Black Jack Point Read Free Page B

But sitting on a multilevel deck, with a private dock, backed by the house that had to be
     approaching seven thousand square feet … well, it was better than eating takeout and watching old movies on video, which was
     how she’d spent her last vacation.
    Ben returned, carrying a tray. Two huge shrimp salads, the shrimp firm and pink, perfect crescent-morsels, slices of avocado,
     a small crystal pitcher filled with a homemade dressing, rolls steaming. He set the lunch down in front of her.
    ‘Where’s the chocolate?’
    ‘Ingrate.’ He poured them each wine again, held his glass aloft in a toast. ‘To a great vacation for you. And to old friends.’
    ‘To old friends,’ she said, clinking her glass against his.
Friends. Funny word,
she thought.
It could cover too much ground.
They’d been lovers long ago but shecouldn’t look at him and think
ex-lover.
He was too different now from the shy, gangly boy she’d known.
    ‘And we didn’t even have to catch the shrimp,’ Ben said.
    ‘Sometimes I’m relieved by that. Other times I think it’s a shame. My dad’s the last Salazar who’s still shrimping.’ The smile
     dimmed slightly on Ben’s face and she set down her fork. ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bring up an unpleasant memory …’
    Ben smiled again. She liked his smile, warm and happy, with a front tooth slightly crooked. ‘It’s okay. My folks have been
     gone a long time, Claudia. I miss them but you keep going on.’ His parents had been lost in a sudden storm on the bay’s edge,
     their shrimp boat swamped. Ben had been sixteen at the time, his brother, Stoney, just starting college. ‘I might have made
     a good shrimper.’
    ‘You would have gotten bored.’
    ‘But you’re your own boss.’ Ben took a small sip of white wine. ‘Out on the water, out in the sun. Now Stoney, he would have
     sucked at shrimping.’
    Claudia glanced around the deck, the private dock, the too-big-for-her-taste house. ‘It wouldn’t have paid the mortgage on
     this place.’ She liked the pool, the lunch, being with Ben, but felt an awkward consciousness of being in his brother’s house,
     as though she were trespassing. She had kept glancing at Ben, trim in his modest swimsuit, with his nice hands and his smile,
     and wanting to kiss him, but she wouldn’t. Not here. If she kissed him she might not stop and his brother might walk in at
     any moment. ‘What exactly does your brother do? You said investments?’
    ‘I can never quite figure it out. He did venture capital work out in California for a while, got a little singed in the dot-com
     meltdown, decided he wanted to come home. He does a lot of consulting for financial servicesfirms in Dallas and Houston. He’s trying to get me into his business.’ He shook his head. ‘stoney used to steal my allowance,
     set up a lemonade stand with our money, give me a cut. We’d make more than our allowances put together. I think he’s still
     following that business model.’
    ‘It seems to be working.’
    ‘He has expensive hobbies. Cars. Boats. Treasure hunts.’
    ‘Treasure hunts?’
    ‘He’s financed some treasure dives in the Florida Keys – you know, galleons that wrecked in shallow water, got buried by the
     sands on the bottom. Takes a team to recover them. It’s his obsession. Crazy-ass way to risk your money. You got to make the
     big bucks to play that game.’ His tone went wry.
    ‘And you’re not interested in the big bucks?’
    Ben grinned again. ‘me in finance? I’d be doomed. The clients would be doomed.’ He shook his head. ‘I like teaching, but the
     pay sucks, and too many of the kids are unmotivated and the parents care even less. I’m starting to think you seriously got
     to have a call to teach, like being a priest.’
    ‘Or a cop,’ she said.
    ‘Or a cop,’ he agreed. ‘You ever think of giving it up?’
    ‘Last year, briefly. But no, not seriously.’
    ‘Living here with my brother – well, Stoney’s spoiled