She shouldn’t have told him.
“Are you being serious right now?”she demanded.
“No, baby.”He gave her fingers a squeeze while he totallylied, “I’d never do something like that.”
“You’re totally lying, aren’t you?”
He decided not to field that one.
“Dutch!”she snapped.
“What would you do if some woman I didn’t want to touch myjunk, touched my junk?”he asked.
“I wouldn’t rough her up,” she answered.
“Babe,” he said low.
He’d seen her go after her sister for doing a lot less justthe day before.
So she couldn’t stick with that.
And she didn’t.
“Okay, if I witnessed it, I’d probably lose my mind and Iwould like to say I could hold my temper without it getting physical, but yourjunk isyourjunk and that issonot okay.But I’d also liketo think that, given time, cooler heads would prevail.”
“And?”
“And what?”
“And you know where to find this woman and you know what shedid.That’d be it?”
She was silent.
“Georgie.”
She remained silent.
“Georgiana.”
His girl did not lie.
So she burst out, “Okay, Dutch!My retaliation would be morecerebral and longer lasting, and there would be retaliation.But it wouldn’t beroughing her up.”
That was a good idea.
Retaliation that was more cerebral and longer lasting.
He’d have to think on that.
“Jackson’s totally going to lose his job or similar soon,isn’t he?”she inquired.
Dutch couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“You’regonnastick up for thisguy?”
“No.A reporter is asking for information and you don’t wantto give it, just say no.So yeah, we were playing a game and I was giving himmy time to get something in return, but that doesn’t give him carte blanche tograb my breast.But this is cruddy.He’s a jerk.We’ve had a really good day,finally, and we shouldn’t be discussing jerks.And I don’t want you to have toget involved.”
Except that last part, he couldn’t argue the rest, so heignored the last part and just said, “Okay, darlin’, we’ll stop talking abouthim.”
