“Oh, her!” She made a gesture of dismissal and emptied her glass, and settled back again with her cigarette. “Ann is the perpetual adolescent. She chased after Ralph for years and she never did forgive me for marrying him.”
Shayne took a long drink, then asked, “So, you’re going back to Wilmington tonight. Do you have to?”
“Yes. I — Mr. Bates made the reservation. Of course, I have to go.” She smiled and added, “Which doesn’t leave us much time for those drinks.”
Shayne filled her glass the third time. “You don’t have to stay in Wilmington, do you?”
“Not forever, I hope.” She smiled quite gaily and sipped at her cocktail. “I wouldn’t call this really weak yet. A little more and I’ll be tight enough to tell you what I really came to say.”
“Have a little more by all means,” he invited with a wide grin. “If you should happen to miss that plane?”
“No,” she said quickly. “I really mustn’t do that. That’s why, well—” She fluttered her eyelids and took a deep drink, as though seeking courage to go on.
Shayne didn’t help her. He crushed out his cigarette, sipped, and waited.
“That’s the reason why I wanted to tell you I hope to come back to Miami in a few weeks,” she said breathlessly.
“I hoped you were going to say that, Nora.”