Saving Faith By: David Baldacci

decided against it. He went for a swim in the pool and then lay on the

cool concrete and caught some rays from the intense sun. He felt

guilty every minute for enjoying it. The hours passed, and when it

started to grow dark, he began contemplating cooking dinner. He would

go and get Faith this time, and make her eat. He was just about to

head up the stairs when her door opened and she came out.

The first thing that caught his eye was what she was wearing: a white

cotton dress, knee-length and clingy, paired with a light blue cotton

sweater. Her legs were bare, and she wore simple sandals that managed

to look very classy. Her hair was nicely styled; a touch of makeup

highlighted her features and pale red lipstick completed the look. She

held a small clutch purse. The sweater covered the bruises on her

wrists. Probably why she had picked it, he thought. He was thankful

that her limp seemed to be gone.

“Going out?” Lee asked.

“Dinner. I’m starving.”

“I was going to make something.”

“I’d rather eat out. I’m getting cabin fever.”

“So where are you going?”

“Well, actually I thought we might go.”

Lee looked down at his faded khakis, deck shoes and short-sleeved Polo

shirt. “I look sort of ragged next to you.”

“You look fine.” She glanced at the holstered gun. “I’d leave the

six-shooter behind, though.”

He looked at her dress. “Faith, I’m not sure how comfortable you’ll be

on the Honda in that.”

“The country club’s only a half mile up the road. It has a public

restaurant. I thought we could walk. Looks to be a beautiful

evening.”

Lee finally nodded, understanding that getting out made perfect sense,

for a lot of reasons. “Sounds good. Give me a sec.” He ran upstairs,

slipped off his gun and put it in a drawer in his room. He splashed

water on his face, wet down his hair a little, grabbed his jacket and

joined Faith at the front door, where she was activating the alarm.

They left the house and crossed the service road. Reaching the

sidewalk, which ran parallel to the main road, they strolled along

under a sky that had changed from blue to pink as the sun sank.

Landscape lighting had come on in the common areas and so had the

underground sprinklers. The sound of the pressurized water was

soothing to Lee. The lighting lent a nice mood to the walk, he

thought. The whole place seemed to possess almost an ethereal glow, as

though they were in a perfectly lit scene from a movie.

Lee looked up in time to see a twin-prop airplane coming in for a

landing. He shook his head.

“Scared the hell out of me the first time I saw that thing this

morning.”

“It would have scared me too, except the first time I came here I was

flying on it. That’s the last flight for the evening. It’s getting

too dark now.”

They reached the restaurant, which was decorated with a distinctly

nautical theme: a big ship’s wheel at the front entrance, diving

helmets hung on the wall, fish netting suspended from the ceiling,

knotty pine walls, rope banisters and hand rails and an enormous

aquarium filled with castles, plant life and an odd assortment of fish

peeking out here and there. The servers were young, energetic and

attired in cruise line uniforms. The one attending Faith and Lee’s

table was particularly bubbly. She took their drink orders. Lee opted

for iced tea. Faith ordered a wine spritzer. That done, the waitress

proceeded to sing the specials for the day in a pleasant if wavering

alto. After she left, Faith and Lee looked at each other and had to

laugh.

While they waited for their drinks, Faith looked around the room.

Lee shot her a glance. “See anybody you recognize?”

“No.1 never really went out when I came down here. I was afraid I’d

run into someone I knew.”

“Stay cool. You look very different from Faith Lockhart.” He looked

her over. “And I should have said this before, but you look really .

well, you really look pretty tonight. I mean really fine.” He

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