between them. He had left out many hurtful situations that had finally culminated in her willing exposure of her unfaithfulness. He hoped that Lucky hadn’t judged him harshly. Walking back to their space on the sand, Lucky told Jack that she wanted to go to her suite and would be back in a few minutes. He asked her if she wanted to quit their day on the beach.

She told him no. Jack agreed to wait there for her. He watched her pick her way through the remaining sun-bathers during her walk back toward the hotel. When she went through the back entrance of the hotel he turned his gaze toward the water. Lucky opened the door of her suite, closed it firmly and locked it. She walked to the bathroom. After cleaning up and washing her hands, she entered the living area. She walked over to the upholstered and sat down. Removing her cell-phone from her pocket, she called Ron Evans. When he answered, she asked, “Got a minute?” “What’s up?” She asked him if he had contacted New York about her step-sister’s case. He said, “Talked to the head detective this morning. He was very interested in your step-sister’s computer. He definitely wants to talk to you, but he is willing to wait until he has looked through the laptop and read the paper we signed.” Lucky asked him if the detective had been willing to give him any more information about the case.

“He talked around it. I think they know more than they are willing to share with me. He wouldn’t go into specifics.” She said, “I believe Lynette had more than one lover.” Ron Evans was silent, then said, “I’m going to assume you got this out of Jack. My response has to be a guess, Lucky, but I tend to think that it could be true. I know you don’t want your son to have a father, who is a murderer. So, you have a good reason to resist the idea your husband could have killed her.” He paused, then continued, “You may be right. Jack may have told you the truth. Remember, I’m talking here within supposition, but it may be that the police simply don’t have a description of the man or men who may have been meeting your step-sister in that hotel room. If that is the case, it means they need to narrow down the search before they can focus in on one of them as a suspect. No doubt that incoming computer is looking good to them at this moment. It might tip the scales from suicide to murder.” Lucky took in a fresh breath, “Ron, did you wonder if I killed her?” He chuckled, “Lucky, I did not wonder, if you killed her. I know you didn’t.”

“How can you know that?” “Why in God’s name would you stir all this stuff up about her being murdered, if you killed her? I suppose, if you are a lunatic, you might. I don’t think your nuts. That is like stirring up a hornet’s nest when you can’t get out of the building where they are raging. Crazy! You wouldn’t have done it.” Turning his head away from the phone, he looked out his office window. Bringing his mouth close to the phone again, his voice lowered, “Lucky, you are still in contact with a man who could have held a grudge against her. You seem convinced your husband couldn’t have done it. If you’re intuition is right... and I’m not sure it is... that still leaves this unknown guy. Jack Savage may still be in the running for having a motive to kill her. Be careful!” She hung up thanking him for taking the time to talk to her. Walking toward the window overlooking the ocean, she watched people stroll onto the sand looking for open spaces to set-up their beach umbrella near the waves. She thought about what Ron Evans had said.

Lucky looked closely at the implication that Jack may have lied to her about a second man involved with Lynette, but Jack didn’t know who she was, so why would he lie to her about a second man in Lynette’s life? She could see that Lynette might have lied to Jack about it. Looking at her cell-phone messages, she saw six were from Dan. Ignoring the first five messages, she listened to the last message he had sent. He was screaming into the phone. She jerked the phone away from her ear. He was yelling, “YOU DAMN WELL BETTER CALL ME BACK OR I’M CALLING YOUR DAD AND TELLING HIM WHAT YOU ARE DOING! UNDERSTAND!!” Lucky felt her heart contract and the blood rush away from her brain. She didn’t want her father upset. Dan had to know that. She didn’t want to take time to tell her father all that had been happening. She didn’t want to argue with him. If he got upset, Nathan would see it and he would be worried about his grandfather. She called Dan. “Where the hell have you been, Lucky!” Dan challenged. Making an effort to remain calm, she said coldly, “You know where I have been and what I’m trying to do. I suggest you lower your voice if you want me to talk to you. And don’t ever again threaten to tell my father something I don’t want you to tell him. I’ll tell him, when I’m ready to tell him. He has a heart problem, Dan.” Her tone was ice. Dan had never heard her talk to him like that. He felt divorced from her without going through the process. An alert shot through him. Making an effort to lower his voice, he said, “I’ve left you a half dozen calls and you haven’t returned any of them. What am I supposed to do?” “Shouting into the phone isn’t a rational option. Wait until I call you back.” Dan felt a renewed rage growing in him. He wanted to tell her it had worked. She had returned his call. Marriage counseling sessions floated through his memory. Dan's view had never changed, it always seemed to come down to Lucky refusing to respect him. His tone firmed up, “You are my wife! I’ve got to talk to you and it has to be as soon as possible. You either come home or I’m coming back out there.”

“What is wrong?” Dan was fighting to stay in control. He repeated, “I need to talk to you now! That is one thing that is wrong! If I wanted to tell you over the phone wouldn’t I be doing that? You haven’t found out a damn thing about Lyn’s case that you didn’t know before. You’ve been with Jack Savage, day and night for all I know, and you are still there! Why?” “What makes you think I haven’t found out anything related to her case?” Dan froze. His heart began to beat rapidly, “Have you found out something the police can use?” Lucky’s mind began to race. His words, “... something the police can use...” implied to her that he hadn’t believed that Lynette committed suicide. He had argued from the first that Lynette had killed herself. She almost laughed as a silly childhood rhyme flashed through her mind, “Liar, Liar, Pants on fire...” Controlling the desire to break their connection, she said, “So you do believe she was murdered. You have been lying to me all along haven’t you?” Dan stumbled around his thoughts in an attempt to answer her, “I.... for God’s sake, Lucky... huh... I didn’t mean anything more than if you have found out something important, it might help them close the case. What did you find out?” She didn’t believe him. She wanted to cut their conversation short. An igniting anger had begun to enter her reviving weariness. Her hand holding the phone began to shake. She wasn’t ready to let Dan know that she knew about his long affair with her step-sister. Lucky felt like a ping-pong ball being bounced continually, back and forth between his guilt and his innocence, in the murder of her stepsister. Steadying herself, she said, “I’m not ready to talk about it over the phone. I don’t even know how relevant it is.” Dan’s brain felt overloaded. He stumbled for a direction to force her to go. He said adamantly, “I’m coming out there Lucky if you refuse to come home! We need to talk! If you have found something out about Lynette’s death then give it to Ron Evans. He’ll get it to the detectives on the case. Stop this insane ‘fool’s errand.’” Lucky felt alarm rush through her. She had found out more information about Lynette in the last week than she had gotten from anyone since her step-sister had died. She hadn’t been on a fool’s errand.

She snapped, “You know me better than that! If you are having a crisis of some kind, why wouldn’t you tell me what it is, right now? I’m not coming back. I’m continuing until this thing is finished.” She punched out of the call. Going through her memory, she reminded herself, that he didn’t know she was aware of the business crisis and why it was happening. Going back over their conversation, she could almost hear Dan cursing himself because he had boxed himself into a corner with the gambling debts. Those debts had created the need of a loan from Lynette. He didn’t know that he was fighting a war that he had already lost. He didn’t know that she had already found out about his long affair with Lynette. He didn’t know that their marriage was over. His family had already ceased to exist. Every social connection was on its way to being fractured or destroyed. His business was cascading away from him. He didn't know that nothing would ever be the same. Lucky didn't doubt that these events were breathing down his neck causing him to spin out of control. She believed Dan understood his life, as he had known it for the last fifteen years, would be over if he couldn’t convince her that there had been no affair between himself and Lynette. Lucky could see what was behind his drive to see her. He had always been confident that it had been his powerful physical presence that had been the swaying force behind any acquiescence he had gotten from her. Carly Simon’s song, “You’re So Vain” began to play itself in her brain. Shutting the door behind her, she said aloud, “It’s too late, Dan.” Walking toward the beach, she knew that she had to find some place to stay where Dan couldn’t find her until she was ready to face him. It was clear to Lucky that she didn’t want to deal with Dan until she had searched Lynette’s computer for evidence of another relationship besides the one with Dan. There wasn’t anything within Lucky that would allow her to simply drop her own search for more information and leave the case in the hands of the investigating team merely because they now had possession of her step-sister’s computer. She had lost confidence in their committment to mandate enough resources for closing Lynette’s case, months ago. She had been frustrated with the police but she hadn’t carried anger toward them. She had understood the difficulties for law enforcement in working on any unsolved case.

Before, she quit her search for information, Lucky had to be sure that Lyn’s computer did not hold evidence that would help close her step-sister’s case, once and for all. She wasn’t quitting merely because the police now had it. Lucky stepped onto the sand. She moved through the blankets and umbrella’s on the beach toward Jack. Suddenly, she heard a low, prolonged whistle. Turning slightly to her right, she saw a man starring at her with interest in his eyes. He was sitting upright under his beach umbrella. She noticed Jack had heard it too. He stood up and began striding toward her. When he reached her, he kissed her, holding his lips to hers long enough for the whistler to get the right idea. It had also been long enough for her knees to turn to jelly. She smiled up at him. Jack had turned to look inquiringly at the man sitting near-by under his beach umbrella. Sitting upright, his arms locked around his knees, the man smiled warily at Jack, lifting his fingers slightly in acknowledgement that Jack had made his point. Jack nodded to him and smiled. Holding hands, Lucky and Jack walked to their space on the sand. She felt a comforting sense of safety embrace her. Jack said, “I missed you from the moment you walked away from me. I’m glad you’re back.” “What a wonderful welcome,” she thought. The kiss had lingered in her mind. Her eyes lowered, strolling over his body. Struggling with the desire to run her fingers along his inner thigh, she covered her eyes for a moment, saying, “The sun is really bright.” He found her sunglasses and handed them to her. She thought she saw laughter in the back of his eyes. Sliding the glasses on her face, she sat down on the blanket and leaned back against the beach chair. Jack kneeled near her momentarily to move his beach chair closer to hers. She tried to hurry through her options on how to stay away from Dan until she was ready to face him. Jack’s invitation kept coming back into the examination. She said, “I might like Wyoming.” Jack Savage hadn’t been sure he had heard her words correctly. In seconds, it had penetrated his mind that she was telling him that she would go to Wyoming with him. He stomped down the instant desire to hoot and holler, jump-up and run around in circles. In seconds, he had reprimanded himself for wanting to do it. Telling himself that he hadn’t been a teen-ager for a long time, he calmly said, “That’s great!” This time it was Lucky’s eyes that held hints of laughter.

Jack felt hope pick-up momentum inside him. He briefly wandered over the possibilites regarding their relationship shaped by the next three months of being together. Experiencing a sense of time being expanded, he felt comfortable to back-off the drive to quickly learn as much about her as he could. In her thinking, Lucky, had turned to the possible consequences to what she had been trying to do, if she refused to tell Dan where she was going. She cautioned herself to stay in touch with her son. She rolled over the idea about calling her father and bringing him up-to-date on what she had been doing. She decided against it. Watching Jack's reaction, she saw he had instantly relaxed. She put her hand in his. He closed his hand over hers and winked seductively at her. He brought his other hand over and lightly rubbed his fingers back and forth over her forearm. Lucky felt a warm tenderness blossom in her at the wink and his gentle touch. A longing that claimed her within a totality swept through her. She thought, “If this man is not who he appears to be, I won’t survive this experience.” ******* In New York, Dan had closed his cell-phone after Lucky's call had disconnected. He felt unsteady on his feet. He ran his fingers through his hair. His manager had quit. Dan had gotten off the phone with Lucky carrying a new apprehension. Quickly going through their conversation, he couldn’t remember her being so distant; so indifferent to his feelings. She had always been willing to resolve their differences within a calm exchange. It had been he who had most often tried to use his voice as leverage and who had struggled to remain calm. Dan’s quick anger when she finally returned his call had erupted in spite of his earlier warning to himself. He had not been surprised at her instant dislike of his angry manner toward her. It had been her clear and immediate refusal to stop what she was doing and come home that stunned him. She hadn’t even tried to ameliorate his anxiety. She hadn’t seemed to care why he wanted to talk to her. She hadn’t suggested that he talk to their counselor or her father. She had made no helpful suggestion to him at all. Dan saw his world falling in complete disarray before him. He couldn’t fathom that the family peacemaker hadn’t seemed to care about peace anymore. Dan felt alone in a deep well.

****** By late-afternoon, Lucky had become restless. Wondering if she shouldn’t have moved to another hotel right after her conversation with Dan, she asked Jack, “Do you have a time-table for heading back to Wyoming?” He smiled, “I didn't want to leave until I had your answer. Do you have something you would like to do before we go?” “No.” “How about tomorrow after breakfast?” Standing up, she asked Jack for a few minutes before she gave him an answer. Walking away from their spot on the sand, she called Jim and Kathy Warren. Kathy answered, “Hello?” “Kathy, this is Lucky.” “How are you doin’?” “I’ve got a problem. If you can help me out that would be great, if not, don’t worry about it.” “Lucky! Give!”

“I would like to stay the night with you. I wonder if you have a couple of guestrooms available. I'm with Jack Savage. We’ll be gone by the morning after breakfast. I’ll give you the address where we are going. Don’t give it to anyone.” She could hear Kathy gasp, “Okay, I won't. You mean you are with Lynette’s ex-husband? Does he know who you are?” “No... So, if you are willing to board us overnight, please put away any pictures that might give him a clue.” Lucky could hear her talking to Jim. Kathy came back on the line, “We’ll be happy to have you.” She paused then said, “Lucky, Jim wants to know if you are avoiding Dan?” “Yes.” “Okay! We’ll see you when you get here.”

Lucky felt relief flow through her, “Thanks so much, Kathy. I can’t tell you...” Kathy broke-in, “Lucky! Forget it! We know you would do the same for us.” “Thanks.” Lucky heard the phone go quiet. Turning the cell-phone off she walked back to Jack. Jack had watched her walk away from him to use her cell-phone. He wasn’t comfortable at being kept in the dark but he had already accepted that whatever was happening to her was somehow connected to her choice of seeking him out. He was going to give her a lot of room to make the choice to tell him about it. It had briefly crossed his mind that she might be part of the on-going police investigation into Lynette’s death. If so, he liked their choice of an undercover operative. He had already decided against walking away from her. It didn't matter to Jack who she was or why she had attached herself to him. Jack Savage was not afraid of her. He had accepted the attraction between them as real. He had hoped that whatever she was involved in, would soon come out into the light of his day. Lucky walked back to him. She said, “I have a suggestion. My California friends have invited us to stay overnight at their home. We can leave for your ranch from there. Would you be willing to do that?”

Jack smiled at her, “Sure... Give me their address and I’ll look-up directions on the net. Let’s pack now. We’ll have dinner before we go over. Would that work for you?” Lucky felt tears threaten. She watched him write down the Warren’s address on a small piece of paper. She was amazed at his easy acceptance of her suggestion. No questions, no doubts, no uneasiness that these were strangers to him. Just a willingness to do as she had asked him to do. When he had slipped the piece of paper into his pocket, she put her lips on his, “Thank you.” Enjoying the feelings sliding through him, he said, “I like the way you say thank you. Is there anything else I can say yes to?” Lucky laughed. Jack loved to hear her laugh. In the lobby, Jack told her he would pack and take his belongings to his car and then come up for hers. She nodded and walked toward the

elevator. Once in her suite, she showered and changed clothes. After packing her things, she carried the suitcases to the door. Sitting down in the upholstered chair she called Ron Evans. “Hello?” “Don’t you ever go home?” Ron chuckled, “At some point...” “Ron. I am checking out of my hotel. My husband may call you to see if you know where I am. I’m okay. I just don’t want him to know where I am until I’m ready to see him. I’m hoping you won’t give him any of the information I’ve given you. Will doing this for me, cause you any problem?” "Lucky, does someone other than Jack Savage know where you will be?” She smiled to herself, “I’m going to give the information to my friends, Kathy and Jim Warren, here in California.” “Okay! No problem. Give them my cell-phone number also. I’m going to assume Mr. Savage will be aware that the Warren’s have the information that you will be with him?” “Yes.” “Lucky! Don’t forget 9-1-1 is available?” “Gotcha!” After giving the Warren’s phone number to Ron Evans, she heard Jack’s tap on her door. Making sure who it was, she opened the door. Seeing the suitcases, he picked them up, “Ready?” Lucky took one last look around and nodded. Walking toward the car, he felt a lightness break into the moment. It hit him again that it was happening. He was taking Lucky to his ranch. At the car, he opened the trunk and placed her suitcases beside his own. She leaned against the side of the car. She enjoyed watching him lift their luggage and placing them in the car. Without warning, he stepped in front of her and pressed his body against hers, pinning her against the car, “And what were you looking at, Lady Luck?”

Feeling playful, she brought both arms up around his neck, “A handsome lad, Sir.” He laughed outright, “A mere boy? Not on your life!” He kissed her to prove the claim. His lips imprisoned her heart. She thought, “No, My Dear Savage. You are certainly no boy.” ******* In New York, Dan had spent hours angrily trying to locate the fastest way to fly into LAX. “Of course, I want first class,” he snapped. He was sure that he had spent too long on the phone with idiots. He wondered if he had finally found an agent who would be able to find him a flight out of New York within a few hours. He dreaded dealing with the airport’s ‘agents of insecurity,’ but, assured himself that nothing was going to stop him from talking to Lucky directly. He called Nathan to let him know he was flying to California. Relieved that his son had seemed content to stay with his grandfather, his mind kept returning to his last phone call with Lucky. Her voice had held a portentous tone of finality in her response to him. Dan went over the possibility that she had found proof of his affair with Lynette. Wandering around in his memory, he considered the odds low that she had located Lynette’s computer when the police hadn’t been able to find it. He told himself to go slow with assuming something he didn’t know.

He couldn’t believe that she could walk away from him after all the effort she had put into their marriage. Fifteen years is a long time. He reassured himself that she had always hung in there. Hadn’t she spent countless hours in the counseling sessions, he asked himself. Dan’s memory went over the long hours when their conferences with Dr. Bowman had been emotionally exhausting, yet she had not walked out on any of them. He asked himself, if their relationship might be able to survive proof of the affair. He felt a flash of anger grip him. Reminding himself that he also had invested a lot in their marriage, he told himself that regardless what she thought she knew, he was not going to simply bowout without a fight. *******

In California, Lucky and Jack had made the decision to have dinner at the hotel, if their table by the window, would be available to them. Entering the hotel restaurant, they were seated immediately at the table, Jack requested. Smiling, she looked out the window, “The ocean is peaceful tonight.” Jack reached over and slid his finger down her cheek, "It is..." They ordered and sat quietly for a few minutes. Jack placed his arm across the back of her chair. Resting her head on his forearm, she stared into his eyes, enjoying the quiet moment between them. She drew his features into her memory, wanting to paint him someday, as he looked at this moment. She could see the finished painting in her mind's eye. The magnetic grip of his eyes on her, the welcoming contentment flowing from his gaze holding her to himself. The handsome head with the brown hair, a few streaks of gray, the slight curl of the ends of his hair sliding across his jaw-line, enhancing his sensual masculine presence with a suggestion of independent thought and unusual strength that made convention a thing of decision, not coercion. Jack turned his gaze toward the waves rolling toward the shore thinking how satisfying it was to be with her. A few minutes later, Lucky felt the vibration of her cell-phone. She reached into her pocket, putting her fingers around the phone. Pushing back her chair to stand up, she said, “I’ll be right back.” Jack moved to stand up. She placed her hand on his arm, “I can get by; don’t bother moving.” He nodded. He watched her walk toward the Ladies Rest Room wondering who had called her. Entering the rest room, Lucky opened her cell-phone. The call was from her son. She returned his call. When he picked-up, she said, “Hi! Is everything all right?” Nathan said, “Hi Mom. Yes. Just wanted to tell you that Dad called and said it was okay to stay with granddad a few more days. You don’t think that will be too hard on Granddad do you?” She said, “I don’t understand. I thought Dad wanted you to stay the full three months, I’m away?” “He did, but Dad was going to pick me up. I think he thought maybe granddad had enough of me. Then, Dad called later and said he'd changed his mind and was flying out to see you. He asked Granddad if I could stay. Granddad told him that he wanted me here. But now I’m

worried about Granddad. I wanted to know what you think. Have I been here too long?” Lucky worked to suppress the effects of the sudden rush of adrenaline coursing through her, “Well, I don’t know what Dan was thinking, but Dad had asked you to stay with him this summer. He knew that. Maybe he thought about it and became concerned about Dad’s health... Did Dan say what flight he is taking?” “No. I thought he told Granddad he was going to call you and let you know.” Lucky held her breath, “Fine... Well, don’t worry about your grandfather, he has taken care of himself for a long time. It was his idea for you to stay the summer. If any problem comes up, he has the Aaron’s phone number. Enjoy yourself. I love you.” Sounding relieved, Nathan said, “Love you too, Mom. Thanks!” The call disconnected. She shut down the cell-phone. Lucky stared at her reflection in the mirror for several seconds. While washing her hands and combing her hair, she felt thankfulness slip into the moment. Lucky questioned Dan’s motive for attempting to shorten Nathan’s vacation time with her father. She looked at the idea that Dan may have wanted his son near him to help alleviate his own anxiety. He may have been responding to the crisis that was unrolling into their lives by attempting to reassure himself that life would remain as it always had been. She was glad that she had checked-out of the hotel. Jack watched her closely during her approach to their table. He wondered if he were beginning to recognize subtle changes in her behavior. He would have liked to have known what the telephone call had been about. He reminded himself, that he had made the decision to wait for her to tell him what was happening to her. He held to that commitment now. Sitting down beside him, she saw that their meal had been served. Jack had waited for her to return before beginning his meal. Later, she wouldn’t be able to recall the taste of the food. When their place-settings had been cleared, Jack asked her if she would like to have dessert. Lucky, eager to leave the hotel area, suggested that perhaps Kathy would have something waiting for them. Jack nodded. During the drive to Jim and Kathy Warren’s home, they rode together in silence. He was thinking about the drive to Wyoming with her alongside him and Lucky was wondering what Dan’s move would be when

he couldn’t find her at the hotel. She reasoned that Dan would call her cell-phone first. Ron Evans might be the first person he would try to talk to when she didn’t return his call. Ron Evans wouldn’t be available until tomorrow at the earliest. It would probably take six or seven hours to fly into Los Angeles. Lucky told herself, she would probably have to return his calls and tell him to stop trying to find her. She would need to convince him that when she was ready, she would talk to him. Lucky wasn’t sure when she would tell him what she had found out. Leaning her head against the head-rest, she stared out the window barely aware of the images flashing past her eyes. Entering the Warren’s driveway, Lucky felt as though she had been granted a reprieve from some terrible unpleasantness. Kathy opened the door, welcoming them to their home. She called out to her husband, “Jim, they’re here.” Jim Warren entered the foyer, greeting them both with a hardy and warm, "Hello! Come on in!" Jack Savage immediately relaxed. Jim Warren escorted Jack to the guest room and Kathy walked Lucky to the bedroom they were making available to her. Kathy chattered away giving friendly guest information about where towels could be found, assuring her that the kitchen was always open to their guests at any hour and that they had full run of their home as long as they wanted it. After entering the bedroom, Lucky turned to Kathy, “Thank you so much Kath!” Kathy stopped talking and hugged Lucky. “I’m just glad we are out here.”

