Angels Fall

an innate suspicion of leafy stuff in the first place, much less when you put that leafy stuff in a pan on the stove. "You're cooking a salad?"
    "I'm preparing a spinach and red cabbage salad, with pine nuts and a little Gorgonzola. I couldn't believe Mac ordered Gorgonzola when I just mentioned last week I wish I could get my hands on some."
    "Sweet on you, remember."
    "I feel very lucky to have the man who can get me Gorgonzola sweet on me. Anyway, Dr. Wallace said I need more iron. Spinach is loaded with it." She caught his expression out of the corner of her eye and swallowed a laugh. '"You're a big boy. If you don't like it. you don't have to finish it."
    "There's a deal. How'd it go with Doc?"
    "He's thorough and he's gentle, and he's impossible to argue with." As she spoke she adjusted the heat under the skillet. "He thinks I'm a little run-down, and probably a little anemic, but otherwise pretty good. I've had my fill of doctors, probably for a lifetime, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. When I went back to the liquor store, jeff mentioned that the sheriff had been in with the sketch."
    "Yeah, I heard that, too. He mention Penelope Cruz?"
    She smiled a little. "Yeah. He—the sheriff—sent a copy to Joanie's, too. No bells rang."
    "Did you expect them to?"
    "I don't know what I thought. I guess part of me hoped someone would look at it and say, 'Gee, that looks like Sally Jones, who lives just east of town. She's been having a rough time of it with her no-good bus-band." Then we'd know, and the sheriff would go arrest the no-good husband. And it would be over."
    "Neat and tidy."
    "In a way." She took another minute sip of her martini. "Anyway. I finished your book. I'm glad you didn't bury Jack alive."
    "He is, too."
    She laughed. "I bet. I like that you didn't totally redeem him, either. He's still so flawed and funny, and poised to screw up, but I think Leah may nudge him into being the best man he can be. You let her save the day, too." She glanced back at him. "From this female reader's perspective, that was great. And it worked."'
    "Glad you liked it."
    "Enough that I picked up another one this afternoon. Blood Ties.'' She saw the frown come into his eyes. "What?"
    "It's… violent. Pretty graphic in a couple of scenes. It may not be something you'd enjoy."
    "Because I've experienced graphic violence firsthand?"
    "It might echo a little more than you'd be comfortable with."
    "It it does. I'll put it down. Just like you can put down the spinach salad." She checked the oven, the skillet, picked up her martini. '"We're right on schedule here. Why don't you light those candles, open the wine?'
    "Sure "
    "So, what hung you up today?"
    "Hung me up?"
    "You said, when I got here, you'd gotten hung up."
    "Right." He lit the candles she'd set on the tiny table—dark blue tapers to match the napkins. "Work."
    He was, she thought, so often a man not of few words but of none. At least verbally. "Do I assume in that context it means your book's going well?"
    "Yeah." He found the wine in the refrigerator. Chenin Blanc, as advertised. "It was a good day."
    "You're not going to talk about it."
    He started to search the kitchen drawers for a corkscrew, but she handed him one she'd brought with her. "About what?"
    "The book."
    He considered as he opened the wine, as she added more spinach to the pan. "I was going to kill her. Maybe you remember I mentioned it, that day we were on the trail."
    "Yes. I do. You said the villain was going to kill her there, push her off and into the water."
    "Yeah, and he tried. He hurt her, he tormented her, he terrorized her, but he didn't manage to push her off the ridge the way he'd planned."
    "She got away."
    "She jumped."
    Reece looked over as she began lifting the wilted greens from the nan. "She jumped."
    He never talked about his work with anyone. It generally irritated him even to be asked about it. But he found he wanted to tell her, to see her reaction.
    "The rain's driving, the trail's thick and heavy with mud. She's bruised and battered, her leg's bleeding. She's alone up there with him. There's no one to help her. She can't outrun him. He's stronger, he's faster. He's fucking crazy. So she jumps. I still figured she'd die. Never planned for her to make it past chapter eight. But she proved me wrong."
    Saying nothing, Reece tossed the salad with the vinaigrette she'd made at home.
    "She's stronger than I realized when I first met her. She has a deep and innate will