Reluctantly she opened her eyes.At least he looked as frustrated as she felt.“Oh, Quinn, what are we going to do?”
He gave her a crooked grin.“I’m moving to the bunkhouse.”
ChapterTwelve
“Tarnation, boy, don’t they feed you in New York City?”Fred stared at Quinn as he served himself a second helping of biscuits and gravy.
“Not like this.”Quinn dove in while Emmy Lou beamed.He’d never been a breakfast eater in New York.Coffee and toast did the trick.But he wasn’t in New York anymore, and he polished off enough bacon, eggs, biscuits and gravy to make him embarrassed, except that everyone else ate almost as much.None of the people sitting around the table was plump except Emmy Lou, and on her it looked nice.
Nobody was rude enough to mention the ice pack Quinn had positioned against his crotch.Emmy Lou had noticed the way he was walking and had suggested it.After a few minutes the ache had gone away and he just felt numb down there, which was probably a good thing considering the direction his thoughts took every time he glanced across the table at Jo.
The topic of conversation turned to Quinn’s impending move to the bunkhouse.Jo didn’t say much, just got pinker and pinker as the discussion continued.Her hair was damp from her shower, and she wore no makeup.Quinn had always loved the stage in a relationship when a woman became comfortable enough to appear in front of him fresh from the shower without doing her hair or putting on makeup.
Of course this didn’t count as a stage, because he wasn’t involved with Jo.Wouldn’t be involved with Jo.Dammit.Maybe he should strap an ice pack permanently to his crotch.
“People will think it’s terrible if we make Brian Hastings sleep in the bunkhouse,” Emmy Lou said.“I think you should stay up at the house, Quinn.The bunkhouse is grungy.”
“No, it ain’t!”Fred said.“Just because I won’t let you clean it every five minutes and put doilies around on whatever don’t move, you?—”
“It’s a pit,” Emmy Lou said to Quinn with a smile.“Fred and Benny act like it’s their clubhouse or something.All I did was try to vacuum one day and rearrange a few things, and you’d think I’d burned the place to the ground.”
“You Hoovered the ace of clubs out of my lucky deck of cards, woman!”
Emmy Lou leaned over and patted Quinn’s hand.“Stay up at the house.Don’t you agree he should, Jo?”
“Well, I?—”
“Emmy Lou,” Fred said, pointing at her.“Don’t be forgetting that Jo’s a divorcée.”
“So what?”Emmy Lou said.
Fred acted as if he were explaining a simple fact to a three-year-old.“People think a certain way about divorcées.They’ll think there’s hanky-panky going on between him and Jo if he sleeps in the house.”
And they would be right.But it had nothing to do with her being divorced.Jo would tempt him single, divorced, even virginal.
“That might be the way your mind works, Fred,” Emmy Lou said.“But everybody doesn’t automatically think like that.”
“Wanna bet?”Fred pointed at Emmy Lou.“Try hanging out in the Lazy Bones Saloon sometime.”
Emmy Lou glared at him.“I’ve been meaning to try that.But first you’d better teach me how to chew and spit.Honestly, Fred.As if I care about what a bunch of old booz?—”
“Watch yourself, woman,” Fred said.
Benny’s eyes widened.“You’re gonna learn to chew and spit, Emmy Lou?”
“Not really, Benny.”Emmy Lou smiled at him.“I think it’s a perfectly disgusting habit, don’t you?”
Benny glanced uncertainly from Fred’s scowl to Emmy Lou’s smile.“I think...I want some more biscuits.”
“Well done, Benny,” Jo said.“It doesn’t pay to get in the middle of a lovers’ quarrel, you know.”Then she looked stricken.“Oops.I didn’t mean to say that.I really didn’t.Must be the stress getting to me.I’m sorry.”
Quinn stopped chewing as silence descended over the table.He looked at Jo, who sat gazing anxiously at Fred and Emmy Lou.Then he glanced at Fred, who had a murderous gleam in his eye, and Emmy Lou, who had turned the color of the tomatoes ripening on the windowsill.
Finally Emmy Lou cleared her throat.“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Josephine.”She stood and started collecting dishes.“I wouldn’t take up with that old goat for all the tea in Japan.”
“It’s China!”Fred muttered.“And that goes double for me.”He pulled his napkin from where he’d tucked it into his shirt and tossed it on the table.“I got chores to do.”
“You don’t have to hide it!”Jo cried.“I didn’t mean to spill the beans and embarrass you both, but I think it’s wonderful if you two have something going!”
