Chapter 18

We arrived and had their usual great service. We had an appetizer of fried green tomatoes which Joan had never eaten before. She loved them. The waitress knew me and Todd. After Joan exclaimed about how good the chicken was to Eve by name, the waitress' eyes widened as she realized who was holding my hand.

Just as she came up to check on desert, Eve said, "If we're going to continue to be seen like this, you might consider a ring."

"I might."

The waitress exclaimed, "Eve Baylor! You're here at my table! Wow!" She looked at me and said, "Mister Bill, do you know who she is?"

I deadpanned. "No, she was just someone I picked up while coming up to Luverne. She looked hungry."

Eve said, "I was but these chicken strips are delicious!"

The waitress was now dumbfounded. She looked at me. "Mister Bill, don't you know who she is?"

I said, "Yes, she is a very nice woman who I met on the side of the road a few weeks ago. I may ask to marry me if we can work out the details." That got me kissed by Eve.

The waitress said, "If you keep doing that, Miss Baylor, you're going to make a lot of women unhappy. That's particularly true since he kisses you back!"

Eve and I grinned at each other. Joan said, "When they get that look, they aren't much good to anyone else at all." She smiled. I did notice out of the corner of my eye that she and Todd were holding hands.

We finished our meal after a picture with our waitress taken with her phone. We got in the car and I said, "Is that sufficient or do you want to look at the place in Brantley?"

Eve said, "We can head in that direction. Tell me about it, please, Bill."

"Actually, it's an empty old building that I picked up about six years ago for paying the taxes. I never have figured out what to do with it. I thought this last winter about making it into an office but don't know why I would. I don't need an office and would put it in Luverne if I did. That's where I conduct most of the business I still conduct."

Joan said, "Bill, is it as good as the last place you showed us?"

"Not in my opinion. There are a couple of other places in Luverne that I don't own that might be worth considering. There is an old movie house that has been vacant for at least two decades. I don't know the building's condition but it would have some possible benefit."

Joan answered, "I don't think it will be better than the building you own. It's in good shape and wouldn't take much work to ready it for use. A building that's been vacant for twenty years isn't appealing."

"I agree," said Eve. "What is for supper tonight? Are you going to put us on display again?"

I chuckled. "I thought that, if Joan can prevail upon Todd to stay, I would cook steaks on the grill. There isn't much anywhere to take a lady on Saturday night in this area."

We went back to the house and took it easy for a while. I started the grill and put Todd to work with corn while Eve and I went to the radio room.

I turned it on and we heard the people talking about "Bill's girl friend." I grinned. I said, "Time to get you on the air again. They need something more to talk about."

Eve grinned back. "Okay, let's make them happy."

She sat in my chair and grasped the mike. At a lull, she said, "Contact."

We heard, "Go contact."

"This is Eve with WR4L as control operator and boy friend sitting beside me."

There was a second of silence. A voice came on. "Good evening, Eve. This is Tom, W4TOM. We talked before. It's good to hear you. I hope Bill is treating you right."

"Bill always treats me 'very' right." She said in a sultry voice.

That remark and the way she said it generated the expected result. She let that die down and said, "I would hope to check in this evening with Carol."

Vic said, "That will make two pretty ladies on the air in one night. K1VEE."

That started some more. Another lull started and Eve said, "Bill is going to teach me all about being a ham and I'm looking forward to passing the tests and getting on the air with my own call. Thank you, guys, for letting me be part of your time together. WR4L waiting for net."

Tom came on and said, "It's always a pleasure to hear you, Eve. Bill has to get you licensed. W4TOM by for net."

Others chimed in saying the same thing with their calls. Carol came on and started the net. In the announcements section that came early, she recognized Eve for her show and for having me as her guest on that show. She said, "That kiss on the air looked romantic. What about it, Eve."

She grinned and I nodded at her. She said, "It was and he kissed me back."

Carol chuckled as she continued the net. She began calling the counties saying that it was backwards Saturday. We laughed when WJ4Z checked in giving his call backwards with funny phonetics as well as saying, "Carol, evening good. WJ4Z."

Carol went through the rest of the counties and finally called Crenshaw. After a second, Eve said, "This is Eve checking in with WR4L as control operator. He's going to kiss me since I did it right." Carol loved that! Of course, a few other hams asked me if I would kiss them since they got it right, too. Carol finished the counties and I got permission to speak. "I only kiss beautiful unmarried ladies who are sitting with me. WR4L."

Carol laughed at that and continued on with the net. We turned the radio off, I kissed Eve and we went into the rest of the house and out to the grill where Todd was finishing up the steaks with help from Joan. Their faces were a bit flushed.

Eve was grinning but used a stern voice to say, "And what has been going on here?"

Todd blushed deeply. Eve looked at him and said, "That's what I suspected." She paused, "And hoped for."

Now both of them blushed. I smiled. "Todd, I hope she has invited you back for Sunday school and church tomorrow. We'll take them out to eat afterwards."

We had a great meal with the steaks cooked to perfection. Eve commented that Todd could apparently do two things at once! They took our kidding in stride and, after a few moments, were able to respond in kind to our comments.

After supper, we gathered in the radio room and listened and then talked on forty meters to various people. There was no one who I knew on the air and no one recognized Eve other than as a beautiful female voice. Joan was just as popular for the same reason.

I looked up Horace on the internet and wasn't happy with what I found. It was moving though was still slow. It was gaining strength rapidly and was a category three. NOAA had announced that it might reach category four over night. I looked elsewhere but saw nothing that might move it from its current course straight for here. The NOAA and other's courses didn't diverge very much.

The ladies got off the radio and I switched everything off. Todd said, "It looks headed for us?"