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“You weren’t thinking of food two minutes ago.”
“That was two minutes ago.”
“Since we have only one bathrobe between us, I don’t think I want to go out there. I’ve had enough new experiences for one night. Eating dinner in the nude will have to wait for another time.”
“In other words, roll in the tray?”
“I’m not all that hungry. Why don’t you just bring in one plate, and we’ll share it?”
“Okay. I’ll get a plate. I’m delighted you didn’t think of the other option: getting out of bed and getting dressed.”
“I wish that I could spend the rest of my life in this bed,” she said.
“Oh, really?”
“Yes, really.”
He got out of bed and went into the sitting room. And returned pushing the cart. Susan raised her eyebrows questioningly.
“I wanted to bring the champagne, too,” he said. “And there’s two oysters left. I didn’t want them to be wasted.”
She felt herself blush again.
“We can’t spend the rest of our life in this bed,” she said.
“Not this one. Maybe in another one,” he said.
He handed her a napkin, silverware, and a plate of roast beef. Then he poured champagne in a glass and got in bed with her, sitting cross-legged across from her.
“While you’re cutting me a piece of that,” he said, “and while I’m chewing it, tell me how in the hell you got involved with these people.”
Susan exhaled audibly, looked at Matt, then dropped her eyes to the slab of pink roast beef on the plate between her legs and started cutting it.
“Jennie—” she began.
“Jennifer Downs Ollwood,” Matt interrupted. “Five feet four inches, 130 pounds, brown eyes, black hair worn in bangs, got herself kicked out of Bennington for taking free speech a step too far by assaulting a campus police officer, then transferred to the University of Pittsburgh. What about her?”
“You seem to know everything about her.”
“Come on, honey. I’m just trying to save time. We still have to take you home to Mommy and Daddy sometime tonight.”
“Until you said that,” Susan said, “I completely forgot about having to go home. What time is it?”
He looked at his watch.
“Half past ten.”
“It seems like much later,” she said.
“Well, didn’t you notice? A lot’s happened tonight.”
“We’re going to have to go soon.”
“Not until we’re finished,” he said, and then smiled. “I already have a reputation for keeping the Reynolds family virgin out all night. Mommy would probably be surprised, even disappointed, if I brought you home early.”
“I guess that means I don’t get arrested tonight, if you’re going to take me home,” Susan said, making what she instantly realized was a bad little joke.
“Not by me. Not ever by me,” Matt said seriously. “But I can’t speak for the rest of the law-enforcement community.”