Her face became serious, “You know, Lucky, this is the first time we have met Mr. Savage. He is really good-looking, isn’t he?” Kathy lowered her voice to a whisper, “When this is all over, you will tell us everything, won’t you?” Lucky smiled, “Hmmm....yes, he is. Kathy! How could I not tell you? I will tell you both what has been going on as soon as I can." Jim walked through the door, “He seems like a nice guy. Wonder why Lynette and he divorced. Do you know?” His wife put her fingers over his mouth and he said, “Oh... I’m sorry, Lucky.”

Lucky grinned at him and said, “It’s okay. Yes, I do think I know what happened. But it may be some time before I can tell you all about it.” Kathy put her hands on the back of her husband and pushed him slowly through the door. Turning her head to look back at Lucky, she suggested, “When you have settled in, come on down. I have tea and pumpkin pie for a snack.” Lucky nodded, "Thanks!" The evening turned out to be quiet and informal. Jack enjoyed talking to Kathy and Jim. Lucky was thankful that her friends were down-to-earth, friendly people. They spent the evening talking around family situations. Jack found himself curious about them and their connection to Lucky, but he made no effort to encourage them to talk about their friendship. At 10:00P.M., the Warren’s turned-in for the night, leaving Jack and Lucky to make the decision when they would go to their rooms. Jack wanted to touch Lucky but he felt restrained by her careful treatment of him around Jim and Kathy. Walking Lucky to her room, he hesitated at her door, “May I kiss you.” Lucky smiled. Pressing herself against him, she brought her lips to his, “Hmmm...Yes.” she murmured. He held her quietly after the kiss. Placing his hand against the back of her hair, he pressed her head gently into his shoulder wishing that he could simply walk into her room and stay the night. Releasing her, he smiled, remembering his father’s favorite phrase to his Mother, “When you dream, dream a little dream of me.”

The alluring look in her eyes drove him crazy.

Chapter 10 [Use Right & Left Arrow Key To Center Page - then Down Arrow]

In New York, Dan had been chasing an idea around in his brain. He couldn't let rest the idea Lucky had found Lynette’s computer. He

couldn't see anything else that explained her drastic change of behavior toward him. They had fought many times during their fifteen years together, but she had never seemed more removed from him than she had during their last conversation. “It has to be Lyn’s laptop.” Dan said aloud. Trying to imagine how she had found it; he gave up in seconds. He believed if she had uncovered any other type of evidence regarding Lynette’s death, Lucky would have talked to him about it. It had been the shattering sense that she had utterly exterminated his meaning to her that convinced him Lucky had found evidence of his long affair with Lynette. He felt a rush of renewed panic. If she had found Lynette’s computer, he knew Lucky had to have looked through the laptop. Dan felt sure that she would give it to Ron Evans. At some point, Ron would get it to the New York police. Visualizing Lucky reading Lynette’s emails to him and his to her, sent his heart racing. His strength drained out of his legs. Dan had not kept any of their emails on his own computer. He had always been careful to clean his computer disk frequently. Dan didn’t doubt that Lynette had kept copies of his emails. He tried to remember the things he had written her. Memories of their email exchanges rose up in his mind. His hands began to shake. “God! What was I thinking?” he said aloud. Emailing Lynette had become too easy. Years had gone by with no threat to their exposure. He had become lazy and too confident in her unwillingness to lose him entirely, if she exposed their affair to Lucky. He felt a flair-up of hated for Lynette for not bringing her laptop to their last meeting. Running his shaking hand through his hair, Daniel Donnellan shook his head as though clearing his brain of all distracting thought. He felt as though he were trying to painstakingly find his way through a long, darkened labyrinth of confusing pathways in an effort to end a strange dream. Dan examined the idea that he might be able to confirm that Lucky had found Lynette’s computer. If he emailed Lynette, would Lucky open the new email? Would she reply to him? Wondering what he had to lose by trying it, he wandered around the idea. He was certain that the police would read any email he would write to Lucky through Lynette’s computer. He couldn’t imagine them

not looking for emails that had been sent to her after her death. If Lucky had found it, he doubted the computer was in police hands yet. It would probably take a couple of days for them to get it. They would learn of his affair with Lynette. He told himself that even if the police read his new email to Lucky, they would only find out that he was trying to save his marriage. He wondered if Lucky had found Lynette’s email passwords. If she had them, she would still need to make the decision to look for any unopened emails to Lynette. If she didn’t think to do this, she wouldn’t notice that he had written to her using Lynette’s email address. The longer Dan thought about it, the more the idea seemed workable. He needed to know if she had evidence of the affair. If she did have Lynette’s computer, Lucky’s next move would be to contact her father. Dan convinced himself, that if he could get to her, he could stop a divorce from taking place. Accepting that Nathan was old enough to choose which parent to live with, Dan knew that Nathan would choose Lucky. If Lucky had found Lynette’s computer, he couldn’t deny the affair or its long duration. He told himself to not think about Nathan's reaction to a divorce right now. Recognizing that Lucky had the resources to make it impossible for him to attempt to persuade her not to divorce him, he examined the idea of calling Lucky’s father. If her father found out what she had been doing, he might ask her to come back to New York. It seemed possible to Dan, that her father might suggest they talk, before starting the divorce process. Dan took time to consider if Lucky’s father might be willing to talk Lucky out of a divorce for Nathan’s sake. Running his fingers through his hair, he made the decision to put off the flight to California until he had tried sending her an email through Lynette’s computer. Still uneasy at the thought of his father-in-law’s reaction to the affair with Lynette, he made the decision to hold that option open as a last-ditch effort for a meeting with Lucky. Picking up his cell phone, he called the ticket agent to change his departure date.

****** In California, Jack and Lucky said their thanks and waved their goodbyes to Jim and Kathy Warren. Jack Savage pulled the Lexus out of the Warren’s driveway and headed for the Santa Ana Freeway. Lucky had

dressed in blue jeans, white sneakers, soft green cotton blouse and gold earrings. Jack wore jeans with a white cotton shirt. He shirt sleeves were rolled up half-way on his forearm and he had on white sneakers. Lucky glanced at Jack, “I’ll drive any time you want me to take over.” Driving with one hand, his legs relaxed and slightly parted, she thought him excitingly handsome. His shirt collar was loosely buttoned exposing his upper chest. He looked like a man who had been designed to be touched. She suddenly wished she could trace the interior of his inner thigh to the opposite thigh with her fingers. She would have enjoyed seeing the middle of this route begin its swelling rise while she passed her fingers over it. Smiling, he said, “I enjoy driving. But, I may call on you. It’s a little over a thousand miles. Any time you want to stop to rest, walk around or for anything else, let me know. We’ll stay over night in Cedar City, Utah, unless you have another preference.” Lucky nodded her acceptance of his choice and settled back in her seat. She felt comfortable and relaxed. Cedar City was half way to Laramie. She thought his ranch west of there. Jack found it difficult to not touch her. After exiting the Warren’s driveway, he had fought the desire to stop the car and kiss her. He wanted to smell her fragrance, embrace her, hold her. He felt the longing for her responding lips on his, bury itself deep within him. He wondered if this essential longing would ever go away. Glancing toward her, he asked her if she would like to listen to music for a while. She smiled and told him that she would like that. She asked him if he carried a James Blunt CD. He smiled, quickly realizing she had remembered his teasing comment about his favorite artist being James Blunt. Her question pleased him. That she remembered his words, pleased him more.

Choosing the Back to Bedlam” CD, he slide it into the player. When James Blunt’s vibrant voice spread its soaring tones throughout the Lexus, she began to understand why Jack liked the music of James Blunt. It was full of human spirituality, gentle longings and a powerful

humanity. His voice passionate and full of masculine strength of purpose flowed around them. She decided she liked the music of James Blunt. Leaving the miles behind them, she fell asleep. Glancing at her, Jack thought she looked more vulnerable in the peace of her sleep. He couldn’t escape the feeling that she had agreed to come with him to Wyoming because she was running away from something or someone. He wondered what had changed. She had seemed reluctant to consider it, at first. He went back over their hours of conversation to find some clue that would explain why she had been willing to leave her son for three months in the first place. He couldn’t believe that what she was doing was merely taking a vacation. Sending his mind in another direction, he mused that if she were a New York Police undercover agent, leaving her son for three months came with the turf. He had already told himself that he would give her whatever she wanted. What he wanted was her. Her cell-phone rang. She stirred, removed the cell-phone from her pocket and looked at the calling number. She turned-off the phone. “Would you like to stop so you can return the call?” “No, it can wait. Thank you.” The call had been from Dan. She wondered if he had made it to Los Angeles and was grappling with the fact he hadn’t been able to find her. She didn’t doubt that if he were in California, he was probably in a rage by now. Looking at the clock, she realized she had been asleep three hours. At this speed they would be in Cedar City, Utah, in less than two hours. “What took you out of New York and what brought you to Wyoming?” She asked him. Jack inhaled, “I suppose several things worked together to get me out here. Nine-eleven was a close and devastating reminder that human life is short. It allowed me to reevaluate the substance of my own life. My marriage failure and divorce took place in New York. Familiar places and people brought back those memories too often.”

He paused, then said, “There were times I wondered why I had chosen to become a broker. It can bring a hectic lifestyle. It took a while, but I decided that the way I was living, isn’t how I wanted to live out my life.”

Looking into her eyes, he explained, “I’m an ordinary man. I guess I had finally been confronted with a desire to make more time for the important things. I took steps to reduce my workload and move out of New York.” She smiled, “That answers the first part.” He grinned, “Wyoming? I guess I learned to yearn for openness and the outdoors during my childhood. I was hoping a small ranch might fill that need. The longer I looked around, the more Wyoming grabbed my attention. It has some extraordinary landscapes. I found enough openness and outdoors to create a small shangrila and a community filled with mostly nice people to go along with it.” The look in his eyes draw her into himself, “What has been missing is a woman to complete the growing peace in me.” She felt his invitation into his life flow pleasingly through her. An earlier question once again shot through her brain, “Could this man be for real?” It was a question she had asked herself before. She wandered momentarily into the immediate unknowable. Perhaps when this man gets what he wants, he doesn’t want it anymore. She tried to move away from the resurrected desire for intimacy his words had awakened; she asked him, “Do you have a working ranch?” Jack smiled, “I have six horses. Four ponies, a couple of mares and a black lab, named, ‘Boss,’ who forgets once in a while that he doesn’t own the place. We call him, ‘Bo.’ Larry Stewart, my foreman who lives in a home not far from the main house helps take care of them and does other work for me. Besides the animals, there is usually some brush to clear along with an orchard to tend. The ranch is two-hundred acres in all. There is a stream that runs through the west side of the land and great views of the mountains. You might experience some scenes you will want to put on canvas, someday. I hope you enjoy it.” Being this near him for hours, she wasn’t surprised that the thought instantly crossing her mind, had been, “Sharing your bed would enhance the stay.” Holding the words imprisoned, she wondered if her thought had shown itself in her eyes, “I’m sure I will.”

Two and a half hours later, they entered, Cedar City, Utah. Jack stopped for gas. Lucky took the time to get out of the car and stretch while Jack asked directions to the Big Yellow Inn.

When he got back into the car, he asked her if the Inn would be okay with her. Lucky nodded her acceptance. Jack told her about The Big Yellow Inn, explaining that it was a large structure of Georgian architecture complete with a grand staircase, internet access and a library. “They provide a full breakfast,” he added. Jack explored the idea of taking the nine-hundred square foot Gable Suite. He realized in seconds that was not an idea he should act upon. Walking up the steps to the Big Yellow Inn, Lucky wondered if he would ask her if she would stay overnight with him in the same suite. She knew she would say yes. She longed to experience the magnificent body of Jack Savage. She remembered his overt sensuality and how it had enveloped her the night he had walked away from her passionate offer of herself to him. She hadn’t felt married to Dan since enduring the emotional catastrophe that came with reading his sexually explicit emails to her step-sister. Lucky accepted that the legal annihilation of her marriage was simply a matter of time. Entering the lobby, she looked around the room while Jack signed for two of the Inn’s suites. He hadn’t asked her to share a suite with him during their overnight stay. Turning to her, he suggested she wait for him in the lobby while he brought in their luggage. She declined and walked with him to the car. She offered to pay for her suite. Holding her hand, he squeezed it gently, “No problem. Accept it as a gift. I’m happy that you are with me.” At the Lexus, she picked-up the computer and her overnight bag, then turned to ask if he had something else she could carry. He grinned down at her, “No, I’ve got it.” After eating dinner, they walked around Cedar City for a while. It felt good to both of them to relax and move about freely. Noticing signs advertising the Utah Shakespearean Festival, the Utah Summer Games and the Western Arts Festival, Lucky said, “It looks like Cedar City is a busy place.” “We're are not far from Zion National Park or Brian Head Ski Resort. There is great skiing around Laramie. Do you ski?”

She said, “It’s like Pool... I enjoy it, but I’m not good at it.”

Jack chuckled, “You were pretty good at Pool... so maybe that holds true about skiing?” She grinned up at him. Back at the Big Yellow Inn, he walked her to her suite, “Do you have a specific time you would like to wake up?” Placing her right hand on his chest, she looked into his eyes, “Any time you knock on my door, I’ll wake up.” His heart increased its beat. He felt his body respond to the implication in her words. He slapped down the rising desire. Resisting the urge to open the door, pick her up and place her on the bed, he said, “Okay... Sweet Lady Luck. I’ll see you in the morning.” Putting his arms around her, he drew her toward him and kissed her. It was a cautious but sensually exploring kiss. She felt passion flower. She didn’t want him to leave her. He whispered, “See you in the morning,” and released her. He turned to walk away. She felt a sadness engulf her. She opened the door and entered the room. After showering and watching the news on television, she turned to the computer that held Lynette’s files. Reading more of Lynette’s stored copies of email to Dan brought a revived anger toward him and her stepsister. She examined the idea that perhaps she didn’t need to read all their email exchanges because the police would go through them. Seconds later, she recognized that if she were serious about finding out what had happened to her step-sister, she should read all of Lynette’s email. Her eyes might see something that a stranger wouldn’t identify as important to Lynette. Needing a relief, she decided to look for another email address for her step-sister by doing a disk search. Long frustrating minutes ticked by. Lucky felt blocked in her effort by the thousands of text files Lynette had saved on her computer. If Lynette had created special folders and code names for them, it would take a long time to find the important ones. While she thought about another man her step-sister may have been emailing, she realized she hadn’t checked for email Lynette might have gotten after her death. Connecting to the internet, she checked Lynette’s email. Opening her step-sister’s email program, she froze. Her fingers couldn’t move. Lucky saw that Dan had sent her an email. He had written on the subject line, “Lucky - this email is to you. Please read it. Dan.”

Shocked, she realized that he knew or had guessed she had found Lyn’s computer. If she responded to his message, he would have proof she had it in her possession. She clicked open the file. Dan had written: Lucky, “If you are reading this, I know you have found Lyn’s laptop. I know you must be terribly angry with us. Please Lucky! Read this letter and don’t just delete it or not answer it. I did have a long affair with Lyn. Yes, you can prove that now. It did go on for years, but you have to know that the actual time with her was only a fraction of the time, I spent with you and Nathan. I’m hoping that you can forgive me. I want to explain how it began. She wouldn’t let me alone! I know... lousy excuse! But as stupid as it sounds, it wore me down. Finally she got this bright idea that if she married Jack Savage, I would leave you. She loved jerking me around. Lyn hoped that threatening to marry him would force me to divorce you. She thought it mattered to me that she marry some guy. I didn’t give a damn! I didn’t love her and would have never left you for her. Don’t stop fighting for us, Lucky. You’ll miss me if you leave me!” Lucky felt nauseated. She put her hand to her mouth. Waiting for her stomach to calm itself. Feelings of rage threatened to erupt in her. Becoming aware of a sense of caution rising up to mingle with her anger, she began reading the email from Dan, again. “Remember, Baby, you and I had some really hard times for a long time. Once I had caved (for God’s sake, Lucky, I’m a man!), she held that over me. She was unrelenting. I’m not using that as an excuse either. Just want you to see, the situation got more complex for me as time passed. By the way, when you read our emails, just remember, she could have easily changed the content of my emails once she saved them. And, no, I never saved any of our correspondence. Just don’t believe everything she saved as proof it is from me. She could have changed it. I’m not trying to deny we had an affair. What I’m trying to tell you, is that it was just that - an affair. I never told her I loved her. I never denied I loved you. If you read it in the emails... I DIDN’T WRITE IT!!

I told her over and over I would never leave you. Most of our fights were over my unwillingness to break-up our family. Sex with her was just that, sex. IT DIDN’T MEAN ANYTHING TO ME! She could be playful but she wasn’t YOU! There isn’t any woman who can take your place. Yes, this outraged her, but this is the truth even if you don’t find my emails that said these things. If you haven’t found them, it means she never saved them or deleted them! Lucky!! I never loved her, NEVER!” Lucky fought to control a crushing sense of outrage. She stopped reading. She thought about the implications of his words to her. It was clear that Dan didn’t want a divorce. She understood within a new depth of insight what it meant to add insult to injury. She copied his email and got out of the program. She needed time to think about whether or not she would acknowledge that she had received his message. When she had first found proof of his long affair with Lynette, her first impulse had been to show the depth of her contempt for him by simply walking out of his life and never looking back. She didn’t doubt that he knew her well enough to believe that she would divorce him once she had proof of the affair. He was now trying to stop it from happening. Wondering if the police would continue to monitor Lynette’s online email program, she shut down the computer to think things through more carefully. She didn’t have to reply to Dan from Lynette’s email program. In seconds, it had crossed her mind that perhaps she should reply using Lyn’s email program. She decided she would respond to his email. She didn’t trust herself to face him. It struck her forcefully that if she hadn’t begun looking into Lynette’s death she might not have found out about their affair, ever. She shuddered. Thinking of what it would have meant to her to have lived the rest of her life with this liar and never knowing it, her body began to shake. Lucky's memory shot through their past together. She wondered who Dan was? Where in his brain had he discovered this right to defraud her? He had lived within a self-entitlement that had dismissed her right to live within a truthful relationship. If Lyn had not died, he would have held her in this prison of lies the rest of her life. What a hideous arrogance he lives within, she thought. Dan had chosen to live out a profound offense to their relationship and

now had the gall to ask her to forgive him for it. She had never before experienced the depth of rage she was attempting to deal with now. Dan had always known how Lucky valued personal respect in their relationship. He had called her the family ‘peace-maker’ many times. She could see that he was now attempting to take full advantage of what his experience with her had shown him about her. The uncovering of his unfaithfulness through-out their marriage had said it all to her. He had treated her as though she were a fool. Lucky told herself that he would never get a chance to do it again. She began pacing the floor. If she responded immediately, he would ask to see her. She wondered if he had already flown back into Los Angeles. Her physical strength suddenly drained away. She quit pacing. Lying down on the bed, she tried to stop thinking about Dan or her step-sister. ****** The next morning in New York, Dan showered, entered the kitchen and drank a vanilla protein breakfast. He checked his computer to see if Lucky had responded to his email. Finding nothing new in his inbox, he disconnected the laptop. Leaning back in his desk chair, he wondered if he might have been wrong about Lucky finding Lyn’s computer. A cautious relief had emerged in him when he had not found an email sent from Lynette’s computer. A small hope began to grow that Lucky hadn’t found Lynette’s laptop, after all. If she hadn’t found it, that would change the way he dealt with her belief that he had an affair with Lynette. He went over in his mind what his next move should be. His thinking wandered back into his business problems. His lawyer had negotiated a couple of months reprieve before he would have to begin filing bankruptcy. The new manager Glenn suggested was working out. Dan thought if he made it through the next couple of months successfully, he might keep him. For the first time since Lucky’s unrelenting drive to find out the real reason for Lynette’s death, he felt he had been given an opportunity to forestall a total disaster to his life. He stopped cursing himself for his earlier blunder in causing Lucky to wonder if he had an affair with Lynette.

Dan made the decision to not put pressure on Lucky by calling her cell phone. If he didn’t hear from her today, he would give her a couple of days, then try calling her again. He told himself to go into the restaurant, help out, go through the books again and take more time focusing on how to save the business. Dan stretched, realizing that he felt more in control at this moment than he had since Lynette had died. It felt good. In Utah, Jack and Lucky ate the Big Yellow Inn breakfast. Putting her hand in his, she suggested they take a short walk before they started on the trip again. He leaned over, kissed her and said, “Good idea!”

She found it difficult to believe his easy flexibility. After returning to the Inn, they picked-up their luggage and checked-out. Jack once again headed the Lexus toward Wyoming. “How far is your ranch from here.” “A little over six-hundred miles. It will probably take at least nine hours. If things go fine, we’ll be there by dinner time.” In spite of the memory of Dan’s email lying-in-wait for her the moment she had opened her eyes, Lucky had met the morning refreshed. The evening before, Jack had reluctantly turned off his desire to have her and walked to his suite. He had showered, watched the evening news, got up on the net, checked his email and then shut off his laptop. The last thing he remembered was Lucky’s lips moving sensuously against his. This morning, he felt rested and eager to see her again. Lucky looked through Jack’s music collection. She found Chris Isaak’s CD and slipped it into the disk player. Looking at him, she asked, “Is it too early for music?” Smiling at her, he said, “No.” The song, “Baby did a bad bad thing,” began to throb its beat into the car, Jack began tapping on the steering wheel. She soon began tapping her toe. Laughing, she said, “That song shouldn’t be played inside a car, should it? I want to dance to it.” Chuckling, he nodded in agreement. Jack felt a new contentment flow through him. Glancing toward her, he realized he didn’t want to take his eyes off her. He experienced a strange mixture of reverence, fear and wonder course through the moment.

Turning his eyes back to the road, he wandered through the thing he had just felt. She seemed to hold some special magnetic quality for him. He embraced a deep hope that she was not merely acting under the directions of a New York undercover operation. The miles sped by, the landscape changed. They chatted in generalities. They listened to the news. They were silent. Lucky drove for a while. Jack drifted off to a short sleep. He felt her right hand come down to rest on his. Waking up, he took over driving. Hours later, the Medicine BowRoutt National Forest made its appearance. She drew in her breath at its beauty. “Are you able to see these mountains from your ranch?” He nodded, “Yes, aren’t they beautiful? The Snowy Range Ski and Recreation Area is thirty-two miles from Laramie. It’s in the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest. When it snows, the ski range gets a terrific snowfall. I think you would enjoy it.” Lucky looked out her side window experiencing a sense that he had just welcomed her home. She didn’t want him to see the rising moisture in her eyes. Lucky wanted to immerse herself in the warm acceptance of that feeling. Her silence prompted him to glance toward her. She was staring out her side window. Wondering what she was thinking, the renewed longing of wanting to know all about her, pierced the moment. He accepted thoughtfully that it might take the rest of his life to achieve that goal. Miles later, Jack turned down a county road. Thirty minutes later, he turned into his driveway, stopping at the locked front gate. Lucky could see a large two-story, modern log-cabin home with an attached garage, stables in the distance and a single-story white clapboard framed residence to the east of the main house. The immediate homes and stables area were surrounded by strong black iron fencing. The single story home had a separate driveway that wound around the structure to end at a small parking lot in the back of the house. She noticed that both homes had a fireplace. She could imagine how warm and inviting these homes would be in the deep of winter with light smoke rising skyward from a crackling fireplace below. She said softly, “How nice!” Smiling down at her, he said, “Yes, I wanted to own this place, the moment I saw it.” Within seconds, a black lab had leaped out of the stables, barking his excited welcome while he ran toward the gate. Jack punched in the code and the large gates swung open.

