Life Is A Beach: Life Is A Beach / A Real-Thing Fling. Pamela Browning

purple palm tree. “I don’t know. I’ll have to figure out a way. I think I’ll need a boat, since you can’t really toss ashes from shore without the prevailing winds throwing them back at you.”

      “You let me know what you’re going to do.”

      “I will, Uncle Nate. Thanks for the frozen yogurt.” She bent and kissed him on his wrinkled cheek.

      “You’ve got your yogurt class tonight, don’t you?”

      “Yoga. I practice yoga. I eat yogurt.” Her uncle had never been able to tell the difference between yoga and yogurt, which had been endearing at first, but now it was beginning to wear on her.

      “Okay, yoga. Didn’t I hear that the big cowboy was coming to class?”

      “Where did you hear that?” Karma uttered in surprise.

      “Goldy mentioned it. Is it true?”

      “I invited him. Not sure if he’ll be there tonight,” she hedged.

      Nate’s eyes twinkled. “He will be. I saw the way he looked at you the other morning.”

      “From your mouth to God’s ears,” Karma said, but Nate only laughed.

      “That’s my line,” he said, and it was true. Her uncle was always saying that.

      After she and Nate parted company at the corner, Karma walked slowly back to her office, wondering where would be the best place to hire a boat. She was still mulling this over as she climbed the stairs. The door swung open before she inserted her key.

      “Hi, Karma.” Jennifer, the same Jennifer who was eager to find a date who was husband material, had parked her sexy self in front of the TV in the alcove where clients were welcome to browse through videos of possible matches. “Aunt Goldy sent me over to take delivery of the couch and chairs for you, and I figured it’s a chance to check out new prospects. I’ve just met one, in fact.”

      “Oh?”

      “He said his name was Slade Braddock. He was looking for a psychological profile form and took one off your desk. I hope that’s okay.”

      Karma’s spirits fell. She wished she hadn’t missed him. “I guess it’s all right. Um, Jennifer, why aren’t you at work?”

      “I switched to the night shift.”

      “They have night shifts for ear piercers?”

      “Uh-huh. That’s when all the teenagers come in, and we’re having a special—two for the price of one.”

      “Two ears? You charge per ear?”

      Jennifer rolled her eyes. “No, silly. Two people for the price of one. You should come get your ears pierced while the sale’s on. Your belly button too. I’m not supposed to do belly buttons, but I’d make an exception for you.”

      Ouch! But, “I’ll think about it,” Karma said. To her dismay, the very video cassette that Jennifer now cradled in her eager little hands was labeled Slade Braddock, Client 1811.

      “This guy was soooo cool. I think I’ll pop this cassette in the VCR and see what he has to say.”

      “I haven’t edited it yet.”

      “I don’t care. Want to watch it with me?”

      Karma shook her head. “I’ve got things to do,” she said.

      Jennifer leaned forward, her breasts surging out of her vee neckline. They were conical in shape and tanned all over, at least from what Karma could see, which was considerable. Furthermore, it looked as if Jennifer had succeeded in her quest for artificial nipples. They were standing up straight and proud. Did guys really like that look? It seemed that as a matchmaker she ought to know such things.

      Jennifer noticed her scrutiny. “Yes, Karma, I did get them. Do you want to know where? I could—”

      “No, thanks,” Karma said hastily.

      Jennifer treated her to a knowing smile. “They’d help you in the guy department, believe me. By the way, I took a message for you.” She bounced over to the desk and ripped a pink message sheet off a pad. “The caller said she was your cousin Paulette. She said she was recently fired from her job in New York and wants you to call her back.”

      “Paulette? Call her back?” Despite Karma’s immediate sympathy for anyone who’d lost a job, this wasn’t anything she wanted to do. Paulette had been the butt of jokes from Karma and her sisters during their childhood. Karma knew she had never been completely forgiven for dipping the sleeping Paulette’s hand in a pail of warm water on the first night of sleep-away camp when they were both eight; Paulette had wet her bed, which was what Karma had been assured would happen. After that, Paulette’s nickname around camp had been P. P., which ostensibly stood for her initials, since her full name was Paulette Parham. But all the campers had known what the nickname really stood for, and the counselors probably did, too.

      “Come on, Karma, sit down and watch with me.” Jennifer tugged Karma into the alcove and pushed on her shoulders until she sat on the chair.

      “Roll tape,” Jennifer sang out as she pushed the play button, and Slade’s face popped up on the screen. A good-humored face, an animated face—until Karma asked him the first question and he froze up.

      As Slade hemmed and hawed his way down into the conversational skids, Karma slid a glance in Jennifer’s direction to gauge her reaction. “Not much of a talker,” was all she said.

      “Mmm,” Karma said noncommittally.

      “Still,” Jennifer mused as Slade started running on about birds, “he’s a hottie. I can’t see what’s the big whoop about roseate spoonbills and great blue herons, they sound boring to me, but I think I’ll give Mr. Slade Braddock a whirl.”

      Karma’s heart sank.

      Jennifer switched off the tape. “Set it up for Friday night, won’t you, Karma?”

      “Well, I—”

      “I mean, why not?” Jennifer skewered her with a look.

      “I’ll have to check to see if he’s busy,” Karma hedged, getting up and shuffling through a pile of papers on her desk.

      “Aunt Goldy says she’s met him. She says he’s nice. What do you think? Are we well suited, he and I?”

      “Why don’t I study your personality profiles in relation to each other and get back to you on that? Of course, I won’t see his until he brings it back.”

      Jennifer shrugged, which went a long way to show off her breast assets. “Oh, don’t bother with that psychology stuff. I want to go out with him. Friday night is good because my mother is trying to set me up with her best friend’s son, Sheldon. If I already have a date, Mom won’t insist.” She flipped her hair back off her shoulders, and Karma was nearly blinded by the shimmer of it in the slant of sunshine coming in the window. Slade, she thought sourly, would go crazy at the sight of Jennifer.

      “So do you promise to set it up?”

      “All right,” Karma said reluctantly. “I’ll do it.”

      “Tell Slade to pick me up at seven,” Jennifer said airily on her way out the door.

      When she had gone, Karma collapsed onto her desk chair and pillowed her head on her arms in dismay at the thought of setting Slade up with Jennifer.

      “Well, he may be a client, but Jennifer won’t like him,” counseled the Aunt Sophie side of her. In fact, the voice in her head sounded so much like her aunt’s that Karma’s head jerked up in surprise.

      Whereupon the Karma side of her cautioned, “Why wouldn’t Slade like Jennifer? She’s blond, sexy and eager.”

      Unfortunately it was the Karma side of her that made the most sense.

      Still