"We'll see. For now, just feed me."
They caught a taxi on Bush Street, just outside the museum, and headed for North Beach.
Annabel loved the neighborhood, nestled as it was in the irregular triangle between Telegraph Hill to the east and Russian Hill and Nob Hill to the west and southwest. She had moved into a little apartment in an old building just off Columbus Avenue when she went to work for the SFFD, and when she moved to the Forest Service and was assigned to the smoke jumpers' base up in Redding, she saw no reason to give up the place. True, the Service flew her and her fellow smoke-jumpers all over the western half of the United States to fight forest fires, but in between jobs and training exercises, she could live wherever she wanted. Earl, her best friend in the elite unit, was the same way. He hadn't grown up in San Francisco, as Annabel had, but he had always wanted to live there.
"Why don't you drop me off at City Lights?" Annabel suggested as the cab cruised up Columbus Avenue. "The two of you can go on the restaurant."
"Are you sure?" Vickie asked.
"Yeah, I want to poke around in the bookstore for a while, then I'll walk home from there."
"Look, if you're worried that three's company," Vickie said with a glance at Earl, "don't be."
"Sure, come along with us," he urged.
Annabel shook her head. "No, I just don't feel like eating yet. I'll fix something later, or go down to the deli."
"Well, if that's what you really want . . ." Vickie said.
"It is," Annabel said.
She stepped out of the cab when it pulled up at the curb in front of the famous City Lights Bookstore. She was pleased with herself for playing matchmaker. Vickie and Earl were perfect for each other, if only Vickie would open her eyes and realize it. Earl had come to that conclusion the first time he had visited Annabel's place and seen Vickie coming out of the apartment across the hall. Vickie didn't believe in love at first sight, however, so she was being stubborn about the whole thing. At first she had worried that she would be cutting in on Annabel, until Annabel had assured her that there was nothing romantic between her and Earl. They worked together, they were good friends, and that was as far as it went.
As Earl said, sooner or later Vickie would come around, Annabel told herself as she closed the cab door and leaned over to say goodnight. She waved, and then they were gone, carried on up Columbus Avenue.
Annabel went into the small, triangular-shaped building that housed the bookstore and spent the next hour browsing through the shelves on its three floors. Her father had had a good collection of Beat Generation literature—though he never would have admitted as much to his friends at the fire station—and as a teenager Annabel had read Ginsberg and Ferlinghetti and Corso and On the Road as well as Norman Maclean's tales of fighting forest fires. Today she bought a couple of books and then walked around the corner to the apartment house.
As she did so, she heard the keening wail of a fire engine several blocks away, and out of habit her muscles stiffened in readiness. It took a conscious effort for her to relax. She didn't have to climb into her suit and grab her equipment. Wherever the fire was, other people would deal with it.
She let herself into the building lobby and headed for the stairs. Footsteps filled the stairwell, and a man appeared at the first-floor landing. He was blond, fairly attractive, and looked to be about five-eleven, only an inch taller than her. Annabel didn't remember seeing him around the building before, and she felt the city dweller's natural wariness around a stranger. But he smiled at her and said, "Hi. You live here?"
"That's right," Annabel said cautiously. "How about you?"
"Just moved in this afternoon. I'm Kyle Loftus." He stuck out his hand.
"Annabel Lowell," she said as she took his hand. His grip was firm, and it didn't linger. Annabel chalked that up as a mark in his favor.
"Annabel," he repeated. "That's sort of an old-fashioned name, isn't it?"
"My father was an old-fashioned guy."
"Well, it's a pretty name, too. Say, can you show me a good place to eat around here? I haven't had a chance to stock my refrigerator yet."
That was fast, Annabel thought.
"There are a lot of restaurants in the neighborhood," she told him. "Almost any place you look there's somewhere to eat. And it's all good."
"Oh," he said. "No recommendations in particular?"
"Nope, I'm afraid not."
"Okay," he said. He lifted a hand in farewell as he headed for the lobby door. "See you around the building, I guess."