“Well, I do have on the disguise, and you put so much hard work into it. And we really need some fresh food,” she sighed resignedly.
* * *
“Wow. This town is amazing,” Gia said several minutes later, staring out the window as Seth drove into Vulture’s Canyon. To call it a town was being liberal. She stared at the ancient, weathered storefronts that looked as if they might have been built in the 1800s. It brought to mind Western ghost towns—or it would have, if there hadn’t been several long-haired, free-spirited types standing next to paintings that were leaned against the graying storefront of the Dyer Creek Trading Company. Apparently they were the artists who had done the paintings. Since Main Street was otherwise completely desolate, Gia wondered if the artists weren’t one another’s best customers.
Seth parked in front of the Legion Diner, and they both got out. Some bells tinkled as they walked inside the neat, nearly empty restaurant. An older couple sitting at a booth to the right of them looked around.
“Monty. Olive,” Seth said cordially. The grizzly-looking man named Monty nodded his head while the gray-haired woman called out a pleasant greeting. “Hey, Errol,” Seth said quietly as he passed the next booth, where a dark-haired man wearing a grimy hat sat studying something in his hand. Errol didn’t respond, but Seth didn’t really seem to expect him to.
“Well, if it isn’t the world traveler,” Seth said as they approached the long Formica-topped bar that ran the length of the diner. He put out his hand to a good-looking, tanned man with tousled ashy blond hair who looked like he could have modeled for a rugged-outdoor-clothing company.
“Seth. Good to see you,” the man greeted Seth in an Australian accent as he shook his hand. “Yeah, we just got back from a trip to Australia, New Zealand and Japan. It was only partially business. I took Sherona home to meet my dad for the first time,” the man said, a twinkle in his eye.
“How’d that go?” Seth asked dryly.
“Brilliant, considering the old man was on low boil ever since he heard Sherona and I eloped. Sherona had him purring in the palm of her hand in no time though. Who’s your friend?” he asked, glancing at Gia.
“Chance Hathoway, meet my nephew, Jessie Bauer.”
“Nephew? Nice to meet you,” he said, extending a big paw across the counter. Gia practiced her man shake for the first time. “I didn’t know Seth had a nephew.”
“I’m sort of newly discovered,” Gia said in her boy voice, glancing aside with Jessie-awkwardness and shifting her feet. She noticed Chance’s slightly bemused expression. “It’s a long story,” Gia added under her breath.
“Those are the best kinds. You’ll have to settle in and tell it sometime,” he said, giving Seth an amused glance. “You a surfer, then?”
“Yeah. How’d you know that?”
Chance just nodded at the T-shirt she was wearing beneath her plaid overshirt. She’d forgotten that the small logo on it was of a popular surfwear company.
“Oh. Yeah,” she grinned sheepishly, hunching her shoulders with her hands in her pocket.
“Where do you surf?”
She noticed Seth giving her a wry glance. She resisted frowning at his subdued amusement while she was put through the paces of her role.
“Mostly near home in La Jolla. Scripps Pier, Oceanside, Swami’s, Trestles, when I’m feeling ambitious,” she grinned.
“Did you do Lower Trestles?” Chance asked.
“Yeah, it rips.”
“I was there once when the water was like glass. It was pure magic. What kind of a board do you—hey, babe,” he broke off, glancing over his shoulder when a pretty auburn-haired woman stepped out of a swinging door.
“We wanted to stop by and thank you for dropping off the food. It was a lifesaver,” Seth said. “Sherona Hathoway, this is my nephew, Jessie Bauer.”
“Hi. Yeah, the food was great. Thanks,” Gia said.
“No problem,” Sherona assured them warmly, coming to stand next to Chance. “I know how isolated things can get up there in the forest.” Chance put his arm around her familiarly, rubbing the curve of her hip. Clearly these two were crazy about each other. Sherona glanced up fondly into Chance’s face. Gia saw the warm amusement in her eyes.
“And how did that conversation end up getting them a front-row seat to the Great Surfing Moments of Chance Hathoway?”
“I wasn’t spouting off. Jessie’s a surfer too,” Chance said, shrugging insouciantly.
They talked with the nice couple for several minutes, Gia becoming more relaxed when they seemed to accept her Jessie character.
“I should turn you over my knee for that,” Seth muttered when they returned to the truck and started down the deserted Main Street. She could tell by the slight quirk of his lips he was kidding.
“Twice in twenty-four ho