"Kathleen Ann Goonan - Angels and You Dogs" - читать интересную книгу автора (Goose Mother)

She whirled around. "What is this?" She stared into a gaping
excavation gnawed from coral rock, which she had apparently not noticed
in her haste to rescue Ambrose.
"A lap pool." I lacked funds, as well as interest, right now, to take it to
the next stage. I was going to mention the just-completed hot tub, tucked
into the corner of the yard inside a bougainvillea-wrapped gazebo, but she
held up her hand when I opened my mouth.
"You will definitely have to cover this up. Ambrose could be seriously
injured if he fell in here. As could a member of the general public. A
Fed-Ex delivery person or something. A child a small, vulnerable,
adorable child who would thereafter require lifetime custodial care. This
hole in the ground is purely a monster suit waiting to happen."
 "Maybe it would be a good place to keep the dog."
"Yes," she said, gazing around. "Thank you, I forgot. We will have to
have a fence. We'll have to sink it into the ground so he can't dig
underneath. Don't you have a little outdoor table? It would be so darling.
Dining al fresco. Coffee and beignets in the cool of the morning. I found a
really good beignet mix." Her smile was predictably dazzling even white
teeth, red lipstick, crinkled-up eyes above a long, straight nose. She
reached out, inclined her head to gaze at me over the top of her Ray-Bans,
and gave my forearm a slight, intimate touch. "Don't bother yourself,
though, sweetie. I'll look for one at the yard sales this very Saturday."




.....



Lulu was a law student at Atlantic University. I had her father come up
from Miami, since he would be paying Lulu's rent. I supposed he was good
for it; he was a physician and ran a well-advertised liposuction and laser
clinic in Coral Gables which I imagined had a long waiting list of
congenitally displeased women, not to mention the huge supply of
youth-seeking men who needed all those services. Charles's new lover, for
instance, who was so old that he could probably stand to have the deep,
sun-etched wrinkles he most certainly had accumulated dermabrased. I
had never seen him, because Charles, apparently, kept us carefully apart
while closing his new deal, but I couldn't help but imagine him being at
the clinic and one or another of the expensive procedures getting out of
control. What a damned shame that would be.
Lulu's two young teenaged half-sisters accompanied their father, thin as
wands, straight dark hair parted down the middle, tight shirts not
meeting their tight pants so as to display the gold rings in their navels.
They did not remove their tiny headphones the entire time they were
there, though they checked the message screen of their cellphones often
enough for the gestures to qualify as tics and were completely
unimpressed by the soaking tub in Lulu's bathroom, which I was
beginning to wish I had taken for myself.