Maggie giggled. “Oh yeah,” she said in long sexy drawl. “I’ll demonstrate that later.”
“Um, I’m five months pregnant here,” Carolina said.
“And not slowing down by any means,” Maggie said.
“I wouldn’t think any less of a Moon,” Blue said. “But back to the point at hand, you can find a lot better spokesperson than me.”
“But none of the people in this town believe as much,” Carolina said, “from the moonshiners, to the blue-collar workers, to the migrants.” She pointed her finger. “Don’t think it’s gone unnoticed that you go out to where those people are working and pass out a few bills and tell them to go over to Millie’s a for bite. I’ve seen it.”
He shook his head. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“I get it,” Maggie said. “He doesn’t care if Emily’s and Millie’s reputations go circling down the drain over this. Or that Nick’s project with Dazzle gets fried and brings shame to not only him, but that little boy, Carlos, and Robert and Taylor.” She shook her head. “I thought I married a knight.”
Blue stared at her. “I hate it whenever everybody sides against me. You know I don’t want anything to happen to the people in this town or the town itself. My family’s been here since it was founded.”
Carolina smiled and stood over him, hugging him around the neck. “Does that mean you’ll represent us in front of all those news reporters?”
Blue took a long deep breath. “No, I won’t be a spokesperson, but I can guaran-damn-tee you, I’ll be there when I need to be.”
Carolina sighed. “Looks like the women continue to carry the cross.”
****
Nick walked into the house, soot-covered and exhausted. “I don’t know if I can go one step further.”
“What happened to you?” Emily asked, stepping out in the foyer.
“Your grapevine didn’t alert you our land was on fire?” Grady asked.
“Oh, no.” Emily rushed forward. “Neither one of you tried to fight it, did you?”
Nick shook his head. “Didn’t need to. The volunteer firemen had already reported. You know, we had to clear that land anyway, but I hadn’t planned to do it with fire. Not only that, we’d already delivered a bunch of supplies for the build and stored them in a little warehouse on the back of the space. Say bye to those. Dazzle just ate some more money.”
“Don’t forget to tell her about the bulldozer that’s ruined.”
“Yep.” Nick nodded. “And the loader. We’ll probably collect most of that back in insurance but not right away. We have to be cleared of arson first.”
“Well,” Emily said, waving her hand. “No one would accuse you of that.”
“Think so?” Nick attempted to smile. “Grady and I have already been questioned by the state police and our insurance company told me the adjuster would be out tomorrow with an expert in fire investigation. What does that sound like to you?”
“Plus,” Grady said, “did you know Pittsylvania County’s in the middle of an imposed burn ban until the end of September? How many other officials can we have breathing down our backs?”
Emily patted Grady on his shoulder and placed her hand on Nick’s arm. “Aunt Millie went on home seeing I was feeling better, but come on you two. I can still soothe your nerves with comfort food. I’ll feed you some of Cindy’s sweets, and you’ll feel a whole lot better. She’s the best baker anywhere around.”
Minutes later, Grady placed a forkful of coconut cake in his mouth and made a crazy face. “That’s downright sinful.”
“Oh, no,” Emily said. “The sinful dessert is the Better than Sex fudge pie Nick’s eating.”
Nick felt his bite of triple chocolate lodge in his throat, then swallowed quickly and drank it down with some ice-cold milk. “You could have waited until I didn’t have my mouth full.” He wiped his mouth with a paper napkin.
Emily sat there, first amused, and then, with a look in her eyes. A special one. One that, for a moment, captivated him.
It was like a glimmer of realization. A sudden spark of desire. A swirl of emotion he’d never seen on a woman’s face. Not like flagrant lust or even sexual interest. But more like a curl of white fog billowing up from the glass finish of a lake on an early morn perfect summer’s day, signaling the water was much warmer than the air. He saw the simmering heat in her just below the surface.
Nick coughed and took another swallow of milk. “Whew.”
Grady didn’t make a sound, but Nick saw him smiling, looking back and forth between Emily and him. You’re enjoying this aren’t you? He knew what he wanted to do, wanted to say, just plain wanted. What he did and said next had to be considered carefully, allowing him not only to achieve his goal, but to make sure he got his friend’s goat in the process. He knew he could do it. After all, Nick Troy always completed his assignments.
“Say, Emily, I know you’re supposed to go to work tomorrow but…”
“No,” she said. “I’m taking three days off, courtesy of the doctor’s recommendations. Besides, I’m not just ready to face Sheriff Bingham after my time in the poky.” She grinned. “Even if it was just for thirty minutes and Carolina’s going to get the whole charge erased.”
“Good.” Nick beamed. “Grady and I have to go out and check on that investigator and the insurance adjuster tomorrow at eight. Blue offered to keep Carlos over there for a day already So, afterward, I thought you and I might want to just go up to Gretna to the Farmer’s Market.”
Grady stared at him in confusion, the man’s forehead wrinkling. He took another bite of cake and lifted his glass to drink.
“You want me to go help you pick out vegetables?” she asked.
