"I think so. My belly hurts and so do my thighs."
"Were you wearing a seatbelt?"
"They didn't make seat belts when my van was manufactured."
He nodded. “I imagine the steering column punched your stomach and your thighs hit the steering wheel as the van rolled over. You're a lucky lady, Miss..."
"Jodi. Jodi Swanson."
"Pretty name. I'm not so fortunate. Nathan Watson."
"Nate for short?"
He nodded. “Did you have anything valuable in there?"
Jodi shook her head sadly as sirens sounded in the distance. “Not much—just everything I own."
"Ouch! I have a cellular telephone in my car. Is there someone I can call?"
She shook her head.
"No one at all?"
"No one."
The fire diminished to smoldering black smoke as they watched.
"The middle finger on your right hand is the most beautiful I've ever seen."
"Sorry about that. I thought it was my butt that attracted you."
"Nope. Not your butt or your well-endowed chest. It's that pouty little mouth that is driving me wild."
Jodi began to laugh hysterically and cry at the same time. He wrapped his arm around her.
Her eyes widened. “My God, Nate. If you hadn't come along I would have..."
He silenced her with a gentle kiss on her forehead. “Don't think about it. I did come along."
She wrapped her arms around him.
"Is that envelope sticking out of your jeans what I hope it is?"
"It's my stash—my life's savings."
"Great!"
"I ... I owe you."
"Is everyone okay here,” the booming voice of the state trooper interrupted.
Nate stood and pulled Jodi to her feet. “Yes, sir,” he said. “This is Jody Swanson. She was the driver. She's bruised, sore and lost her van and its contents, but she's still one lucky young lady."
Time swirled relentlessly in Jodi's mind. How could she explain to the officer what happened. She didn't know. “No, there was no other vehicle involved,” she said. “No, I was not speeding.” “The only thing I've had to drink is coffee.” “No, I don't think a tire blew out."
She couldn't believe that the man driving the wrecker from the Jet station demanded four hundred dollars to dispose of the charred remains of her van and its now worthless contents.
"Where am I?” she wearily asked the patrolman as the investigation neared its completion.
Without cracking a smile, he replied, “In the middle of nowhere. The nearest town is forty miles away. I can take you, if you like."
"Where are you headed?"
She recognized Nate's voice and turned to face him. “Are you still here?"
He nodded. “I'm on my way to Myrtle Beach,” he said. “If that is in the general direction of your destination, I'll be happy to give you a lift."
She looked at Nate's serious face and turned to the officer. “Thank you for your kindness, sir. I'll go with Mr. Watson."
Jodi slipped into the passenger seat of Nate's Taurus, inhaled deeply the delightful new car aroma, snapped on the seat belt, leaned back and sighed as Nate started the engine. “I owe you, Nate,” she said with resignation in her voice. “Find a motel and let's get it over with."
He cocked his head to one side and looked at her incredulously.
"I have a few bucks on me, but I'm going to need that to survive—more now than ever,” Jodi explained. “My body is all I have to offer."
"You've got me figured wrong, Jodi."
"I don't think so. The bulge in the crotch of your pants gives you away."
"I appreciate beauty wherever I find it, Jodi, and you are the most beautiful women I've seen in a long, long time. I'm not going to apologize for ogling you back at the service station. I figure any woman who wears her pants skintight wants men to look at her. I'm not going to apologize for being aroused, either. It's a man thing—I can't help it—but I can control it. Now, before the accident, where were you headed?"
"Myrtle Beach."
"Are you kidding?"
She shook her head. “I was on my way to begin a fantastic new life in my favorite playground."
He pulled out onto the highway. “You have a super job waiting?"
She shook her head. “I'll find something as a clerk, a waitress or secretary."
"May not be easy to do. It's too early in the spring for businesses to be hiring seasonal help. You have living arrangements lined up?"
"I thought I'd stay in a hotel for a few days until I can find a room or an inexpensive furnished apartment."
