The Pirate & The Adventurer & The Cowboy

make practical use of them, he reasoned.

    Jared looked at his son's new jeans and realized they were already getting too short. He made a note to buy a new pair soon. Time went by so blindingly fast, even out here in the islands. David was almost ten years old, Jared reflected. There would be more and more of life's hard rules to learn. The trick would be to teach him how to tell the good rules from the bad.

    For a moment Jared watched his son stewing silently over the rule regarding women. Then he gave David a wry grin.

    "I'll tell you something, kid. If you value your hide, you'll remember this particular rule. Ladies such as Ms Inskip have a way of getting even with a man who gossips about them."

    David giggled. "What would she do to you if you told me about kissing her?"

    "I'm afraid to even hazard a guess," Jared said darkly as he sat down and poured himself a cup of coffee. "Probably deck me with one of her karate kicks."

    David's humor turned to outright shock. "She couldn't deck you, Dad." He paused, digesting the unthinkable. "Could she?"

    A loud, enthusiastic squawk came from the yellow-fronted Amazon parrot sitting on top of its large cage. Jared scowled at the bird. "Keep your opinions to yourself, Jolly." He looked at his son. "Feed your bird. He's turning nasty again."

    "Here you go, Jolly." David handed the bird a bite of papaya. Jolly glowered at Jared for a moment and then took David's offering with great dignity. David turned back to pin down his father. "Ms Inskip couldn't really deck you, could she?"

    "With any luck I will never have occasion to find out." Jared smeared guava jelly on his toast, wielding the knife with some force.

    "Hah. I bet three dollars she couldn't do it," David finally decided. "You're bigger than she is."

    "Size is not always a factor, but nevertheless I appreciate your faith in me."

    "Are there rules the ladies have to follow?"

    "A few. The trouble is, they get to make up a lot of them as they go along." Such as whether or not they'll still be around when a man comes back to collect what had been promised with a kiss.

    "That's not fair."

    "That's another rule, kid. Sometimes life isn't fair."

    "Did the ladies make that one up, too?"

    "No. That one got made up without anyone's approval, and we're all stuck with it." Jared bit down hard on the toast.

    David kicked his feet while he contemplated that. "I think Ms Inskip plays fair. She's going to show me how to do that special kick today and maybe some other neat self-defense stuff she knows. I'm going to show her how to use snorkeling gear."

    "Is that right?" It occurred to Jared that his son was making faster progress than he was. Maybe he should have offered a few free snorkeling lessons. He had certainly gotten nowhere fast last night.

    When the cake-cutting ceremonies had finally ended, Jared had looked around and discovered that Kate had disappeared. Like a fool, he had been unable to resist walking through the gardens past her room. Her light had winked out even as he'd stood in the shadows and watched. Jared had spent a restless night, and he was still feeling generally annoyed this morning.

    "Yup. We made a deal last night. Some guy she was dancing with offered to show her the reefs, but I reminded her we'd already agreed I'd do it."

    Jared looked up. "Who was the guy?"

    "A guest. I think his name was Taylor or Tyler or something." David munched papaya, watching Jared out of the corner of his eye. "You know something? I kinda like Ms Inskip, Dad. She looked real pretty last night, didn't she?"

    Like a lady out of a dream . "Yeah," Jared said. "She looked pretty last night." And the dream lady had turned into a sensuous creature of heat and shadow when he'd taken her into his arms. But instead of waiting for him after the last dance, she had vanished, the way a dream vanishes in the night. "When are you going to give her the snorkeling lesson?"

    "This morning. Right after she shows me some of her self-defense tricks." David finished his papaya and jumped to his feet. He rubbed Jolly's head as he headed toward the veranda. The bird endured the caress with regal condescension. "Gotta go. I'm supposed to meet Ms Inskip in a few minutes."

    "Wait a second. You didn't finish your toast."

    "I'll take it with me." David snatched up the slice of toast and loped out of the kitchen, out across the veranda and down onto the path that led to the cove.

    Jared was left alone with Jolly. The bird eyed him