"Great, that'll give you a chance to bring it up with them."
"I don't know, sis. Nick's not the kind of guy who's going to appreciate my butting in. If he wants to talk about it he'll bring it up on his own."
"John, you know that Uncle Nick is never in a million years going to admit there's something he can't handle. You're going to have to do it."
"Yeah, but I don't like-"
"I'm relying on you, John."
Silence.
"John?"
"Jeez,” he exclaimed, “you know something, Brenda?"
"What?"
"Sometimes you can be every damn bit as bad as Nelson."
"Heaven forfend,” Brenda said.
Chapter 3
****Brian sat bolt-upright in the unzipped sleeping bag, not sure what had brought him awake with his heart pounding. A sound, a light, a movement in the bushes?
"Anybody there?” he called into the darkness, still muddled with sleep.
There was no answer, of course, and after a few seconds, as consciousness flooded back, his pulses stopped their hammering and he quieted down. What animal was there on Raiatea that would harm a man? And there was probably no other human being within ten miles. Silly to react like that, but he had had such a strong, sudden sense of…of presence. It had been a dream, naturally-what else?-although it seemed to him that he had been dreaming about Therese. He had surprised her with some silly gift she'd wanted and she had laughed…
He lay back and resettled himself in the bag. Around him the night was silent and soft, the southern constellations as brilliant as diamonds. An exquisite little breeze, heavy with the fragrance of orange blossom and gardenia, flowed over his face. Hibiscus trees, silhouetted against the star-flecked sky, drowsed at the edge of the clearing. From far away, near the lagoon, came the weird, repetitive cry of some seabird, a hollow, echoing wuh…wuh…wuh…