Silver Linings

together. Sex. You and me in a bed. No more of it. At least not until I figure out what you're up to.”
    “Shit,” Hugh said.
    “I am beginning to realize you have an extremely limited vocabulary, Hugh Abbott.”
    “It's the stress. When I get under a lot of stress, I always say shit .”

CHAPTER

Eight

    “Are you out of your tiny little mind?” Silk Taggert shoved a bottle of beer into Hugh's hand. “Go to Seattle? And stay there for who knows how long? After you're just getting the business going here? Why in hell would you want to do that? It's damn stupid, Abbott. You're a lot of things, but stupid you normally ain't.”
    “It's a relationship thing, Silk. Hard to explain.” Hugh took a long pull on the beer and leaned back against the bulkhead. He was sitting in the stern of the Griffin waiting for Mattie to finish picking up the ingredients for dinner from one of the local shops down the street. “Hell, I don't know if I understand it myself.”
    “You tried this relationship stuff once before, remember? It didn't work out then. What makes you think it'll work this time?”
    “Mattie's different.”
    “Don't sound like it. Sounds just like the other one. Leads you on and gets a proposal out of you and then refuses to move out here and set up housekeeping.” Silk sat down in front of the easel and picked up a brush.
    “I made a mistake last year,” Hugh said. “I'm paying for it.”
    “How long you going to go on paying?” Silk dabbled the brush in water and then in blue paint.
    “Don't know.” Hugh took another swallow of beer and thought gloomy thoughts. “Until I can convince her of something, I guess.”
    “What's she want to be convinced of?” Silk studied the blank white canvas and then put in a wash of blue that came close to the color of the afternoon sky over St. Gabriel.
    “That she's more important to me than her sister was, I guess.”
    “Well, shoot.” Silk studied the blue wash with slitted eyes. “You could spend a lifetime trying to convince a woman she's the most important thing in your life. Women are never satisfied.”
    “Mattie will be. Eventually. She just needs a little time to get used to the idea that I mean what I say.”
    “What are you gonna do with the charter business while you're busy convincing Mattie she's Number One?”
    “That, my good man, is where you come in.”
    “Oh, no, you don't. I ain't running it for you. I don't mind making a few flights when you're short of pilots, or doing some maintenance for you, but I don't want to play boss. You know I can't stand paperwork.”
    “I need you, Silk. You're the only one I can trust to handle Abbott Charters while I'm in Seattle.”
    “Forget it.”
    “It'll only be for a few weeks or so at the most.” Hugh leaned forward, resting his elbows on his thighs and cradling the beer bottle between his palms. “I just need some time in Seattle.”
    “She know you're only planning to spend a few weeks convincing her?”
    Hugh scowled. “No, and if you open your big mouth, I will personally close it for you.”
    “You're gonna keep working for Vailcourt, aren't you?”
    “Might as well. The money's good. Work's easy. Charlotte Vailcourt thinks handling Vailcourt security is hard and dangerous, but she doesn't know the meaning of the words hard and dangerous . Don't see why I should be the one to set her straight. Not as long as she's willing to pay me a fortune to consult.”
    “Yeah, you got it cushy working for Vailcourt, all right.” Silk added a lemon tinge to the blue sky. “You ever tell this Mattie Sharpe what you used to do for a living?”
    “Hell, no.” Hugh gave his friend a cold stare.
    “Don't worry. I'll keep my mouth shut,” Silk said quietly. He deepened the yellow. “But you don't know women. If they think there's some mystery in your past, they won't stop digging until they uncover it.”
    “I can handle Mattie.”
    Silk snorted. “Sure. That's why you're leaving everything behind here on St. Gabe and traipsing off with her to Seattle. Who's handling who, boss?”
    “Look, let's just forget this whole subject, all right?”
    Silk heaved a massive shrug. “Whatever you say, boss. But take it from me, you're wasting your time. Things ain't what they used to be in the old days when a good woman would follow a man to the other side of the world and stick with him come hell or high water. Nowdays we got this new liberated female who wants her own career and a fancy condo