Dates And Other Nuts Read Online Free

took another sip of cola.
    It’s as hot as blue blazes in here. Grams, I hope you appreciate this.
    Slipping back into the water, the dolphins swam around, picking up speed. In no time, Rocco was doing seventy around the pool’s perimeter.
    Fascinated in spite of herself by the animals’ artistry, Temple edged forward in her seat to get a better look as she absently nibbled popcorn.
    Suddenly, Rocco torpedoed out of the water, made a sharp ten-foot arc in the air and flipped three times before plunging back into the crystal-blue water.
    Temple heard the sharp crack of four hundred pounds of mammal flesh splitting water at precisely the same time a twenty-foot wall of water swamped her.
    The impact bowled her backward, knocking the cola out of her hand and sending her popcorn flying.
    Stunned, she lay in a pool of fishy-smelling water, staring sightlessly at the sky, while everyone clapped at Rocco’s fine performance.
    â€œCOOL!” Darrell shouted, apparently not bothered by the tidal wave. There wasn’t a dry thread on him, nor on anyone else seated in rows one through six.
    Realizing her feet were sticking straight up in the air, giving Darrell and the fifteen hundred others around him a bird’s-eye view of her Victoria’s Secrets, Temple rolled over and sat up. She knew her mascara lay in black puddles underneath her eyes, and she could feel her hair slicked to her head in irregular waves.
    Darrell glanced over. “NEED A HAND?”
    Humiliated, the old gag line Need a hand? and someone clapped, popped into Temple’s mind.
    Before she could stop him, he’d jerked her upright.
    Landing on her feet, she frantically strained soggy popcorn through her teeth to keep from choking. The pungent fish odor radiating from her blouse was nauseating. She stood for a moment, trying to get her bearings. She was afraid to lick her lips. She was fairly certain that dolphin water wasn’t sanitary.
    Absently tapping her on the back, Darrell’s gaze remained fixed on the show.
    â€œWATER FELT GOOD, DIDN’T IT!”
    By now, Temple could feel every eye in the stadium centered on them, and the spectacle she’d just made of herself.
    â€œGreat!”
    Her hair hung in matted, wet clumps around her face, streaming with water. She plucked at her blouse, pulling it away from her skin in a futile effort to keep what Grams would call “decent.”
    When the show was over, Darrell suggested they go directly to the Shumay the Killer Whale show.
    Hear that, Grams? Shumay. Killer whale. Happy?
    Limping up the stairs to her front door later that afternoon, Temple turned to wave goodbye to Darrell with rabid relief that the day was finally over.
    Inside her apartment, she collapsed on the sofa. Her clothes were sticking to her like clammy cheesecloth. Her hair would take a week of reconditioning. Her shoulders and nose were sunburned. Her feet felt as if she’d walked barefoot over a bed of hot coals, her sandals were ruined and the backs of her heels were turning purple.
    Staring at the ceiling, Temple groaned. She knew finding Mr. Wonderful wasn’t going to be easy, but this was ridiculous.
    She wasn’t operating under the Law of Averages; she was cursed by Murphy’s Law.

3
    F LO LARSON, who ran the car rental booth at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, leaned back in her seat and lit a cigarette, clearly enjoying the twenty-minute ride to the airport.
    â€œYou threw him out a second-story window? It’s a wonder you didn’t kill the poor man,” Temple marveled. Edgar Winters was eighty-three years old if he was a day!
    â€œAw, didn’t hurt anything but the old goat’s pride.” Flo took another drag from her cigarette before biting into a glazed doughnut. Temple could practically hear the cholesterol, fat, and triglycerides explode in Flo’s veins.
    â€œFlo, why?”
    â€œLike I said. I caught him in bed with Ruthie