Driving through them, he stopped in front of the garage door. Lucky turned to see a tall, lanky man in well-worn jeans, cowboy boots, shoulder-length grey hair and wearing a Stetson hat, bolt out of the single-story home and begin striding toward them. Jack turned to Lucky, “That is Larry Stewart, my foreman and friend.” Getting out of the car, Jack reached out and shook Larry's hand. Bo, wriggling with excitement worked to get between Larry and Jack. Jack leaned down and hugged Bo, rubbing him behind his ears and across his chest. Larry said, “Welcome home, Jack! Missed ya!” Leaning down to look into the car, he asked, “And who is this beauty, Jack?” Jack laughed, walked around the car to open Lucky’s door and said, “My guest! Lucky Donavan.” Jack gave Lucky his hand to help her out of the car. She took it. Larry Stewart had followed Jack around the car with Bo tagging along behind him. Taking off his hat, he extended his hand toward her, his face wearing a big smile, “Welcome to Jack’s ranch, Ms. Donavan!” She smiled up at him, shook his hand, saying, “Please! 'Lucky' will do...” Larry grinned, a real smile in his eyes, “Lucky it’ll be!” Lucky bent down to put her arms around Bo. She rubbed him behind the ears. He squirmed to get closer to her in his effort to paint her face with wet lavish kisses. Larry helped Jack unload the car then said his good-byes. When Larry turned to leave, he tapped Jack lightly on the shoulder, “Glad you’re home.” Turning to Lucky, he said, “Sure hope you’ll enjoy cowboy country, Lucky!” She grinned at him, responding that she thought she would. Her eyes were drawn back to Jack. After walking Larry to the door, Jack returned and picked-up Lucky’s luggage. He showed her the guest room. Placing the bags on the floor beside the bed, he suddenly reached for her. His arms locked her into a place where gentle comfort rose up to meet her tiredness. Looking into her eyes, his finger traced an invisible line on her cheek, “You are a beauty, you know?” Her eyes kissed him before she put her lips on his. She felt his hardness rise against her body.

Releasing her, he rescued her from herself. Smiling down at her, he said, “I’ll round-up something to eat.” He turned to walk toward the kitchen. She wanted to plead with him to stay and have dessert first. He walked out of the room. She attacked the sexual frustration in herself and muttered, “I may kill him before this relationship is over!” Then, she laughed softly. Sobering thoughts brought her back to earth. The events of the last several months flashed through her mind. She realized within a sense of wonder that she could feel happiness in spite of the monumental changes taking place in her life. Showering, she changed her clothes to a clean pair of slacks, white blouse and soft moccasins. Stretching across the bed she thought about the decision to come to Wyoming with Jack. Fifteen minutes later, pangs of hunger coursed through her as her stomach reacted to the pleasant food odors coming from the kitchen. Entering the combination kitchen and dining area, she asked if she could help. He turned toward her, smiled and motioned toward the cabinet that held the plate settings. After washing her hands, she took two of each item they needed and placed them on the table. He suggested she sit down and he would bring their steak, baked potato and green beans to the table. Placing the dishes before her, he asked her if she would like milk, tea or a glass of wine. She chose a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon. She noticed that he chose milk. With her first bite of steak, she said, “Hmmm... this is good!” He smiled, pleased. Finishing her meal, she wiped her hands off with a napkin, “Thank you, Jack. I was more hungry than I realized.” He nodded, “I’m glad I chose food you like.” Getting up from her chair, she began to clean off the table. He stopped her. "I’ll do that. Why don’t you go into the living room and relax. Maybe you can find something you would like to watch on television." She tried to protest, but he wouldn’t hear of it. Claiming her, he said, “Maybe later, after you’ve been here a while.” Surrendering, she walked into the living room. Looking around for the remote, she found it on a chair and turned on the high-definition television set. She sat down on the comfortable sofa. In minutes, she could hear Jack in the kitchen putting the dishes into the dishwasher.

She felt sleepy. Wondering if the wine had been the wrong choice for her, she tried to watch the news. When Jack walked into the living room, he found her sound asleep on the sofa, the remote had slipped out of her hand. He smiled, pickedher up and took her into the guest bedroom. Laying her on one side of the bed, he walked to the other side and pulled back the blankets. Picking her up again he placed her on the other side of the bed. Lifting her head gently, he slipped a pillow under it. Carefully taking her moccasins off her feet, he then brought up the blankets over her. He wanted to kiss her. He felt a piercing longing to place himself alongside her and listen to her gentle breathing. Instead, he watched her peaceful sleep for long minutes. Moving away from the bed, he quietly walked toward the door. Dimming the lights, he walked out, shutting the door quietly behind him. The next morning she woke with a start. Stretching, she thought she smelled eggs being fried. She remembered falling asleep in the living room. Gasping, she lifted the blankets and saw that she was still dressed as she had been last night. Smiling to herself, she realized that he hadn’t undressed her. “This is some unusual man,” she thought. She had never felt safer. She wondered if the feeling would last now that she was on his turf. After showering and dressing, Lucky walked into the kitchen. “Hmmm... I smell breakfast.” Turning toward her, Jack said, “Over easy?” Smiling, she nodded yes. She looked him over. He was dressed in a blue checkered light cotton shirt, tight jeans and cowboy boots. She thought, “Wyoming perfect.” The aroma of coffee got to her. Walking over to the counter she poured herself a cup. Glancing at the table, she saw that the silverware had already been put on place mats. Jack picked-up two plates filled with eggs, a couple of slices of bacon on each and toast alongside a small peeled orange. Walking to her, he leaned over and kissed her, lingeringly. She kissed him back, lingeringly. Jack placed one of the plates in front of her and put the other plate down in front of the chair he was going to sit in. Squatting over the chair, he reached down between his legs and with one hand on the seat, pulled the chair closer to the table, “Hope you like eggs and bacon.”

She felt warm with the inner awareness that she enjoyed watching Jack do anything; anything at all. He hesitated before picking-up his fork. Lucky tasted the bacon, “It’s good!” He smiled at her.

After the meal, they talked over their second cup of coffee. Lucky apologized for falling asleep in the living room the night before. He laughed lightly, “You’re cute when you are asleep. You look about five years old.” She smiled, “Sure, I do...” She paused, then said, “You could have waked me. Then, you wouldn’t have had to carry me into the bedroom.” He stared at her thoughtfully, “I enjoyed carrying you into the bedroom.” Lucky felt her body seek out her attention. She marveled at such immediate sexual vulnerablity to him, “His words are as sensually powerful as his lips. I wonder if my body would ever get used to being around this man.” Somehow she felt it wouldn’t happen. She liked the thought. After breakfast, Jack walked her through the house. The spacious living room with its large fireplace, dining and kitchen area were within a single undivided space. His office had been positioned off a smaller library room on the first floor. The guest-room where Lucky slept had a door directly into the large living area. A stairway led to the master bedroom on the second floor. Off the master bedroom, an outside balcony stretched the length of the house. A small exercise room could be accessed through the master bedroom. The house had been wired for the modern world. A large enclosed jaccuz had been built in the back of the house, first floor, positioned on top of the brick patio. Larry Stewart knocked at the back door. Jack raised his voice, “Come on in.” Entering, Larry asked her, “Lucky! Would you like to meet the rest of our family? I’ll introduce you to the kids while Jack cleans up. I’m going out to saddle a couple of them for you two, anyway.” She glanced toward Jack. He was looking at Lucky. “Thanks, Larry, but I’m going to help Jack clean up and then both of us will come out.” Larry, tipped his hat, “Gotcha! See ya later, then!” He turned around and went back out the door.

Jack put his arms around her, “You’re my kind of woman!” She smiled, “I love being around you, Jack.” He kissed her. She wondered again what he was waiting for. Releasing her, he turned to clear off the table. She helped by scrapping off their plates residue into the garbage disposal and putting the dishes into the dishwasher. He wiped off the kitchen counter. When she had finished loading the dishwasher, he poured the soap into the small dishwasher container. Shutting and locking the door, he whirled its dial. Suggesting she get a jacket, he put on his. Bo came running toward them the minute the back door opened. Sliding to a stop before Jack, Bo lifted his front paw, waiting for his pawshake from Jack. Jack leaned down and shook Bo’s paw. With Bo trotting alongside Jack, the three of them strolled toward the stables. Jack told her the names of his horses, “First, I found two black mares, I liked. We named them, Angel and Star. Then I picked-up four ponies. They are, Nip, Tuck, Tank and Toby. The only one that fits his name is Tank. He is a squat, tough little guy. Larry’s favorite.” Entering the stables, Lucky saw the animals milling about in their stalls. Jack and Lucky approached Angel and Star. Angel lifted her head, whinnying at Jack. He patted her on the neck, “Missed me, did you?” She lifted her head up and then back toward him as though to agree. Jack brought Lucky’s hand up to Angel’s neck. She rubbed her long sleek throat. Angel blinked her dark eyes at this stranger Jack had brought with him. “She’s a beauty.” Lucky said. Lucky heard Jack’s cell-phone go off. He took it out of his pocket and looked at the text message. Snapping it shut, he said, “I’ve got a text message to call the office. I don’t think it will take long. Larry will introduce you to the rest of the kids.” Larry Stewart watched Lucky’s look linger on Jack’s back. He wondered what was going on between them. He took her to each stall so that she could pet and meet each pony. After petting Tank, she asked, “I understand the mares are for riding, but why did Jack buy four ponies?” Looking down at her pensively, he asked, “What do you know about Jack?” She smiled, “Not much.”

Larry hesitated, then told her, “I’ve not known him long, but he is the finest man I’ve met. I’m a recovering meth addict. I would probably be dead if Jack hadn’t challenged me to get off the stuff. He offered me this job.”

Larry slowly twisted the wedding band on his left hand, “I lost my wife, my kids, my job, everything. He told me if I got into a program, stay in it and stay off the drugs, I could have this job as long as I wanted it.” He laughed, “He may regret the offer because I may stay until either he or I die.” Larry looked toward Tank. Reaching inside his stall, he began to stroke the pony’s neck, “ It takes some time to get to know Jack. Don’t let his careful self-control fool you, either. It can be mistaken for diffidence. He’s kind, but tough. I don’t have a doubt that if I take a single back-step, I’d be outta here.” Reaching out to touch his shoulder, she said, “I’m glad that you met Jack.” He smiled, “Thanks! But, that didn’t really answer your question about the ponies.” Looking to see if Jack were coming back toward the stables, he continued, “Apparently, Jack hasn’t told you what he does in his spare time. Maybe I should say, some of his spare time. After Jack bought this place and got the mares, it wasn’t long before he had contacted the regional mental health centers and offered to purchase ponies and provide them to children in need of sensory contact with animals. The mental-health people make appointments when they want to bring the kids out here.” Lucky drew-in her breath. She began to see a wider picture being painted about who Jack had chosen to be. Noticing the startled look on her face, Larry said, “Jack doesn’t toot his own horn. He just walks his own unpretentious path.” He saw her smile. He told her, “I used to be a teacher.” She said, “I’m sorry. You know what they say about the things we assume? It makes an ass out of you and me?” He laughed, “No problem! My knowing more than a few common words of good english always surprises people who don’t know me. I suppose with some real effort toward rebuilding my reputation, I could teach again, but right now I like what I’m doing.”

Hearing the back-door of the house being shut, they looked up. They saw Jack striding toward them with Bo trotting beside him. Larry said, “You’re riding with him, aren’t you?” She nodded.

He turned away and walked toward Angel’s stall, “I’ll saddle Angel and Star for you.”

Chapter 11 [Use Right & Left Arrow Key To Center Page - then Down Arrow] The morning was bright and crisp. Jack helped Lucky mount Star. Watching her melt into the saddle, he thought that she looked comfortable and unafraid. She grinned at him, “Don’t worry, I’ve done this enough that I don’t think I’ll fall off.” He smiled while he walked over to Angel and mounted her. Jack steered a path behind the stables toward the east side of his ranch, showing her first the pasture with its many wildflowers and clover. Lucky could see that this area had been fenced off for the horses. Jack turned toward her, “Larry will be sending the ponies out here in a few minutes.” She could see in the distance a wide, open area with cattle huddled close together. Jack noticed the direction she was looking, “That is my neighbor’s ranch; the Stein’s. They have a couple of grown children who still work it with them. Nice people.” They walked and then trotted the horses through his ranch land. She saw in the distance the stunningly beautiful mountains of the Snowy Range and its highest peak, Medicine Bow. During their ride together, she experienced a sense of unifying contentment make its way through her. The two of them seemed to be a natural part of the landscape, the sky and the air. Thirty minutes later, she mused at the abundance of life that surrounded them. Birds sang their warning that strangers were entering their space. Bo, racing back and forth between the horses, stopped periodically to bark and chase a rabbit or squirrel. Sounds in the brush

hinted of other life, unseen. The breeze gently met them as though welcoming them into this quiet territory. She pictured Jack taking her in the solitude of this landscape and in the urgency of her eager acceptance. Suddenly Jack turned his head toward her. His eyes met hers with an intensity that thrilled her. She wondered if their minds had met in the same thought. He halted Angel. Lifting his leg back across the saddle he jumped to the ground. He reached for Star’s reins. Stopping Star, he reached up for Lucky. Liking the look in his eyes, she lifted her right leg up and back. Her body slide down his. He brought her the rest of the way toward him. Putting his lips on hers, he kissed her gently. Her answering lips uncoiled an enveloping passion between them. Without warning, her legs failed her. Tightening his hold on her, he whispered, “Lucky, you belong here with me.” She couldn’t speak. He held her quietly now, not requiring anything from her. Holding her tightly against him for long minutes, he felt as though she had become an essential part of him. Stormy emotions rolled over him. He felt that he needed her as his lungs needed air to sustain life. The picture of her gone from the ranch loosened a fear that took root in him. His mind flashed through their time together. Had she been able to feel what he had been experiencing from their first encounter or had it been a lone experience, he asked himself. He wondered again when she would begin to trust him. He felt the renewal of a desperate longing to know within a certainty why she had drawn him into her life. Minutes later, he silently helped her mount Star once again. Angel had remained where Jack had dropped her reins. He lifted himself back into the saddle. Wandering around in the fields of his ranchland for another two hours, Jack had continued to point out the differing landscapes and his neighbor’s boundaries to her as though there had been no eruption of intimacy into their time here. Lucky carried the sexually-charged moment with her. She accepted quickly that she loved listening to the sound of his rich baritone voice. His words were spoken clearly, pleasant to her ear After he had released her from his embrace, she had fixed her gaze on his back while he had walked toward Angel. Lucky had thought him, at that moment, more complex than any man she had ever known. She wondered if she could unravel the mystery that is Jack Savage.

She saw that they had approached an outcrop of trees that lined the stream running through the west side of his ranch. She could see the house in the distance. While he was explaining to her that they had been moving in a wide circle around the outlying borders of his land, she became aware of the sound of bubbling water. He turned Angel in the direction of the sound and motioned for Lucky to follow.

Topping a small rise, they entered an open space where the rushing stream had made a small pool lower in the surrounding bank. Jumping off Angel and Star, they dropped the reins. She gasped with pleasure at what she saw. A small waterfall threw a casading stream of water into the pool. Whirling around trying to take it all in at once, she laughed in delight, “This is a wonderful spot. It’s like having your own sanctuary. A place of escape!” Smiling up at him, she finished, “What a great view of the mountain range! What a perfect spot for an easel.” His voice lowered. He asked softly, "You mean, like the song, 'I know a place where we can go... where true love never dies?" Leaning against him, she replied quietly, "Something like that... Yes." His heart leaped. For a brief second he had wanted the impossible. He wished that he could instantly creat a studio for her at this spot. Putting her arms around him, she said, “Jack, it is so easy to see why you bought this land and moved here. It’s an extraordinary private haven!” It was noon by the time they got back to the house. Larry was in the stables still working. Asking Lucky how she liked the ranch, Larry helped her off Star. She smiled and said she understood why Jack had bought it. Larry nodded in agreement and reached for the reins of Angel and Star. He led the horses into their stalls to be wiped-off and rubbed-down. After giving the now insistent Bo the required paw-shake, Jack said to Larry, “We didn’t run them.” Larry nodded. In the house, Jack suggested she relax while he made lunch. Asking her if she would like soup and a sandwich, he washed his hands at the kitchen sink. Walking into the guest room, she turned around when she heard his question, “That would be great. Do you want some help?” He said, “No.”

Shutting the door, she entered the bathroom and freshened up. Walking back into the bedroom, she sat down in a chair. Opening her cell phone she saw no messages from Dan. It had been over two days since she had heard from him. She felt relieved. She called her son. He didn’t pick-up. She left a message saying hello, she was fine, she hoped he was still having fun. She saw a call from Ron Evans’ private line.

Ron Evans picked-up on the first ring, “Hello?” “This is Lucky.” “Hi. Couple of things. First, we found Jack Savage’s first wife. She had no problem admitting that Jack had never been abusive. She said she had regretted lying about him and was glad the police hadn’t believed her. Do you still want to talk to her personally?” Lucky felt like singing, “No. Would she make a signed statement?” “She had no problem giving it. I’m forwarding a copy to the Detective on your step-sister’s case. They may want to dot their i’s and cross their “t” in their report. I wanted to let you know your stepsister’s computer got to New York. I’m holding the receipt.” “Thanks. Have they looked into Lynette’s laptop yet?” “Yes, they got right on it. It didn’t take them long to realize that your step-sister was having an affair with your husband. He wanted to know what I knew about that. He assumed you had looked through it and talked to me about it. They will probably call you.” “What did you tell him?” “Nothing much. I talked around his questions. It is now their territory. They don’t need hear-say. I did wonder if he thought I could suggest something that would help them zero into a specific location on the computer. I wasn’t any help. What do I know, right? I didn’t even turn it on.” Lucky could almost see his smile, “I haven’t any calls from them on my cell.” “Expect one.. I’ll call you, if they call here again. Take care of yourself. Have you let your husband know they have her computer?” “Not yet.” “Your call! They may send a couple of investigators to talk to him.”

“I know. Thanks, Ron.” Walking into the kitchen, she could see that Jack had their lunch ready to be served. Pulling her chair out for her, he moved his chair away from the table with his knee. Sitting down, they began eating the roast beef sandwiches and the chicken soup.

Jack told her, “I’ll be working for a while in my office this afternoon. Feel free to do anything you want to do. We’ve walked through the house, so if your interested in trying out any exercise equipment or the jaccuz, you know how to get there.” She smiled, “Thanks, I’ve got some emails to answer. Then I might try out your exercise equipment.” Pleased at her reply, he smiled to himself. He had hoped that her first entrance into the jaccuz would be with him. Watching her walk away from him, he told himself that he was walking a fine line. Seconds later, he wondered if it might be a line too fine to be safe. Entering the guest-room, Lucky put the computer on the small table. She clicked into the copy of Dan’s last email. Fighting to control a renewed anger, she decided to read only enough to remind her what he had written. When she finished, she opened up a new text file and began composing her reply. “Dan: When you read this, you will have your proof that I found Lyn’s laptop. When I first read your email, I didn’t want to reply. It wasn’t too difficult to understand that is what you wanted me to do (so that you could prove to yourself I have her computer). Yes, I have proof of your long affair with Lyn. There is no point in calling me. I am not going to talk to you, (if I can help it) ever again. I would call you a son-of-a-bitch, but I like your mother. I would call you a bastard, but again, I like your mother. You surely must know that once I had proof of your affair with Lyn, we were finished! And how DARE you suggest that you were helpless in the situation because you are a man (what a coward you are, blaming your maleness for what you chose to do)! Was Lyn helpless because she was a woman?! Sounds stupid, doesn’t it? At this moment, I am flooded with anger for those endless hours we spent in Dr. Bowman’s office in an attempt to save this disaster you have the nerve to still call a marriage. You were indulging IN the affair during most of those long and tedious

hours! You signed the statement to Dr. Bowman that you were being completely honest with him. As far as I’m concerned we are divorced already. I’m outraged at your arrogance. When I read your emails to her, it was easy to see why you tried to stop me from looking deeper into her death. You knew the police hadn’t found her laptop and you knew I might stumble into it (you were right).

I fight the anger because my goal is still to find out why Lyn died (anger doesn’t help). The police now have her laptop. I imagine you will be hearing from them soon (if you haven’t already). I hope for Nathan's sake and your parents sake, you didn't kill her. In spite of you being an asshole, it has been difficult for me to believe you would murder Lyn. I realize that this problem I have in accepting that you could be a murderer is based on earlier feelings that had a narrow view of reality. Your plea to me, to save this marriage is disgusting (as though I could do something you clearly never wanted). It is just another manipulative use of my willingness to work on our marriage. Do you actually believe our long history of counseling would cause me to stay in this “relationship” now? I don’t like the world you have chosen for us to live in. To refuse to stay in that world is one thing I do have the power to do. You had no problem forcing me to live a lie for fifteen years because you chose to live a lie. You didn’t ask me if I would agree to an ‘open’ marriage. Where does this arrogance come from, anyway? You wanted my sexual faithfulness, yet, you felt you had some strange right to have a long affair with Lynette (and probably others). Where did you pick-up this double-standard? My mother left my father, but she didn’t imprison him for years before she did it. She told him the truth the minute she knew what the truth was. She freed him so he could find another woman to love. I want you to understand that I don’t blame myself for your inability to feel what you should have felt toward our marriage. Your betrayal is yours alone! However, the longer I’ve thought about our life after reading your emails to Lyn, the more I suspect that the affair served your unhealthy and obsessive drive to control those around you within a smug, self-satisfaction.

