Wanting to get even, Dan thought for a second. "You embarrass all your boyfriends in front of your daddy?"
"Now you're jerking my chain. Let's go."
They tore Nathaniel away from Nintendo and chocolate chip cookies, then said good-bye to Amiel and Laura Fischer. Everybody looked a little overanxious except Amiel, who appeared unfazed.
Once in the car, Maria turned her attention to Nate.
"So you are a real Nintendo player."
"She doesn't seem old enough to be your mother. She's good at Nintendo."
"Yes, my mother is good at lots of things."
"Your father's nice too."
''Yes, in his old-world way, I guess he can be charming.'' She looked at Dan as she said it.
"He was a real card. And he loves you. That I can guarantee."
"And what did you find to discuss?"
"Not much. Amiel headed into forbidden territory pretty fast, and we ended up talking about the fact that we shouldn't be talking about what we were about to be talking about. It was obvious he thinks about you all the time."
"And what exactly did you two discuss?"
''Well, we never really got there. It was more a discussion about what we weren't going to discuss?"
"Which was?"
"Well, how can I discuss that?"
"She's getting mad, Dad," Nate said.
"Thank you, Nate," Maria said. "That was well said."
"Yeah. Well, Amiel was-" Dan began talking with one hand, but no words were coming.
"He was talking about my boyfriend. He was asking you if you and I were romantic. And all I want to know is what you said."
"I said we shouldn't discuss it. That you and I were a long way from anywhere. And I said you had issues."
"You probably made it sound like we're on the threshold of the promised land but for my 'issues.' You were supposed to say that we're in Egypt and living with Pharaoh, with no travel plans, no travel arrangements, and no travel agent, for God's sake. And what was that crack about you being my boyfriend?"
"You were supposed to act like an enviro."
"Oh and what's that like?"
"Barefoot, stupid, hair under your arms. And nothing about football."
Nate laughed.
Back in Palmer, Dan dropped Nate at home with Pepacita before taking Maria to her car. They talked easily, Dan driving a circuitous route. When they pulled up behind the Cherokee, they both went silent. After nervous smiles, Dan helped Maria put her luggage in her car, then came around to close her door. She was about to get in and then hesitated. For just an instant in time he knew that kissing her would be the most natural thing in the world. They were looking right at each other-not talking. With a slight smile she held out her hand. Then before he could react, she dropped it and hugged him. It was somewhere in between a brother hug and a boyfriend hug. She kissed him on the cheek.
"Call me," she said. "Soon. Like when you get home."
Dan got on his cell phone on the drive to his house. He called Otran's home. It felt a little unusual. Normally, he was relaxed around Otran, but this time he felt tight. Just the way he felt before they opened the gate on his last bull ride.
"I've got another issue I need to discuss," he began after the customary pleasantries. "Maria Fischer and I have been checking each other out for a while now. Maybe I'm doing most of the checking. We still disagree on everything having to do with trees." He paused, nervously tapping the wheel of his car. "It's conceivable that all this chemistry could, you know, make a battery or something. I thought you ought to know in case you felt it would constitute a conflict of interest."
"A what?"
"A conflict of interest. That's when-"
"I know what a conflict of interest is," Jeb interrupted. "So does Maria Fischer have to call up Patty McCafferty and tell her the same thing?"
"Probably not. She's still in the denial phase."
"You're sure?"
"What about love is sure?"
Otran chuckled. "You sound as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. But I don't care about the details of your as-yet-hypothetical love life. The real issues are: Are you emotionally attached to her, and if so, would it affect your judgment? Would it affect your ability to help me on the Highlands?"
"What do you need me to do?"
''I'm buying out Metco's half of the old growth. And I'm going to need convincing timber-harvest plans and someone to litigate them if I'm ever going to persuade the government to buy it."
"This is a shock," Dan said.
"It was to me too," Otran said, "but the price was right. So will you help me?"
Dan was silent, wondering how to respond.
"It's that bad, huh?" Otran laughed.
"I'm not sure. Maria's ideas don't change the way I think. Tell me this. You don't actually expect to harvest the lower Highlands, right?"
''We're figuring the government will buy it. Save us all a big right. Make a little money for our side."
"But if the government doesn't act right away?"
"We'd have to go ahead and start cutting if it came to it. How can you make the government move if you just sit there and let the trees rot for free?"
''Could we tell Maria it's a bluff? That we won't actually cut?"
''If you tell her that, we're liable to lose that shrill intensity of hers. We absolutely have to make the world believe we'll cut. Besides, if they don't buy it, we have to manage it for long-term timber production. And to do that, we have to cut it."
Dan sighed.
"I just hope we don't have to deal with it," Jeb said. "Cutting the Highlands or the romance. Hell, I don't care about a stolen kiss, but if she's going to be a fixture… We'll just have to talk. I mean, knowing her is great. It's always good to know your adversary. But for God's sake, how would it be to get in bed at night with the enviro who's been nipping at your heels all day?"
"Maybe violins and flowers have taken over my brain," Dan said.
"At least you're thinking with your brain," Otran said.
The minute Dan got home he called Maria's room at the Palmer Inn.
"Long time no see," he said. "Listen, let's get a drink in the pub."
"Now?"
"I know we've been together for two days, but I need to talk."
"I'll have one beer," she said.
Dan chuckled. "It's impossible to ignore the emphasis. You don't approve of my having two beers."
"I guess that's none of my business. But as long you ask, when do you have just two?"
"Touche."
It was only a couple of miles from his house to the Palmer Inn, and before Dan could decide how to bring up the most difficult topic of the evening, he had rolled into the lot.
"You look nice," he told Maria. She wore a khaki pants suit and yellow print blouse.
"What's the matter?" she asked.
"What do you mean? I just said you looked nice."
"You have the knitted-brow look, last displayed when Judge Traxler asked you point-blank if there had been accelerated harvesting. So what's up?"
They were through the main lobby and at the head of the stairs to the pub.
"In a couple days a story will break about a sale of the lower Highlands."
They were walking down a narrow staircase and a noisy drunk was coming up from below. She moved to Dan's side of the stairs to let the man pass. For an instant she leaned up against Dan. Her hair smelled of orchids, and the warmth of her body felt good. He knew he wanted more of her, and what he was about to say would give him less.