He hesitated, then said, “As pretty as you are, watching you on CNN made me expect an unimaginative provincial.”

“Oh, Chino, my feet were killing me.”

“Then you’re a wonderful actress, Amy.”

Anything she could add would only reinforce that idea at exactly the wrong time. Event a comment about having lived with bird dogs all her life until she had left home to go away to college would be too much. Better to have him think she was reveling in his flattery. She stayed silent as she reached the bottom of the stairs and turned the corner.

The yard was not quite as she had pictured it, mostly surrounded by bright tropical flowers. An oval swimming pool, steam rising from it, was bathed gently by lights mounted high on the house. At the back of the yard she could see what looked like a leftover from the construction period of the house, a pile of gravel and debris almost as high as the wall, and next to it, almost hidden, higher, bright white, a curve of metal that looked like it belonged on an aircraft carrier superstructure. No. Because it was white, it looked like it belonged on a Coast Guard cutter.

Amy unbuttoned her shirt and tossed it back to Chino, thinking, Dat old debbil, déjà vu. “You owe me.” Adjusting the bottom of her bathing suit, letting him absorb every move, she stepped on the edge, drew her breath, and dove as she had done this afternoon. Just as she hit the cool water she heard the ringing of a telephone. At the other end of the pool as she made her turn she stole a glance at Chino.

He was chatting away, grinning. Why he’d said, “We’ll see,” when she’d asked if she’d have to listen to the telephone. She remembered to keep her pace up. Sam would say he could see the smoke coming out of her ears, she was grinding her brain gears so hard. She was not going to let Chino see disappointment if what she was thinking was wrong. He was near the edge of the pool as she finished the lap, and he hunkered down to hand her first a towel to dry her hands, and then the telephone.

“It’s for you.”

She put her hand over the microphone. “It must be my gynecologist,” she said, to keep Chino’s nose to that particular grindstone. “I’m waiting for the results of some tests. Hello?”

Merrill thought his heart was going to jump out of his chest. “Amy? Are you all right?”

“Fine. It’s just like being at Mildred Tanner’s”

Mildred Tanner from high school. Amy had never gotten along with Mildred Tanner. “She makes my skin crawl,” was the way Amy had put it. He said, “Is that really Chino I just spoke to? He said you’re swimming.”

“A moonlight dip. Feels wonderful. As I told him, he owed me.”