Page 22 of Return of the Spider

14

In our apartment now,Maria pivoted from the stove holding a plate of baked chicken thighs, rice, and broccoli spears.

“What are you smiling at, Alex Cross?” she asked in that soft, teasing voice I loved. “You’re that hungry?”

“Just remembering how you blew me off the first time I asked you out.”

“Asked me out? Blew you off?” she said in mild protest. “You asked if I wanted to grab coffee so you could pick my brain, and I said I’d take a rain check on the coffee.”

“But you didn’t say no to a glass of wine.”

“No, sir,” Maria said, sitting down as I began to eat. “I was going against my mom’s voice in my head saying, ‘You don’t know him at all.’ But I did say yes to wine.”

“Happy you did,” I said, raising my beer.

My wife clinked her glass of water against my bottle, beaming back at me.

“Did you know right away?” I knew the answer but still enjoyed hearing her reply.

“I knew that night. I’ve told you that.”

“What was it?”

“It wasn’t one thing. More like a bunch of things at once. I guess first was how you really listened to me, how intent you were about wanting to know what I thought.”

“You were an expert on some topics in psychology.”

“It was more than that, I think,” she said.

“I was shocked by your beauty.”

“Aww,” she said and smiled. “Tell me more.”

“Hector Munoz was too. He was hitting on you, and you used it against him.”

“Of course I did. The power of the feminine has always been my secret weapon.”

“Thank God,” I said and laughed. “We did talk for hours that night.”

“They kicked us out of the bar.”

“I asked you if anyone had ever told you that you were the most charming, intelligent, and beautiful woman they’d ever met.”

“Don’t forget ‘inside and out,’” she said. “That’s what you said. ‘Has anyone ever told you that you’re the most charming, intelligent, and beautiful woman, inside and out, that they’d ever met?’”

I acted crestfallen. “And you said, ‘Yes. A couple of times, actually.’”

She raised her eyebrows. “I wasn’t being arrogant. Just truthful. And I didn’t leave you hanging there, did I?”

“No. You said, ‘But I have never been told that I was charming,intelligent, and beautiful by someone as tall, well-spoken, and handsome as you.’”

Maria laughed and ran her hands over her belly. “Good line off-the-cuff, huh?”

“Provoked the beginning of my bad back when I bent over to kiss you. That’s when I knew for certain.”

“Because your back went out, you knew you loved me?”

“No. It was when we kissed that first time. I just knew. There was before that kiss and afterward, and I had not a second of doubt about who you were.”