Myra followed her friend to the door. “You might as well tell me right now what it is that has you in such a tizzy. You know I’ll find out sooner or later, and if it turns out to be later, then I just might get pissy. And we don’t want that, do we?”

“Fish is going to be calling me soon. I…uh…I called him and we had a very nice dialogue and we’re going to do it again.”

“Ahhh.”

“Never mind ahhh. Try ooh la la,” Annie called over her shoulder before she started to slog through the snow. It occurred to her when she was halfway to her building that she could have walked on the shoveled path instead of wading through the midthigh snow.

“Awawk,” she mumbled as she brought herself out of her daydreams.

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

It was barely light out when Charles set the last breakfast dish on the sideboard. The girls lined up and filled their plates. Out of the corner of their eyes, they watched Charles don his stout boots and fur-lined parka.

“I heard Charles’s cell chirp, so that must mean our guest is at the foot of the mountain. That means he has to send the cable car down manually. Around four o’clock I saw him going out with the oil can,” Kathryn whispered to Nikki.

“Why are you whispering?” Nikki asked.

Kathryn laughed. “I don’t know.” She loaded her plate with bacon and waffles.

“Do you think Mr. Tyson and Charles will confer before he springs him on us? It worries me that more and more people know our current address,” Isabelle grumbled. Today she was eating sparingly and thinking about how she would look in her old bikini should she find herself on a beach in the Cayman Islands. Maybe she should order a new one and get some sun so that she didn’t look like a snowbird when she hit the beach. She chided herself for such thinking, but she couldn’t help but smile.

“You might as well tell us,” Alexis said. “We’ve all been trying to figure out why you and Annie have been wearing these secret smiles. Share!”

Isabelle grinned, then looked at Annie, who nodded. She shared.

The girls clapped their hands in approval.

“Annie? It’s your turn,” Myra said.

Annie shared, her face flushed. “I talked a good game but…it’s been like forever since I…you know.” She was so flustered the girls forgot their breakfast as they jumped in with both feet to tease her. Annie’s face turned a deeper shade of pink at their risqué suggestions. The suggestions ran from the sublime to the ridiculous.

“It’s like riding a bike. It will come back to you.”

“Just look mysterious and blasé at the same time.”

“Be sure to use the word performance as often as you can.”