"Seventy-eight!" Calla reported later that day. "People apologized to me seventy-eight times."
We were back at the Pierce house, along with Grace (we never leave without her, no matter how hard we've tried), Margaret, Charles, Charles's wife Katherine, B.J., Peg, Erin, Jacob, Rose (who had been left with the Hunnicutts' babysitter, Emily, at their hotel), and--surprise--the Klingers! They had arrived just as the last ding of the church bell was played, because of some bad weather over Delaware.
"I counted one hundred twenty-two," said Hawkeye.
"WHY would you count?" Margaret asked.
They shrugged.
"Hawkie," began Grace, "why didn't I get anything in the will?"
"Because you've been nothing but an annoyance since you first showed up here!" Hawkeye exploded. "You've been hanging on me like a leech and I can't even go to the bathroom without you waiting outside the door!"
Grace crossed her arms. "Sor-reeeeeeeee."
"She waited for you while you were in the bathroom?" Nancy (who was four) screeched, and broke into giggles.
"Yes, sweetie, and we call that 'perversion'," Hawkeye said to her. "Can you say that? 'Perversion'."
"Perservion," Nancy repeated sweetly.
"Good job."
XXX
It was about ten o'clock when I walked outside to get some fresh air. Hawkeye was sitting on the dock, drinking something out of a bottle.
"You all right?" I asked.
"Have you ever noticed ripples? How they just...they never end."
Not the response that I had been expecting, but knowing Hawkeye, it had some sort of psychological meaning.
I sat down next to him. "I'm sorry."
"One-twenty-three." He took a sip out of the bottle, and offered it to me. "Want some?"
"Sure." I took it and lifted it to my lips. "This didn't come out of the still, did it?"
"That thing is in Boston...if Charles didn't throw it away."
"Charles took the still?" I asked, amazed.
"We gave it to him as a...hic...goodbye gift." Hawkeye grinned.
"And he accepted it?"
Raising his eyebrows, Hawkeye said, "It was given by an anonymous doner."
I burst out laughing as I took a drink out of the bottle.
"Shh, shh, don't tell him."
I swallowed. "This isn't bad."
Hawkeye took back the bottle. "I just got a wonderful idea."
"What?" I asked.
"Let's go swimming."
"Now?" I said. "Hawkeye, you're crazy."
He stood up. "Ladies first."
"You are not going to get me into that frigid water." I crossed my arms.
Taking that statement as a dare, Hawkeye grabbed me in his arms and leaped into the water. We both screamed.
"This is not a heated swimming pool!" I shouted, trying to tread water. "I'm going to get pnemonia and...and..."
Just to shut me up, Hawkeye kissed me.
A/N: My computer has been really stupid lately, so I hope that this actually POSTS...and fan fiction .net comes up on the screen!