What is so ironic, is that Lyn had the same drive. You had to know her life was anything, but happy (which becomes clear when her email is read). You have destroyed all that you once claimed to have loved! You have wiped-out your son’s respect for you. He will never look at you in the same way. I hope it was worth what it cost you. By the way, you said I would miss you. When I read that statement, I thought, ‘You poor pathetic thing! I can’t miss what I never had!!’ If you are thinking of asking me or my father for a loan to save the restaurant, forget it (yes, I know about that too). You are on your own. Don’t remove anything of mine from the house. I suggest that when you talk to Nathan, you admit that the divorce is your fault. At least have the decency to tell your son the truth.” Reading the message to Dan twice, she sent it off. ******* In New York, Dan was online when Lucky’s email flew in. Checking his incoming mail, he felt a sickening jolt when he read the subject line: YES! I FOUND LYN’S LAPTOP!!! Feeling lightheaded, he leaned forward. A denial he couldn’t hold on to, rushed to mingle with a sense of dread. He brought his head back up. He clicked open her file. He read Lucky’s message. He saw their marriage disappear inside a searing flash of apprehension. The deeper he moved into her angry letter, the less he could grasp this was Lucky writing to him. What he had always considered as Lucky’s stubborn resistance to do what he asked, now seemed in weak contrast to her strident willingness here to trash their family. Hadn’t he told her that he had never intended to break up their family? Hadn’t he let her know clearly that he had never loved Lynette? Hadn’t he adamently denied he had ever told Lynette that he loved her? The questions shot through his mind. How could she throw away those years of counseling and personal struggle to save their marriage merely because he had used Lynette for a sexual playmate, he asked himself. Telling himself that she should have known that Lynette had never meant anything to him, he tried to concentrate on the rest of her letter.

Through the years, Dan had expected to deal with her anger should Lucky find out about his affair with her step-sister. He had become confident in the redundancy he had experienced in their marriage. That Lucky would actually divorce him had always seemed unlikely. During earlier self-examination about continuing the affair, he had convinced himself that the reason he hadn’t told Lucky was an matter of simple expediency. He had been able to rationalize that he had been avoiding the messy consequences of such exposure, for her. Later, he would accept that he had found pleasure in the intrigue the sexual liaison had created in his life. He finished reading Lucky’s letter. Reaching her refusal to provide him financial help for the restaurant, he felt shock slow his thinking. He hadn’t given up the idea that he might be able to get financial backing from Lucky or her father. He had not doubted that it would have been tricky for him to convince Lucky and her father to reinvest, but the hope hadn’t disappeared. He had continued to look at it as a final opportunity to save the business. His brain stalled. He fought to force his brain through mental slush. His mind crawled toward an understanding of how she had found out that the restaurant was threatened with bankruptcy. She couldn’t have found that information on Lynette’s computer. Lynette had been dead over a year before the final crisis had promised to overtake the original effort for recovery. Total failure of the restaurant hadn’t become a serious possibility until after Lyn's death. Panic hit him. He couldn’t stop asking himself how Lucky had learned so much, so quickly. The theme kept running through his mind that he had to get to Lucky before she got to her father with the full story. He had to find a way to stop the divorce from happening. Lucky had to be brought back to New York. Lucky had to agree to call in Dr. Bowman. Dan struggled to control the rush of adreneline shooting through him. ****** In Wyoming, two hours and a half, after Lucky had sent Dan’s email, she finished thirty minutes of exercise. With a towel around her neck she had walked back into the guest-room. She showered and dressed. Glancing toward the cell-phone on the lamp stand, she flipped it open. She saw her father’s number in the missed calls menu. Anxiety hit her. Her father rarely called her cell-phone. She hoped nothing had happened to Nathan.

Her father answered her call, “Hello?” “Hi Dad. You called?” “Yes! Listen, do you have a few minutes?” “Yes, is Nathan all right?” “He’s fine. I want to talk to you about Dan, Okay?”

Her heart-beat increased, she said, “I want to go outside. Hold on a few seconds?” She walked through the house and out onto the patio. Jack noticed her from his office window and watched her closely as she walked to a cushioned wicker chair on the far side of the patio. Her body tension increased his interest in the call she had received. He wondered who was on the phone with her. Sitting down in the patio chair, she said, “Okay, I’m ready.” “Dan called me. He wants you to fly back to New York. He thought I might have more influence, so he asked me to call. I thought these three months was supposed to be a vacation and you were going to be spending time with Jim and Kathy Warren?” Lucky looked away from the phone, her mind whirling with questions. She wondered how much Dan had told him, “Dad, what did he tell you?” “He said he thought you were going to try to get a divorce and that he didn’t want a divorce. He said you are refusing to talk to him and he felt he didn’t have any alternative, but to tell me what you’ve been doing recently. Have you been taking chances with your life, Lucky?” Glancing toward Jack's office window, she got up from her chair and walked away from the house, feeling a glow of appreciation for her father’s careful approach to any news. She said, “I’ve not told you what I was doing because of your health. I got tired of waiting for the police to find evidence Lynette didn’t kill herself. I intended to tell you after I ended this attempt to find out why Lynette died. As far as I’m concerned, Dan shouldn’t have called you.” Her father’s tone held a note of concern, “Baby Girl, it might have been wise to talk to me before you started something you might not be able to finish.”

“Dad, every time you call me, ‘Baby Girl’ I know you are more worried than you pretend.” She paused, then said, “If you have the time, I’ll tell you what I’ve been doing. But, if you begin to feel stressed, you’ve got to promise me that you will tell me and I’ll stop. I can always fill you in later when I get back.”

Jack saw Lucky get up from the wicker chair and begin walking away from the house. She seemed tense and agitated. Jack found it difficult to concentrate on work. He decided to surrender to his discomfort and take a break. Walking into the kitchen, he opened the refrigerator door and lifted out a small bottle of water. Entering his office, he sat down on the armchair and tried to relax. He finished the bottle of water while continuing to watch her. Lucky’s father, said calmly, “Don’t worry, I’ll tell you. Lucky, I’m going to record this call, Okay? I want what you tell me to be available later.” She said, “Okay.” She heard him open a desk drawer, seconds later, he said, “It’s recording.” She began by letting her father know that she was in Wyoming with Jack Savage. When he asked her why, she explained she had found out that Jack had kept several boxes of Lynette’s things. She had initially wanted to go through them without him being aware of who she was. Explaining to her father that the boxes were now not important, she told him, she would explain why in a minute. Lucky wanted to change directions in her description of recent events. She told her father that she would go back over an earlier time so that he could understand what had initiated her decision to find a way into Jack Savage’s life. She described her early doubts that Lynette’s death had been a suicide. Going over the months of increasing tension with Dan, she explained to her father that Dan had constantly attempted to undermine her effort to obtain more police interest in Lynette’s case. She assured him that her personal involvement in Lynette’s past hadn’t begun until she felt that a dead-end had been reached with the police detectives who were working her Lynette’s case.

Stopping her narration to give her father the private telephone number of Ron Evans, she told him that Ron’s investigation into Lynette’s case had been limited. Lucky slowly unveiled her husband’s long affair with Lynette and how she had found the proof of that affair. She let him know about the large loan that Lynette had given Dan because of his gambling debts. Lucky went over the more recent telephone conversation she had with Dan's restaurant manager, Glenn Stokes.

When she described how she had gotten the attention of Jack Savage, she heard a quick chuckle. She smiled, but did not verbally respond to his enjoyment of the way she had introduced herself to Jack. She assured her father that she had made sure someone knew where she was at all times. Lucky presented her reasons for why she had become convinced that Jack Savage had nothing to do with Lynette’s death. Near the end of her account of these events, she let him know that Dan had been right when he told him that she wanted a divorce. Her speech slowed and she asked her father if he would be willing to handle the divorce for her. When she had finished going over what seemed the most important new information, she fell silent. Her father sighed deeply, “Damn! Baby Girl, you are something else! I’m so sorry you had to find out what you have learned, so quickly. You must be reeling. I am! Of course, I’ll handle the divorce. I’ve got a few choice things I’d like to say to Dan, but you gave me too much to focus on him right now. He’ll have to wait. This news will be a shock to Nathan. She said, “I know. I don’t think Dan will talk to him about our divorce yet. He still wants to talk to me about it. I don’t think he will say anything to Nathan until he realizes it is going to happen.” “Okay. I think it is best if you tell him... After I hang up, I’ll listen to the recording again. I want to make a few calls today about Lynette’s trust and that loan. When large sums of money are involved, you can’t be too careful. I think I can get an audit going. I’ll get back to you if anything unusual is found.” Tears surfaced, “I love you, Dad! Thanks for not assuming I’d do something crazy! I knew there was a risk in what I started, but I couldn’t stand it any longer. Paris had lost its glow. Dan and I were continually fighting again. We tried to keep that from Nathan, but there were times he came in during an ugly disagreement. I felt guilty because I couldn’t get my mind off the idea that someone had murdered Lyn and no one was doing anything about it. I had begun to blame myself for our fights. I don’t anymore.”

“And you shouldn’t...” he responded. He stopped speaking. She waited for her father to finish his call. Seconds later, he asked her, “Do you know where Jack Savage was when Lyn died?” “Dad, he had no motive. He knew the trust wouldn’t go to him at her death. You don’t need to say it, I know, he could have hated her.” She felt emotionally drained, “Dad, I think I am talked out right now.”

Her father became quiet again. She knew that he was thinking that it could have been a hired killing. She waited for him to say something. Long moments later he said slowly, “I think I’ll try to find out for sure where he was.” When she didn’t respond, he said gently, “Lucky, do you like this guy? I remember I did and so did Ian.” Tears welled-up in her eyes. She was glad her father couldn’t see her face, “He’s nice.” Wondering if that was a world record for an understatement, he cleared his throat before responding, “Baby Girl, still be careful. I’ve got a few people I know that might give us some information that could be useful. Margo Majors, the bank’s corporate head is a good friend. Take care of yourself. I love you!” “I love you too! Thanks, Dad.” He said, “I’m getting off the phone... Oh, by the way! The next time you fly off to some risky adventure, tell me first, Okay?” She smiled, “I'll try to remember...” Her father chuckled, shaking his head. Jack had not taken his eyes off her. The longer he had watched her pace, talking rapidly, the more uncomfortable he had become. Several times he saw her glance toward the office windows. It had been clear to Jack that she had been doing most of the talking. Tears could be seen floating in her eyes when she quit the call. She walked back inside the house. He looked at the clock. Disconnecting from the internet, Jack walked into the living room. ****** In New York, Dan had just walked out of his office. Two men approached him, “Are you Daniel Donnellan?”

Dan stiffened, “Who are you?” Flashing a badge, the first man responded, “I’m Detective Henderson and this is Detective Adams. We are working on the Lynette Savage case. We would like to talk to you.” “Now?” “If you have a few minutes.”

“Should I call my attorney?” Henderson smiled, “Only if you feel you need to.” Dan suspected that the detective was attempting to make him feel uncomfortable so he wouldn’t bother calling his attorney. Quickly thinking about whether or not to talk to them without his lawyer, he said, “Come into my office.” Dan turned around and walked back into his office. The detectives followed him inside. Shutting the door, Dan walked behind his desk, pulled out his office chair and lowered himself into it. He pressed the button under the side of his desk to activate a recording of their conversation, telling himself to make his answers short and sweet. Leaning back in his chair, he said, “Okay, how can I help you?” “It has come to our attention that you had an affair with Lynette Savage. We are wondering why you weren’t forthcoming about this affair at the time of her death?” Dan fought the tension rising in him. His tone hard, he replied, “What do you mean not forthcoming? I didn’t think it was anyone’s busy, but ours. She committed suicide, why should I be willing for our affair to become public? I’m married to her step-sister, for God’s sake!” Glancing toward Adams, Detective Henderson, smiled. Bringing his eyes back to Dan, he asked, “You didn’t think your affair with her would be of interest to our investigation?” “No.” “Did you also think we would not be interested in the fact that she gave you a two-hundred and fifty thousand dollar loan from her trust fund?”

Dan snapped the word out, “Right! The money was a loan and it is still being paid back to her trust. What would that have to do with her death? She had the money.” Detective Adams broke in, “We would like you to come in and answer more in-depth questions. We would like to understand how Lynette Savage saw your relationship.” Dan fought down a sharp retort that he couldn't speak for a dead woman. Taking a deep breath, he said, “I don’t know why Lynette killed herself. I had no reason to kill her. I was sleeping with her. I’m a busy man.” Detective Henderson replied within a more authoritative tone, “Are you refusing to cooperate with this investigation, Mr. Donnellan?” Dan’s mind raced through his choices. Telling himself to tighten his self-control, he replied, “I’ll give you my attorney’s telephone number. Call him to set-up a date and we’ll come in and I’ll make a signed statement. I will make no statement without my attorney being there. Are you telling me that I have to come in and complete a signed statement without my attorney?” Detective Adams began to speak, “The request is routine. We received new information and we need to update our documentation regarding this case. Are you saying you are uncomfortable talking to us without your attorney?” Dan laughed. Leaning forward, he said sarcastically, “Detective Adams, I’m an American citizen. If I’m remembering correctly, we still have due process. I don’t have to talk to you without an attorney. Are you telling me something different?” The two detectives glanced at each other. Detective Henderson spoke quietly, “No real problem, Mr. Donnellan. It’s just that we wonder about it whenever someone is uncomfortable talking to us without an attorney.” Dan felt anger begin to flow through him, his tone hardened again, “Mr. Henderson, you take me a fool?” Standing up, the two men leaned over to shake Dan’s hand. Detective Henderson said, “We don’t take you a fool. Our staff will contact your lawyer, Mr. Donnellan. He’ll let you know when to come in.” After they walked out of his office, Dan stayed at his desk, thinking over their conversation. He tried to calm his racing heart and angry thoughts. He believed they wanted his statement without his attorney

present. Dan had read an article reporting that the New York Police Department didn’t videotape their interrogations. Realizing the serious threat this police tactic might be to his best interests, he tried to find the best way to make sure he had no interviews without an attorney. Going over what he knew about Lynette’s case, he told himself that it was on-going. There had been no public pressure on the police to close it fast. He concluded that there was probably no immediate threat to his personal freedom.

Picking up the office phone, he called his attorney. After listening to Dan’s account of what had just taken place in Dan’s office, his business attorney suggested, Sheila Mann, a criminal defense lawyer he had suggested to other clients. Dan got through to her within minutes of calling her office. Ms. Mann said she would need to talk to him and made an appointment for tomorrow morning. Telling him, she would call the detectives in the next couple of hours to give them her telephone number, she asked, “Mr. Donnellan, What should I expect when we meet; did you have anything directly to do with your step-sister’s death?” “No! “Okay! We’ll talk more tomorrow. Any questions until then?” “Yes, I have a flight out of New York in the afternoon. Any problem with that?” “In country?” “Yes.” “I don’t think so. We’ll work around it. When will you be getting back?” “I’m not sure, but I probably won’t be gone more than a few days at the most.” “The investigation has been going on for two years. You tell me that this is new information they've uncovered. I don’t see a rush on this by these detectives. Leave all contact phone numbers with my secretary and I’ll work around the next few days. Check-in with me when you get back or if anything new comes up, Okay?” Dan felt relief shoot through him, “No problem.”

“Okay! When you come for our appointment tomorrow morning, bring the recording of your conversation with the detectives.” He heard the telephone disconnect. Putting the receiver back on its stand, Dan tried to relax. Breathing deeply, he leaned back in his desk chair, his hands clasped behind his head, staring at the ceiling. Relaxing his legs, he let his desk chair straighten itself. He ran his fingers through his hair. He wanted to go home. Shutting his office door, he headed for his car and drove out of the restaurant parking lot.

Entering the house, he took off his jacket, hung it up and walked into the kitchen. Pouring a glass of sherry, he lowered himself into a kitchen chair. Slowing drinking the wine, his mind kept going back to Lucky. Dan couldn’t remember a time more personally threatening to himself. Even if he could save the restaurant, he still might be faced with thousands of dollars for attorney fees. A divorce would financially and socially narrow his life to the bare essentials for a long time. Lucky and her father’s financial help had disappeared as an option. Nathan would never feel the same about him. Lynette’s loan still needed to be paid off. If he were forced to declare bankruptcy, the new bankruptcy laws would make financial recovery more difficult. Lucky had ordered him out of the home she had purchased before they married. His belongings had to be moved. Dan couldn’t think of any family or social connection in New York that would provide him temporary housing. He would never ask his parents for help. His new home would have to be an apartment or hotels, at least for a while. He fleetingly thought of living in his office for a time. He decided against it.

No matter how long he explored what was happening, his search for better answers kept pointing back to saving his marriage with Lucky. He tried to call Lucky’s cell-phone. She didn’t pick-up. Too tired to leave a message, he decided to shower, eat dinner and watch the news before calling it a night.

Chapter 12

In Wyoming, Jack entered the living room at the same time Lucky came through the door. She looked away hoping he wouldn’t notice the tears in her eyes. Coming up to her, he drew her to him. Lucky lowered her head against his chest and wiped-off the remaining tears with her hand. He held her without speaking for several minutes rocking her slowly back and forth. She felt a warm comfort flow through her. Within a sense of wonder, she reflected to herself, “What kind of man is this, who without knowing it, can be a shelter from the storm howling deep inside me?” She heard Jack ask, “How about going to Woods Landing for dinner and dancing? It’s at the foot of Medicine Bow. There is a dancehall, historic bar and restaurant. I think you would enjoy it.” Pressing her face against his shirt, she inhaled the clean smell of him into herself. Hoping the tears had dried, she lifted her face to his, “I’d love to do that.” “Then we’ll do it!” Releasing her, they slowly walked deeper into the living room. Glancing down at her, he said, “Ready to hear what is going on in the rest of the world?” Picking-up the remote, he clicked-on the television. Sitting down together on the large sofa, he put his right arm around her while they listened to the newscast. She leaned her head on his shoulder. She lifted her left hand from her lap and let it rest on the top of his right thigh holding back a desire to run her hands along its firmness. Jack went to war against a searing excitement shooting through him. It was midnight before Jack and Lucky left Woods Landing. After eating dinner, they had entered the bar with its dancehall. The place had been jumping with music and laughter. They had danced the rest of the evening. Jack had introduced Lucky to so many people that by the end of the evening, they had become a living canvas of indistinguishable faces to her. It hadn’t taken Lucky long to realize Jack knew a lot of people and most of them enjoyed speculating about who she was and why she was with Jack Savage. During their drive home, Jack had chuckled and told her that they should expect visitors tomorrow. Explaining that now that they had met her, some of them would find a reason to come to the ranch to get a closer look. Tired, but content, she had smiled back at Jack.

****** The next morning in New York, Daniel Donnellan had gone through the history of his affair with Lynette and what he knew about her death. Sheila Mann had recorded their conversation and asked her secretary to create a text file. She made a copy of the recorded conversation between Dan and the detectives. Pushing her desk chair back, she stood up and shook his hand.

Reminding him to stay in touch, she walked him to the office door. He left Sheila Mann’s office impressed. She had turned out to be a serious, no nonsense attorney. “No light chatter here,” he thought. He hadn’t slept well the night before and Dan was glad that she had wanted only the bottom-line. Getting into his car, he drove out of the parking lot. His mind began to focus on what was coming. He felt imprisoned in a mental strait jacket. Determined to find Lucky for a confrontation, he reassured himself he was going to get one last shot at saving their marriage whether she liked it or not. He felt adrenaline rush through him when he thought of facing an angry and implacable Lucky. He had always before enjoyed the preparation for battle. This time it was different. Within thirty minutes of arriving home, Dan wanted to smash everything in sight. He had called Lucky’s cell-phone. She hadn’t answered. Too angry to leave a message, he had called her hotel and found out that she had checked out days ago. His anger soared into ballistic mode. Kicking the waste basket across the room, he sat down on a chair. Struggling with frustration and rage, he dove deep into himself in an effort to regroup his scattering thoughts. Breathing deeply, he brought his emotions back under rational control. He said aloud, “No point in calling Nathan. She wouldn’t tell him where she was going.” Walking toward a window, he stopped, “Wait a minute...” Turning back around he took his wallet out and found the note he had written Jack Savage’s hotel number on. Calling the hotel, he learned that Jack Savage had checked-out on the same day Lucky had checked-out of her hotel. He felt a fresh rush of

outrage. Laughing harshly, he said aloud, “You want irony, Baby, I’ll give you irony?!” He rushed into the bedroom to throw things into his suitcase. Realizing that he didn’t know where Jack and Lucky had gone, he stopped packing. Sitting down on the edge of the bed, he mulled over the possibilities. Jack could have taken her anywhere. Dan knew he could spend the rest of the three months trying to find her. The divorce papers could be filed before he had located her. He needed to find her fast. He thought of calling Ron Evans, telling himself that Evans had to know where Jack Savage lived. Instantly, Dan cautioned himself aloud, “No, no, I can’t call him, he will call Lucky to tell her I know she isn’t at the hotel.”

Her father popped into his mind. He wondered if he had called her. If he had, it seemed possible he knew where she was by now. Thinking it through, he realized that it wasn’t a good sign that Lucky’s father hadn’t gotten back to him. Jim and Kathy Warren flashed through his mind. Talking to himself, he said, “They wouldn’t tell me if they knew.” Accepting that it would be pointless to fly into Los Angeles, he called his travel agent. Then he called a local detective agency. Four hours later, he got a call back from the detective agency, “We think we’ve found the guy you are looking for, but its not a positive. This guy’s got a ranch in Wyoming, west of Laramie. We got hold of a Larry Stewart. Appears to be a foreman. Says that Mr. Savage is there, but wasn’t available when we called. He wouldn’t give us anything more.” “Why do you think this is the Jack Savage I’m looking for?” “The tracking info on this guy is that he moved there a couple of years ago from New York. You said he had lived in New York. This guy still works with a brokerage firm online. It isn’t a positive I.D.” He stopped talking to cough, “ I said we aren’t sure. Do you want this guy’s address and telephone number?” Dan cursed himself for not knowing more recent information about Jack Savage. He realized now that he should have been more involved with Lucky when she worked with Evans.

