AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Well, the rumor is that Suzy’s keepin’ company with Way Sawyer.”
“What?” Bobby Tom laughed. “I can’t believe this town. Some things never change around here.”
“See, Buddy, I told you it was a big lie.”
Buddy leaned forward in the recliner. “Angie says she saw Way Sawyer’s chauffeur picking Suzy up at her house a few weeks ago. If that turns out to be true, your mother’s not going to have a friend left in this town.”
“She’ll have me,” Terry Jo said. “I love Suzy, and I’ll stand by her, no matter what.”
Gracie realized she’d forgotten to mention her encounter on the highway with Way Sawyer to Bobby Tom, but now didn’t seem the time to do so. She’d liked Mr. Sawyer. Not everyone would have stopped to see if she needed help, and it made her uncomfortable to hear them talking about him this way.
Bobby Tom stretched his arm along the back of the couch, grazing Gracie’s shoulders, then idly slipped his thumb inside the neck of her sweater and ran it along her collarbone. The skin on her breasts prickled, and she was very much afraid something embarrassing was happening to her nipples, something the clingy material of her sweater was almost certainly revealing to everybody. Heat flooded her cheeks.
Bobby Tom kept rubbing. “I’m sure she’d appreciate your loyalty, Terry Jo, but it’s not going to be necessary. Mom loves this town, and I can guaran-damn-tee you she wouldn’t even think about keeping company with that sonovabitch.”
“That’s what I told everybody,” Terry Jo said. “Honestly, Bobby Tom, I don’t know how we’re gonna keep goin’ after Rosatech pulls out. The town’s been having a hard enough time as it is. If Heavenfest doesn’t put us on the tourist map, we might as well board up Main Street.”
Buddy cleaned out the last of the potato chips. “Luther says Michael Jordan’s playing in the celebrity golf tournament for sure.”
Bobby Tom got a vague look in his eyes that made Gracie suspect he still hadn’t invited the athletes as he’d promised. Since very little slipped his attention, she knew it wasn’t an accidental oversight. She tried unsuccessfully to wiggle away from the delicious stroking on her neck.
“Not for sure,” he said. “Pretty sure.”
“If Jordan comes, that’ll bring in a lot of tourists. How many of the Cowboys did you get besides Aikman?”
“Still waiting on the final count.” Bobby Tom withdrew his hand from the back of her neck and slipped his hat on. As he rose to his feet, he pulled her up with him. “Gracie and I have to be goin’. I promised her we’d pick out names for all our kids tonight. Right now she’s favoring Aloysius for our first boy, and I’ve got to nip that one in the bud.”
Gracie nearly choked on the potato chip she’d been swallowing.
Terry Jo made an unmistakable gesture of friendship by telling Bobby Tom she thought Aloysius was a perfectly good name. Good manners made it necessary for Gracie to thank her, much to Bobby Tom’s amusement. He patted her bottom, and she started blushing again. His hand lingered there, and she could barely manage to say good-bye. The small amount of food she’d consumed that evening had settled into a jittery lump in her stomach.
Silence stretched between them as he backed out of the driveway and headed toward Main Street. She twisted her hands in her lap. The seconds ticked away. He began fiddling with the radio.
“Are you in the mood for country or rock? Or maybe you’d like to hear some classical?”
“I really don’t care.”
“You sound a little testy. Is something wrong?”
His inquiry was so innocent, so completely lacking in guile that she knew he was deliberately provoking her. She gritted her teeth. “Classical would be fine.”
“Sorry. That signal doesn’t come in too well at night.” Her temper snapped. Knotting her hands into fists, she screeched at him. “What are you trying to do to me? Are you deliberately trying to make me crazy? Never mind. Don’t answer that. Just take me home. Right this minute!”
He gave her a satisfied smile, as if she’d done something that pleased him enormously. “Man-oh-man, Gracie, you are one bundle of nerves tonight. Sweetheart, I don’t think there’s going to be any pain, if that’s what you’re worried about. Now I’m no gynecologist, but you’re thirty years old, and whatever barrier might have been there when you were a youngster has got to have evaporated from old age by now.”
“That’s it! Let me out of this truck right now! I am not putting up with you a minute longer!” Although she’d never been a yeller, it felt so good to yell at him that she yelled some more. “You might think you’re funny, but you’re not! And you’re not sexy, either, no matter what all those women tell you. You’re pitiful, that’s what you are. Ugly and stupid and pitiful!”
He chuckled. “I knew we were going to have a good time tonight.”
She propped her elbows on her bare knees and lowered her forehead onto the heels of her hands. Her shoulders slumped.
He reached up under her sweater and patted her back. “It’s going to be all right, sweetheart. Part of the fun’s in the. anticipation.” He ran the pads of his fingers over the bumps of her spine.
“I don’t want to anticipate,” she moaned. “I want to get started so we can get it over with.”
“Honey, we got started a couple of hours ago. Haven’t you figured that out yet? Just because we still have our clothes on doesn’t mean that we haven’t been going at it ever since you climbed into my truck tonight.” He drew little circles in the small of her back.
She turned her head to look at him. He withdrew his hand from beneath her sweater and smiled at her. She imagined she saw tenderness in his eyes, but that was probably just wishful thinking on her part. The truck began to bounce and she straightened.
