Chapter 5

I thought I'd gone too far now, because she put down her fork and leaned back away from the little dinette table. But she looked at me rather intently for a few seconds, then smiled and said "Classical music and a silver tongue? Maybe I would have been safer on the party barge with Todd!" I must have winced at that, because she grinned and said "Gotcha!" Then she blushed and said "Maybe it's still the roofie talking, but I've never felt this safe with any man, except my Dad." My expression must have changed; "No! No!" she said, "That's not what I meant! I didn't mean to say you were anywhere near my dad's age!" She blushed again, and said "Sorry!"

I tried to look miffed, but I guess I failed, because she broke out laughing when I said "Thirty-Five"

I guess that must have broken whatever ice there was, because she made an obvious effort to stifle her laughter and said "Twenty-Three!" The tension between us evaporated, and she asked "So what is it you'd like to know about your new crew member, Cap'n?" Her smile lit up Nocturne's little cabin so much that all I wanted to know was how long she could stay. But I managed to keep the conversation more or less on a more formal level. Fun, but formal.

"Well, since you don't seem to have a copy of your resumé right at hand," (as I hoped, this got another giggle) "how about where you're from, where you're going, and what you plan to do in between?"

"Gee," she said with another grin, "you don't ask for much, do you!" She looked down at her hands, and thought a minute. "Well, like I said, I'm twenty-three, double-major senior at the university here in town. Music education and software design," she said, anticipating my next question. "I'm from up near the Texas-Arkansas state line, was homeschooled, learned to ride a cutting horse when I was eight, and have two older brothers and a younger sister. My parents couldn't really afford to send us to college, but I lucked out and got a couple of 'gifted' scholarships, and that helped. I sing in our little church choir when I'm back home, and I read a lot." Then she said "And I've never had a serious boyfriend." I don't think she really intended that last revelation, because she started blushing as soon as she said it, and tried to cover by saying "A cutting horse is really a quarter horse that helps work cattle. A good one can cut out a steer or a calf from the..."

"I know what a cutting horse is," I grinned at her, "but I don't understand why you blush when you talk about riding one!"

There was just a shadow of a frown as she parsed what I'd said, then she started stuttering, gave up, and grinned back "Touché!" she said. Then she said "Ok, turnabout's fair play! Tell me more about the nefarious Rob Lister! In what sort of clutches do I find myself? And can I expect full benefits with this job?" Blush got furious then, and she started to really stutter! "Oh, that