“I want that too,” I said.
“Good, because I’ve started looking for a house for us – an accessible house where I can trail around after you to my heart’s content.”
“You want us to move in together?”
“I want us to get married.”
“We’ve only known each other three months.”
His eyes were searching. “You’re not sure about us.”
I met his gaze. “I’m sure,” I said. “I’m just not ready.”
“Fair enough,” he said. “So I’ll keep looking for a house and when you’re ready, we’ll get married and move in.”
“You make it sound so simple.”
“Life is simple. You decide what you want and you go for it.”
“Right now, I want to eat.”
He chuckled. “Go for it.”
I made coffee and porridge, and we took our breakfast into the sunroom so we could watch morning come to the lake. Peter and Greg were down at the dock putting fishing gear into the boat, shrugging on their life jackets.
“Charlie isn’t going fishing?” Zack asked.
“No, and it’s probably just as well. He sets Greg’s teeth on edge.”
“Bad chemistry?” Zack said.
“Bad chemistry exacerbated by bad timing,” I said. “Mieka’s going through a rough patch in her life.”
“I wondered about that. There were times this summer when she had that five-mile stare. So what’s the problem?”
“Do you remember that Peggy Lee song ‘Is That All There Is?’ ”
“Sure.” Zack sang a few bars in the boozy bass of a lounge singer.
I shook my head. “Is there no end to your talents?”
“Give me fifty years and I’ll show you.”
“In fifty years, I’ll be a hundred and six.”
“And I’ll still be crazy about you. But we were talking about Mieka.”
“Right,” I said. “Lately I’ve had the sense she feels the walls are closing in on her. She and Greg have been married since she was twenty-one, and she’s been running her business since she was nineteen. Catering’s not easy – the hours are unpredictable and customers can be fractious. Mieka loves the girls, but according to Greg the business is really taking off, and the company needs to expand. It would be a major commitment for them, and I think Mieka’s wondering if it’s a commitment she wants to make.”
“And while Mieka’s wondering, along comes Charlie.” Zack sprinkled brown sugar on his porridge. “Is it a romance?”
“I don’t think so, but in a way that would be easier to handle. Mieka’s relationship with Charlie goes deeper than sex. When they were kids, she and Pete and Charlie did that blood kin thing – you know, where each kid cuts his finger and they let their blood flow together. I’m sure most children forget all about it, but with those three it seemed to take. They share a history, and last night Charlie was using that history to shut Greg out.”
“Do you want me to see if I can get Charlie to open up?” Zack asked.
“How well do you know him, anyway?”
Zack averted his eyes. “Well enough.”
“It would be good to know how Charlie sees the situation,” I said. “But don’t use your brass knuckles. I have a soft spot for Charlie. You should too. Last night he told me about the interview he did with Glenda just after Sam Parker was arrested.”
“We have a tape of it at the office,” Zack said. “It got Sam a lot of good press at the beginning. Very helpful.”
“That’s because before the take aired, Charlie did a little editing.”
Zack’s spoon stopped in mid-air. “He never mentioned that. What did he take out?”
“According to Charlie, at the end of the interview, Glenda said, ‘I would have killed for him too.’ ”
Zack winced. “Jesus. People are full of surprises, aren’t they? That line of Glenda’s would have made Charlie’s show front-page news.”
“Maybe Charlie knows there’s more to life than ratings,” I said.
“You think he identifies with Glenda?”
“I know he does,” I said. “They’d both had painful childhoods. They were both in the process of making lives for themselves, and they were both betrayed and publicly humiliated.”
Zack sipped his coffee meditatively. “Still, the decision to edit that line could have gone either way. Thank God, Charlie did the right thing.”
