Free Devlin's Defiance: Book Two of the Devlin Quatrology by Jake Devlin Page B

did their best to console Armando about Cam's loss,
while keeping from him the full story of her disappearance. Becky
and Nate, per Cam's will, were given sole custody of Cam's son,
Blake, and cared for him as if he were their own. When he turned ten
two years later, they told him his mother had died a hero, serving
her country; he believed that until he died at the age of 83.
    On the upside, the dish
that Armando brought to the pot luck was even better than Cam had
told Becky it would be, and several of the female guests (at least
the ones who hadn't fainted upon taking their first taste while
looking at him) offered him multiple inducements with the ostensible
motive of getting the recipe. In the weeks to come, many of them
helped to “console” him enough to push Cam into the
deepest recesses of his memory.
    Becky never collected
the 55,000 euros that Cam owed her from their word game, nor did she
care in the slightest.

- 36 -
    November
13, 2012 11:05 a.m. local time
    Bonita Beach, Florida

    “ Hey, Louise, you
made it back. Bravo.”
    “ Oh, yeah, Gordy,
but this was a tough one; high tide and only soft sand to run on. I
should get double points. Hi, Rosemary.”
    “ Hi, Louise.”
    “ So did you have
a good chat with Steve and Bruce?”
    “ Oh, yeah, real
good. I like their ideas a lot. Thanks for doing all that.”
    “ Welcome. It was
hard to get 'em to read it, but once I got 'em started, it was a
piece of cake.”
    “ I'll get back to
'em in a week or so and we'll go from there. Thanks again.”
    “ Good. Well,
gotta run; department meeting at one. Nice to see you again,
Rosemary.” She picked up her chair and bag and headed toward
the showers.
    “ Hey, Louise, one
of these days you're actually going to sit in that chair.”
    Louise laughed, “I
know, I know, Gordy.”
    “ When you do,
I'll alert the media.”
    She laughed again.
    “ Have a good
meeting.”
    “ Thanks,
Rosemary. See ya.”
    “ Nice woman,
Gordy.”
    “ Yeah, she is.
And bright, too.”
    “ So to get back
to Dallas, did you know she's a writer, too?”
    “ No, I didn't.”
    “ After you left,
we had a nice chat. She writes erotic romances.”
    “ Not that you
read that kind of stuff, of course.”
    “ Of course not,”
Rosemary said, blushing slightly.
    “ Of course not.”
    “ Anyhow, I told
her about your book and she said she was gonna get a copy. She
seemed very interested. Too bad you were sleeping when she had to
leave. But I dug a card out of your bag and gave it to her, told her
where she could pick up a copy, and if she brought it back to you,
that you'd sign it.”
    “ Nice. Thank
you.”
    “ Not at all. I
know how hard you worked on it.”
    “ You mean 'we,'
how hard 'we' worked on it.”
    “ Aw, I didn't do
that much.”
    “ Yes, you did. I
didn't think that much about building their intimacy and trust before
they got into the sex stuff. Needed a woman's point of view to get
me to do that. And I'm not sure I even did it enough.”
    “ Well, you were
more focused on the Donne part, the economics and the policy stuff.”
    “ Yeah, the stuff
those profs got focused on.”
    “ But you said
they called all the rest 'fluff.'”
    “ Yeah, well,
everybody brings their background to every book they read.”
    “ And everything
else. Movies, music, everything.”
    “ Got that right.
Each one sees what they're capable of seeing.”
    “ Kinda like a
Rorschach test?”
    “ Hmm. Yeah, I
guess so.”
    He reached into his
cooler and pulled out a sandwich bag, zipped it open and held it out
to her.
    “ Want a cookie,
little girl?”
    Rosemary laughed and
said, “Don't mind if I do. Chocolate chip?”
    “ Of course. The
buck-a-bag ones.”
    “ Thanks.”
    “ Take two, if you
want.”
    “ Nah, one's
enough.”
    “ Same here; I
like that grazing idea.”
    “ Glad you do,”
she said, taking a bite. “Mm, that's good.”
    “ Mm-hmm,”
Gordy said, chewing with his eyes closed.
    “ Uh-oh,”
Rosemary said.
    “