Chapter 39

better give Rob a turn:

Whew! After that little episode, all I can say is "Down, boy!" She really got me going, and if Krista hadn't opened the door, I think I would have had a very har – make that difficult, time stopping. And poor Kaitlyn hasn't stopped blushing yet. I thought she was gonna murder me when I asked if she'd remembered her phone. Guess she's a little sensitive about that right now. Ooops! Just turned onto "Dealer Row", and she's starting to look around.

"Rob? Are we here for what I think we're here for?"

"What do you think we're here for, sweetie?"

"Ummm, lessee – folding consoles, pickup trucks, favorite color ... Oh! Look at that pretty blue one right there in the front row. Hmmm – It's not over there with the rest of the trucks. Rob? It's beautiful! Can we look at it?" I looked over at her, and she was sitting there with a Cheshire Cat grin on her face, as I pulled in next to the blue F150. "Really?"

"Oh, I dunno, maybe we can see how we like one of these new ones. I'm about due to swap this thing on something else. Think we could get a deal on that one?"

"You already got a good deal, didn't you, Rob! That's why you asked about my favorite color." She looked out at the shiny new 4X4, and asked, "But what if I didn't like that shade of blue?"

"Well, they only have one more, and it's a lot darker. This one is more the color of those undies I saw you in, a couple of nights ago."

"Rob! You weren't supposed to be peeking!"

"Yeah. Says the innocent young girl who was recently caught trying to get her hand past a certain zipper." I leered at her discomfort, "By the way, we can set this one to connect with your phone, so you probably shouldn't be forgetting it, like someone else in your family seems to do."

She stuck her tongue out at me! "Bleah! But yeah, I like this shade of blue just fine." She looked at it again, and started to open the door. "Can we really look at it?"

"Well, sure we can, little one, it's ours." I really can't reproduce the sound she made then, but it got the attention of the salesman who had made the deal with me this morning, and who was now headed our way. "Hi, Chris, we stopped by to see if it's ready to go, but no hurry. Got mine all cleaned out just in case."

"Hi, Rob, does she approve?" He turned and nodded to Kay, and I introduced them. He smiled and said, "Rob says you like blue, and you don't like consoles." She blushed as he added, "I was in his shoes, I'd not like them either!" He turned back to me, and said, "Paperwork's all done, Rob, and added the extended warranty just like you wanted." He handed me the keys and said, "Be just a minute while we get the plates switched, and you're on your way. Lemme show you a couple of things about the new console and other stuff on it." And he went into the standard pitch on the backup TV, the GPS, and the satellite radio. Then he got into the phone Bluetooth connection, and got a strange look on his face when she blushed and giggled. I figured it was safer to leave him in the dark on that one.

The lot guy finished with the plates, and was looking over the SUV I'd traded. "Looks good, Mr. Rob, you took good care of this one. Won't be a lot of detail work to do on it."

"Great," I said, "you're telling me I shoulda held out for more money on the trade?" I winked at Chris, the salesman, who'd given me a pretty good deal as it was.

"Uhhh, no, I'm sure Chris gave you the best deal possible on this one," he said, as he started it and drove it toward the back of the lot.

I looked at Chris and said, "Ahhh – diplomacy in action.! This guy will go far in the business."

"He'd better," said Chris, "he's the owner's son. Good kid, really, hard worker and eager to please. Just got out of the Army, and waiting to start college in the fall."

We shook hands on that note, and Kay and I got in the truck and headed off the lot. She said, "Lots different from another 'owner's son', no?"

"Lots different from some owners, too," I said.

"Have you heard any more from George or Mitch, about Leland?" She seemed to shudder as she said that.

"No," I said, "just what they said about being careful where we go, and what we do." I looked at her, "And I think we'd better pay attention to that. Got a feeling we haven't heard the last of old Leland."

She did shudder at that, and wanted to change the subject. "Let's go look at the boat, Rob, can we do that?" She snuggled up next to me, "And I do like not having that stupid console in the way."

I said that was fine, might as well see what we'd need for a few days' stay aboard Nocturne Too, and turned toward the harbor district, while Kay fiddled with the presets on the radio. "Have to stop at the office, too, and get this registered for the members' lot, and get a new sticker. But we can expect some flak from Gary – he's a bow tie guy."

"I know what that is, Dad uses the same expression!"

"Yeah, but it means more to some than others around here. Been known to cause more than one bar fight."

We pulled into the marina, and into the owners' lot, and parked the truck in the shade. Gary was sitting at his desk in the office building, and waved us in. "Saw you pull in, Rob, what's that you're drivin'?"

"That's one reason we stopped in, Gary, gotta register the new truck so it doesn't get towed."

"But it's one a' them! What makes you think we won't have it drug outta here just on general principles? Gotta maintain some pride in our appearance around here!" Then he grinned, "It is a nice looking rig, even if it isn't completely dressed." He looked at Kaitlyn, "Couldn't get him to go across the street to the Chevy dealer?"

Kay never batted an eye, "Well, we did look over that way, but none of those trucks had the one thing we wanted on a truck."

"What's that?"

"A Ford emblem!"

"Ouch! Rob, she's pickin' on me!"

Got a right smart high five from my sweetie, and she wet her finger and made an air-tally mark. "She's got her priorities right, Gary. Probably better get our vehicle ID card changed before she sees what color yours is." He grumped and grumbled all in fun, and we went down to the boat to check things out.

Gary called out behind us, "Mister Dingle never even noticed that we moved his boat back a couple of feet. Not that it would bother him at all. He just thought we'd replaced a few deck boards."

I waved back at him, as Kay asked, "Who's Mister Dingle?"

"He's the old guy who owns the boat behind ours, the 'Dingle's Berry'."

She laughed at the name, "He must have quite a sense of humor."

"I guess so, never talked to him all that much."

We walked by the aforementioned boat, and Kaitlyn giggled again at the name. Then she lit up as we came to Nocturne Too, and stepped down into her. Kay stopped and turned to me with her sweet face turned up for a kiss. "I know it's a different boat, Rob, but it's the same me, and the same you, and that makes it all good."

I kissed her, then again, and we were pretty well wrapped up in one another when we heard a dock board creak, and a voice said, "I don't mean to interrupt anything, but, Gary said I have you to thank for replacing the TV cable on my boat, and I wanted to be sure to thank you before I forgot, and you'd think I was ungrateful."

"Well, hello, Mister Dingle! It was my pleasure. We were doing some renovating ourselves, and I had that cable left from another job, so it was no trouble at all." I pulled Kay around in front of me, "Mister Dingle, meet my fiancée, Kaitlyn. We're getting married in a couple of days, and we came down to check and see what we'll need for a short honeymoon cruise."

Kay reached out and shook his hand, and he said, "So very pleased to meet you, young lady. My Millie would have liked to meet you too, but she's not with us any longer." He smiled and said, "We used to come down here too, and, well, you know." He looked at the cabin and hatch portholes, "But then, we had curtains, too." He looked across at the adjacent dock, "You do know that old man Whitley has a telescope in his wheelhouse, don't you? Had it for years." He shook his head, "Randy old goat!" Kay suppressed a sound halfway between a giggle and a snort, and swallowed real hard.