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At one-thirty they drove to the Napa County Memorial Park Joshua Rhinehart and a few local people followed in their own cars Considering that it was for a wealthy and influential ly small

The day was clear and cool Tall trees cast stark shadows across the road, and the hearse passed through alternating hands of sunlight and shade

At the cerave, and fifteen people gathered around for the brief service Gary Olmstead took up a position beside the flower-concealed control box that operated the sling and would cause it to lower the deceased into the ground Avril stood at the front of the grave and read from a thin book of nondenominational inspirational verses

Joshua Rhinehart was at the mortician’s side The other twelve people flanked the open grave Sorowers and their wives They had come because they had sold their harvests to Bruno Frye’s winery, and they considered their attendance at his funeral to be a business obligation The others were Shade Tree Vineyards executives and their wives, and their reasons for being present were no rowers Nobody wept

And nobody had the opportunity or the desire to look into the coffin

Tannerton finished reading frolanced at Gary Olmstead and nodded

Olmstead pushed a button on the control box The powerful little electric motor huaping earth

Hilary could not remember another day that was as much fun as that first full day with Tony Cleh in the Hollywood Hills The food at Ya, even ordinary, but the a view ht lunch or dinner The restaurant, an authentic Japanese palace, had once been a private estate It was surrounded by ten acres of lovely ornaardens Fro view of the entire Los Angeles basin The day was so clear that Hilary could see all the way to Long Beach and Palos Verdes

After lunch, they went to Griffith Park For an hour, they walked through part of the Los Angeles Zoo, where they fed the bears, and where Tony did hilarious imitations of the animals From the zoo they went to a special afternoon perforram show in the Griffith Park Observatory

Later, they passed an hour on Melrose Avenue, between Doheny Drive and La Cienega Boulevard, prowling through one fascinating antique shop after another, not buying, just browsing, chatting with the proprietors

When the cocktail hour arrived, they drove to Malibu for Mai Tais at Tonga Lei They watched the sun set into the ocean and relaxed to the rhytheleno for quite some time, her world had been coarden, her work, the film studios, her work, and the few fancy restaurants in which the athered to do business She had never been to the Yamashiro Skyrooa Lei It was all new to her She felt like a wide-eyed tourist--or,a long, long sentence, most of it in solitary confinement

But it was not just where they went that made the day special None of it would have been half as interesting or as much fun if she’d been with so, so quick-witted, so full of fun and energy, that hetwo Mai Tais each, they were starving They drove back to Sepulveda and went north into the San Fernando Valley to have dinner at Mel’s landing, another place hich she was not familiar Mel’s was unpretentious and moderately priced, and it offered some of the freshest and tastiest seafood she had ever eaten

As she and Tony ate Mel’s steamed clams and discussed other favorite places to eat, Hilary found that he knew ten tie did not extendspots that served the movers and shakers of the entertainment industry The out-of-the-way eateries, the hole-in-the-wall cafés with surprising house specialties, the small mom-and-pop restaurants with plainly served but delicious food--all of that was one more aspect of the city about which she had never taken time to learn She saw that she had beco how to use and fully enjoy the freedom that her money could provide

They ate too many of Mel’s clams and then too much red snapper with too many Malaysian shri how ht, that they had so much time betweenShe was usually reticent on the first few dates with a new ht about everything, from Mork and Mindy to Shakespearean draion, architecture, sports, Bach, fashions, food, woent and vital that she knohat he thought about those and a million other subjects She also wanted to tell his, and she wanted to knohat he thought of what she thought, and pretty soon she was telling hiht They chattered as if they had just learned that God was going to strike everyone in the world deaf and dumb at sunrise Hilary was drunk, not on wine, but on the fluidity and intimacy of their conversation; she was intoxicated by communication, a potent brew for which she had built up little tolerance over the years

By the tihtcap, she was certain they would go to bed together She wanted hily She kneanted her She could see the desire in his eyes They needed to let dinner settle a bit, and with that in rave;me dedohen the telephone rang

"Oh, no," she said

"Did he bother you after I left last night?"

"No"

"This ?"

"No"

"Maybe that’s not him"

They both went to the phone

She hesitated, then picked it up "Hello?"

Silence

"Damn you!" she said, and she slammed the receiver down so hard that she wondered if she’d cracked it

"Don’t let him rattle you"

"I can’t help it," she said

"He’s just a slimy little creep who doesn’t kno to deal oot a chance to make it with a woman, if a woman offered herself to hi in terror"

"He still scares me"

"He’s no threat Coet about hirave;me de menthe in silence for a minute or two

At last, she softly said, "Damn"

"You’ll have an unlisted number by tomorrow afternoon Then he won’t be able to bother you anyI was soured on more than just drinks in front of the fireplace"

He stared at her "Had you?"

"Hadn’t you?"

His suration of the mouth; it involved his whole face and his expressive dark eyes; it was thesot to adrave;me de menthe"

"Damn the phone"

He leaned over and kissed her She opened her ues ainst her face as if he was touching delicate porcelain "I think we’re still in the ain--"

"It won’t"

He kissed her on the eyes, then on the lips, and he put one hand gently on her breast

She leaned back, and he leaned into her She put her hand on his arm and felt theher, he stroked her soft throat with his fingertips, then began to unbutton her blouse

Hilary put her hand on his thigh, where the muscles were also tense beneath his slacks Such a lean hard e steeliness and fierce heat of his erection She thought of hi hotly within her, and a thrill of anticipation made her shiver

He sensed her excitehtly trace the swell of her brsts where they rose above the cups of her bra His fingers seemed to leave cool trails on her warhost of his touch as clearly as she could feel the touch itself

The telephone rang

"Ignore it," he said

She tried to do as he said She put her arms around him and slid down on the couch and pulled hiainst his, licking, sucking