Sam smiled at his son. “I’ll talk to your mom and see what she says but, yeah, I think that sounds like a great idea. Today, though, we’ll just watch Leo and Giles.”
“I’ll meet you there, Sam, as soon as I clean up after Chihuly,” Amanda said. He nodded and kissed the top of her head.
“The guys blow glass, you know,” Sammy said as they walked to where Sam’s truck was parked. “Amanda does a different kind of glass art. She cuts up sheets of glass into designs and fuses them in a kiln.” He continued, repeating almost word for word what Sam knew Amanda had told his son. Knew because she’d once explained it exactly like that to him.
• • •
That night, as he usually did after herding his sons to bed, Sam called Amanda, eager to find out how she felt about the day.
He broached the subject first. “You were a big hit. Not only is Jack in love with you because you have a dog, but you managed to charm Sammy, which is considerably harder. He says if I want to invite you for one of our Friday pizza nights or a Saturday green-eggs-and-ham dinner, it would be okay.”
“You don’t really make green eggs and ham, do you?”
“Close. When we eat in, we make odd combinations of food often dyed with a lot of food coloring to make up for the fact than none of the three of us can cook anything other than breakfast.”
“I’m honored and scared, all at the same time.”
“You’re not only beautiful but wise.” He was silent for a moment. “It went okay today, didn’t it?”
“I think so. I hope so. I really liked your boys. Jack is adorable, so open and loving. And Sammy is so much like you it almost made me cry. You and your ex have done a great job raising them.”
“Think you’d be okay with this more often, maybe even regularly?”
She hesitated a moment then said in a soft voice, “Yeah, I think I would.”
In that admission, he heard the first sign that she might be ready to talk about some of his plans for their future.
• • •
The plan was moving but not fast enough. The money hadn’t panned out yet. Turned out, getting into the bitch’s house wasn’t easy, between the security system, the dog, and the fucking cop who was almost living there. By convincing that idiot Kane he’d be better off letting the lawyers work it out, he’d slowed down one half of the operation while he kept trying to get around the complications.
Lucky he had this bolthole. No one knew he kipped here except the owner, a guy he met last year who was still away. The place was a pile of shit, hardly any furniture, bad plumbing, no electricity. But using this place got him out from under the supervision of the people who were keeping track of him. He needed to get away sometimes, so he didn’t get squirrely.
The whole thing was making him crazy. All he heard was how important patience and persistence were. Fuck that. He was running out of both. One last try to get in the house and he’d force the issue with phase two. He’d make her pay for the murder she’d gotten away with. And when they locked her up, he’d be able to find what he was looking for and leave town. This waiting was getting on his nerves.
Chapter Seven
“Where’ve you been?” Eubie Kane asked. He was standing outside the door of the now closed and darkened Bullseye Resource Center, shivering in the fall rain. Next to him was a hand truck piled with plastic tubs. “Why’d you keep me waiting so long?”