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elephant—but he played along with a smile, “And they say I’m hardheaded.”
    “What can I say, she’s tough as nails. A couple of months ago these older brats in the neighborhood conned her into playing in their sandbox. To make a long story short, they shoved sand into her eyes and mouth. The sand caused an abrasion on her cornea. She never complained, but her vision seemed off, so we brought her to the eye doctor. The doctor was astonished at her pain tolerance for such a deep cut.”
    “Sounds like she takes after her dad.”
    Chuck sadly shook his head. “Except my wife has succeeded in turning her into a girl. Do you know what she asked for her birthday?”
    “She told me—a big girl bike.”
    “Besides that.”
    “I don’t know, what?”
    “A dress and a Barbie doll!”
    Billy chuckled. “You’ve definitely lost her.”
    “I’m not dead yet, she’s still the best street hockey player in the neighborhood.”
    “Speaking of which, is Slap Shot really her favorite movie?”
    Chuck’s Hulk-like chest shot out with pride. “There’s not even a close second. She can recite every line.”
    “She’s very bright for her age. Maybe that’s why she has trouble in school. I once read that Einstein was so bored with school he became disruptive and got kicked out.”
    “She can tell you all the planets in the Milky Way and interesting facts about them at age four. I’m thirty-five and all I know are a few Uranus jokes and that Pluto was a dog. She takes after her mother.”
    “You said Beth is going back to school. What’s she studying?”
    “Her adopted mother, Mrs. B, was a political science professor at Siena College up near Albany, before the Boulangers moved to Greenwich. And Beth wants to follow in her footsteps. She attended Siena also—at the same time I was playing hockey up there, which is how we met—but had to leave when Carolyn came along and never finished. And like Mrs. B, she’s a political junkie, so don’t bring up the situation in Iran unless you’re ready for a fight.”
    “The situation in Iran?”
    Chuck looked at Billy as if he were a space alien. “The hostages...like on then news every night. Are you really that out of it?”
    Billy shook his head. “I guess I am. The only Iran hostages I ever heard of were from back during the Carter Administration. Are these some sort of retro hostages from the past?”
    Chuck’s gaze turned troubled. “Hostage from the past. That’s an interesting way to put it, because the past happens to be holding my wife hostage. She blames it every time Carolyn has an incident in school or gets a fever.”
    “I’ve found that if you live in the past it will suck the life out of you,” Billy spoke from experience. “And never look in the rear-view mirror because the past will always be gaining on you.”
    Then Billy looked up to see his past walking directly toward them.
     

Chapter 6
     
    Billy couldn’t take his eyes off of the waitress as she glided toward their table. And not just because she was drop-dead gorgeous. He recognized her from his past, although he’d never met her before.
    She was college age, but had a much older aura about her. She wore a black Durazzo’s T-shirt tied in a knot above her mid-drift, exposing flat abs and a gold belly-chain that read Kaylee . In case that didn’t catch your attention, her shorts were Hooters-short, barely covering her tanned legs.
    She greeted Chuck by planting a kiss on his cheek, and purred, “How’s my teddy bear?”
    Billy cleared his throat. “ Uh-um .”
    She turned and met Billy’s gawk. Her eyes were the color of trouble.
    “So Chuck, when did you start hanging around with George Clooney?” she asked, holding her gaze on Billy.
    Chuck made the introductions, “This is our new tenant, Billy Harper. Billy I’d like to introduce you to Kaylee.”
    She shook his hand, letting her soft grip linger. “Billy the tenant, I’m Kaylee the waitress. And B-T-W, I meant the