Chapter 55

STONE AND DINO WERE HAVING DINNER ALONE TOGETHER on the yacht. The crew had been given the night off, and Callie, after preparing dinner for them, had gone to work in her new office in the main house. Stone had seen little of her since Thad and Liz had decided to get married on short notice; there didn’t seem to be enough hours in the day for her to get her work done.

“Gee, it’s kind of nice here, just you and me,” Dino said. “We never get to have dinner alone anymore.”

“Oh, shut up,” Stone said. “You’re worse than a wife.”

“That’s something only a bachelor could say,” Dino replied.

“You know, Dino, I’ve been thinking about marriage.”

“Oh, no,” Dino groaned. “Not again.”

“What kind of crack is that?”

“Stone, every time you start thinking about marriage, you get into terrible trouble.”

“Nonsense,” Stone snorted.

“Stone, when you were thinking about marrying Arrington, look what happened: She married somebody else, and you got involved with this flake Allison—excuse me, Liz. And look at all the trouble that came out of that.”

“Well, that time, yes.”

“Then there was the English girl—what was her name?”

“Sarah.”

“You sure?”

“I’m sure.”

“That didn’t go so good, either, right?”

“Not so good.”

“And then you actually married Dolce—well, sort of, and against all the advice I could muster. And now she’s out there stalking you with a gun, and frankly, I wouldn’t give you good odds on making it back to New York without taking along some excess baggage in the form of lead in your liver. Now, I ask you, what happens when you start thinking about marriage?”

“All right, I get into trouble,” Stone said gloomily.

“Stone, you’re my friend, and I love you, and that’s why I can say this to you: You’re not cut out to be married. Never in my life have I known anybody who was less cut out to be married. Marriage is very, very hard, and believe me, you’re not tough enough to handle it.”

“Callie is an awfully nice girl,” Stone said mistily.

“I’ll grant you that.”

“I think it would be nice to be married to her.”

“I’ll even grant you that, up to a point. As far as I can see, the only thing wrong with Callie is that you’re thinking about marrying her.”

“What, you think I’m the kiss of death, or something?”

“I didn’t say that, you did.”

“The sex is wonderful.”