Public Secrets

she’d come. Glad she had climbed those stairs. Glad she was here, with the warm wind in her hair and Michael beside her. “It was sleeting in New York when I left.”
“There are colleges in sunny California, too.”
She smiled, enjoying the breeze on her face. “I like New York,” she said absently. “I always have. My roommate and I bought a loft. It’s nearly livable now.”
“Roommate?”
“Yes. Marianne and I went to Saint Catherine’s together.” Since her eyes were still closed, she didn’t notice his look of pleased relief. “We always swore we’d live in New York one day. Now we do. She’s taking art classes.”
He decided he was kindly disposed toward Marianne. “She any good?”
“Yes, very. One day galleries are going to be cutting their throats to get her paintings. She used to do the most incredible caricatures of the nuns.” She glanced over, noting his frown.
“What is it?”
“Probably just rookie-cop instincts on overtime. See that sedan, just behind us?”

She glanced over her shoulder. “Yes. So?”
“It’s been behind us since we picked up the burgers.” He switched lanes. The sedan followed suit. “I’d say he was tailing us, if he wasn’t so stupid about it.”
She let out a long, tired sigh. “It’s probably Sweeney.”
“Sweeney?”
“Bodyguard. He always finds me. Sometimes I think Da planted a homing device under my skin.”
“Yeah, it could be. I guess it makes sense.” But he didn’t care to be shadowed, so amaturely shadowed, on what he considered his first date with a longtime crush. “I could lose him.”
Emma tilted down her glasses. Behind them her eyes glinted with the first real laughter he’d seen in her. “Really?”
“I could give it my best shot. This little baby’s bound to leave him in the dust.”
“Do it,” she said, and grinned.
Delighted, Michael punched the gas, cut off a station wagon, and peeled up to eighty. “We used to race on the freeway—in my callow and misspent youth.” He swerved again, dodging between a pickup and a BMW, then with a twist of the wrist shot in front of a Caddy and let the Mercedes cruise at ninety.
“You’re good.” Laughing, Emma twisted in her seat and peered at the traffic. “I can’t see him.”
“He’s back there, trying to get around the Caddy. I pissed the Caddy off so he’s hogging the road. Hang on.” He swerved, spun, and jockeyed, then raced off an exit. One illegal U-turn, and the Mercedes’s powerful engine, and he was back on the freeway, heading in the opposite direction. They whizzed by the sedan, slowed to a decorous speed and sailed calmly down another ramp.
“Really good at it,” Emma said again. “Did they teach you that at the police academy?”
“Some skills you’re born with.” He stopped, then stroked the steering wheel. “What a honey.”
Emma leaned over and kissed his cheek. “Thanks. Again.” Before he could respond, she had snatched up the bag of burgers and was racing toward the sand.
“I love this!” Still laughing, she spun in a circle. “I really love the water, the smell of it, the sound of it. If they could just plop an ocean down next to Broadway I’d be in heaven.”

He wanted to take hold of her then, to grab her in mid-spin and find out if she tasted nearly as good as she looked. Then she dropped down on the sand and dug into the bag.
“These smell great, too.” She held one up before she realized he was staring at her. “What is it?”
“Nothing.” But his mouth was dry again. “I was, ah, remembering that I once wondered whether you ever got to go to McDonald’s. The first time I met you, at the rehearsal? Dad took me for a burger after and I wondered, with all the guards, if you ever got to go.”
“No, not really, but Da or Johnno or someone would sometimes bring takeout. Don’t feel sorry for me.” She groped in the bag again. “Not today.”
“Okay. Hand over the fries.”
They ate hungrily, leaving not even a crumb for the gulls. The breeze was up, carrying a mist of the sea. There were other people, a few families, young girls showing off tans and slender figures, the inevitable radios pumping out music, but for Emma it was one of the most peaceful and secluded interludes of her life.
“I could get used to this.” She sighed, stretched her arms up. “Sitting on the beach, listening to the water.” She shook her head so that her hair rained like gold dust down her back. “I wish I had more time.”
“So do I.”