He laughed. “No such thing as an inexpensive anything in Myrtle Beach."
"I'll make out."
"I'm looking for a live-in housekeeper,” he offered with a twinkle in his eye.
"In your dreams, Nate."
"Wow,” he said as a torrent of rain suddenly dumped onto the Taurus. He switched the wiper to high. “You certainly are lucky today. If the wreck occurred an hour later..."
"You wouldn't have been there to rescue me."
"I was going to say we'd have both gotten soaking wet."
Swish, swish. Swish, swish. Swish, swish.
"The wipers are driving me nuts,” Jodi complained.
He picked up the infrared control and turned on the CD player. For several minutes, they listened to Tuxedo Junction.
"You're a Glen Miller fan?” she asked.
"I like all big band music. You?"
She nodded. Miller and Tommy Dorsy are my favorites. Oh, Harry James, too."
He chuckled.
"Did I say something amusing?"
"I was just thinking of an incident from high school days. I played the saxophone and was a member of a dance band called the Melody Men. We used a standing gag in our performances."
"Am I supposed to guess what it was?"
He laughed again. “You had to be there. After a solo bit and while the drummer was still doing his thing, our trumpet player would shout, ‘What's Harry James got that I don't have?’ In unison the rest of us would reply, ‘Betty Grable!’”
"I must be missing something."
He smiled. “You like the music but don't know much about the musicians, do you? Betty Grable was a gorgeous movie star and Harry James’ wife."
"Oh."
"Jodi, I was being facetious when I said I am looking for a live-in housekeeper, but I do need a housekeeper and I have a guest bedroom that has never been used."
"You can't afford me."
"You might be surprised."
"You trying to tell me you're rich?"
He leaned forward. “I don't think I've ever seen rain this hard. I can hardly see."
"Maybe we should pull over until it lets up. I don't want to be in two wrecks today."
"I'm following the lights on that tractor trailer rig. We'll be okay."
"Do you live at the beach, Nate?"
"Six months out of the year. Actually, I have a home in Murrell's Inlet. I spend the other six months in a little town in North Carolina."
"You have two homes?"
He nodded.
"Maybe you are rich. You push drugs or something?"
He glanced at her to make sure she was joking. “I'm a computer nerd. I used to do a lot of programming. Now I write technical manuals for other peoples’ programs—games mostly. Since I freelance, it doesn't matter much where I live."
"It must pay well."
"It's pays fairly well. It keeps me busy but most of my income is from investments. Back in the early days of my career, I wrote a sophisticated program still used in banks across the country. I sold out to a larger company and invested the proceeds well."
"This sophisticated program you wrote—did it have the Y2K problem?"
Nate grinned. “I'm impressed that you know the term. Yes, as a matter of fact it did, but fortunately only in one line of code. All other date references reverted back to that one li
ne. The fix was easy. How did you know about the Y2K problem?"
"Being a woman doesn't mean I'm stupid, Mr. Watson. I read the newspapers."
They lapsed into silence and, as Moonlight Serenade played on the stereo, Jodi fell asleep.
Two hours later, Nate parked opposite a line of oceanfront hotels, stretched for his briefcase in the back seat, wrote a check and stuffed it, along with all the ready cash he had, into an envelope and gently shook her shoulder. “Wake up, sleepyhead."
Jodi's eyes popped open. “Where are we?"
"Myrtle Beach."
She snapped open the seatbelt, leaned forward and surveyed the surroundings. “It stopped raining."
"Yeah,” he replied, tossing his brief case in the back seat.
"You think that's the best I can do?"
Following the focus of her eyes, he read the vacancy sign at which she was staring in disbelief.
"Afraid so. Twenty-five bucks a night is not so bad. The price will skyrocket in another month. Uh, Jodi, I want you to have this,” he said, offering her a number ten white envelope.