Dan took the information. The match was close enough, wasn't it, he asked himself. He took some time to wander over the chances it could be another Jack Savage. He decided to go for it. Getting on the net, he searched the Yahoo maps in an effort to find the directions to Jack Savage’s ranch. Shaking his head in frustration, he realized he would have to fly into Denver International Airport, and take a charter plane into a local airport near Laramie. He could then rent a car for the trip to the ranch. Calling his travel agent, he was able to reserve a non-stop United Airlines flight out of New York to Denver for the next day. He would be there around Noon, Denver time. Checking out the available motels in Laramie, he called Amerihost Inn Suites to make a reservation. Getting off the phone, he snorted in disgust, “Why in the hell would any rational New Yorker move to Wyoming!” ****** The next morning at the ranch, Larry Stewart, taking long strides, moved quickly toward Jack’s back door. Jack, finishing his coffee, saw him coming and opened the door before Larry could lift his hand to knock, “Morning! Have you had breakfast? Plenty left on the stove.” Lucky smiled up at Larry, “Hi.” Larry hesitated. Turning to Lucky, he smiled and nodded his hello. Turning toward Jack, he said, “I... huh, wonder if I could talk to you for a minute?” Lucky stood up, pushing her chair away from the table with the back of her knees, “I’ve got some things to do, I’ll leave you two alone.” Jack said, “No, it’s okay, finish your coffee. We can talk outside beautiful morning.” Leaving the kitchen, Larry said, “Sorry, Jack, but I wasn’t sure if she should hear what I am going to tell you.” “Okay!” “Got a call from New York, yesterday. I didn’t think much of it, until later. Not sure how they got my unlisted telephone number, but I now figure the guy on the line wanted to know if you were at the ranch

without talking to you. When he asked about you, I asked him if he had called the main house. He ignored the question. I told him you were here and now I regret it.” Larry paused, then said, “The guy wouldn’t answer any of my questions, but he kept asking his own. He wouldn’t leave a return number or message for you. When he disconnected, I tracked the call. It was a New York detective agency. I went online and checked it out. This morning, I realized I should have told you, yesterday. Sorry.... Do you want their number?” Larry saw concern flash up into Jack’s eyes, “A private detective agency?” “Yes.” Jack’s eyes turned toward the kitchen window. Larry said, “Jack, I don’t know what Lucky means to you, but I do know that in the two years I’ve known you, you’ve never brought a woman to the ranch. That seems to say something important in itself. If anything is wrong, I want you to know, I’m available to help. Just tell me what you want and I’ll back you.” Jack smiled, his eyes thoughtful, “Thanks, Larry. You’re a good friend... No, I don’t want their number... but keep it, will you?” Turning to go back into the house, he glanced backward toward Larry while walking toward the kitchen door, “Thanks again! Don’t concern yourself about waiting to tell me.” Feeling that he may have let Jack down, Larry turned and headed toward the stables. Bo, having gotten his morning paw-shake from Jack, scurried to catch up with Larry. Jack entered the kitchen, “Sorry,” he said to Lucky. She smiled, “No problem. Is he okay?” “Yes.” Jack began to focus on the possible reasons a private New York detective agency would call his ranch. He had left no unfinished business in New York. If the call had been initiated by the New York police, he couldn’t see why they would use a private detective agency. The moment he had heard Larry’s report of the call, he had followed the logic. Someone from New York was looking for Lucky. Thinking back to his hope she would tell him why she had sought him out, he examined the possibility that telling her about the call might activate her to tell her story to him.

In seconds, he had concluded he would not tell her about the New York telephone call. Thinking over Larry’s report, he wondered how serious the implications to Lucky would be, if someone came to the ranch looking for her. He walked through the idea that he should take her out of the area. Instantly, he knew that he wasn’t going to go on the run. He was flying blind until she let him in - on whatever it was - that was bothering her. It would solve nothing to leave his ranch. If a confrontation was on its way to her, it might as well be in his territory. He confronted his options for not allowing her to become an easy target for whatever was going down. Firming up this conviction in his mind, he turned toward Lucky, kissing her, “Take your time. And don’t do the dishes. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

When he had turned away from his conversation with Larry and walked back into the kitchen, Lucky could see his mind working over what he had heard. Curious, but unwilling to ask him about their conversation, she had waited for him to talk about it. He hadn’t. When he had kissed her lightly and then walked out of the kitchen, she had picked-up her coffee cup and moved to position herself, so that she could see where he was going. She watched him walk into the garage. She heard the garage doors open. She heard him drive the car out of the garage. Walking to the front living-room window she saw him turn the Lexus to face the closed gate. When Jack came back inside from the garage, she saw him take a set of keys off a hook and put them into his pocket. A small alarm went off in her head. The image of Larry and Jack talking a few minutes ago flashed through her mind with new life. When Jack saw the question on her face, he said with forced lightness, “I’ve opened up the ranch to our mental health people. We’ve got a few kids coming out for a visit with the ponies today.” He could see her visibly relax. She smiled, “Larry was telling me about why you had gotten the ponies. What a nice thing to do.” Surprised Larry had told her, he grinned a lop-sided smile. She thought he looked like sweet ten year old boy who had just been praised for being good.

Jack and Lucky cleaned up their breakfast dishes. When they finished, he said, “I’ll work for a couple of hours, Okay? The kids will be out around 1:00P.M. That will give us time to ride before they get here. We could pack our lunch and stop at the pool off the meadow to eat; if you would like that.” She nodded her pleasure. Her eyes followed him as he turned and walked into his office. She had accepted that it was a sexual experience for her to look at him. She loved the sensual way his shoulder-length hair fell against his jaw as he walked. The thought went through her mind that if this is what living in Wyoming did for men, the women of the world should hear about it. The image of his long masculine legs embraced by the tight jeans, his sensually pleasing easy male stride and his strong upper body brought a sexually inviting wholeness to the vision that ignited her desire. Lucky had found that being around Jack was a continuous erotic landscape she longed to play on. Thinking, “What a work of art, is Jack Savage.” she wished his kiss had not been so brief. Not being able to explain to herself, why she hadn’t pursued her longing for full intimacy within the strength of its pull on her, she walked toward the guest-bedroom, thinking about it. Now, in an introspective moment, Lucky recognized that the sadness and painful sense of rejection, she had experienced, when Jack refused her offer of sharing her sexuality, had haunted her since that night in the hotel room. She knew, she wanted him to come after her. She wondered if this hope explained her reluctance to pursue him. She knew, she was waiting for him to reach out for her. Lucky held on to the longing that he would come for her, soon. Wandering quickly through the powerful loss of confidence that Dan’s legacy of shattering unfaithfulness had created within the deepest part of who she was as a woman, she asked herself, if Jack would ever want her enough, to heal the searing wound, that the truth about Dan had brought her. She now felt imprisoned in her piercing need to know Jack passionately wanted her. She walked-into the guest bedroom. Intending to continue the exploration of Lynette’s files, she told herself that if Lynette had a second lover, there must be some evidence of it remaining in her computer. Lifting the laptop, she started to place it on the small table. Suddenly, her hands halted in mid-air.

It seemed to Lucky, that an idea, escaping her earlier notice, had decided to insist on its presence being recognized. Her body tensed in a fresh awareness that the children coming today, didn’t explain Jack moving the Lexus out of the garage and turning it to face the gates. Her brain raced back to Larry and Jack's conversation. She tried to remember Jack’s reaction to what Larry had been telling him within a complete picture. The question rolled around inside her mind, “Why did Jack take the Lexus out of the garage?” It shadowed her for several minutes. ****** In New York, within Lucky’s introspective moment taking place in Wyoming, Dan had made sure that he was on the United flight, soaring toward Denver, Colorado.

****** In Wyoming, Lucky had decided to focus on Lynette's files and try to put off thinking about Jack's choice of taking the Lexus out of the garage and pointing it toward the locked gates. Perhaps it meant nothing unusual at all. Opening the laptop, she tried several different search terms. She came up with nothing that suggested correspondence with a second lover. Pursuing this strategy for another hour, she made the decision to search by date again along with putting words with a sexual connotation into the search program. She brought up all files that had been created within a month of Lynette’s death that also carried a sexual reference. This time, a text file titled, “HotPockets” caught her attention. Opening it, she saw that Lynette had deleted the last part of the email address, but it was clear to Lucky that the file held a number of email exchanges between Lynette and HotPockets. Before she began to read them, she typed in “hotpockets” in the search menu, clicking it to start another search for this word. Several more text files with this word in the title popped up.

Beginning with this search, she opened the first file, dated a month before Lynette had died. She felt shock hit her like a mental ballbat. She had found the second lover! Time rolled by while Lucky read emails that revealed the beginning of a flirtation that eventually had led to a series of sexual encounters. All of them in the hotel where Lynette had died. Wondering if she could find the exact date of their first meeting, she scoured the files for places, dates and clues about this man. She read the exchanges between Lynette and HotPockets. Asking herself if the New York police had found Lynette’s second lover by now, she found herself wanting these files to implicate someone other than Dan in Lynette’s death. Nathan’s face haunted her through the reading of the email between HotPockets and Lynette. She had feared that she might have to tell him his father was being arrested for murder. A quick caution emerged into her thinking. This information might provide the evidence that Dan had an added incentive for killing her. The police might believe that it had so outraged Dan that it tipped him over the edge. She decided to call Ron Evans. “Hello?” “Ron, this is Lucky. Have you heard anything from the New York police detectives regarding what was found on Lynette’s computer?” Smiling to himself, Ron thought, “Bet she found the second guy.” Aloud, he said, “Actually, I have. They found evidence that your stepsister did have another lover. She met both your husband and this guy at the same hotel. I was waiting to call you when they found out who he is and if this evidence would clear or implicate your husband. Nothing more, so far.” “What was your sense about their thinking regarding Dan? Do you think they are leaning toward this other man?” “Sorry! I don’t have a clue yet. But, finding that computer has moved your step-sister’s case closer to reclassification. They now believe it is not a suicide case. I understand they are going to ship your step-sister’s organs to the FBI forensic lab in Virginia to test for unusual substances.” He stopped talking, then chuckled, “You have shown them that a persistent unprofessional can sometimes light a fire under the tails of the professionals.” He heard her sigh, “Thanks.... Have they mentioned Jack Savage?”

“Not sure I can claim they are through with him, but my contact thinks he is out of the picture. So, does this mean you’ll be flying back to New York?” Lucky remained silent for long seconds, “Not yet... Thanks Ron.”

He grinned, “No problem! Lucky, you’re quite some woman! Enjoyed our connection. Stop by and say hello any time you’re in the Los Angeles area, Okay?” “I’ll see to it! Bye” Hearing the call disconnect, Ron Evans remembered Jack Savage. He wondered if she would be moving to Wyoming or Savage would be moving to New York. Suddenly, Ron Evans realized that he felt really good right now. ****** In Wyoming, it was cool near the small pool of water. Jack took off the blanket rolled up behind his saddle, shook it open and placed it a few feet from the bubbling brook. Lucky placed the sandwiches and drinks down on it. Angel and Star stood by a fallen limb of a large tree, munching on grass nearby. Stretching, Jack lowered himself on the the blanket’s thick softness. Birds were filling the air around them with their shrill chatter as though to scold them for entering their personal territory. Small flashs of their colors could be seen as they flew back and forth between the trees and in and out of the small shaded area. Startled squirrels lifted their heads, their small bodies darting from tree limb to tree limb, pausing periodically to make sure no danger was making its entrance into their world. Lucky, kneeling, placed a chicken sandwich, potato chips and an apple on a paper-plate, handing it to Jack. He opened a bottle of icedtea, setting it down in front of her. Opening another, he took a swig of it before setting it down. He watched her arrange herself within a more comfortable position. They ate in silence, enjoying the quietness of the space they were sharing with the life around them. Minutes later, he brought the iced tea to his lips, swallowing the last of it. Glancing toward her, he felt his body

respond to a sudden desire to meld his body with hers, right here, right now. A similiar emotion had shot through her, she looked up to meet his eyes. Their gaze locked for long seconds. Breaking the moment, he picked-up the trash bag and placed the left-over lunch containers inside it. Disappointed, Lucky felt an impulse to bring both her hands up against his chest and push him back against the blanket, pressing her lips to his within a searching quest for his mouth’s answering passion. She imprisoned the desire. By the time, they reached the stables, a large van had moved through the gates. Lucky saw the driver being directed toward the stables by Larry Stewart. Jack took note that Larry had closed the gates behind the van’s entrance. He jumped off Angel, turned and helped Lucky off Star. Larry trotted back to them and reached for Angel and Star’s reins. He strolled toward the stables with the two mares in tow. The van driver got out and approached them. The children inside were being brought out of the van slowly. A woman walked alongside the children as she directed them toward the fence where the ponies were milling around behind it.

Staring toward the children, Lucky could see that they clung to each other and to the woman. Their eyes seemed uninterested in their surroundings, one child’s eyes looked vacant as though unable to see, in spite of not being blind. A couple of the children appeared afraid. One perhaps, painfully timid. Lucky felt a wave of pity sweep over her. The man approached them. Presenting his hand to Jack, he said, “Hello! Nice to see you again. I brought six children today. Mark, Johnny, Sherry, Linda, Shawn, Hugh and Carrie. Mrs. Nolan and I will help introduce the children to the ponies and help them get comfortable with the experience.” Jack turned and waved to Mrs. Nolan. She waved back. Turning back to Dr. Benton, he clasped his hand firmly, “Nice to see you, Dr. Benton. Glad we can be of service. I’ll help with the children if you’d like.” Turning to Lucky, he said, “I’d like you to meet my house-guest, Lucky Donavan.” “Be happy to have you work with us,” he said to Jack.

Turning toward Lucky with curious eyes, Dr. Benton shook her hand, “Nice to meet you.” Lucky smiled and nodded her head, “Nice to meet you, too.” As the children were taken into the corral, Lucky climbed the corral fence and balanced on its top rail. She waved at Mrs. Nolan. She smiled widely and waved back. Lucky watched as Jack, Dr. Benton and Mrs. Nolan led the children into the center of the corral. The ponies Larry had already saddled, waited quietly. Larry entered the area from the stables doorway and reached for a child’s hand. He bent down and told the little boy, his name. Lucky asked if she might also take part. Dr. Benton smiled yes and motioned for her to jump down from the fence into the corral. Bringing a little girl to her, he said, “This is Linda. Take her hand. We’ll explain to each child what is happening. Then we will put them into the saddle, Okay?” Lucky nodded. No sound was coming from the children. They were eerily quiet. Dr. Benton went from child to child. He would first place their hands on the pony gently and tell the child the pony’s name. He explained to each child that this is the pony the child would ride. He showed them how to pet the animal by bringing their hands up to the throat of the animal. Lifting up each child, he placed the child carefully into the saddle. Picking up the reins, he showed each child how to hold them. Jack stood quietly between two of the children, Dr. Benton, Mrs. Nolan, Larry Stewart and Lucky, each walked alongside the other children. They began walking the animals slowly around the corral. One of the children Jack was walking beside began crying. Jack stopped the pony and gently lifted her from the saddle, cuddled her and quietly talked to her, patting her small back. She stopped crying. He lifted her back into the saddle. Her little hand stretched out to him. He smiled at her. Lucky felt tears well up in her eyes. She wondered how she could have ever thought this gentle and kind man could have murdered her step-sister. She felt a sweeping sorrow for her step-sister revive itself. She couldn’t comprehend how Lynette could have traded a man with such compassionate and seductive sweetness for an unstable and insecure sexual relationship with her often angry husband, Dan. Her memory brought up their emails. They had revealed how tentative and insecure Lynette’s and Dan’s relationship had been in spite of its long duration. Lynette had never been deceived in it. “I was the one deceived,” Lucky reminded herself.

Twenty minutes later, Lucky felt a sense of wonder descend on the moment. The connection with the animal had stirred something inside the children. She heard a child begin to laugh. She heard another ask a question. She saw a child lean over and hug the neck of her pony. She saw a boy wave to another boy. The little girl who Jack had comforted was waving and waving at Jack, smiling and giggling. Larry had taken the child he had been with, off her animal, letting her feed the pony for a few minutes. Larry looked up and saw Lucky’s smile and gave her a thumbs-up sign. She smiled and returned it. A honk at the gate, prompted Larry to hand his pony’s lead to Dr. Benton. Striding toward the gate, he waved to the driver of the black truck waiting for the gates to open. Larry punched in the code and the gates began to swing inward. He waved the driver through. Stopping the truck near the stables, its driver got out. Rushing over to where they were walking the animals, he said, breathlessly, “Sorry, Doc! I couldn’t get here sooner.” He walked through the corral gate and took one of Jack’s leads. Looking around, he saw Lucky, “Hi there! I’m Mike Hammond.” She smiled back, “Lucky!”

Nodding at the rest of them, he talked to the child in the saddle, then began leading the pony around the corral behind the others. Half an hour later, the children were taken off the animals. This time crying erupted. They didn’t want the ride to be over. Snoothing their feelings, Dr. Benton and Mrs. Nolan, brushed their clothes off, walked them to the van and gave each one a bottle of water from a container in the back. Soon, the children had been placed back in their seats, ready to go back to the center. Lucky turned around to see where Jack was. She saw him helping Larry unsaddle the animals and lead them back into their stalls. Coming out of the stables door, he walked to the van and said good-bye to the children. Waving to Dr. Benton and Mrs. Nolan, he stepped away from the van. They waved to him as the vehicle started up and moved toward the newly opened gates. Coming over to Lucky, Jack took her hand, “Quite an experience, isn’t it?” She squeezed his hand gently, “Yes, it is.”

Mike Hammond watched them curiously for several minutes and then walked over to them, “Sorry, I was late.” Jack smiled, “It is always good to have more hands available. Thanks for coming.” Larry called from the stables doorway, “Jack! Got a minute?” Jack grinned and said, “Coming...” Turning to Mike Hammond, he said, “Would you like to come in for a glass of iced tea?” “Thanks, Jack! Can't - got a couple of calls yet to make today.” Mike turned toward Lucky who had her eyes on Jack’s back as he walked toward the stables. Mike thought that was some interesting look in those pretty eyes, “Have you known Jack for long?” Looking directly at him, she decided to give a noncommittal reply, “It seems like my whole life.” Mike Hammond was curious, not intrusive, he smiled, “Jack’s a good man.” She nodded, returning his smile. He turned to leave and then turned back around to say, "I am the minister for the Church In The Valley. Hope you come visit us sometime. Nice friendly church. Love to have you and Jack in our services.”. Lucky, surprised, didn't know what to say Mike helped her out, “Guess I’d better get going. Nice meeting you, Lucky!” “You too, Mike.”

Chapter 13 At 12:30P.M., the same day, Daniel Donnellan had arrived at Denver International Airport. Within an hour he had found a charter flight to Laramie, Wyoming. By 2:30P.M, he had entered his motel room. Dan had been running on adrenaline. Within half an hour, dressed in cowboy country attire, he was driving his car rental toward Jack Savage’s ranch. When he approached the address, he caught his breath. Lucky was standing near the barn talking to a man. Dan lowered himself in the

driver’s seat and threw a quick glance toward the house. He could see that the iron fence with the driveway gates were mechanized by either a code or a key. He muttered to himself that once she saw him, he’d never get near the house or through those gates. Driving another couple of miles, he decided to turn around and go back past the ranch again. When he saw the iron fencing again, he lowered the hat on his head. A black truck was leaving. He could see that Lucky was now talking to a tall man. Her hand was in his. Dan felt rage cascade through him. It was Jack Savage! Driving back to the motel, Daniel Donnellan’s life flashed through his brain. He saw everything that he had ever worked for flying out in all directions. Nothing was left standing. He felt blood rush into his face. He understood what it meant to see red. Telling himself to get a grip, he began to take great gulps of air into this lungs. His hands began to tremble against the steering wheel. His left leg began to shake uncontrollably. Trying to calm himself, he fought down exploding anger mixed with panic. Entering the motel office, he talked to the desk-clerk, asking if she knew of a helicopter service near-by.

“You mean service between cities? We’ve got some choppers who fly business to business. Some medical emergency choppers too, I think.” “I’m looking for a pilot who offers private service.” Confident in her ability to read people, she decided he didn't look dangerous. She said, “There might be a guy. Called, Mad Dog Jones, around here. He was a hero in World War II and has hated following orders ever since.... claims to hate all despots, only he calls them deskpots. Does what he wants. Most of the time, he doesn’t get into serious trouble. Once in a while he will fly too low over government offices.” She stopped talking to take a breath. Finishing her spiel, she said, “He thinks he is the world’s funniest man, so be prepared to hear him roar with laughter at his own dumb jokes.” “Where can I find him?” She wrote down directions. Dan walked out of the motel office and drove out toward Mad Dog’s place. Dan couldn’t have missed Mad Dog Jones. A helicopter was sitting in the front yard. A white haired, husky man was walking briskly away from it. When Dan turned into the

driveway, the man snapped around and trotted toward the car. Dan thought he looked like Samuel Clemens. Flipping out his hand toward Dan, he said, “Howdy, Stranger! How can I do ya?” Dan asked him if he would be willing to fly onto private land. Mad Dog leaned into his window, squinting at him, “You invited, Bud?” “No.” Mad Dog rubbed his day-old whiskers, saying solemnly,“We’d be trespassing, ya know?” Dan said, “I thought you didn’t like people telling you what to do?” Mad Dog jerked his head up and roared with laughter. His body shook in his enjoyment, “That’s what they told ya in town, huh?” Dan nodded. Mad Dog stopped laughing, “How much?” “It depends on what you are willing to do. I want you to wait for me.” “Ya not gonna kill anybody, are ya? I almost died to keep you young punks free, but murder is off the chart.” Mad Dog roared with laughter again. Dan wanted to slap him around and ask him if he needed glasses, instead, he said, “I haven’t any weapons. I want to get in and I’ll probably want to leave the same way I came.” Squinting at Dan again, Mad Dog asked, “Ya ain’t gonna kidnap anybody are ya? If so, it’ll really cost ya for another body.” Mad Dog went hysterical with this bit of humor. It took him a while to settle down. By this time, Dan wanted to throttle him. Dan sighed and snapped out, "I’m not going to do anything worse than transpass, Okay?!” Mad Dog Jones stared at him, “Five hundred bucks, now! If I can’t sit’er down, I still get the cash. That is for an hour’s flight. And if anybody comes out shooting at ya, I’m gone!” Dan looked the other way. He knew another laugh would be coming. Mad Dog roared with laughter again. Bringing his eyes back to Mad Dog, Dan said, “Deal!” He got out of the car, took out his wallet and handed Mad Dog five one-hundred dollar

bills. Taking Jack Savage’s address from Dan, Mad Dog Jones, squinted his eyes up into Dan’s face, “Ya wanna go now?” Dan was already flying on his own adrenaline, “Yes!” Mad Dog started walking away from him. Pointing to a gravel space near the house, he said “Park the rental over there, Bud. I’ll be right back... Gotta get a paperclip so I can hook up the rotor blade. Then I gotta spit in the gas tank so we can take off.” Mad Dog flipped his head back and roared with laughter. His body shaking. Behind his back, Dan flipped his disappearing back, “He’s a jackass!” ****** At the ranch, Jack walked out of the stables just as Mike Hammond got into his truck. Walking over to Mike, he gave him the gate code. Waving, Mike took off. Jack and Lucky, holding hands, stood watching as the truck moved past the gates. When the gates closed behind Mike Hammond, they walked into the house. Lucky turned toward Jack and kissed him slowly. He gathered her closer into his arms. His lips moved over her responding mouth within an eager playfulness. Leaning back against the wall, he looked into her eyes, “If I were a candle I’d be liquid wax right now.” She laughed. He joined her. They were talking quietly in the living room, when they heard it. A loud chatter of helicopter blades descended into their air space. Bo was barking furiously. Jack jumped up, “That sounds close.”

Lucky and Jack walked toward the direction of the sound. Looking out the kitchen window they saw the helicopter rotating just above the meadow as though looking for a place to set down. The horses were whinnying and Larry looked out of the stables doorway. Jack saw Larry and waved him back. Jack had been alert for something to happen all day. Grabbing his cell-phone, he called Larry. Larry reached into his pocket when he heard his cell ring, “Jack?” “Lock Bo in an empty stall. That chopper may land. Stay put and don’t let him see you unless it drops someone off. If it sets down, grab your gun and hold whoever gets out of that chopper. If he doesn’t get back in and the chopper stays put, call the Sheriff; its a trespass.” Larry said quickly, “Done!”

