“I’ll await your call.”
“Thank you, Commander.”
Stone hung up and called Josie.
“We got the green light from the Coast Guard,” he told her.
“Excellent. I’ll let Xavier know.”
“I know you said the boat might be ready on Sunday, but I have to go out of town tomorrow and likely won’t be back until Sunday morning at the earliest.”
“Taking a little holiday?” she teased.
“Attending a friend’s funeral.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” she said, her playful tone dissipating. “I didn’t realize.”
“There’s no reason you would.”
“Well, I am sorry you lost a friend.”
“Thank you, but that’s still up for debate.”
“Up for debate?”
“It’s a long story that I will be happy to tell you someday.”
“You’ve piqued my curiosity, so I’m going to hold you to that.”
“Please do.”
They said their goodbyes, and as soon as Stone hung up, Joan buzzed him again.
“Dino on two.”
“Thanks.” Stone picked up line two. “Good morning, Dino.”
“Dinner tonight?”
“Clarke’s? Seven?”
“See you then.” Dino hung up.
As Stone put the receiver down, Joan buzzed again. He could see that line two was on hold.
He hit theSpeakerbutton. “That was too quick for it to be Dino calling back.”
“You’re right,” Joan said.
He waited, but when she didn’t say anything more, he asked, “Are you going to tell me who it is?”
“I thought you were trying to guess.”
“I wasn’t.”
“Oh, well. You probably wouldn’t have gotten it right anyway.”
“Joan, who’s on the phone?”
