*
Nick poured more coffee into Gus’s cup, and refilled his own. They sat in a dazed glow of grateful acceptance of their surroundings. Sitting in beach chairs, with Deke running from one end of the beach to another with abandon, all seemed right with the world. Gus tightened his foul weather jacket a bit with the February early morning sea breeze cutting into every crevice left open. He leaned back, eyes closed after sipping his coffee.
“Better?”
“I take it all back, brother,” Gus said. “This is heaven on earth compared to where we were. Deke is illustrating my feelings for me on this blessed moment.”
“And mine too.” Nick shook his head in wonder, watching Deke streak back and forth only pausing to smell something for a moment. “Want a little taste of something stronger in your coffee, Gus?”
Gus glanced over to see Nick holding a pint bottle of Bushmill’s Irish whiskey. He immediately quaffed half his coffee and held out the cup in his hand. “I love you, man!”
Nick had to pause while enjoying Gus’s quip. He completed the task in Gus’s cup as well as his own. “It’s five in the evening somewhere, right Gus?”
“Damn right!” Gus took a large sip with lip smacking acknowledgement. “Oh my God… you are so right about returning home. Although I’ll do it with you, I don’t ever want to go back to the Middle East… ever.”
Nick sipped in complete satisfaction with his surrounding scene. “This bliss is just beginning. We’re walking Danger to class this morning with Deke the dog. Then we get to come back and wake Rachel.”
Gus straightened. “Wait a minute. Rachel has the day off.”
“And your point?”
Gus gripped Nick’s shoulder. “I’m telling you right now to stop messing around with the damn practical jokes… I’m serious.”
“Okay… okay… I’ll lay off. I’m more in control now that I have a day-job.”
“A whenever job,” Gus corrected.
“Good point. I need to kill off that annoying sidekick Diego has. He’s reached his full potential as a character. How would you like him to die, Gus?”
Gus, who had been completely absorbed with the way Nick integrated a black, sea faring sidekick into his string of bestselling Diego/assassin novels blanched awkwardly at Nick’s hint. “If you kill off Jed, I’m done with you. He’s the only reason you’re still going strong with the series.”
The moment the words left his mouth, Gus started cussing. “Every cell in your body is rotten, Nick! Every cell!”
Nick was already laughing so hard Deke ran over to nudge his true master. Although Deke was Rachel and Jean’s dog, the canine had bonded to Nick. He obeyed Nick’s commands with nearly precognizant ability. Gus loved Deke, but suspicioned the dog was in on nearly every prank Nick pulled by choice rather than command. Nick hugged the dog, pointing at Gus.
“It seems our friend Gus has grown attached to a fictional character, Deke. I will endeavor to jiggle his angst involving an imaginary death over his head indefinitely.”
Deke grunted as if in communion with Nick, and then sped off again.
“Renting a car at San Jose Airport must have made your homecoming a real shocker yesterday. Sunday was a great day for me to get back. Tina came over for dinner.”
“I enjoyed a wonderful homecoming before the accusations started flying. Rachel indeed perceived every single one of the things you guessed she would. I had been hoping her waitressing job and pregnancy would have kept my Rachel busy, but no, she decided to create a chart nailing our adventures into a spot on time frame. If she wasn’t my wife, I’d have to kill her. Jean enjoyed the whole exchange, hanging onto me while I stammered out short answers to Rachel’s interrogation.”
Gus leaned back again. “It’s all good. She’ll get over it. I bet you made her happy to have you back last night.”
“Mission accomplished. Rachel has a rather short memory for pleasant happenings, and a hideously long one for the unpleasant. She lives by the feud too.”
“Maybe you should get her to quit waitressing over at the Monte Café. I never could figure out why she would want to work a job like that, especially after becoming pregnant.”
At the mention of their favorite breakfast hangout, Nick thought of the owner, Joe Montenegro. “She loves old Joe, and he treats her like his daughter. One of the reasons we are attracted to each other is Rachel doesn’t care much for sitting on a couch eating bon-bons. She’s like us. She needs to keep busy. Hell… I tried talking her into taking a leave of absence when she hit her second trimester. Rachel blew me off in a second, saying she needed to keep in shape anyway. I can’t fault her work ethic. My publishing contact has been trying to convince me I need a face to face soon in New York with all parties involved with my novels. I had hoped to do it while Rachel and Jean can still accompany me.”