”My pleasure. Young people must learn, after all.” Goldie’s cheeks were faintly flushed. No one loved a scam quite as much as Goldie Morran.
Unless, of course, it was Kit Carson.
Two weeks later, Malcolm Moore’s computer-mail queue beeped, letting him know he had a package from up time waiting at Customs. He signed for the box, which had been sealed by up-time ATF customs authorities. The return address was scrawled in Margo’s hand. Malcolm spotted a second package like it for Kit.
He grinned, then made tracks for the Neo Edo.
”Kit around?”
”Yeah,” Jimmy told him. “It’s paperwork day again. You want me to buzz him?”
”Nah. I’ll surprise him.”
Jimmy grinned. “That man will do anything to avoid paperwork.”
Malcolm laughed. “Can you blame him?”
”Hell, no.”
Malcolm rapped on the office door. Kit’s “Yeah, it’s open” sounded vastly relieved
Malcolm slid back the door and kicked off his shoes. He held up his mail. “Package from Margo. There’s one for you, too, waiting at Customs.”
Kit came around the desk like a thrown baseball: “Well, open it!”
Malcolm tore the seals and ripped open the cardboard. Inside was a metal box which he tilted carefully out. The lid slipped back to reveal a single item: a glittering diamond in the rough, nearly as big as Malcolm’s thumbnail.
Kit whooped. “She did it!”
Malcolm held it up to the light, then whistled. She sure had. “That,” Malcolm sighed, “is truly beautiful.” And if she still felt the same way in a few months, maybe he’d even have it made into a ring …
Well, stranger things had happened to him lately. Their parting had been enough to shake both of them to the core. Who knew? Maybe she’d even broken his notorious string of bad luck?