“Better stop doing that.” Dylan drank.
“No kidding.” Though, if Zach was realistic, it was probably a whole lot easier said than done.
Zach still couldn’t see Dylan’s plan working. “I doubt she’ll listen to me long enough to learn about Sadie. And, even if she does, she’ll assume I’m lying.” At this point, there was no way Kaitlin would believe anything Zach said.
“Don’t tell her about Sadie.”
“Then how…” Zach tapped his index finger impatiently against the table.
Dylan gave a secretive little smile and polished off his drink. “Show her Sadie.”
Zach gave his head a shake of incomprehension, holding his hands palms up.
“Take her to the island,” said Dylan. “Show her Sadie’s handiwork. Then ask her to design something for the office building that respects your grandmother. Kaitlin seems pretty smart. She’ll get it.”
Zach stilled. It wasn’t a half-bad idea. In fact, it was a brilliant idea.
He let out a chopped laugh. “And you claim to be honest and principled.”
“I’m not suggesting you lie to her.”
“But you are frighteningly devious.”
“Yeah,” Dylan agreed. “And I’ve got your back.”
Six
“He’s after something,” Kaitlin said as Lindsay plunked a large take-out pizza from Agapitos on Kaitlin’s small, dining room table. “A guy doesn’t make an offer like that for no reason.”
Lindsay returned to the foyer, kicked off her shoes and dropped her purse, refastening her ponytail.
It was Sunday afternoon. The Mets game was starting on the sports channel, and both women were dressed in casual sweatpants, loose T-shirts and cozy socks.
“No argument from me,” she said as she followed Kaitlin into the compact kitchen area of the apartment. “My point is only that you should say yes.”
Kaitlin pulled open the door to her freezer and extracted a bag of ice cubes. “And play into his hands?”
Lindsay’s voice turned dreamy. “A private island? Mansions? All that delicious pirate history? I don’t care what he’s up to, we’re going to have one hell of a weekend.”
Kaitlin paused, blender lid in her hand, and stared at Lindsay. “We?”
The announcer’s voice called a long fly ball, and both women turned to watch the television in the living room. The hit was caught deep in center field, and they both groaned their disappointment before turning back to the drink making.
Lindsay hopped up on one of the two wooden stools in front of the small breakfast bar, pushed aside the weekend newspaper and leaned on her elbows. “You’re not going to Serenity Island without me.”
“I’m not going to Serenity Island at all.” Kaitlin dumped a dozen ice cubes into the blender. There was no way in the world she’d spend an entire weekend with Zach.
“It’s the chance of a lifetime,” Lindsay insisted.
“Only for those of us with a pirate fetish.” Kaitlin added mango, pineapple, iced tea, mint and vodka to the ice cubes, mixing up their secret recipe for mango madness. It was a Sunday tradition, along with the take-out pizza and a baseball game.
“It’s not a fetish,” Lindsay informed her tartly. “It’s more of an obsession.”
Kaitlin hit the button on the blender, filling the apartment with the grinding noise. “You want to sleep with a pirate,” she called above the din. “That’s a fetish. Look it up.”
Lindsay’s grin was unrepentant. “First off, I have to prove he’s a pirate.”
With the mixture blended, Kaitlin hit the off switch and poured it into two tall glasses. Lindsay shifted back to her feet, headed for a cupboard and grabbed a couple of stoneware plates and put a slice of pizza on each of them.
“Here’s something,” Kaitlin began as they made their way back to the living room. “Put on that red-and-gold dress, and the Vishashi shoes, then tell him you’ll sleep with him if he admits he’s a pirate.” She stepped to one side so that Lindsay could go around and take her usual spot on the couch beside the window.
“That’s not ethical,” said Lindsay with a note of censure.
Kaitlin scoffed out a laugh. “As opposed to arriving on his island to gather evidence against him?”
“It’s not like I’m going to break into his house,” Lindsay offered reasonably.
“You’re definitely not going to break into his house, since we’re not going.”
“Spoilsport.”
Kaitlin settled on the couch and snagged one of the plates of pizza, gaze resting on the baseball game while she took a bite of the hot pepperoni and gooey cheese. She sighed as the comfort food hit her psyche. “I don’t want to think about it anymore.”