The drizzle became a steady downpour. Jennifer and I were soaked, but we laughed at our absurd situation.
With a devious grin on her face, Jennifer shouted over the motors and rain, “Can you hurry it up, Bryce? I have a deadline tonight.”
I joked back. “Don’t worry. We won’t keep your editors waiting.”
Flashes of lightning illuminated the sky around us. I kept the red buoy lights on the starboard side of the boat to avoid the shallows and oyster beds. Choppy waves intensified as we approached the mouth of Bridgeford Harbor. With the worst of the storm upon us, Jennifer hung the dock bumpers over the side of the speedboat as I pulled into Slip 27.
I said, “You get to safety. I’ll tie up.”
“Let me help.”
“No, I got this.”
Bolts of lightning flared down from the dark clouds. Angry thunder crashed around us from every direction. Rain poured in sheets as Jennifer leapt to the wooden pier and headed toward the parking lot, crouching down as she ran. I grabbed ropes and quickly secured the boat to the posts. By the time I was done, Jennifer was nowhere in sight. I guessed that she had left.
I sprinted to the end of the pier and dug through my pockets for my car keys. I had to get out of the storm before the lightning turned me into a charcoal briquette. My Barracuda was parked somewhere nearby, but before I reached the blacktop, Jennifer shouted out my name over the wind gusts. She waved to me from the bait shop where she waited under an awning.
Wiping the rain off my face, I had to grin. She was just as drenched as I was. Jennifer looked devastatingly beautiful, even with her hair wet and her face glistening with raindrops.
“You survived,” she said.
“For now. We still have to make it across the parking lot to our cars.”
“Let’s wait it out a few minutes and see what happens.”
“Okay, sure,” I said, even though there was little chance of a break in the weather for a while. “Hey, I hope you had fun today, all things considered.”
“It was a great time, Bryce. I enjoyed it, even if the end was nerve wracking.”
“Look at the bright side. At least I got my client’s boat back in one piece.”
She held her hand up to her ear like she was making a phone call. “Hello, Mr. Client, I wanted to thank you for letting me borrow your boat today. The good news is that we had fun. The bad news is that your boat’s somewhere on the bottom of the Chesapeake Bay. Sorry about that. Thanks again and bye.”
I snorted a laugh.
She smiled warmly. “Maybe we can do this again, Bryce. This is the first date where I’ve gotten completely soaking wet, though.”
“Well, I’ve got plenty of dry towels back at my place.”
“Sounds nice,” Jennifer replied, her blue-green eyes eager and widening at the suggestion. “But, well … I was only half-kidding about that deadline. I have to submit an article this evening, and it’s only a draft. Plus my cameraman and I have to get to Washington. Conference with an editor.”
“You’re not heading to D.C. now?”
“Yeah, sorry. Journalist’s hours, twenty-four/seven. We plan the week every Sunday evening. Can’t miss it.”
“Was your cameraman with you at Gertrude’s Crab House yesterday?”
“Yeah. Yulian came in, but didn’t stay,” she said.
“So I can’t convince you to stick around a while?”
“I’ll take a rain check.” She grinned, pointing at the water draining off the awning. “We can get together again soon.”
“All right. When?” I asked.
“Tomorrow? The day after that? I’ll know my schedule better after Yulian and I plan our week.”
“Sounds good, but I’ll have my head in this case through Wednesday. How about right after my hearing? Dinner, maybe somewhere drier this time?”
“Sure, though I was thinking sooner,” Jennifer said softly with a demure smile. “How about lunch on Wednesday? You lawyers take breaks during trials, don’t you?”
“Well, when I’m in court …”
“I know, I know,” she said. “You’ll be busy, but it would be fun to watch you try a case.”
“Not sure that’s a good idea, Jennifer. Besides, people think litigation is exciting, but it’s mostly a lot of waiting around.”
“Oh, come on. I have to see you in court. That’ll be so cool. Don’t worry. I won’t bug your client, I promise. The case is fascinating. If you change your mind about Marisa Dupree …”
I lowered my chin and squinted at her.
“Okay, okay,” she replied, both hands in the air as if she were surrendering. “I meant what I said. No interviews. Anyway, you brought up the Benton Dynamics lawsuit again. I really could help your client, especially since she’s in trouble. Perhaps you’ll have a change of heart later.”
“Maybe. We’ll see.” I studied the elegant lines of her face. I hated being a sucker for a beautiful woman, and somehow I had not convinced her to drop this. Here I was planning a second date with a woman who might only want to develop a news story. I would have been done with just about anyone else, but her stunning looks mesmerized me. “Not yet, okay?”
“Fair enough,” she replied.
“I suppose we could have lunch.”
“I’ll bring your favorite food,” she said with a glint in her eye.
“What’s that?”
Jennifer giggled. “Pretzels, of course.”
“That really made an impression on you, huh?” I asked.
“A bag of pretzels on our first date was kind of, well … interesting. Cute, I guess, in a weird way.”
“You’re not going to let up on me, huh?”
“No, Bryce. Not for a long time.”
Jennifer placed her hands on my shoulders. I placed my hands on the soft curves of her hips. Our lips met gently at first, and then her warm arms pulled me
