white.”
“ I don’t like white wine.”
“ Neither do I, but I had to buy some, just in case.”
“ Sorry.”
“ Cabernet or Bordeaux?” she said.
“ What kind of Cab?”
“ I’ve got two bottles of a Heitz ’68, Martha’s Vineyard.”
“ You’re kidding?”
“ No, I’m sort of a pseudo wine asshole.”
He laughed.
“ I’ll get the wine,” she said.
“ No, not the Heitz. It’s too expensive.”
“ It’s okay. I can’t think of a better way to drink it.”
“ Then at least let me pay for the wine. I know what it costs.”
“ Tell you what, next time you treat, but I invited you tonight. You’re in my home.”
“ Okay, you’re on.”
“ We should let it breathe for a bit.” She set the bottle on the table. He pulled a chair out for her and she sat down with a, “Thank you, sir.”
“ My pleasure.” He sat down.
“ I’m sorry, I meant for this to be a candlelight dinner.” She started to get up.
“ No, stay, I’ll get the lights.” He got up and turned them off.
“ You want to cut the turkey or should I?” she said.
“ I’ll do it. Two slices or three?”
“ Two.”
He looked at the electric knife, ignored it and picked up a silver carving knife. “Nice cutlery. Your Grandmother’s?”
“ She was born in Kenya and had a passion for elephants.” The sterling silver cutlery all had handles shaped like an elephant’s head.
He carved her two slices of white meat and three for himself. Then he spooned some stuffing out of the bird for her and some for himself. Then he doled out the potatoes, both sweet and mashed.
“ Oh, no,” she said, “I forgot the gravy. It’ll just take a second.”
“ That’s okay. I prefer butter anyway.”
“ Sure?”
“ Absolutely,” he said.
“ Tell me how you became a thief,” she said.
He smiled.
“ Tell me,” she said again.
“ When I was growing up, we didn’t have anything. My mother died giving birth to me, and my dad was a drunk. How my old man held on to the farm as long as he did, I don’t know. He was a poor drunk farmer, but I loved him, and I had to steal from him, because if I didn’t, I would have starved. So I stole a little money out of his wallet at first, but he never had enough to feed us, so I started stealing from the neighbors, nothing big.”
She gasped, meeting his beautiful stare as he continued his story.
“ I’d break in to their houses, sometimes while they were inside, asleep, and steal a few bucks out of their wallets, never all of it. That way they’d wonder, did I lose that twenty? Did I spend it? Then I taught myself how to pick pockets. Got quite good, too. I’d steal a wallet in town on a Saturday night, take out twenty and then put it back.”
“ You never got caught?”
“ Never.”
“ What happened to your father?”
“ In his whole life, my father did one very brave thing. He charged a machine gun nest on D Day and saved several lives. He got the Congressional Medal of Honor. He died just before my eighteenth birthday and is buried in Arlington. I joined the Army.”
“ And after you got out of the Army?”
“ Stealing never bothered me. It was something I was naturally good at. I can break into anything and get out without anyone ever knowing I was there. Oh, I tried to live like everyone else. I was a cop in Atlanta for a while. But it was no good. I was on the take right away, so I figured I better quit before I got caught. Too many people to deal with. Only a matter of time before someone turns you in. As a burglar, I’m my own boss. I steal just enough. I don’t need to get rich and mostly folks don’t even know they’ve been robbed.”
“ And Carolina?”
“ I met her mother right after I got out of the service. It wasn’t a happy marriage. We’ve been divorced for almost three years. It hasn’t been easy for me since the divorce. Carolina and I were close. It was special. I miss her, but I guess I didn’t earn the right to be a father.”
“ Everybody deserves a second chance.”
“ I hope you’re right,” he said as she poured the wine.
They ate in silence, enjoying the wine and each other’s company. She wondered if he was going to stay the night. She wanted him to, but she was afraid he wouldn’t make a move, and she didn’t know how. She would have to do something, give him a hint. But what if he turned her down. She hoped he wouldn’t.
“ Do you want some more wine?” He reached for the second bottle.
“ Yes.” She offered her glass and watching his eyes while he poured it. He wasn’t giving anything away. Maybe he didn’t want her, but he didn’t seem to be in a hurry to leave. Maybe it was because of Miles. They’d managed to get through the whole meal without bringing him up, but she felt his presence. John Coffee apparently didn’t. He was easy and confident and seemed to accept things as they came along.
She decided to take a chance.
“ Excuse me for a second while I go and powder my nose.” She got up from the table.
She studied herself in the bathroom mirror and ran a quick brush through her hair. “Now what do I do?” she asked her reflection. She wanted him to stay the night, more than she’d ever wanted anything in her life, and in an hour, or maybe less, he was going to get up and leave, if she didn’t do something.
Could she simply come out and ask him? She’d never done anything like that before. She didn’t even know how to leave subtle hints. She’d never been the kind of woman that could invite a man over, bat her eyelashes and get her way. It took months before she wound up in bed with Miles, and then they were married two days later. Before that she hadn’t been with a man in over five years.
Maybe if I put on something a little more seductive than this old dress, she thought, pulling the dress over her head. She walked into the bedroom and tossed the dress on the bed. She studied herself in the full length mirror on the closet door, before opening it. I look pretty seductive right now, she thought as she pulled out a low cut summer dress.
She tossed it on the bed, on top of the other dress. How obvious could she be, changing clothes. I might as well go out there like this, she thought, closing the door, and again looking at herself in the mirror, clad only in a bra and half slip. Better to wear nothing at all, she thought stepping out of the half slip, her mind made up.
The bra followed the slip onto the pile on the bed, then she kicked off her shoes and stepped out of the panties and studied her nude body. She liked what she saw, and she hoped he’d like it, too. She winked at herself and ran her fingers through her hair.
“ Now or never,” she told herself. She went back out into the living room. “John,” she said, smiling as he turned toward her, “are you sure you wouldn’t like a little dessert?”
Then she screamed, instinctively covering her breasts, as the living room window imploded with the sounds of shattering glass, mixed with the snarls of a wolf gone mad.
John Coffee was out of his chair, before the wolf’s paws touched ground, with one of her grandmother’s elephant handled knives his hand. He dove at the wolf, catching it halfway between the bay window and Sarah. He hit it with his shoulder as it leapt onto the couch, throwing his arms around its midsection and plunging the knife into its belly.
