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Chapters (69)
  1. Cover
  2. “[AN] EXCELLENT SERIES.”*
  3. Praise for Stuart Woods’s Stone Barrington Novels
  4. Praise for Stuart Woods’s Holly Barker Thrillers
  5. BOOKS BY STUART WOODS
  6. DARK HARBOR
  7. Copyright
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  69. AUTHOR’S NOTE

Stone went back into the house. He wasn’t about to mention this to Arrington.

30

THEY HAD AN ESPECIALLY good dinner that evening: Seth had found some lobsters, and his wife had steamed them perfectly. There were clams, too, and corn on the cob, dripping with butter, and two bottles of a Beringer reserve chardonnay from Dick’s cellar.

After dinner they moved into the study, where Arrington found a Scrabble board in a bookcase, and they played game after game until they were all sleepy. Arrington sent Peter to bed, and after a while, the adults drifted upstairs.

Stone and Arrington made wonderful love for nearly an hour, fueled by the good wine and good feeling from their evening, then they lay in each other’s arms, getting their breath back.

Stone stroked her hair and kissed her on the forehead. “You know,” he said, “we really ought to start thinking about making this a more permanent relationship.”

Arrington sat up in bed and tucked her legs under her. “I’ve thought about that a lot,” she said, “and it wouldn’t work.”

Stone said nothing, just waited for her to continue.

“First of all, I love you, Stone, and I always will, and I know you love me in the same way.”

“That’s perfectly true,” Stone said, “but somehow I don’t see that as an impediment to a relationship.”

“Think about our lives,” she said. “They’re completely incompatible.”

“I don’t see why.”

“Then I’ll explain it to you. Peter and I live in Virginia, and we both love it there. You wouldn’t last a month in Virginia. You need New York: You need Elaine’s and you need to earn a living, and New York is the only place you can do that. Sure, you could hang out a shingle in Virginia, but you’d hate the work, and although I’m certainly rich enough to support you in the style to which you’ve become accustomed, you’d never let me do that, and I’d have a lot less respect for you if you did.

“Peter is in a wonderful school that will take him right through high school, and when he’s ready for college he’ll be able to choose between the Ivy League and the University of Virginia, which is right down the road, in Charlottesville. I know you can raise children in New York, but I would never subject him to the things we’d have to do to keep him safe: limos to school, organized play groups, security guards. In Virginia he’ll be able to ride his horse every day, ride it to school in a couple of years. He has the fields and woods to roam and plenty of great, unspoiled kids his own age.”

“You don’t want to get married again, do you?” Stone asked.