“Hey, don’t shoot the messenger.”
“Oh, that’s right,” Lucy said, glaring at him. “You’re not the problem, you’re the solution. You’re my one-stop shop for endorphins. Well, I’m ready. Give it to me.”
Sam blinked. “Give what to you?”
“Endorphins. If everyone wants me to be happy, I’m all for it. So give me a shot of your best, grade-A, mood-enhancing endorphins.”
He gave her a dubious glance. “Maybe we should have lunch first.”
“No,” Lucy said, fuming, “let’s get it over with. Where’s the bedroom?”
Sam looked torn between amusement and concern. “If it’s revenge sex you’re after, I’d be perfectly happy to help out. But first would you mind telling me exactly who you’re mad at?”
“Everyone. Including myself.”
“Well, sleeping with me is not going to solve anyone’s problems.” Sam paused. “Except maybe mine. But that’s beside the point.” Approaching her, he took her by the shoulders and gave her a little coaxing shake. “Deep breath. Come on. Let it out.”
Lucy obeyed. She took another breath, and another, until the red haze faded from before her eyes. Her shoulders slumped in defeat.
“Let’s go to lunch,” Sam said. “We’ll open a bottle of wine and talk. If you still want endorphins after that, I’ll see what I can do about it.”
Ten
They left the condo, crossed Front Street, and went to Downrigger’s, a popular seafood restaurant. On a warm summer day, there was no better place in Friday Harbor to have lunch than the outside deck facing Shaw Island. Sam ordered a bottle of white wine and an appetizer of Alaskan sea scallops wrapped in bacon, charbroiled, and served on corn relish. The melting sweetness of the scallops was perfectly balanced by the salty bacon and the smoky-sweet corn.
Sipping from a glass of chilled Chardonnay, soothed by Sam’s easy charm, Lucy felt herself begin to relax. She told Sam about Alice’s childhood meningitis and its aftereffects, about how off balance the family dynamic had been afterward.
“I was always jealous of Alice,” Lucy said. “But eventually I realized there was no reason for me to feel that way. Because she grew up expecting everything to be given to her, and that’s a terrible way to go through life. She never finishes anything she starts. I think my mom is beginning to regret having spoiled her so much, but it’s too late. Alice’s never going to change.”
“It’s never too late to change.”
“You wouldn’t say that if you’d met Alice. It goes down to the bone. I honestly can’t figure out what Kevin sees in her.”
Sam’s eyes were obscured by a pair of aviator sunglasses. “What did you see in Kevin?”
Lucy chewed slowly on her lower lip. “He was really thoughtful in the beginning,” she eventually said. “Affectionate. Dependable.”
“What about the sex?”
Lucy flushed and darted a glance at their surroundings to see if anyone had overheard. “What does that have to do with anything?”
Sam shrugged slightly. “Sex is the canary in the coal mine.” At Lucy’s blank look, he continued. “Miners used to bring a canary in a cage underground. If there was a carbon dioxide leak in the mine, the canary would drop dead first, and they would know to get out of there. So … how was it?”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Lucy said primly.
His smile was edged with friendly mockery. “Never mind. I already know the answer.”
Her eyes turned huge. “Kevin told you about our sex life?”
Sam squinted his eyes with the effort to remember. “Something about Crisco, jumper cables, a snorkel mask—”
“It was entirely normal,” Lucy whispered sharply, now crimson. “Plain old regular, boring, vanilla sex.”
“That was my second guess,” he said gravely.
She scowled. “If you’re going to make fun of me all during lunch—”
“I’m not making fun of you. I’m teasing you. There’s a difference.”
“I don’t like being teased.”
“Fair enough,” Sam said, his voice softening. “I won’t do it anymore.”
After the waitress came to take their entree orders, Lucy contemplated Sam with cautious interest. He was a bundle of contradictions … a reputed womanizer who seemed to have spent a lot more time working in his vineyard than chasing females … a man who maintained the pretense of being carefree while at the same sharing the responsibility of raising a child.