'It's time you did.' She adjusted the visor to a cockier angle. 'You very sensibly moved south and chose Fort Lauderdale because of its growth, but you don't take too many walks on the beach.'
'I thought we were going shopping.'
'It's the same thing.' She slipped her arm around his waist. 'You know, Nathan, as far as I can see, you don't have one T-shirt with a beer slogan, a rock concert or an obscene saying.'
'I've been deprived.'
'I know. That's why I'd like to help you out.'
'Jack.' He stopped, turning around to gently take her shoulders. 'Please don't.'
'You'll thank me later.'
'We'll compromise. I'll buy a tie.'
'Only if it has a naked mermaid on it.'
Jackie found exactly what she wanted bordering Las Olas Boulevard. There was a labyrinth of small cross streets bulging with shops selling everything from snorkels to sapphires. Telling him it was for his own good, Jackie dragged him into a small, crowded store with a doorway flanked by two garish red flamingos.
'They're becoming entirely too trendy,' she said to Nathan with a flick of her hand toward the slim-legged birds. 'It's a shame I'm so fond of them. Oh, look, just what I've always wanted. A music box with shells stuck all over it. What do you suppose it plays?'
Jackie wound up what Nathan considered one of the most hideous-looking things he'd ever seen. It played 'Moon River.'
'No.' Jackie shook her head over the melody. 'I can do without that.'
'Thank God.'
Chuckling, she replaced it and began to poke through rows of equally moronic whatnots. 'I understand, Nathan, that you have an eye for the aesthetic and harmonious, but there really is something to be said for the ugly and useless.'
'Yes, but I can't say it here. There are children present.'
'Now take this.'
'No,' he said as she held up a pelican made entirely of clamshells. 'Please, I can't thank you enough for the thought, but I couldn't.'
'Only for demonstration purposes. This has a certain charm.' She laughed as his brow rose. 'No, really. Think of this. Say a couple comes here on their honeymoon and they want something silly and very personal to remember the day by. They need something they can look at in ten years and bring back that very heady, very intimate time before insurance payments and wet diapers.' She flourished the bird.
'More imagination,' she said with a sigh. 'All you need is a little more imagination.' With what seemed like genuine regret, she set the pelican down. Just when he thought it was safe, Jackie dragged him over to a maze of T-shirts. She seemed very taken with one in teal with an alligator lounging in a hammock drinking a wine cooler. Passing it by, she dragged out one of a grinning shark in dark glasses.
'This,' she told him grandly, 'is you.'
'It is?'
'Absolutely. Not to say you're a predator, but sharks are notorious for being loners, and the sunglasses are a symbol of a need for privacy.'
He studied it, frowning and intrigued. 'You know, I've never known anyone to be philosophical about T- shirts.'
'Clothes make the man, Nathan.' Draping it over her arm, she continued to browse. When she loitered by a rack of ties screen-printed with fish, he put his foot down.
'No, Jack, not even for you.'
Sighing at his lack of vision, she settled for the shirt.
She hauled him through a dozen shops until pictures of neon palms, plastic mugs and garish straw hats blurred in his head. She bought with a blatant disregard for style or use. Then, suddenly inspired, she shipped off a huge papier-mache parrot to her father.
'My mother will make him take it off to one of his offices, but he'll love it. Daddy has a wonderful sense of the ridiculous.'
'Is that where you get it?'
'I suppose.' Hands on her hips, she turned in a circle to be certain she hadn't missed anything. 'Well, since I've done that, I'd better run by that little jewelry store and see if there's anything appropriate for my mother.' She pocketed the receipt, then relieved Nathan of two packages. 'How are you holding up?'
'I'm game if you are.'
'You're sweet.' She leaned over, between packages, to kiss him. 'Why don't I buy you an ice-cream cone?'
'Why don't you?'
She grinned at that, thinking he was certainly coming along. 'Right after I find something tasteful for my mother,' she promised, and she proved as good as her word.
Some fifteen minutes later, she chose an ebony pin crusted with pearls. It was a very mature, very elegant piece in faultless taste.
The purchase showed Nathan two things. First that she glanced only casually at the price, so casually that he was certain she would have bought it no matter what the amount. An impulse buyer she certainly was, but he sensed that once she'd decided an item was right, the dollar amount was unimportant. And second that the pin was both conventional and elegant, making it a far cry from the parrot she'd chosen for her father.
It made him wonder, as she loitered over some of the more colorful pieces in the shop, if her parents were as different as her vision of them.
He'd always believed, perhaps too strongly, that children inherited traits, good and bad. Yet here was Jackie, nothing like a woman who would wear a classically tasteful pin, and also nothing like a man who had spent his adult life wheeling and dealing in the business world.
Moments later, he had other things to worry about. They were out on the street again, and Jackie was making arrangements to rent a bicycle built for two.
'Jack, I don't think this is-'
'Why don't you put those packages in the basket, Nathan?' She patted his hand before paying for the rental.
'Listen, I haven't been on a bike since I was a teenager.'
'It'll come back to you.' The transaction complete, she turned to him and smiled. 'I'll take the front if you're worried.'
Perhaps she hadn't meant to bait him, but he didn't believe it. Nathan swung his leg over and settled on the front seat. 'Get on,' he told her. 'And remember, you asked for it.'
'I love a masterful man,' she cooed. Nathan found his lips twitching at the phony Southern accent as he set off.
She'd been right. It did come back to him. They pedaled smoothly, even sedately, across the street to ride along the seawall.
Jackie was glad he'd taken the lead. It gave her the opportunity to daydream and sightsee. Which, she thought with a smile, she would have done even if she'd been steering. This way, she didn't have to worry about running into a parked car or barreling down on pedestrians. Nathan could be trusted to steer true. It was only one more reason she loved him.
Matching her rhythm to his, she watched his shoulders. Strong and dependable. She found those both such lovely words. Strange… she'd never known she would find dependability so fiercely attractive until she'd found it. Found him.
Now he was relaxed, enjoying the sun and the day in it. She could give that to him. Not every day of the week, Jackie mused. He wouldn't always fall in with whatever last-minute plans she cooked up. But often enough, she thought, and wished there wasn't so much space between them so that she could wrap her arms around him
