Leopard 04 - Wild Fire

“Couldn’t sleep?”
    Blythe flashed her smile, the one Rikki thought was so endearing and beautiful—a little crooked, allowing a glimpse of straight white teeth that nature, not braces, had provided.

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    “You’re not going out today, are you?” Blythe asked, then nonchalantly went over to the spigot at the side of the house and turned it off.
    “Sure I am.” She should have checked all four hoses, darn it. Rikki avoided Blythe’s too-knowing gaze.
    Blythe looked uneasily toward the sea. “I just have this bad feeling . . .”
    “Really?” Rikki frowned and stood up, glancing out at the sky. “Seems like a perfect day to me.”
    “Are you taking a tender with you?”
    “ Hell no.”
    Blythe sighed. “We talked about this. You said you’d consider the idea. It’s safer, Rikki. You shouldn’t be diving alone.”
    “I don’t like anyone touching my equipment. They roll my hoses wrong. They don’t put the tools back.
    No. No way.” She tried not to sound belligerent, but she was not having anyone on her boat messing with her things.
    “It’s safer.”
    Rikki rolled her eyes. How was having some idiot sitting on the boat not diving alone? But she didn’t voice her thoughts; instead, she tried a smile. It was difficult. She didn’t smile much, especially when the nightmares were too close. And she was barefoot. She didn’t like being caught barefoot, and in spite of Blythe’s determination not to look, her gaze couldn’t help but be drawn to the scars covering Rikki’s feet and calves.
    Rikki turned toward the house. “Would you like a cup of coffee?”
    Blythe nodded. “I can get it, Rikki. Enjoy your morning.” Dressed in her running shoes and light sweats, she managed to still look elegant. Rikki had no idea how she did it. Blythe was refined and educated and all the things Rikki wasn’t, but that never seemed to matter to Blythe.
    Rikki took a breath and forced herself to sink back into the chair and tuck her feet under her, trying not to look disturbed at the idea of anyone going into her house.
    “You’re drinking your coffee black again,” Blythe said, and dropped a cube of sugar into Rikki’s mug.
    Rikki frowned at her. “That was mean.” She looked around for her sunglasses to cover her direct stare.
    She knew it bothered most people. Blythe never seemed upset by it, but Rikki didn’t take chances. She found them on the railing and shoved them on her nose.
    “If you’re diving today, you need it,” Blythe pointed out. “You’re way too thin and I noticed you haven’t gone shopping again.”
    “I did too. There’s tons of food in the cupboards,” Rikki pointed out.
    “Peanut butter is not food. You have nothing but peanut butter in your cupboard. I’m talking real food, Rikki.”
    “I have Reese’s Pieces and peanut butter cups. And bananas.” If anyone else had snooped in her cupboards, Rikki would have been furious, but she just couldn’t get upset with Blythe.
    “You have to try to eat better.”
    “I do try. I added the bananas like you asked me. And every night I eat broccoli.” Rikki made a face.
    She dipped the raw vegetable into the peanut butter to make it more edible, but she’d promised Blythe so she faithfully ate it. “I’m actually beginning to like the stuff, even if it’s green and feels like pebbles in my mouth.”
    Blythe laughed. “Well, thank you for at least eating broccoli. Where are you diving?”
    Of course Blythe would have to ask. Rikki squirmed a little. Blythe was one of those people you just didn’t lie to—or ignore, as Rikki often did others. “I’ve got this blackout I found and I want to harvest it while I can.”
    Blythe made a face. “Don’t speak diving. English, hon. I don’t have a clue what you mean.”
    “Urchins, spine to spine, so many, I think I can pull in four thousand pounds in a couple of hours. We could use the money.”
    Blythe regarded her over the top of her coffee mug, her gaze steady. “Where, Rikki?”
    She was like a damn bulldog when she got going. “North of Fort Bragg.”
    “You told me that area was dangerous,” Blythe reminded.
    Rikki cursed herself silently for having a big mouth. She should never have talked about her weird feelings Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    with the others. “No, I said it was spooky. The ocean is dangerous anywhere, Blythe, but