“Hey there. I was beginning to get worried about you two. How was your day?”

“It was good,” Deanna answered. “We had lunch in Provincetown, then did a little shopping. How did your game go today?”

“Pretty well. If I hadn’t bogeyed the last two holes, I would have shot an eighty.”

“Well, you’re just going to have to play a little more until you get it right.”

Brian laughed. “You won’t mind?”

“Of course not.”

Brian smiled as he rustled the paper, content with the fact that he could spend a lot of time on the course this week. Recognizing his signal that he wanted to get back to reading, Deanna whispered in Theresa’s ear, “Take it from me. Let a man play golf and he’ll never raise a fuss about anything.”

*  *  *

Theresa left the two of them alone for the rest of the afternoon. Since the day was still warm, she changed into the new suit she had bought, grabbed a towel and small fold-up chair and People magazine, then went to the beach.

She thumbed idly through People, reading a few articles here and there, not really interested in what was happening to the rich and famous. All around her she could hear the laughter of children as they splashed in the water and filled their pails with sand. Off to one side of her were two young boys and a man, presumably their father, building a castle near the water’s edge. The sound of the lapping waves was soothing. She put down the magazine and closed her eyes, angling her face toward the sun.

She wanted a little color by the time she got back to work, if for no other reason than to look as though she had taken some time to do absolutely nothing.