She looked at him curiously before examining the contents. She counted ten hundred-dollar bills. The amount on the check was ten thousand dollars. “I ... I can't accept this,” she said softly.
"I want you to have it. There are no strings attached."
She searched his eyes. “I have money."
"My guess is that you don't have much and besides, you must now replace your vehicle and clothes."
"Why?"
"Because they were consumed by the fire."
She smiled. “I mean why are you offering me this gift?"
His grin vanished. “Because we'll never see each other again and when I think of you, I want to believe I did all I could to assist you. I want to visualize you driving a brand new convertible, your beautiful blond hair blowing in the breeze and your body clothed in the latest fashions."
Her heart melted. She knew it. She felt it. She couldn't help it. All of her resolves to avoid men forever disappeared in a heartbeat.
"I could go for the convertible,” she joked, “but Wal-Mart fashions suit me best."
He smiled warmly. “Whatever."
"Nate, why do you think we'll never see each other again?"
"The Grand Strand is a big place. It's highly unlikely."
"I thought you offered me a job as your live-in housekeeper,” she said as she folded and stuffed the envelope into her hip pocket.
"You mean it?” he asked, his eyes dancing.
"Simmer down, Big Man. I didn't volunteer to become your mistress, Nate, but I'm pretty good at housekeeping and a fair cook too, as long as you don't have your heart set on fancy dishes."
He grinned. “I can't stand the sight of anything that looks like it's been previously eaten."
Jodi giggled. “I promise I won't prepare any casseroles."
"How about bacon and eggs?"
"My specialty."
"Jodi, are you sure you want to do this?"
"It'll do until something better comes along."
He reached for the ignition key and smiled. “Whatever."
Chapter Two
They sat in the Taurus for several minutes, giving Jodi an opportunity to survey the scene. At the end of the driveway was a two car, brick garage. To the right, a smooth stone path led to the front of the one story brick house that overlooked a narrow inlet.
Jodi felt her body tingling with excitement. The panorama seemed straight out of her fondest dreams. She burst from the car and raced down the path to the edge of the cliff, overlooking the gentle blue-green waves washing up on a wide sandy beach. She breathed in the salt air as she scanned to the left. Huge boulders replaced the sand, but it appeared there was a path all the way to the other side of the inlet.
She felt Nate's hands on her shoulders and leaned into him as she turned her gaze to the east. A fishing pier reached from the shore to the middle of the inlet and just beyond the pier was an ugly, tall, barbwire fence extending fifty feet into the water. She lifted her eyes to the Atlantic Ocean and watched a fishing boat slowly moving on the horizon.
"It's beautiful, isn't it?” he asked.
"Yes,” she replied dreamily. “Why mar the beauty with that horrid fence?"
"Beyond the fence is an area perhaps two hundred yards long filled with pine trees, briars and brambles, but people from the campground manage to make their way through it onto my property. The fence turns them back."
"There's a campground on the ocean front?"
He nodded against her cheek.
"Seems selfish to keep this exquisite beach all to yourself."
"It is,” he admitted,” but it's also prudent. I put the fence up at the end of the first summer I lived here. Many campers managed to push through the brambles and both littered my beach and damaged the pier. If someone should be injured on my property, they could sue my pants off."
Jodi nodded. “The paved path from the top of the cliff to the beach is terribly steep. Wouldn't steps with handrails give safer access?"
"Everybody's a critic,” he laughed. “I wanted the path, rather than steps, because I frequently use my golf cart when I go to the pier to fish."
"Lazybones,” she joked. “I love to fish, but I'm scared to death of boats. Surf fishing and pier fishing is more my style."
"Great! I now have a fishing buddy. I have plenty of gear in the pier house and a bathroom too."
"What do you use for bait?"
There's a little refrigerator with a freezer compartment in the pier house. I keep Pepsi-Colas in the refrigerator part and frozen shrimp and squid in the freezer for bait."
"Is the fishing any good in the inlet?"
