Chapter 13. Conditions

“Condition one,” Diana said in the back of the car the next evening. “Nothing I wouldn’t pick myself. If you start saying we’ll take the whole rack, I’m getting out at the next light.”

“Agreed.”

“Condition two. When I say that’s enough, it’s enough. No one more thing.”

“Agreed.” He was trying very hard not to smile.

“Condition three.” She held up three fingers. “You’re not allowed to make the staff nervous.”

“I don’t make them anything.”

“You walk into a room and a waiter forgets his own name. Turn it down.”

“How?”

“I don’t know. Slouch.”

The round-glasses assistant, driving, made a very small sound that might have been a cough.

Gabriel looked at the back of his assistant’s head. Then he looked at Diana. Then, slowly and with enormous dignity, he slouched about two degrees.

Diana laughed so hard she had to hold onto the door handle.

When he rested his hand on the seat between them, she noticed his knuckle. Last