Dawn Patrol

107

Yeah, as a matter of fact.

Ten minutes later he walks out of the building with Petra. She tries to put a brave face on things. “At least now,” she says, “you can catch your ‘big swell.’”

“Doesn't matter,” Boone says.

It doesn't? Petra thinks. Because it certainly seemed to matter a great deal just a day ago. My God, could it have been just a day?

Boone asks, “Can I borrow your car?”

To go to the beach? she wonders. She starts to ask, but there's an energy to him that makes her stop. It's a man she hasn't seen before- intense, focused. It's admirable, but also a little frightening.

“You're not going to push it off a cliff, are you?” she asks.

“Not planning on it.”

She digs into her purse and hands him the keys.

“Thanks,” Boone says. “I'll get it back to you.”

“I'm taking that to mean,” Petra says, “that you don't want me to go with you.”

He looks at her with seriousness that, again, she hasn't seen in him before, and again, that simultaneously scares and excites her.

“Look,” he says, “there are some things you have to do alone. Can you dig that?”

“I can.”

“I'm going to make this all right.”

“I know you are.”

He leans down and kisses her lightly on the cheek, then turns and walks away with a stride that she can only describe to herself as “purposeful.”

She gets it.

Thinks, You have a few things to make right, yourself.

Petra calls a cab and tells the driver to take her to The Sundowner.