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Montovani’s
was a small hole-in-the-wall establishment in downtown Regal, run by a local
Italian family who was rumored to have Mafia ties, but Nathan just chalked that
up to small-town boredom looking for drama. He found them to be honest,
hard-working people who could make a lasagna to die for.
He
arrived a few minutes before Sally, and secured a table near a street-side
window. He considered sitting on the patio, but it was a humid evening, so he
decided an indoor table was best. The tables were covered with traditional red
and white checkered tablecloths and every chair in the restaurant seemed to be
different, which gave the place a flea market look, but its eclectic style
created a quaint, comfortable atmosphere. Nathan wasn’t much for fancy places
and there weren’t any of those, as far as he knew, in Regal. A plump young
dark-haired woman came by to take his drink order. Nathan ordered the house
red. He knew nothing about wine, but he figured it wouldn’t look very
sophisticated to Sally if he was sitting there with a beer.
Nathan
looked up from the menu and saw Sally walk in and say a few words to the
hostess, who directed her to Nathan’s table. He rose from his chair to greet
her.
“Well,
hello, Ms. Tate.” Nathan’s eyes lit up with approval. She was wearing a snug
black skirt and satin blouse.
“Hello
yourself Sheriff Davis,” Sally put out her hand to shake his. He took it into
his and patted it with his left hand.
“You
look stunning, I must say. And no need for the formal sheriff stuff. Nathan is
fine with me.” He pulled out a chair for her to be seated next to him and
helped her scoot it close to the table.
“Well,
thank you…Nathan.” Sally hesitated as if the word was foreign to her. “This
place is so cute. I wouldn’t have pegged you as the romantic type.”
“Now,
wait a minute…don’t go gettin’ any wild ideas about me. But I do have some
class, especially when it comes to beautiful women.” His white smile stretched
from ear to ear.
“Well,
I’ll take that as a compliment,” Sally blushed a little as she picked up a
menu. “What’s your favorite dish here?”
“Definitely
the four-cheese lasagna. But I don’t think you can get a bad meal here – at
least that’s what I hear. I always get the lasagna.” Nathan hated admitting his
propensity for boring routines.
“I
could have figured that about you. When ya find a good thing, stick with it.
Why venture out, right?”
“I
guess…I’m not sure if you think that’s a positive or not.” Nathan was peering
over his reading glasses like an old man assessing his grandchild. With
self-awareness, he pulled off his glasses and put the menu down, realizing he
really had no need to look at it.
“It
wasn’t meant to be either one. I just think I know your type.” She was smiling
playfully while reading the menu.
“And
what, pray tell, do you think my type is?”
She
laid the menu down to answer his question without distraction.
“I
would say Nathan Davis is a rule follower, a facilitator of justice, freedom
and the American way. There is a right way and wrong way to do things, and once
he knows what is right, there is no need to go looking for trouble. Just do the
right thing and everybody will be the better for it.”
She
stopped to get his assessment and folded her hands in front of her in a
confident gesture.
“Damn,
girl,” Nathan joked. “You hit the nail on the head and aren’t you so proud to
know it?”
“Yeah,
well, you’re not that tough to figure out. It’s quite attractive, and even
refreshing in some ways. You know…the protector and hero every girl wants to
rescue her from life’s dragons.”
“Sounds
like there’s a history there, but I won’t ask you to reveal it just yet. So,
wanna know what I think of Miss Tater Tot?”
“Jeez,
Nathan, I wish you wouldn’t do that…it’s so…so countrified.”
“Yeah,
and I’m a country boy,” Nathan began to laugh. “And I do it mostly because it
annoys the heck out of you.”
“Okay,
okay. I’m dying to know what you think you know about me.” Sally had picked up
the menu again to look it over.
“Let’s
see. Sally Tate is a country girl at heart, turned Atlanta jet-setter, who
doesn’t like to be told how things really are. She likes to fantasize about how
things could be. So, she gets offended by comments that aren’t so politically
correct, even if they come from a hero like me.” He softened his voice for effect.
“But deep down, she likes the safety of someone who tells the truth, even if
it’s a little scary.” His eyes softened and as they did, she melted into them
as she looked up from the menu. For a moment, she was silent, as if she had
been undressed, hoping not to call attention to herself.
“How’d
I do?” Nathan refused to take his eyes off of hers.
“Fair
to midlin’…” She was not going to admit he was spot on.
“Fair
to what?” Nathan looked confused.
“You
know, fair to midling…so, so…almost there, but not quite. It’s a Midwest
saying.”
“We
don’t talk like that down here, Missy.” Nathan was exaggerating his southern
accent, while letting her off the hook for not admitting he was right about
her.
Sally
laughed at his fake drawl, which was interrupted by the waitress who asked for
her drink order.
“I’ll
try the Malbec, thank you.”
“Are
you ready to order?” The waitress inquired politely.
“Give
us a few minutes to chat over our wine first, if you don’t mind.” Nathan was
enjoying Sally’s company and didn’t want to be bothered with the food details
yet.
“Nice,”
acknowledged Sally. “I had no idea you would know how to conduct yourself in
such a chivalrous manner. You just took charge there, didn’t you?”
“I
invited you, so it’s my party tonight.”
“Okay,
I’ll accept that. Soooo, was there
another reason we were meeting tonight or did you just want to harass me about
my Midwest colloquialisms?”
Nathan
knew that was a trick question to get him to commit that this was either a date
or a business meeting. He was not going to reveal himself that easily.
“My
first goal was to tease and harass you about many things, which I’m not done with,
by the way. And my second purpose was to pick your brain about Clyde Eddy.”
“Well,
there is a lot to tell. Have you got all night?” She didn’t seem to want the
flirting to end.
Nathan
cleared his throat on purpose, to let her know he wasn’t sure how to answer
that question.
“Is
that an invitation?” He felt like he had just achieved a checkmate. She was
cornered now.
She
began to respond with a look of sarcasm when Nathan’s cell phone rang with the
ring tone he used for urgent calls. Sally stopped in mid-sentence when he
looked down at his phone.
Nathan
looked up at her. “I need to get this. Do you mind?”
“Of
course not, go ahead.” Sally took another sip of her wine.
It
was Tommy reporting that the lab was able to match Lance Eddy’s truck tires to
the tire tracks at the scene and that the gun found in Eddy’s home was
registered in Julia Olwen’s name.
“Ya
don’t say,” Nathan responded with reserve in front of Sally, although he wanted
to jump up and say hot damn! “Okay. Get the warrant and I’ll meet you at
his place in about an hour.” Tommy then told Nathan that Eddy was at a family
gathering at his mother’s home. “That complicates things a little,” Sally heard
Nathan reply, “but we’ll figure it out. Thanks, Buddy.” Nathan ended the call,
looking like the Cheshire cat.
Sally
looked confused.
“Don’t
tell me you are gonna cut out on me again. I’m starting to get a complex,
Nathan Davis.”
Nathan
smiled like a ten-year-old on Christmas morning.
“Do
you want an exclusive?”
“What?”
“Do
you want first dibs on the story of the week?”
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