It had been decided that it wouldn’t be safe for Rusty to return to his house in Folkstone or his charter fishing business in Dover until the Black Knights could identify Spider and either kill him or hand him over to the authorities,who would hopefully find him a moldy eight-by-ten in which to finish out his days.
“My life was already on hold,” he muttered.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing. Forget it.”
“Why are you suddenly being enigmatic?” She frowned. “Too much time around Christian and Angel? Have they rubbed off on you? What happened to the straight-shootin’ Midwesterner I’ve grown to know andlove?”
“Straight-shootin’?” He scoffed. “You heard me tell Ace I’m notout.” He made air quotes.
She shrugged. “I mean, I don’t really getwhyyou don’t tell people you’re gay. It’s nothing to be ashamed of, and fuck anyone who thinks it is, even if theyarerelated to you. Then again”—she made a face—“I’m probably not the best person to be handing out advice when it comes to familialrelationships. I might as well have been raised by a pack of wolves.”
For a moment, they both lapsed into silence. Then Emily spread her hands. “I guess the bottom line is this: It’s your life. Live it however you damn well please.”
“Thank you,” he said, still fuming over Ace and his holier-than-thou, gay-by-birth-fabulous-by-choice, proud-to-be-out-and-you-should-be-too judgmental self.“Try telling that to your fair-haired flyboy coworker. He seems to think I’m doing something wrong.”
She sighed. “I think that has more to do withhimthan you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean? What do you know?”
She hitched a slim shoulder. “That’s a conversation for you and Ace.”
The fact that she had interrupted what he assumed was going to be that very conversation was somethingRusty decided to keep to himself.
“But before we got off on this tangent, I was apologizing for getting you into this,” she said. “And before you start to argue again, Ididget you into this. You wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for me.”
Rusty happened tolikethe tangent, especially since it promised to shine some light on Ace’s behavior. But he knew a conversational stalemate when hesaw one. The look on Emily’s face on that subject screamed two words:dead end!
“You shoulder too much responsibility, dollface,” he told her. “Which makes you worry too much. It’s not your job to make sure everyone and everything is A-okay all the time.”
She chuckled. “Yeah, see? That’s where you’re wrong. I’m the office manager.Managerbeing the key word there. Making sure everyoneand everything is A-okay is part of the job description.”
Rusty regarded her for a few seconds. “I hope they realize what they have in you.”
“And what’s that?”
“Generosity of spirit. Consideration.Caring.In their line of work, that’s hard to come by. Caring too much means hurting too much if and when things go sideways and someone gets injured. Or worse, gets dead.”
The wordwas enough to make her blanch, but she feigned bravado. “I don’t know who you’re talking about. Generous? Considerate?Psshh.More like mouthy and nosy and pushy.”
It occurred to Rusty, not for the first time, that Emily had a strange habit of trying to convince herself and everyone around her that she was something she wasn’t. Something harder, meaner. Something decidedlyun-Emily.
“You’relike a Cadbury Crème Egg,” he told her.
She rolled her eyes. “This should be good.”
“Hard on the outside, but soft and sweet on the inside.”
“Dude, you are cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs. And how did this conversation get turned on me? Weren’t we talking about you and how badly I’ve fucked up your life?”
The fact that Rusty was beginning to realize he didn’t reallyhavea life, at leastnot the one he wanted, made him grit his jaw. “Nope.” He enunciated the word so thePreally popped.
“Hmm.” She frowned. “That’s strange. Because I could have sworn we were.”
For a long time, she watched him. No, not watched him.Lookedat him. Like she was trying to peer inside his soul. He shifted uncomfortably and sent a silent thanks skyward when she eventually shrugged and turnedher attention to the room. Once again, she began to hum that vaguely familiar tune.
“Whatisthat?” he asked. “I recognize it, but I can’t figure out from where.”
