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”Salud”

They touched glasses, sipped the cool, dry wine Dawn said it was very nice Gray said he was glad she liked it Then they fell silent She looked at her wine, then at hi He wants soht suddenly, and she reerous, that he couldn’t possibly have anything to do with Harman…

“It’s a good wine, isn’t it?”

“Yes It’s very nice” She hesitated “I should warn you, Gray—”

“That’s the first tied it out of you”

“Look, I know itdinner, I uests”

He nodded

“And, actually, I can’t stay very long”

“Got a puht?”

“Pulass and ran the tip of her index finger carefully around the riuess I’m a little slow on the uptake”

He thought how nice it was, that she was slow on the uptake, that she wasn’t quite what he’d figured her to be… Except, she was He had to stop letting that fact slip away from him She was a beautiful woman with a soft smile, but there was more to it than that The truth about her was still shrouded in fog that stretched all the way froas to an Arizona mountaintop, where a little boy wept for his mother

The thought soured hilass, folded his hands on the table and wished, for the first time in years, that he still s else, and so far he hadn’t gotten any

“Well” He cleared his throat “How long have you lived in Las Vegas?”

“Four years And you? How long have you lived in New York?”

“Long enough to qualify as a native, despite the fact that you seem to think I have a Texas accent” He smiled She smiled back “Where did you live before this?”