throw us together and smooth out any wrinkles.
Now, I won’t have you complaining and groaning when we call her from
Indianapolis. She’s out in San Francisco getting people to put down the
carpet, install the drapes, deliver the furniture . . . She has
enough on her mind without worrying about you.”
Colin thought about that as they rushed directly westward toward
Columbus. “Okay, he said at last. “I surrender. You have nineteen
years on me.”
Alex glanced at the boy, who gave him a shy under-the-eyebrows look, and
laughed quietly. “We’ll get along. I always thought we would.”
“Tell me one thing,” the boy said.
,what’s that?”
“You have nineteen years on me. And-six on Courtney? ”
“That’s right.”
“Do you make the rules and regulations for Courtney, too?”
“Nobody makes rules and regulations for Courtney,” Doyle said.
Colin folded his skinny arms over his chest and nodded smugly.
“That’s sure the truth. I’m glad you understand her. I wouldn’t give
this marriage six months if you thought you could tell Courtney to wear
her seatbelt.”
On both sides, flat fields spread out. Cows grazed. Scattered puffs of
clouds drifted lazily across the open sky.
After a while Colin said, “I’ll bet you half a buck I can estimate how
many cars will t pass us going east in the next five minutes and come
within ten of the real number.”
“Half a buck?” Alex asked. “You’re on.”
The dashboard clock ticked off the five minutes as they counted the
eastbound cars, announcing each one aloud. Colin was only three off his
estimate.
“Double or nothing?” the boy asked.
“What have I got to lose?” Alex asked, grinning, his confidence in the
trip and himself and the boy now all restored.
They played the game again. Colin’s estimate was only four cars off,
and he won another fifty cents. “Double or nothing?” he asked again,
rubbing his long-fingered hands together.
“I don’t think so,” Alex said suspiciously. “How’d you manage that?”
“Easy. I counted them to myself for half an hour until I saw what an
average five minutes brought. Then I asked you if you wanted to bet.”
“Maybe we ought to take a detour down to Las Vegas,” Alex said.
“I’ll just tag along with you in the casinos and do what you tell me.”
Colin was so pleased by the compliment that he could not think of
anything to say. He hugged himself and dropped his head, then looked
out the side window and smiled toothily at his own vague reflection in
the glass.
Although the boy was not aware of it, Doyle could see that reflection
when he took a quick look at Colin to see why he had become silent so
suddenly. Understanding, he grinned himself and relaxed against the
seat, the last bit of tension draining out of him.
He saw that he had not fallen in love with one person, but with two.
He loved this skinny, overly intellectual boy almost as much as he loved
Courtney. it was the sort of realization that could make a man forget
the uncertainty and shallow, disquieting fear of the morning.
When he originally mapped the trip and called ahead from Philly to make
reservations, and again when he mailed the roomdeposit check four days
ago, Doyle had told the people at the Lazy Time Motel that he and Colin
would arrive between seven and eight o’clock Monday evening. At
seven-thirty, precisely in the middle of his estimate, he drove into the
motel’s lot, just east of Indianapolis, and parked by the office Their
rooms were reserved ahead for the entire trip. Doyle did not want to
drive six hundred miles only to spend half the night looking for a
vacancy.
He shut off the headlights, then the car. The silence was eerie.
Gradually the traffic sounds from the Interstate came to him, forlorn
cries on the early-night air. “How’s this for a schedule?” he asked
Colin. “A hot shower, a good supper. Then we call Courtney-and hit the
sack for eight hours.”
“Sure,” Colin said. “But could we eat first? ” The request was an
unusual one for him. He was as light an eater as Doyle had been at his