"Most of the time."
"Have you tried artificial lures?"
Nate chuckled. “I must have a couple hundred of the things, but as far as I know, I've never even had a nibble on one of them."
Jodi rested her head on his chest and looked up into his sparkling green eyes. “You must have a heavy fish diet."
"I usually throw them back. I hate to cook and I despise gutting and scaling the suckers."
"I like to keep the big guys,” she said. “I don't mind filleting them and I love to cook.” She turned and clapped her hands when saw the front porch of the house.
"I spend a lot of time on the porch, Jodi,” he said, linking his arm in hers and moving her up the path. “There's usually a nice breeze and when the air is calm, I have built-in overhead fans to compensate."
They climbed the steps and Jodi admired the porch furniture as Nate opened the front door. “That's the strangest looking chaise lounge I've ever seen,” she said.
"You've heard of bicycles built for two? That's a chaise lounge built for two."
Jodi wondered how many other women had observed the strange piece of furniture and wound up lying naked on it with Nate between their legs. She involuntarily shuddered as she followed him inside. She wrinkled her nose as she entered the great room. “This place is a pigsty."
He chuckled. “I told you I need a housekeeper."
"You must be a television fan. Every chair and the two sofas are arranged to face the big screen."
He picked up a control from the coffee table, aimed it and pushed the on button. Soft strains of Moonlight Serenade filled the room. “I have a nice stereo system, too."
She climbed the three steps to the elevated kitchen and opened cabinet doors. “You're going to have to spend a few bucks on pots and pans if you expect me to cook for you."
He smiled up at her through the oblong opening in the wall. “Yes, ma'am."
Jodi cracked open the door to the utility room and snickered. “Except for the dust and cobwebs, you keep this area looking decent."
He grinned and said sheepishly, “That's ‘cause I never use this room."
"You don't wash your clothes?"
He shook his head. “When I put on my last clean pair of underwear, I bundle up all the dirty clothes an
d take them to the laundry."
"Does the washer and dryer work?"
"I have no idea. Come on, let me show you the rest of the house."
Jodie admired the spacious, sparsely furnished, first room on the left of the hallway and knew before he told her that it was his study. Next, there was a half bath with entrances from both the hallway and the study. An unfurnished room and the guest bedroom completed the rooms to the left of the hallway. Across from the study was a library crammed with books followed by what looked like an exercise room and finally the master bedroom. A full bath connected to the guest bedroom and the bath connected to the master bedroom was huge.
"You could live in here,” Jodi joked as she admired the WhirlPool while rubbing her right shoulder.
"Shoulder hurt?"
"A little. I think I banged it against something when the van turned over."
"How about your stomach and thighs?"
She nodded and lifted her jersey, revealing a large, round, pink area with a bellybutton bull's eye.
"I think you should see a doctor."
"I'm a little sore in spots, but I'll survive,” she said with her voice while her eyes thanked Nate for caring.
"An hour in the Whirl Pool will make a new woman of you."
"What's wrong with the old Jodi?” she kidded. “I am tempted,” she continued, looking at the large porcelain facility, “but I have no clean clothes to put on."
"There's a Kmart back at the main highway. While you're soaking, I'll run up there and buy something for you to wear tonight. Then we'll do some real shopping after supper."
"You'll never find anything that will fit."
He winked. “Trust me.” He turned to leave.
"At least let me give you my sizes."
"I'll wing it."
She shrugged her shoulders, watched him leave and searched his closet for a robe, settling for a long sleeved blue dress shirt. She stripped in the utility room and dumped her clothes in the washer. Detergent in the box of Tide she found on the shelf was congealed but rubbing a lump between her hands restored it to powder. She turned on the washer and smiled when she heard water running.
* * * *
Nate wandered through the cavernous store until he spotted a female customer about Jodi's size. “Excuse me, ma'am. I need some help."
Sintown Chronicles III: In Dark Corners Page 31