Lucky froze. She felt her heart begin to pound. What was happening she asked herself. She saw Larry move toward the side of the door with a rifle in his hand staying in the shadows. Mad Dog Jones found his spot and set it down. Dan hadn’t seen anyone coming out of the house or barn. Angry at Mad Dog, locked into action he couldn’t stop, he leaped out of the passenger door of the chopper and ran toward the house. Lucky gasped in panic when she saw who it was, “Jack! You’ve got to get me out of here.” Jack snatched his jacket off a hook. Grabbing her hand, he said, “Get your purse and anything you must have. Get in the car.” Lucky ran into the bedroom, grabbed the small overnight bag. At the door she turned back when she remembered the laptop. Running back inside the room, she snatched it off the table and ran toward Jack. Jack and Lucky dashed through the garage and threw themselves into the Lexus. Jack punched the remote to open the drive gates. Swinging open, the Lexus roared through them, out onto the county road. Glancing toward Lucky, he saw tears streaming down her face. Reaching his right hand toward her face, trying to be light, he said, “Remember, zero to sixty miles per hour in five point four seconds. We’re outta here!” Startled, she said, "We can't outrun a chopper!" Jack quickly looked at her, "I was trying to be funny... bad timing... I'm hoping Larry will hold them..." She grabbed his hand and pressed her face into it, her lips kissing the palm. Relief flowed through her. Praising him silently, she thought, “God! What a man!” When she released his hand, he reached over and ran his hand gently down her hair, “Take a few deep breaths. I don’t hear the chopper coming after us. Larry is dealing with them. It’s a trespass. There will be some explaining to do for Mad Dog Jones unless he can talk Larry into letting him go.” Jack listened for the chopper. He was hoping that Larry would hold the chopper long enough for them to get to the cabin. Winding down county roads, she noticed they were climbing into the mountains. He looked toward her, “I have a cabin up here. We’re going there. We need to eat and we will have time to calm down.”

Thirty minutes later, Jack turned down a narrow road, winding through a large woods area. Turning into a driveway, she saw a small cabin. Jack drove around it and parked out of sight from the roadway. He let out a long breath. Taking his cell-phone out of his pocket he called Larry. Larry picked up, “Jack!” “What happened?” Larry said, “Mad Dog knows me. He got out when he saw me holding a gun on the guy that leaped out of his chopper. He explained that he was just doing a job. That this guy wasn’t carrying a weapon. Didn’t think there would be any harm in letting this guy out. I laughed in his face. He knew I had him. I let them go. Mad Dog took off with this guy and I don’t think we’ll see Mad Dog landing here again. He's fiesty, but not stupid.” “Okay, your call. What about the other guy? When we went through the gates, we heard yelling. What was that about?” Larry paused, his mind racing, “Do you want the literal translation?” “Yes.” “Okay! He was yelling that he had a right to talk to his wife. I asked him why he hadn’t tried the front door. He said that he knew he couldn’t get in that way, so he thought he would try getting to the kitchen door. I think he’s been running on pure adrenaline for too long. Guess he thought we wouldn’t hear the chopper or maybe he didn’t care.” Larry paused. Breathing deeply, he continued, “He gave me his drivers license. His name is Daniel Donnellan. The photo supported what he said. He offered to let me pat him down for a weapon. He didn’t have any; Mad Dog had that right. He is one angry man but he had respect for my rifle. They left. Someone ought to get him a tranquilizer....” Jack felt his legs go. He was glad he wasn’t standing up. Donnellan had been the name of the impressionist artist he had found on the net. He believed what this guy had told Larry. Lucky was his wife! His brain felt overloaded. In the silence that followed, Larry knew that Jack had been hit hard. He said, “I’m sorry, Jack. If I can help again in any way at all, let me know. If the guy is telling the truth, he may find some other way to her. As strange as this may sound, I don’t think he is dangerous. He acted like

an amateur trying to walk on a high wire and no net under him, but he had no weapon with him. Desperate fits his manner.” Jack thought out loud, “He may have wanted Mad Dog to set him down in the Cohen’s field, shut off the chopper and then later, come up quiet. You know Mad Dog. He would do it his way.” Jack inhaled, then said, “Really glad you were there. We are at the cabin. If anything comes up, we’ll be here for a while.... And Larry? Thanks.” Larry thought quickly about what Jack had suggested. It made sense to him. The Cohen’s fields were far enough away from Jack’s house that once the chopper went quiet, they would have thought the chopper set down for the Cohen’s. Donnellan couldn’t have known what Lucky had been telling Jack. Larry wondered if Donnellan had been going for that surprise opportunity merely to give it straight to Jack. Hearing Jack go quiet, Larry said, “Thank you, Jack. I’d do anything for ya, Buddy. You saved my life, remember?” Jack smiled weakly, said good-bye and shut his cell-phone off. Lucky had seen shock flow across Jack’s face during the phone call with Larry. Her heart sank. Dread washed over her. What had Dan told Larry? Had Larry told Jack everything that Dan talked to Larry about? Did Jack believe it? The questions targeted her fear. Lucky felt suspended in time. The rising intimacy of the days with Jack rushed into her mind. She saw them disappear like a flood of joy that had been instantly drowned by a dreadful consequence. After the call, Jack turned toward her and drew her to him. She rested her face against his shoulder. His hand came up against the back of her head, his fingers moved slowly into her hair. Jack felt an old emotional weariness begin a new assault. He tried to go over his experience with Lucky. He couldn’t focus. He felt as though he had been given a body blow. Minutes later, he put his hands on her shoulders, moving her away from him, “Let’s go in. There are supplies inside. We can make something to eat. I’ll build a fire. It will be dark soon.” Lucky felt fear secure its grip. She saw that Jack had been stunned by whatever Larry had told him. It seemed clear to her that he had been trying to find an explanation for what had just happened. She felt a new sense of distance between them. She wanted to plead with him not to throw her away. Frantically, she sought for a way she

could make him understand that she had never expected to fall in love with him. She had thought him a possible murderer. Once inside the cabin, Jack opened the kitchen cabinets and chose a couple of cans of beef soup. Lucky, behind him, placed her overnight bag on the floor. Putting the laptop on the table, she entered the bathroom and washed her face and hands. Jack walked in after her and washed up. Jack moved around the cabin trying to think about Lucky. He couldn’t concentrate. Giving up, he focused on starting a fire. Soon a comfortable blaze was going. He positioned the heavy metal grate in front of the fireplace. Lucky opened the cans of soup, found a pan and poured the contents into it. Turning the gas stove on low, she placed the pan on top of the burner. Finding crackers and cans of fruit, she picked out a can of peaches and opened it. She brought down soup bowls and silverware. Jack made a pot of coffee. They worked quietly and ate the meal in silence. They cleaned up after the meal in silence. An hour later, Lucky wanted to scream. She was crying inside for answers to the questions racing through her mind. Why didn’t he yell at her? Why didn’t he call her a liar? Why didn’t he berate her for letting him believe she was not married? Darkness surrounded the cabin. Jack took a shower. When he came out of the bathroom, she entered and took a shower. By the time, she had finished her bath and walked back out into the living area, he had taken the mattress off the bed and placed it near the fireplace. He had made up the mattress with fresh sheets. Four pillows were at one end of it. He took off his robe. She could see that he had found nightware in a dresser. He lowered himself onto the mattress, drew a couple of pillows under his head and looked up at her. She had put on a soft rose-colored nightgown. She couldn’t read his face. It seemed to her that he had shut himself off from her. Wondering if it were possible to die of a broken heart, she knelt down on the mattress and slipped her feet under the blankets. Pulling two of the pillows under her head, she felt very lonely. Long minutes drifted by. She thought if he didn’t say something soon, she would scream.

Some time later, Jack turned his body toward hers to ask gently, “Isn’t it time, you tell me what is going on?” Tears filled her eyes, “I’m not sure you will believe me.” Picking up her hand, he put it inside his own, he said, “Trust me.” He listened as Lucky unfolded her life before him. When she told him she was Lynette’s step-sister, Lynette came hurling back into his memory. He remembered Lucky’s careful avoidance of conversation about family. Questions began to run rampant inside him. His initial shock of what she was telling him, yielded to his desire to understand the trail that had led her to him. He quieted the urge to interrupt her story. She told him that it had been Dan, her husband, who had been Lynette’s lover. She explained to Jack that their affair had begun before Lynette had married him and then had begun again two years after their marriage. Tears flowed down her cheeks when she told about how she had tried to find ways to meet him without revealing who she was. Lucky wandered through her reasoning that there hadn’t seemed a way to make it happen until he had taken his California vacation. At that time she had thought him a possible murderer. She explained to him that she felt she had to allow him to assume she was not married. Lucky fought back the sobs deep inside her. Wondering if she dared hope that he would not turn his back on her, she put her lips to his mouth. His lips moved over hers in a warm acceptance. Hope filled her heart. Jack began to ask the questions he had held back. Lucky went over her childhood with Lynette and the later estrangement Lynette had instigated. They explored the way the New York police had handled her case. Jack asked if Lucky thought Dan could have killed Lynette. She told him that she had thought about it, but she had difficulty accepting it. Dan had serious anger problems but she just couldn’t see him plotting murder. Lucky explained about finding the second lover. She let Jack know that the New York police had also found the second lover, but had not put a face or name to the writer of the HotPockets emails to Lynette. When he heard about her conversation with Ron Evans that Jack was not considered a serious suspect, he smiled wearily, "I don't do murder." Jack shifted his questions toward Lucky. He began asking about Lucky’s marriage and wanted to know if her marriage would be over if

she had never met him. She explained that finding out about Dan and Lynette’s affair ended it. They went over their own relationship that had emerged out of Lucky’s decision to find Jack. Jack realized that he was experiencing an overwhelming sense of relief. He was surprised at the depth of gratefulness he felt for learning the truth about Lynette. What Lucky had told him filled in large gaps of information that he had never known, both about Lynette and now about Lucky. Tired and emotionally spent, their conversation slowed. Listening quietly to the crackling fire, Lucky snuggled closer to Jack. Relief flowed through her that instead of outrage and anger, he had listened to her explanation without interrupting her. His willingness to not allow her lies to destroy what they had experienced as real between them, thrilled her. Her relief moved over to welcome desire. Aware that Jack’s naked body was thin layers of cloth from her own, she slipped her hand under the top of his night shirt. Her hand explored his strong chest and moved down into his lower body. She felt her inner body swell in passionate longing for him to want her. Her thighs became wet. Her hand explored his sensuous inner thighs. She heard his sharp intake of breath. Her hand slid upward onto his erupting throbbing hardness. Her breathing quickened with his. His brain exploded with desire for her. Stripped of every longing but to share his passion with her, he drew her nightgown over her head. He removed his clothes and drew their nakedness together. She moaned with pleasure as she experienced his naked body, flesh against flesh. She heard his aroused sigh escape from his lips as his hands explored her within a tender, searching gladness.

His mouth moved down toward her aroused nipples, eagerly feasting on the yielding softness of her breasts. She groaned her exploding pleasure at the sensations flowing through her body. She softly cried out with passionate longings to have his body finally fill her hunger for their completeness. She moved her legs open in invitation for him to take her as his own. She held back a pleading urgency for him to rush into her. His penis sought its uniting place. In her soaring need she brought her pelvis up in urgent welcome to it. His body surged into hers. She moved urgently with Jack in their united rhythm to their ascending passion.

She felt ecstasy take wing as he thrust his penis deeper inside her body. His body inflammed with their euphoria, pushed her hips deeper into the softness of the mattress. Their bodies surrendering to their final wholeness, took their intimacy to new heavens. Their spirit and body exploded in a co-mingled joy. She felt Jack’s tears fall on her face. Jack’s hands met her tears as they rolled off her face and over his fingers pressed gently against her cheek as he had expressed his sense of wonder. Intoxicated by the pleasure of his hardness inside her, she whispered, “Before you leave me, move inside me again.” Pleased, he did as she asked, whispering, “You like me, huh?” She laughed softly, thanking him with lips that spoke of love. Quiet now, he held her in his arms, “I’ve loved you from the first moment I saw you fly off that pier and hit the sand running.” She traced his lips with her fingertips, “I think I’ve loved you from the moment you said, ‘I thought you had forgotten our date.’” She giggled, “There I was, a complete stranger to you, throwing myself down beside you on your beach towel and without batting an eye, you calmly say, ‘I thought you had forgotten our date.’ I couldn’t believe it! It took all the control I could muster to not just lie there and laugh and laugh.” Jack chuckled. Becoming serious, he said, “You should face Dan. I know -- perhaps you could avoid it, but I doubt that he will give up until he has talked to you. He could come to the ranch. He can talk to you in front of me. He won’t like it, but you may be able to convince him its over between you. You wouldn’t be facing him alone.” Lucky sighed, “I thought about doing that while we were driving up here. But, I didn’t know if you would throw me out once I told you what was going on. I didn’t think he would go to this extreme to get to me. I thought the email I sent him would convince him. It didn’t.” “Think about it and if you agree, you can set up a meeting at the ranch. This time, he won’t be trespassing. He is probably at a motel or hotel. I’m assuming he has a cell-phone. Larry can back us up by his presence in case he loses it.” The next morning, after breakfast, Lucky called Dan’s cell-phone. Dan picked up at once, “About time!” Lucky said, “What do you think you were doing last night?”

In a rush of words, he said, “I’ve been trying to talk to you. I’ve been trying to see you. You stopped taking calls from me. You didn’t let me know you were going to Jack Savage’s ranch. I had to go to a lot of trouble to find where he had taken you. I knew you wouldn’t see me willingly if I tried to get through those gates. You didn’t expect me to climb that monster fence outside his home, did you? We need to talk. I wanted Jack Savage to know you are married to me! Did that gunslinging cowboy foreman tell him? Did my telling your father about your stupid detective work piss you off that much that you won’t even talk to me? You’re just gonna walk!?” Her voice cold, she asked, “ Aren’t you forgetting your long affair with Lynette.” Dan became silent; then said, “Lucky, I want to see you privately. We have a son. We’ve worked through fifteen years of living together. You can’t just walk away because once in a while I used Lyn for a temporary playmate.” Lucky felt rage dart through her. Reminding herself to remain calm, she looked toward Jack, “Mr. Savage is willing that you come to the ranch and talk to me. He may remain in the room during our conversation. It will be recorded. Once it is over, I expect that you will return to New York. My father will be contacting you.” Dan fought for control. He could hear that familiar stubborn defiance in her voice. His tone hard, he said, “So, now it’s ‘Mr’ Savage, huh? I saw you cuddling up when I drove by. I don’t want our conversation recorded.... I’ll talk to you outside on the patio. Is that public enough? I don’t have time to waste out here. I have to get back. I just want to talk to you before I get those divorce papers you’ll want me to sign.” Lucky heard the implied threat that he would make the divorce difficult unless he got this last crack at her. She said, “No recording on the patio and Mr. Savage will witness our conversation.”

Dan gripped the phone tighter, he wanted to slap her for using the term, ‘Mr’ Savage, “Okay! Okay! Damn it! I want to talk to you!” “1:00P.M., today. The gates will be open.” She heard the phone disconnect. “He’s coming.” Jack nodded. Cleaning up the kitchen and putting the mattress back on the bed. Jack took what they had brought with them to the cabin, back to the car. Locking the cabin door, Jack got into the car beside Lucky. Leaning

toward her, they kissed. Looking deeply into her eyes, he traced a line on her cheek. “Welcome into my heart, Lady Luck.” Her eyes enthroned him in hers. Once back at the ranch, Jack walked to the stables to talk to Larry. Larry saw him coming and placed the pitch-fork he had been using to clean out Tank’s stall, against the wall. Washing his hands, he wiped them off on a paper towel. He shook Jack’s hand when he walked through the door. Jack looked directly into Larry’s eyes, “I’m sorry to involve you in all this.” Larry said, “Jack you don’t need to tell me anything.” “I know, but I would feel better if I gave you some idea what is going on.” Larry nodded. Jack gave him a short summary of Lynette’s death, the relationship between Lucky and Lynette and the fact he hadn’t known she was married to Daniel Donnellan. He told him that he was in love with Lucky. That she was divorcing her husband but he wasn’t the reason for the divorce. He let Larry know that Dan was coming out at 1:00P.M., today and that the meeting between Lucky and her husband would be on the patio. He asked Larry, if he would stay near the house in case they needed him for back-up. Larry said, “I’ll be here.” Jack nodded, “Thanks.” Walking back into the house, Jack felt sadness and a sense of failure roll over him. Shaking it off, he walked into the living room. Lucky was sitting on the sofa talking on her cell-phone. He heard her say, “Thanks, Dad!” Shutting down her phone, she looked up at him, “That was Dad. He said that the preliminary audit suggests that someone had been embezzling money out of Lynette’s trust. He called to suggest that I look more closely in Lyn’s computer for any challenges she might have made about her trust monies to the account trustees.” Jack raised an eyebrow, “Hmmm.... Did he notify the detectives on her case?” “He is going to do that today.” Jack nodded.

Jack nibbled her ear, then her lips. He let her know he would work a while in his office. She smiled and said she would look through Lyn’s files for anything that might suggest Lynette had questioned any of her trust account transactions. Entering the bedroom, she brought up Lynette’s files. Searching the files using a variety of search words, she came up empty. She sighed, it looked like Lynette had kept every file, she’d ever created or received. Shutting the laptop down, she walked into the kitchen. Reaching for a bottle of water in the refrigerator, she glanced toward Jack’s office. His door was open. He whirled around in his desk chair to watch her. Winking at her, he pointed to the clock. She realized that in twenty minutes Dan would be showing up at the gates. Jack motioned for her to come into his office. Entering, she sat down on his lap. He kissed her, “Are you going to be Okay?” She kissed him back lingeringly, “Hmmm... Yes, I think so.” Running his hand over her arm, he said, “I’ll be out there with you.” She nodded, got up, winked seductively at him and walked toward the guest bedroom so grateful that Jack knew everything now. Jack felt a warm happiness as he watched her walk away from him.

Chapter 14 Entering the bathroom, she freshened up. The closer it got to the time she had to face an angry Dan, the more anxiety she felt. Lying down, she set the alarm for fifteen minutes in case she fell asleep. Minutes later, she heard Jack speak softly, “He’s here.” Jack had opened the gates. Dan had driven his rental car inside and stopped near the side of the driveway near the patio. Getting out of the car, he looked around for the cowboy with the rifle Not seeing Larry, he walked toward the patio. Not seeing Lucky or Jack, he knocked on the kitchen door. Jack had watched Dan get out of the rental. He thought, “So this is the guy Lynette wanted and this is the guy who is married to Lady Luck.” It took only seconds for Jack to see Danial Donnellan’s masculine appeal for women. He saw a tall, handsome man adjusting his jeans, carefully surveying his environment.

Maybe fifty years old, receding hairline, Jack measured Dan near his own height. Dan looked rock-hard from his head to his feet. Jack’s mind described his features to himself as chiseled out of stone. Thinking, “This guy keeps himself fit,” he wondered if he could take him if he got out of hand. Keeping his eyes on him, Jack asked himself, if this man could have killed Lynette. Glancing toward the door of the stables, Jack saw Bo dart out toward Dan. He opened the kitchen door and yelled, “Halt!” to Bo. The Lab stopped in his tracks. Dan froze. Exiting the kitchen door, Jack pointed toward the stables, “Back.” Bo turned around and trotted back to Larry. Jack noticed Larry’s shadow near the doorway. Bo, and Jack’s sharp command to the dog, had startled Dan. Jack didn’t think he had seen Larry standing near the door. “I’m Jack Savage.” Dan stepping cautiously backward, responded sharply, “I know who you are. Where’s Lucky?” Jack said, "Why don't you take off your jacket?" "Why?" Dan asked flippantly, "I'm not carrying.". "If you want to talk to Lucky, take it off." Dan jerked off his jacket, throwing it at a wicker chair. Jack nodded. He pointed to the cushioned wicker chair, “Why don’t you sit over there. I’ll get her.”

Dan nodded and did as Jack suggested. Dan was holding tight control of his anger. He wanted to pound Jack Savage into the ground, but Dan knew something about himself that few knew at first glance. He had learned from childhood that he was not a physical fighter. When a teen-ager, Dan had found out that his strong voice was going to be his weapon of choice. Intimidation and verbal threat were powerful incentives for others to keep their distance when he was angry. He had boasted to himself that his handsome face had never gotten hurt using this weapon. Acutely aware that he was not in his own territory, Dan remembered the rifle that had him in its sights the night before. The chopper experience hung on in his memory as a lesson learned - never hire a nutcase pilot. Dan told himself that he was going to control his temper.

Inhaling deeply, he waited for Lucky to come out and talk to him. Lucky opened the door slowly. Jack followed her. Dan felt instant rage at how beautiful she looked. He wanted to tear Jack Savage’s throat out. He hadn’t a doubt in the world that Jack Savage had slept with his wife. She practically purred when she walked alongside him. Fighting to control himself, he motioned for her to sit in the chair beside his. She lowered herself in the chair. Jack backed off and sat down in a chair several feet away from Dan and Lucky. Dan stared at her, “I’m sorry, Lucky. I’m a fool. Maybe I’ve always been a fool, but I don’t want to lose you now.” Jack felt his stomach tighten. Lucky didn’t respond to Dan’s apology. She didn’t believe it. Dan wondered if this was going to be a one-way conversation with her silence echoing back his words. “I’ve told you, Lynette never meant anything to me!” Jack struggled with revulsion to think that Lynette had wasted most of her adult life chasing this guy and Lucky had married him. Lucky stayed silent. Observing her closely, Dan for the first time, saw that she was gone from him forever. It finally registered that he would never see Lucky after this meeting. The finality flowing out of her eyes brought certainty to his feelings. His relationship with Nathan would never be the same. His business was as good as dead. Dan felt a powerless rage course through him. He wanted to shake her, slap her. He wanted some reaction to his words, anything. She had made him feel helpless in her silent repudiation of him. He felt invisible. Impotent. Leaning toward her, Dan knew that Jack had tensed up without looking at him. Wondering where the cowboy with the rifle was, Dan tried to relax his body. In the doorway of the stables, Larry had stiffened when he saw Dan lean quickly toward Lucky. Picking up the rifle, he held it lowered over his arm. Dan lost it. He was going to punish her if he couldn’t have her. Standing up, his face red, his powerful voice screamed into her face, “I was FUCKING her! Why can’t you see it for what it was? NOTHING!” Lucky jumped up and away from him. Anger whirled through Jack. Leaping out of his chair, he rushed toward Dan. Raising his voice, he boomed out, “Shut up! Get out! Your meeting with Lucky is over!” In the stables, Larry raised the rifle. When Bo heard Jack shout, he frantically scratched the stall door where Larry had put him,

whimpering. Larry could see that Jack and Dan were now eye to eye. He measured the two men. Dan might have the edge on weight, but Larry thought that Jack’s quickness and strength could equal out to a mean punch if contact were made. Larry decided to end it here and stepped out into plain view with the rifle raised and pointed at Dan’s head. Larry shouted at Dan, “I’m a crack shot.” Dan’s body bolted upright. Eyes narrowed, lips held in a sneer, he yelled at Jack, “You gonna have your stooge shoot me?” Waving his fist at Jack, he yelled at Lucky, “He has lots of guts, Baby! He hides behind his hired gun!” Jack almost laughed. He felt like an actor in a B western. Knowing that he was falling prey to a taunt, a thing he had learned early never to do, he slowly turned toward Larry, “Hang the rifle up. I’m calling this loudmouth’s bluff.” Larry, uneasy, walked the rifle back inside the stables, internally shaking his head, thinking, “You always keep the edge.” Seeing Larry return without the rifle, Dan’s face flared red. Rushing at Jack, he screamed, “You son-of-a-bitch! You think I’m going to run from the shit that fucked my wife!” Larry started to turn back to get the rifle. Jack stayed his move. Larry saw Jack roll his tall, solid body up on the balls of his feet, bend his knees for balance and throw his fist up fast, straight into the jaw of Daniel Donnellan. The impact sounded like a gun-shot. Dan dropped like a rock. Going back for the gun, Larry got to the patio in quick strides. Jack walked to Lucky and held her close to him. Larry dropped the rifle. Seeing a pail of water, he brought it over Dan and poured it on his face. “Never say the movies don’t teach you anything.” He laughed. Turning toward Jack as Dan stirred, Larry picked-up the rifle and winked at him, “I’ll walk him to his car.” Feeling badly for Lucky, Larry was glad Jack would take care of her. Turning back to watch Dan rouse himself, he realized he hadn’t had so much fun in a long time. He detested bullies. Jack walked with Lucky toward the house. His arm around her, he took her into his office. Lifting a shirt off its hanger, he took a corner of it and wiped her tears away.

