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"You're being very agreeable. That must mean you want something from me."
"Not a thing, but your company," Matt said.
"Bullshit," Penny said. "I am not quite as stupid as you think I am. You didn't invite me to dinner in the sticks because you love food or drives through the country, and you've made it perfectly clear that you're not lusting after my body, so what is going on?"
Her eyes were on him, over the rim of her beer mug.
"I want to take a look at the Oaks and Pines Lodge," he said.
"In your line of work, you mean, not idle curiosity?"
Matt nodded.
"You going to tell me why?"
He shook his head, no.
"What I thought was that I would attract less attention if I had a girl, a pretty girl, with me."
She considered that for a moment.
"Okay," she said. "I'm using you, too. I would have gone to watch the Budapest Quintet with you-and you know how I hate fiddle music-if it had gotten me out of the house."
"Pretty bad, is it, at home?"
"Mother's counting the aspirin," Penny said.
"I'm sorry."
"I think you really are," Penny said. "So tell me, is there anything I can do to help you do whatever it is you're not going to tell me you're doing?"
The answer came immediately, but Matt waited until he had taken the time to take a long pull at his beer before he replied.
"I don't even know if this place is open to the public for dinner. Some of them aren't. And I don't have reservations."
"You never were too good at planning ahead, were you?"
"I thought I'd call from here and ask about reservations…"
"But?"
"It would be better, it would look better, if I called and asked for a room."
She smiled at him.
"This is the first time that anyone has proposed taking me to a hotel room, said he did not have sex in mind, and meant it. But okay, Matthew."
"Thank you, Penny," Matt said.
"Why is that, Matt? Because I was on drugs? Because of Tony DeZego? Or is it that you simply don't find me appealing?"
"I find you appealing," Matt blurted. "I just think it would be a lousy idea."
Before she had a chance to reply, he got off his bar stool and went to the pay phone he had seen in the entrance.
When he returned, having learned that he was in luck, the Oaks and Pines Lodge, having had a last-minute cancellation, would be able to accommodate Mr. and Mrs. Payne in the Birch Suite, the clams had been served, and Penny was playing airhead with the bartender, who was clearly taken with her.
****
