I made a few phone calls, and one thing led to another. At some point, I must have just bagged out.”
“Sounds like quite a night.”
“Less than ideal,” he said. “Oh, and some people from the office are coming out here for a skull session this morning.”
“So I should make myself scarce.”
He took my hand. “Not at all. I was hoping to get work out of the way so you and I could have some time alone this afternoon.”
“I’m for that,” I said. Willie had been patient, but as Zack and I continued to talk, he gave us a baleful look and trotted to the door. “Willie and I better go out,” I said. “You and I can figure out our day when I get back.”
He kissed my fingers. “I’ll make the porridge.”
“Okay,” I said. “The directions are on the bag, but use milk instead of water. And put in the seeds and berries at the last moment. Got it?”
“Got it. I remember everything that’s important.”
I pivoted. “What colour are my eyes?”
“Same colour as mine – green. And your hair is dark blond and very shiny and your breasts fit perfectly in my hands and your second toe is longer than your big toe.”
“That’s supposed to mean I dominate the men in my life.”
Zack closed his eyes and sighed deeply. “Ah, domination. I’ll sign up for that.”
“Name your time and place,” I said.
He raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t that the job of the dominatrix?”
We took our breakfast into the sunroom, so we could eat looking out at the water. The temperature had dipped during the night and when daybreak arrived, the light was weak and the sky was threatening. It was going to be a grey day.
Zack stirred cream into his porridge and peered out the window. “One good thing about weather like this – it makes it easier to leave the lake.”
“Not for me,” I said. “I love it here.”
“It’s a forty-five-minute drive to the city. If you want to, we can live here year-round.”
I shook my head. “Wrong time for Taylor,” I said. “Her school, her friends, and her activities are in the city. Which reminds me about the boy with the pentangle.”
Zack frowned. “The knight in shining armour. I’d forgotten about him.”
“If you’d met him, you’d remember. Incidentally, he does want to meet you.”
“Okay with me,” Zack said.
“I’ll be interested in your take on Ethan,” I said. “Over the years, a lot of kids have wandered through our house, but Ethan’s a standout.”
“Is that good or bad?”
“I don’t know. He’s nice-looking. He’s very intense, and he draws his own comic books.”
“Good money in that,” Zack said. “Comic books are the reading material of choice for 80 per cent of my clients.”
“I don’t think they’d go for Ethan’s comics. They’re pretty heavily into moral choice: honour versus lust, self- preservation versus cowardice, integrity versus exigency.”
Zack furrowed his brow. “And this kid is thirteen?”
“Taylor says he reads a lot.”
“That’s a point in his favour. Actually, it sounds like there are lots of points in his favour. Taylor’s smart. She’ll work it out.” He snapped open his notebook computer. “Now if you want to worry about something, check the on- line real estate listings. God, there are a lot of ugly houses in Regina.”
“Want me to call an agent?”
Zack shook his head. “No. I said I was going to find us the perfect house and I will.”
I laughed. “Everything’s a quest with you.”
“Nothing wrong with keeping your eye on the prize.” He yawned. “Unfortunately, this morning, I seem to be having trouble keeping my eyes open.”
“What was on Charlie’s mind?” I asked.
“Same thing that’s on all our minds. The trial. Charlie wants to make sure that justice is done.”
“Did he have any concrete suggestions about how to bring that about?”
“Actually, he did. He read over my opening statement and suggested another approach.”
I was surprised. “You let him read your opening statement?”
Zack shrugged. “It’s not Holy Writ, Jo. It’s just a place where we tell our story and lay out our argument. After I saw Kathryn Morrissey on TV, I had second thoughts about how effectively I was telling our story, and according to Charlie, I was right to be concerned.”