Recognizing it, she felt love own her. Surrendering to his sentimental kindness, she held his shirt close to her heart. Letting go of the tension, she released deep sobs into the room. Jack held her quietly until they lessened. Lifting her into his arms he took her into the bedroom and put her carefully on the bed. Lying beside her, he brushed her hair away from her eyes. His fingers explored her face. He kissed her. She smiled through her tears, “I’m sorry, Jack. It is my fault that you have had to go through this ugliness.” “If you hadn’t looked me up, I wouldn’t have you in my life. Besides, he attacked my women. He tried to push around my Lady Luck and he insulted my mother. I should have hit him twice!” She smiled, her eyes wet with tears. Back at the hotel, Dan looked into the mirror at the spreading bruise on his chin. He wouldn’t be chewing his food without pain for some time. Reluctantly, he admired the quick punch that had downed him. He told himself that it had been his reckless anger that had allowed Jack to best him. Packing his overnight luggage, Dan wondered how he could save the restaurant. He sighed deeply. Nathan’s image followed him out to the rental car. The faces of his parents kept surfacing into his memory. They mattered to him. He didn’t want to see the expression on their faces when they learned of the divorce. He knew they would not understand it. Hadn’t he heard the words, “...through thick and thin..,” his entire life? He wondered how he could explain Lucky’s, “...too thin...”

Flying the charter toward Denver International, Dan made the decision to live in the restaurant until he could find an apartment. He had earlier decided against living there because he hadn’t wanted to mess with the local authorities if they found out. He told himself that he should be out of his office by the time he would be forced to file for bankruptcy. Flying out of Denver toward New York, Dan looked up into a pretty face asking him if he would like something to drink, “No thanks, I’m fine.” She leaned closer to his face, pointing to his chin, “You don’t look fine.” A slow smile spread across Dan's face, “How long did you say this flight is?” Suddenly Dan felt better than he had for a long time.

At the ranch, Jack had gone back to his office to work after Lucky had fallen asleep. Two hours later, Lucky woke up. She freshened up. Walking out of the bathroom, she heard her cell-phone ring. Punching into the call, she said, “Hello?” “Lucky? Ron Evans here. I thought you might want to hear this. This time, it is better news, if not good news. It’s not confirmed yet, but I think that Dan has been replaced with another suspect. They’ve got a face to go with the second lover. He had checked into the room next to hers under an assumed name the day she died. Once they found his real name, they made a connection to her. Now they are going for enough evidence to hold him. Once convinced it hadn’t been suicide, they have been moving on it.... Thanks to you, I say!” “A connection? Do you mean another connection other than being her lover? Do you know his name? ” “Sorry, Lucky, not yet. Not sure what they mean by ‘connection’ but it seems that she may have worked with him in some way outside of their affair. Oh, and Dan was there that day, but it appears that he had been gone an hour before this second guy met her. It may be too early for congratulations, but it sounds like good news. It looks like Nathan won’t have to deal with his Dad being a killer.” Lucky sighed, “Thanks Ron! I hope this holds up.” Ron Evans heard the connection go dead. Hanging up, he smiled, “I like that woman.” Entering the kitchen, she glanced toward Jack’s office. He was focused on his work. Walking out into the patio, she sat down in the wicker chair. She hoped Dan would accept the end of their marriage and not cause any more problems that she, her father or Nathan would have to battle. Lucky tried to think about the future. Going over in her mind on how to approach her son about the divorce, she quickly stopped the process. She needed more time. Trying to relax, she decided to go to the stables and take Bo out for a walk with her. Nearing the side of the house, she heard a truck stop at the front gates. She saw Mike Hammond punching in the gate code. Watching him drive through them, she wondered if he had come to see Jack or Larry. He seemed to be friendly to both of them. Strolling toward the truck, she stopped at the driver’s window to say hello to him. Pulling the truck over, he turned off the engine. Mike got out with a package in his hand, “Hi Lucky. My wife baked an apple pie for you and Jack. I helped her peel the apples.”

Taking the pie from him, she smiled, “Thank you! Thank your wife for us. Do you want to talk to Jack, he’s in his office?” She thought he looked uncomfortable for a moment. He said, “Don’t bother him. I know he works online several hours a day.” Suggesting he take a seat on the patio, she put the pie down on the wrought-iron table, “How about a soft-drink?” “I’ll take a ginger-ale, if you have one available.” Picking up the pie, she entered the kitchen. Putting the pie inside the refrigerator, she spotted a ginger-ale. Taking it out to him, she lowered herself into the wicker chair next to him. Mike Hammond thanked her and took a swig of the ginger-ale. Watching him, it seemed to her that he may have brought the apple pie because he wanted to say something to her. She waited for him to speak. Lucky hadn’t made up her mind about Mike Hammond. He appeared to be on friendly terms with Jack and Larry. Reviewing what she knew about him, she noted that he helped with the mental health people when they brought children out to ride Jack’s ponies. He had told her that he was a minister. He appeared to be a curious, but not intrusive man. She now knew that he has a nice wife who is willing to bake apple pies for Mike to give away. Mike Hammond broke the silence, “My wife and I like Jack. Maybe you don’t know, but we met him when he began to attend our services a short while ago.” Lucky felt a slow, stirring caution begin to move around inside her, “I remember you mentioned that you are a minister.” Mike Hammond didn’t think she knew a whole lot about Jack Savage. Smiling, he said, “Yes. After one of our services, Jack and I began discussing different world views. At one point during a conversation, he told me he sees the Christian perspective as the most rational view of the human experience. We are pleased to call him brother.” Shock electrified Lucky. Her body jerked slightly. Mike got up from his chair and placed the empty ginger-ale bottle on the table, a thoughtful expression in his eyes, “Well -- thank you for the ginger-ale. I hope you enjoy your stay in cowboy country.” She nodded, speechless. Her eyes followed him as he walked to his truck, she turned and picked-up the empty bottle and threw it into the trash container. Entering the guest bedroom, she began pacing the floor, new tears surfaced in her eyes and rolled silently down her face. Shaking her head slowly back and forth, she spoke quietly into the room, “So much hurt in such a short period of time. What have I done...”

A deep yearning to be finished with tears floated on the surface of her examination of Mike’s words. Jack had heard Mike’s truck pull up and stop in the drive. He turned away from the computer to see Lucky walk outside and stop at the driver’s window. He turned back and shut down the computer, intending to go out and join them. Bo dashed out of the stables and ran to Lucky. She patted his head. Mike reached over and scratched behind his ears. When Jack turned back around, he noticed an unusual watchfulness play across Mike’s face as he walked toward the patio beside Lucky. Changing his mind, Jack decided not to go outside. He couldn’t hear their conversation but he could see their body language. Bo had already settled down and had spread himself out beside Lucky’s chair. Mike seemed to be trying too hard to be casual in his conversation. Within short minutes, Lucky appeared to Jack, to be withdrawing into herself, moving away from her initial friendly greeting when Mike arrived. Jack continued watching Lucky. Something Mike said startled her. Jack saw her body jerk briefly. A few words later, Mike left. Jack watched Lucky dump the empty ginger-ale bottle into the trash and walk into the house. He listened for her steps to come to his office. He heard her shut the door of the guest-room. Jack felt a new tiredness wash over him. That nagging sense of failure came into view. He wasn’t sure he wanted to knock on Lucky’s door and find out what had just taken place between Mike and Lucky. Exiting the kitchen door, he moved in rapid steps toward the stables. Bo came flying toward him, tail whirling. Jack took time to give him the required paw-shake, pat him on his chest and rub him behind his ears. Looking out toward the open space behind his house, he began walking toward the bubbling brook with its quiet pool. Thirty minutes later, Lucky washed her face and hands. Moving through the house, she saw Jack was nowhere in sight. Leaving the house, she walked toward the stables. Bo was not around either. Stepping through the door, she met Larry leaving for the afternoon, “Have you seen Jack?” He reached over and picked up a pair of binoculars. Taking her hand, he led her outside and told her to look toward the west side of the ranch. He handed her the field glasses. Looking through them, she quickly sighted Jack and Bo. Jack was sitting on the large fallen limb where Angel and Star had munched their lunch nearby during Jack and Lucky’s picnic. Jack’s head was bowed. Bo was sleeping nearby. Tears once again threatened to overflow.

Larry said, “I’ll saddle Star for you.” She nodded, "Thanks." Jack heard their approach, but didn’t move. Bo lifted his head, looked at Star and Lucky, then dropped his head on his paws again. Lucky dropped Star’s reins, lifted herself off the mare’s back and slid to the ground. The mare blew through her nose. Shaking her head rapidly back and forth, she shook a couple of horseflies off her ear. Walking up behind Jack, Lucky put her hands gently on his head. Breathing deeply, he leaned his head back against her body. She ran her fingers slowly through his hair. He felt her tears drop onto his forehead. Her sorrow captured his hope. Choking back more tears, she said, “Jack, I’m so sorry. I’m s - so sorry. I didn’t know. It’s my fault! Don’t blame yourself... please. I wanted you beyond any passion I’ve ever experienced! I used to attend church when I was younger. But for years now, I have lived within my own logic of right and wrong. God became a distant question.” His heart pounding, Jack lifted himself from the log and turned around. Stepping over the tree limb, he reached for her. Putting his arms tightly around her, he said, “It isn’t your fault. I knew what I was doing. I wanted you! It was a thirst that overwhelmed me. I let it take me.” She leaned her head against his chest, choking back sobs, “Jack, I thought you didn’t want me at the hotel. That night, I was crushed when you stopped making love to me. I was so full of pain. I longed for you to want me and yet you walked away from me. So much happened in such a short time. You didn't talk about it. Last night proved to me how torturous that struggle had to be for you. You did want me.” She brought her face up to search for the expression in his eyes, “Yet, still I didn’t make the connection until Mike told me of your talks with him. The instant he told me, I remembered the words that should have alerted me. I heard you say them more than once. ‘There was a time...’ - ‘There was a time...’ Remember? The words did awake an awareness in me, but I let the message fade.” "Lucky, my choices are my own." She sharply drew in her breath, trying get the words out, so that he would understand her. Sighing deeply, she struggled for the right words, “From our first encounter, Jack, I should have understood. When you paid for two rooms. I should have understood. I blame myself for not seeing that you were fighting for a new understanding of life that you value. I wanted

you so much, I brushed the implications of your words and your resistance, aside. Please forgive me, Jack?” Putting her face into her hands, she said quietly, “I ignored all the signs and made last night happen. You must think me so selfish.” Jack’s eyes filled with moisture. He smiled that gentle, lop-sided grin at her, “I don’t think that at all. I don't like failure, Lucky, but it was my failure. I guess there is only one thing left to do. You’ll have to marry me.” She caught the sweetness in his words, Stumbling over her own, she gasped, “Oh, Jack! Just - just... you try! Just try to chase me off!” Leaning down, he pulled her to him, she felt his hair fall against her cheek. She pressed strands of it against her lips. He whispered, “With every breath I take, I love you more, Lady Luck.” She moved her mouth joyfully in response to his lips, her body shaking in his arms. He knew that she was giving him all that he had ever longed for. The depth and width and height of life, had finally met up with Jack Savage. Releasing her, he took her hand. He reached for Star’s reins and led the mare along with them as they walked back toward the house. Hearing them start off, Bo jumped up and scampered to catch up. At the stables, Larry had waited for them. Smiling, a sad envy flowing through him, he took Star’s reins from Jack, “I’ll take care of her.” In the house, they sat together on the sofa. Her head on his shoulder. She said, “Jack, it has been a long time since I thought about God. If you want me to, I’m willing to think about these things again.” His heart turned over, “Lady Luck, your years of willingness to be faithful to Dan shows an understanding of the logic of the Christian view. Perhaps your early association to its moral compass presented itself deeper inside you than you have been aware of....." Lucky said, “I’ve never understood how an open marriage, could be a marriage.” He nodded, “Exactly...” Snuggling closer, she wished she could remember more of those earlier sunday school lessons, “Jack why do you blame yourself for last night? I wanted you to want me. I started the fire.”

He said, “I could have stopped it. I've read enough of the early christian documents to know that the writers taught the powerful sexuality of women. It teaches that men are not to sexually arouse any woman, who is not a wife. That says it all, doesn’t it? Either I practice what I now believe or I should walk away from it. Leaning his head against the sofa cushions, he looked up toward the ceiling, and finished his thought, "I do believe it. So, how can I walk away from a teaching that requires men to live within a moral sexuality? The words were written to men, not women. I’m a man! ” At his words, that he is a man, he caught her impish smile and vigorous nod in agreement. Attempting to stay within a serious frame of mind, he said, “I’m new at this. But, I should have stopped our lovemaking regardless of what you did. I’m sorry. I hope you can forgive me.” She asked cautiously, “Jack, you don’t regret what you felt, do you?” He heard the hurt in her voice. Pressing his lips hungrily on hers, he gave her his answer, “I’m sorry I failed God. I could never ‘regret’ our bodies coming together in love. It was beyond all expectation and experience.” Lifting his head and drawing in a deep breath, he whispered in her ear, “And if we don’t stop talking about it, I may fail again. I don’t want to fail again.” Desire for him flooded through her, she wanted his nakedness against her, then and there, on the table, on the floor, she didn’t care; but this time, she only asked, “Do you want me to lock my door at night?” He laughed out loud, “No... Do I have to lock mine?” Chuckling at her raised eyebrow, mischievous grin and provocative wink, he picked-up the remote and turned on the evening news. All of him hoped she would be free soon. ****** In New York, Lucky's son, Nathan was visiting Tommy Aarons and his family for a day. Mr. Harrington, Lucky’s father, was talking on his office telephone. Suddenly loud, reverberating laughter shot out into his office space, “Yes! I’m dying if I’m lying. Heard that in a movie... Naw, I can’t remember which one. No, I’m not kidding! I swear to you! She went out after information, on her own. ”

Going silent, he listened, then replied, “Yes! Baby Girl, took an assumed name. Dan tried to stop her. They fought for months and finally Dan said he’d go along with it, but it became clear, he didn’t mean it... Right, if she hadn’t started this thing, she probably wouldn’t have learned the truth about him.” Shifting in his chair, he became silent for a few minutes, listening. He started to laugh again, he said, “Hell, Betsy Grey’s genes must have leaped to Baby Girl! Don’t that beat all? Just a minute...” Putting his call on hold, he picked-up his cell-phone, “Hello?” A woman’s voice asked, “Do you have time to talk?” “I’m on another call. Give me forty seconds, I’ll call you right back, Okay?” Ending the first phone call, he called back the cell-phone caller, “Hello” Abruptly, Lucky’s father leaped straight up out of his chair. Dead serious. “Do they know which account manager? Lon Harris? Yeah, I know him. Do they have enough evidence for a trial?” Slowly lowering himself back into his desk chair, he listened quietly for ten minutes. Thanking the caller, he said, “Can’t thank you enough for getting this information to me. I’m glad there is going to be some final resolution that fits the facts. Yes! I am proud of my daughter. Yes, she has gone through a lot. You bet! Thanks again!” Jack and Lucky had finished their dinner. They were listening to a movie on television. Hearing her cell-phone ring, she walked into the bedroom and picked it up. Sitting on the side of the bed, she said, “Hi Dad.” “You sitting down?” "Actually, I am." “Margo Majors called me. They found the guy who was embezzeling money from Lynette’s trust. It is owed to your trust now. They are going to try to get a lot of the money back, but it may take some time. The bottom-line is that Dan isn’t being looked at as a possible suspect anymore. Your search for what really happened, paid off.” Lucky breathed a deep sigh of relief, “I’m so grateful Nathan will be spared going through that type of dreadful experience.”

Clearing his throat, her father continued, “All the information is not in. But apparently Lon Harris admitted killing her. Do you remember him? Nice looking guy. Smart. Aloof. She had begun to question some things about her account. Went directly to him. He tried to side-step her demands by having an affair with her, but you know what Lynette was like. She went for the affair, but she was no fool except in love." She heard him cough, then begin again, "Apparently, Lyn kept digging about the account. He needed time. He decided to get rid of her, transfer as much money out of the country as quickly as possible and then leave the country. Only he had problems getting out without arousing suspicion. The police are now developing the case so there is a lot more yet to learn.” Sighing with relief, she said, “Thanks Dad. I appreciate the call and thanks about handling the divorce. It is a comfort to know that you are there for Nathan.” “Lucky... don’t worry about Nathan. We’ll get him through the divorce. You don’t have any alternative. Dan saw to that. If we provide Nathan support, he’ll see why it has to happen. An uncontested divorce could take a month. Maybe longer, depending on how busy the processing system of the State Supreme Court turns out to be this year.” “Dad, have I told you recently, how glad I am that you are my father? I love you very much!” “I love you, Lucky. I love Nathan too. I want you to know right now, I’m damn proud of you! I hope you will be able to recover quickly from what you've been through. You may not fully realize it, but a Mack truck has rolled over you. I’ll get the divorce done as soon as possible. You won’t have to face Dan again, if I can help it... ” Lucky took in a quick breath, “Dad, I have learned so much. I’ve been shocked that life can hold the unexpected on so many levels of living. When I started this ‘adventure’ -- your word -- I thought I was tougher.” Her voice broke. She cleared her throat and tried again to explain to her father what had happened to her, “I was confident I had a completeness that required no responding voice. I don’t feel that way any longer. I now know that when we feel a void in our personal lives, it is because there is a real emptiness inside us. No matter how much we love family members, Dad, they can’t fill what only that special connection between a man and woman, fills.” His memory targeted Lucky as a child. He had thought of her as a woman for a long time now. He realized, at this moment, that she had not only suffered, but she had been profoundly changed by this

experience. The image of Lucky’s mother, flashed before her father’s eyes. He wondered if it were too late for him to marry again. Fighting tears rushing into his eyes, he asked her, “When are you coming home? Maybe it should be soon? I’m going to be filing those divorce papers. Nathan should have you around; don’t you think?” Sadness descended on Lucky. She already missed Jack and she hadn’t left him, “I know Dad. I’ll be calling Denver International tomorrow to see if I can find a seat on the next flight out.” “Good! Be happy to see you. I’ll tell Nathan.” “Thanks, Dad.” Lucky clicked out of the call. Lucky sat down beside Jack, “That was Dad. Margo Majors, the bank’s corporate head called him. The police are concentrating on an accountant who embezzled large sums out of the trust. It seems that Dan is off the hook as a suspect in her death.” “I’m glad for Nathan and your family.” Leaning her head against his shoulder, she said, “Dad thinks I ought to get back as soon as possible. I told him I’d try to get a ticket out of Denver International.” Jack felt lonely, “Do you want me to go with you?” “How do you tell a man twenty-four hours a day that he is wonderful?” she thought. Lifting herself up, she rearranged herself on the sofa. She snuggled her upper body into his arms. Face to face, she whispered into his ear, “I never dreamed such a man like you, existed. I’ve never felt safer than when I’m with you. Thank you, so much.” He smiled and kissed her. “I’m afraid to have you leave. I’m not sure you are real. Perhaps this is all a dream and I’ll wake up with my heart and life empty again.” Smiling, she began nibbling at his neck and ear. He felt anxiety rise up to meet fresh desire. Her fingers moved into his hair. Gently tugging on his hair, she said, “It is probably best that I go alone. We’ll have to give Nathan some time to adjust to the changes he will be facing. The divorce, itself, shouldn’t take long. Dad said it could be accomplished in a month. He said that an uncontested filing and how busy the court is will control the speed of it.”

He liked the way she played with his hair. It sent exciting sensations through his body. Struggling to control the desire to lift her in his arms and take her to his bed, he said, “Lucky, it is important I get to talk to Nathan. He should meet me.” Pressing her lips to his, she murmured, “Hmmm... Yes, it is important.” Wanting her, Jack’s body said a month is forever, his brain cautioned him that he could wait that long. The next morning, Jack drove Lucky to Denver International Airport. When her plane rose into the sky, he followed its path until it was out of sight. Walking back to his car, he could feel her with him. Miles later, reality took up residence. She was gone.

Chapter 15 Lucky’s father picked her up at the airport. He hugged her and loaded her luggage into the car. During the drive home, he asked for more details behind her reasons for meeting Jack Savage in the first place. She carefully explained why she had started looking for information regarding Lynette’s case. When he asked her why she started with Jack Savage, she told him that she hadn’t any other direction to go, but toward Lynette’s ex-husband. She went over finding Ron Evans, explaining to her father that it was his investigation that had produced Jack’s vacation destination. It had been this information that had opened up an opportunity to meet Jack Savage without telling him who she was. She described again the battle with Dan, who had challenged the idea of her involvement, every step of the way. Finishing the story, she became quiet. He nodded, “There is no doubt now, that your decision activated more interest in Lyn’s case. The laptop recovery has turned out to be a major find.” Her father looked carefully at her, “Dan has talked to Nathan about the divorce.” Startled, she said, “Do you know what he told him?” “No, Nathan just told me that his father had talked to him about you divorcing him.”

it?”

She shook her head, “I hope he told him why... How did Nathan take

“I couldn’t tell. I don’t know what Dan said to him. It may take some time before it hits him. Lucky... I think you should talk to him right away. Don’t put it off.” “Do you think he should stay with you or come home?” “Tommy’s family is dropping him off at your house. He’ll be there waiting for us. Ask him what he wants to do. I’ve enjoyed him. I would be glad to have him stay the entire time we planned on, but its up to you and Nathan. He knows he is welcome to stay with me.” “I’ll ask him.” Lucky and her father didn’t talk the rest of the drive home. When she opened the door, Nathan was waiting for her. Without speaking, he walked to her and put his arms around her. Holding him tightly, she met the unhappy promise that had entered the moment. She knew she was not through with tears. Her father hugged Nathan, then Lucky. Turning back toward the door, he said, “Good to have you home. Give me a call later, Okay?” “I will.” Nathan picked up her luggage and took it into her bedroom for her. Entering the bathroom, she washed her hands. When she walked back into the bedroom, she saw Nathan sitting on the edge of her bed, gazing thoughtfully at her. He said, “Dad says you are divorcing him.” Lucky realized that her conversation with Nathan, couldn’t wait. Sitting down beside him, she picked up his hand and placed it into her own, “Did he tell you why?” Tears entered his eyes, “He said that he had failed us both. That he had been having an affair with Aunt Lyn and you found out about it. He cried Mom. I’ve never seen him cry.” Nathan stood up, taking his hand from hers, “I love Dad. I know what he did hurt you, but can’t you forgive him? Aunt Lyn is dead!” Lucky sighed, “I know you love your father. He loves you too. But, Nathan, it is more complicated than his saying that he is sorry to me or you. Their affair wasn’t a one-night stand. And... don’t get me wrong. I would have taken that seriously also. Their affair continued almost from the time we married until she died. Marriage must mean something real, not phony.”

Lifting his arms up in exasperation, he let them come crashing against his legs, “What is this anyway!? Am I living on the set of ‘Desperate husbands’....” Lucky couldn’t smile. He was so young. His living experience had consisted of information gleaned from a complex mixture of family, friends, school, magazines, books, television, movies and the web. She remembered that he had no earlier clue that his parents would split. She knew that he was now floundering around in an uncertain and unknown world. Nathan sat down beside her again, his voice lowered, “He said you love another guy? Is that true?” She nodded, “Yes.” “When did you meet him? I’ve not seen you flirting with guys. You haven’t had any dates. I would know. How can you love another guy so quickly?” She felt fear install itself inside her. She wondered how she could explain that it hadn’t happened as quickly as he thought; she had been vulnerable going in. Seeking for a reply he could grasp, she knew he would have trouble understanding the reality of her marriage experience with his father. She asked herself, how she could explain to him, that she had been moving through life, hollow. That her woman’s experience had been empty of an essential happiness. That when love happened, it had flooded into her, sweeping out that empty place, filling it with joy. Taking a deep breath, she replied, “You’re right, I haven’t been dating on the sly. I haven’t known him for a long time. It is Aunt Lyn’s ex-husband. I’ve known him less than two weeks.” His eyes expanded in shocked surprise. Without warning, Nathan fell back flat on the bed. His hand slapped his forehead, “I’m freakin’ out! -- My mom actually believes in love at first sight!” This time, she wanted to laugh, but she refused to release it. Telling herself that Nathan needed time, she gently touched his hand, “I guess I do.” Not able to take his eyes off his mother’s face, he asked her, “I want to live with you. Is this guy gonna live in New York with us?” “I don’t know. We haven’t talked about where we might live after we marry. He has a small ranch in Wyoming.”

She might as well have said, Jack lived on the moon. Nathan’s face flared red, “I’m not gonna leave my friends! I don’t want to live with Dad, but I’m not leaving here. I’ll live with Grandpa Harrington!” Fear became a block in Lucky’s throat. She knew her father would take him. She also knew she could force him to live with her. She couldn’t imagine not seeing her son to adulthood. Lucky, hugged her son, “I love you very much, Nathan. I want you to be happy. Let’s give the changes some time, Okay?” ****** In Wyoming, Jack jumped on Angel’s back and trotted her toward the bubbling brook by the small pool. Running from his gnawing sense of loss, he urged Angel to break into a run. Racing toward the pool area, Angel’s long stride with her hoofs owning the trail, her steady pant, her accelerating speed, gave him a relieving focus on the moment. Nearing the pool area, he pulled back her reins, shouting, “Whoa! Whoa, Angel!” The mare slid to a stop. She flung back her long, sleek neck, snorting. Her feet danced in place before coming to a standstill. She seemed to be thanking Jack for letting her run free to race the wind. LIfting his right leg up and back, he stepped down from the saddle. Walking toward the pool, he carried with him the memory of Lucky in his arms. His chest felt tight, his hands ached for her. Fear cascaded through him that he would never see her again. Sitting down on the fallen log, he bowed his head. He couldn’t think. “Please...” kept running through his mind as he stuggled to find a prayer. He fought back doubt that she would return to him. Her interests, her experience had been lived within the cosmopolitian lifestyle that he had rejected. Groaning, he surveyed his surroundings, gripped by a painful longing in silent prayer that she would be able to live life out with such an ordinary man, as he. ****** In New York, two days after Lucky had returned, Mr. Harrington filed the Donnellan vs. Donnellan divorce papers. It had taken numerous telephone conversations with Dan and Lucky before Mr. Harrington invited Dan into his office.

During their first meeting, Dan had assured him he would not contest the divorce. Dan had looked tired and older. Lucky’s father had wondered if he were a wiser man today. Dan had made an attempt to talk about his marriage to Lucky. Mr. Harrington had suggested that if he needed to talk to someone about what happened in his life with Lucky, Dr. Bowman would be the better choice. Their meetings had not been friendly, but they had carried a cautious civility. Three days after Lucky came home, Nathan called his grandfather and asked if he could talk to him. Lucky’s father told Nathan that he would pick him up for lunch and they could talk during their meal. Mr. Harrington called Lucky. Lucky answered, “Dad?” “Hi. Did Nathan tell you he wants to talk to me?” “Yes.” “Do you know what he wants to talk to me about?” She sighed, “Not exactly. Probably about the divorce. He doesn’t want to leave New York and he is even less thrilled to have Jack move here.” “Is he accepting that you will marry Jack?” “He knows Jack is very important to me. He also knows that Jack and I have talked about it.” “Okay... I’m talking to him today. Going to take him out to lunch. Told him I’d pick him up around Noon.” Fifteen minutes after entering the restaurant, Lucky’s father glanced toward his grandson. He looked forlorn and unhappy. His heart went out to him, “Big changes are often hard to take.” Taking a bite of his sandwich, Nathan nodded. Minutes later, Nathan was ready to talk, “I want to live with you until I go to college, will you let me?” “Nathan, you will always be welcome to live with me. But, you’ve got to remember that you are a minor under the law until you are eighteen. You will have to live where your parents decide you will live, until then. They have already agreed you will live with your mother.”

“Can she force me to leave New York? Doesn’t Dad have a say about how far I live away from him?” “Your Dad has already agreed for you to live with him, if you want to, when he finds a permanent place. He knew you might not want to leave New York. He doesn’t want you that far away from him, but he knows he can visit you any time. He didn’t contest the divorce. He and your mother are working for your best interests. They don’t want your life totally turned upside down.” Tears surfaced in his eyes, “I hate this!” Mr. Harrington sighed internally. He wondered how much his grandson could understand about Lucky and Dan’s life together. He said, “Nathan, I know it hurts you to see your mother and father divorce. I could suggest that when you are older you may be able to understand what happened. But, that isn’t really fair.” Leaning his head on his hand, Nathan said, “I get mad and then I cry. I don’t understand it.” Reaching out to cover his grandson’s hand with his larger one, he said, “I can’t explain to you why people hurt each other. I’m a lawyer, not a psychologist. I’m not sure they can explain it; but, I’ve seen it happen time and again. Sometimes it happens because people don't make the right choices in the first place.” Lifting his hand off his grandson’s smaller one, he said, “Let’s change the focus for a little bit? I know you love your mother and you know she loves you. Let’s put what is happening in your life within another perspective, Okay?” Nathan nodded, “Okay.” suppose that you heard about a woman who had been imprisoned for fifteen years for a murder she didn’t do. She was being held in a cage every day with a roommate that used anger and fear for selfempowerment. No matter what this woman tried to do, the roommate never really changed. Suddenly, the innocent woman finds out that the murderer had been found and she is allowed out into the light of a new day. Free of the angry roommate, she is now free of the cage also.” Nathan looked out the window, “That is what Dad did to Mom when he had the affair with Aunt Lyn? Is that why he cried because he knew that is what he did to her, all that time?” “I don’t know, Nathan. People are complex. No analogy or comparsion is perfect, either. But, it must have been something like that for your mother. She was lonely without understanding why. No one on

the outside of a marriage really knows what is going on inside it." Mr. Harrington paused and looked out the restaurant window. Swinging his eyes back to his grandson, he said, "When there is deceit, the marriage, itself, is an illusion. It was good that your dad stopped lying about what he had done. Perhaps he will become a better man for having admitted it to you. I know he loves you.” Nathan sighed. Thinking quietly for long seconds, he said, “But why did she have to go fall in love with a guy who lives in Wyoming?” Mr. Harrington wanted to laugh. He felt some of the concern for Nathan and Lucky flow out of him, “Nathan, if the woman in the story, free after fifteen years of false imprisonment, met a kind, peaceful man who loved her with all that was in him, just as quickly as she loved him, do you think she would care where he lived?” Nathan sighed again, “No.” “Nathan, your mother is still suffering. She loves you very much. If I could say anything I hoped would stay with you, it would be this; from the moment of our children’s birth, we know they will one day leave us for good. Our relationship changes. Lucky knows you will leave her one day, but she wants to be in your life until that time comes. She believes Jack is a man who will love her with his whole heart. She feels safe with him. Don’t you think she deserves this chance to be happy now and not have to wait until you are eighteen or older?” Mr. Harrington could see that Nathan was thinking about what he had heard. Nathan looked around him. Moments later, his eyes came back to his grandfather. He raised an eyebrow, “Maybe I should meet this superman?” Lucky’s father laughed outright, “I think that is a good idea!” Dropping Nathan off at home, Lucky’s father went in to talk to her. He found her in the art studio beginning a new painting. He could see the first few sketches outlining a tree-shaded bubbling brook. Sitting down in a chair beside her, he told her about his conversation with Nathan. When he told her what Nathan had said about wanting to meet this ‘superman,’ she brushed fresh tears off her cheeks. Rinsing off her paint brush, she looked at her father, “I feel like I’ve been drowning in tears. This time, the tears are happy ones. I’m so glad that Nathan wants to meet Jack.” He patted her hand, “Time may not heal all things, but love helps us dump the trash without looking at it anymore.”

She smiled, “Expressed in your eloquent style, Dad. Thanks!” He left laughing. Minutes later, Lucky called Jack. Lucky asked him if he were free to stay a few days in New York. She repeated her father’s conversation with Nathan and her son’s suggestion that he meet ‘this superman.’ Jack chuckled, “If I only were! I’ll fly out as soon as possible. I’ll call you with the flight information when I get it.” Lifting his head, he inhaled deeply, “ When I heard your voice, I couldn’t breath. I felt you clear through me. I wish I were a poet, I’d tell you in lyrical verse how much I miss you.” Her heart beat faster, “You just did. It is painful to walk into a room and you are not there. I can’t wait to see you.” “You haven’t changed your mind about me, have you?” “How could I? I can't live without my heart and it belongs to you.” Jack groaned internally The next day, she received his flight information. She felt her body go weak thinking about seeing him again. She would see him tomorrow. The Airport In the airport, Lucky saw Jack striding toward her. She felt excitement ignite inside her. His eyes found her. Several women turned quickly to stare at his strikingly masculine good-looks. She felt his male appeal to her toes. She couldn't get enough of watching him. Dressed in navy slacks, black shoes, blue dress shirt, its collar open, the shirt sleeves rolled-up to the forearm, carrying the laptop in his left hand, an overnight bag in his right, she thought he made an unbelievable, knock-your-socks-off, sight. She wouldn't have been surprised to see a wave of women rushing over, to look him over. Lucky glanced around. When her eyes swung back toward him, she saw an attractive redhead, turn, to stare at Jack and then attempt to approach him. He stopped, spoke to her, nodded toward Lucky and continued on his way to her. The woman, raised both eyebrows as if to say, “You lucky girl!” and turned away.

Lucky smiled, thinking, "I am Lucky." Reaching her, Jack dropped his overnight bag and put the laptop down. With one quick movement, he drew her into his arms. Putting his lips on hers, he kissed her with such enthusiasm, a man walking by, muttered, “Down Boy!” Her right hand was caught against his chest. Her lips trembled under his. She felt a warm relief roll through her as he embraced her. She breathed out the words, “I love you so much. You fill me with fire. I love that too!” He released her, looking down at her, a smile in his eyes deepened into a universe that held only her, “I love you, too” She felt captured in a prison of joy. In the car, she asked him to kiss her again. Laughing, he breathed a deep sigh of relief, “Come here, Woman!” He kissed her again. It took a long time to do it right. Driving toward her father’s house, she explained that her father had invited him to stay with him, “I want you to stay with Nathan and me, but I would leap into your bed at the first chance I got. So, when Dad suggested you stay in his guest-house, I thought it was a good idea.” Jack laughed, “Right at this moment, I think my resolve would fail if I were staying with you. Did you actually tell him that?” She laughed, “I didn’t have to say it. I think he knows it anyway. It was his idea you stay there. I think he thought it was best because of Nathan.” Becoming serious, he asked her to tell him about Nathan. He wanted to know how he had taken the news about the divorce. They talked about Nathan the rest of the way to her father’s home. Entering Jim Harrington’s house, he met her father. It had been a long time since he had seen him. Lynette had introduced him at their wedding. Lucky’s father made no reference to it. Jack was grateful and felt welcomed by him. He liked him. In a few minutes, Nathan entered the room and was introduced to Jack Savage. They shook hands. Nathan stepped back to stand closer to his grandfather. Mr. Harrington took Nathan, Jack and Lucky out to lunch. Nathan was quiet during the meal. He darted glances toward Jack, then quickly

away. He listened to Jack and his grandfather discuss the stock market. He felt mesmerized by the way his mother looked at Jack Savage and the way he looked at her. They were an island. He felt left out. Nathan tried to look at a new emotion stirring in his mind. Was he jealous of superman, he asked himself. Nathan wanted his confusion to go away. Could he get used to his mother loving this guy, he wondered. Nathan wanted his mother to be happy. He tried to figure out where he would fit in with Jack Savage. At the end of the meal, he had agreed to talk with Jack alone. Arriving at his grandfather’s home, Lucky and her father walked into her father’s study while Jack and Nathan entered the garden. Jack spoke carefully, “Your mother has told me a lot about you. She is very proud of you. I understand that you know I want to marry her. This is a tough time for you. If you have any questions to ask me, I’d be happy to answer them.” Nathan sat down on a garden chair. Jack sat down across from him. He looked directly at Jack, “I’m not a kid. I know Dad had an affair. Finding that out, changed Mom. Meeting you, changed Mom. I can’t help loving my Dad. I don’t want another father.” Jack said kindly, “I’m not trying to take his place, Nathan. I would like to be your friend. I love your Mother very much. I want to see her happy. She loves you deeply. I will do my best to make her happy. I think it would make her happy if we can be friends.” Nathan fought tears, “I don’t think there is room for me between you two.” Jack's heart turned over. He could see that Nathan felt left out and lonely. Compassion soared through him, “Nathan, you would never be between us, but you could be with us. I know your Mother doesn’t want to lose you. We want to share your life with you and have you share our life together.” Nathan felt as though Jack Savage had hugged him. He slowly smiled. Remembering his mother’s words, he said, “Let’s give the changes some time, Sir.” Jack shook his hand, “It’s a deal.” Jack spent a week in New York. When Jack saw her beginning sketches of their meadow and bubbling brook, he held her within a painful longing to have all this hurting behind them. Keeping busy, they visited art museums. She introduced him to her friends. They took Nathan and his friend, Tommy Aarons to a computer show.

Jack introduced Lucky to his business associates at the brokerage firm. They asked him how he liked Wyoming. They enjoyed kidding him about hiding out in cowboy country. He nodded his head, “It was the right decision for me. Come on out and I’ll show you around.” By the end of the week, he knew he had to go back to Wyoming. Jack and Lucky had lived the week within a constant struggle not to fall into a passionate free fall. He wanted her desperately to not be another man's legal wife. The strain had mounted to a new high. When they touched each other, they wanted more. When he had commanded obedience from his body, he wanted to ignore it. They made the decision not to go dancing. They were careful not to listen to love songs. They stopped watching television or movies with love scenes in them. In an effort to control the passion coursing through her when she was near him, Lucky began looking at him less. He felt a new loneliness. His last evening with Lucky, she sat in the car in front of her father’s house with Jack. His fingers playing with her hair, he said, “I have a new respect for Paul’s words, ‘...it is better to marry than to burn...’” She lowered her head to his shoulder, sighing deeply, she said, “Jack I can’t stand it any longer. I feel married to you now. We are waiting for paper-work for God’s sake!” He kissed her, “Yes, for God’s sake.... Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe faithfulness is what we have. But, I can't get it out of my mind that we should have that paperwork signed by the State of New York." He glanced out of the car window, then brought his eyes back to look into hers, "I miss you. You’re not even looking at me as often. When we disconnect I feel lost and abandoned. If I stay any longer, I won’t stop. I want you back. When the papers come, will you call me or will you fly to Wyoming?” Lucky asked cautiously, “Jack, are you through with New York?” Jack’s heart leaped, his arm drew her closer to him, “Lucky, if you want me to move back to New York, I’ll sell the ranch and come back. Without you, the ranch is just a piece of property in someone else's universe.” “You would do that?” “Yes.” The next day, Jack flew back to Wyoming. Their lives began to be lived within a holding pattern. They talked on the telephone. They sent

emails. They kept their exchanges carefully casual, newsy. Jack began an email correspondence with Nathan. Listening and reading between the lines became the only fantasy they shared. Lucky finished her painting of their quiet place. Jack kept himself busy. A month went by. Another month began and left, then another, still no divorce papers arrived. By September, Jack was ready to fly into New York and track them down, himself. At the ranch, on a Monday afternoon, frustrated, Jack shut down the computer early, threw on a light jacket and asked Larry if he wanted to jump on Star and exercise her while he took Angel out. Heading the horses out toward the far end of his ranch with Bo trotting alongside them, Larry and Jack were half-way to the fence-line when they heard the loud chatter of the chopper overhead.

Bo broke into a frenzied barking. Angel and Star began nervously prancing about. Tightening his hold on the reins, Larry shouted to Jack, “I can’t believe it!” Jack and Larry were staring in disbelief as Mad Dog Jones attempted to find a place to set his chopper down, near by. Larry turned Star around and yelled toward Jack, “I’ll get the rifle!” Seconds later, Jack shouted, “Never mind!” Larry turned Star back around to see the chopper door open and Lucky jump-out, running toward them. She saw nothing in her environment but Jack racing toward her. Mad Dog Jones threw out a suitcase and immediately lifted his chopper back into the waiting sky. Inside, Mad Dog was roaring with laughter, his body shaking, his thumbs-up gesture waving wildly toward them. Larry couldn’t take his eyes off Jack. He had leaped off Angel and was running hell-bent toward Lucky. With his hair free and loose in the wind, his long legs taking him to her, he looked like a champion stallion hurling toward the finish line. Bo raced alongside him. When Jack reached her, he grabbed Lucky as though he would never let her out of his arms again. Bo sat down, lifting his paw up toward her. Larry, captive to the moment, felt tears surface. He realized he didn’t

want to ride back to the house. He wanted to see Lucky’s face when she saw it. Lucky felt Jack’s powerful body enclose her inside it. She instantly felt wrapped in a warm secure passion, her body flared with passionate sweetness. Happy tears fell against his cheek as he held her close to him. The words caught in his throat, “Wel - come home, My Lady Luck.” Their lips united in urgent thankfulness. Larry couldn’t take his eyes off them. He was helpless in the response of his body to the electric sensuality of their embrace. Sadness for himself and happiness for Jack swept through him. Larry longed for the wife he had lost. Jack released her. She bent over to shake Bo’s paw. Putting his hands on her shoulders, Jack turned her, so that she could see Larry standing nearby holding Star’s reins. She lifted her hand to wave, smiling at him. Suddenly, she gasped. Jack watched her face overflow with delight as she realized what she was looking at. Larry was held by her rapt expression. She whirled around and looked at Jack with astonishment, her eyes flying back toward the studio. She turned to look at Larry, speechless. Her hand to her mouth, she couldn’t believe what she was seeing through the trees. Jack had built her an exquisitely designed glass studio on the rise near the brook and small pool. Shaped in an octagon, six of its sides were glass. Jack whistled for Angel. She trotted over to them. Jack stepped into the saddle, reached down and lifted Lucky up behind him. Angel took them to the steps of the studio. Lucky slid off Angel’s back, Jack’s arm holding her steady. Jack lifted his right leg back and away from the saddle. They stood quietly together looking at the art studio. She stared at the beautiful stained-glass borders around the door. Her breath caught as she read the words in black stained-glass, “A Place Where We Can Go.” They had been placed inside the stained-glass door border. She felt happy tears roll down her face. Jack brought her toward him and held her tightly. Letting go of each other, they turned, climbed the steps to the door and entered the studio. He showed her the large glass sections that could be shut-off from the intense rays of the sun by built-in shades. He explained that a clear skylight topped the roof, allowing anyone sleeping in the center apartment to see the stars in the night sky.

Walking around the interior, she could hear the babble of the brook. She thought, “How do you tell an ordinary man that he is the most extraordinary man, you’ve ever met?” Jack held her hand while he excitedly told her how he had found the blueprints and the builder. He pointed out to her the things he had built, himself. She was overwhelmed by the careful detail designed into this sanctuary for her art work. Casting her eyes outward toward the mountains, she drew in a quick breath, “Jack! What a beautiful view in every direction!” Larry watched them enter the studio. He could see them clearly as they moved through the open space of the interior. He saw Jack turn on the music. The words of "No More Cloudy Days" floated out to where he stood beside Star. When Lucky heard the music, her eyes held Jack in a warm focus. Larry thought, “She adores him.” He saw Jack talking rapidly to her, smiling and gesturing as he showed her around the studio. Suddenly, Lucky put her fingers to Jack’s lips. He stopped talking. She handed him a set of papers. Larry saw Jack look at them closely. In short minutes, Jack turned and put them down on a nearby table, his eyes embracing her. Reaching up, her fingers caressed his face. She moved into his arms. Jack kissed Lucky slowly, his lips promising her joy. When he released her, Jack lifted her up into his arms. Larry watched enthralled as Jack kicked-open the door of the studio’s guest-room and carried her inside. Smiling, Larry jumped on Star and headed back toward the stables, the words of their song tagging along behind, "I know a place where we can go... where true love always stays.... no more stormy nights... no more cloudy days...”

THE END