He smiled and shook his head. “No. I was hoping I could still find a nice ripe melon.”
Grady spewed milk all over the table.
“Oh my.” Emily jumped up and grabbed some paper towels and yanking off a few and throwing them on the spill. “Are you okay? Both you and Nick can’t seem to swallow tonight.”
Grady stared over at Nick. “Yeah, some things I have a hard time swallowing. Comes on me at the weirdest times when I least expect it and in the strangest circumstances.”
The dimple in Nick’s cheek deepened. “Maybe we should calm down and take a look at what we’re trying to swallow and we’ll see it isn’t that hard to do.”
Emily sat there with her mouth half open and her eyes narrowed like she was trying to decipher their code.
Nick took another forkful of pie. “You know, Cindy’s name for this is good, but when you come down to it, the name may be a bit of an exaggeration.”
“Well,” Grady said, scooting back from the table. “Think I’ll call it a night.” He yawned and stretched his arms. “Tomorrow comes real early.”
“Night, Grady,” Emily said. “I’ll set the coffee machine for six so you can get a cup when you first wake up.
“Thanks, Emily. Great food. I appreciate all of it and the wonderful company.” Grady turned and left the room.
After he left, Emily turned to Nick and placed her hands up on the tables. “So what was all that about?”
“What do you mean?” Nick took another sip of milk.
“I had the strangest feeling you were talking about something entirely different than what it appeared to be on the surface.” She stared him directly in the eyes, her eyes narrowing again. “What are you up to?”
“Nothing.” He reached over and placed his hand over hers and felt its warmth radiate into his palm. “Maybe Grady just knew I’d like a chance to be alone with you.”
“Why?” she asked.
He saw her chest heave as her breathing quickened. “Because I find you fascinating.”
Emily laughed. “Right. Come on, Nick. Who put you up to this? No man has ever found me fascinating. Quirky, talkative, OCD, a good cook, excellent admin assistant, pleasant companion for a church picnic, even attractive in a wholesome kind of way.” She shook her head. �
�But never fascinating.”
He sat back, amazed at her insistence he was lying to her. “I don’t say things I don’t mean, and I am not playing a practical joke or making good on a bet.”
She jumped up and walked to the coffee machine, removing a paper filter from the box on the counter, stuffing it in the compartment on the machine. “Okay. Do tell.” She chuckled. “Why am I so fascinating?” She measured out some coffee, placing it in the filter and then popping everything back together. As she turned on the spigot and grabbed the pot, she glanced over her shoulder. “Go ahead. I’m all ears.”
He watched her and, for the first time, realized how vulnerable this girl was and how much she must have been hurt before in her life. He felt a stab of pain, thinking how men probably had treated her. No doubt she’d been straightforward and hopeful all her life. After all, she was raised by Millie, and her aunt would have nurtured Emily to be like she was herself. But, because Emily was strong and self-reliant as well, he doubted there were many men in this town that would have the self-esteem to be able to live up to what she was or what she’d expect them to be.
“You’re not all ears,” he said. “You’re all eyes.”
“What?” She turned with a half-filled pot.
He nodded. “All eyes. Bright blue pools of avid curiosity, amusement, cool deep waters. They reflect your soul. A few minutes ago, I saw a look in them that told me your calm is only a façade.”
She chuckled nervously as she turned and filled the coffee pot up to the top. He watched her arm wobble as she held it and unsteadily placed it onto the machine, rattling it into position.
“Yeah, it hides a nervous mess of tangled anxiety and heartburn.”
Suddenly, Nick was consumed with the need to protect her. It washed over him in tidal waves. He stood and walked over to where she stood. “Don’t hide, Emily. Don’t hide your true feelings behind your humor. You’re not just all eyes. You’re also all heart. No doubt it’s been broken. Maybe more than once.” He tipped her chin up. “But you see, people who are all heart give it all away to others on a daily basis. And you know what?”
“What?” she asked, a little breathless, the pupils in her eyes enlarging.
“If you’re all heart, you’ll never run out of more. It flows like a stream of pure love through you.”
“It does?” she asked, grasping the back of the counter as she lost her balance.
He caught her and slid his free hand around her waist, holding her closer, and dropping his other hand to pull her closer still. He ran his hand up along her sides and back down her arms, touching her skin as he slowly made his way down to her hands. His own hands began to tingle at the feel of her skin against his palms, and he smiled. Just like Blue said. Exciting.
Emily stood there saying nothing, but wrapping her arms around his waist. He leaned down and took her mouth in his. He parted her lips and was surprised when she became the aggressor, her tongue entering his mouth and finding his.
She tasted like chocolate and whipped cream and desire. He breathed her in, as he kissed harder, aware the kiss was erotic, making his senses explode with need, the desire to have her now, right in the middle of the kitchen floor. He groaned, his fingers curling into fists at her side, not daring to let his carnal urges completely flare to life. He was afraid he’d scare her, fragile and oh, so soft inside his arms.
He broke the kiss, deciding it was better to stop now while he still could. Her face was flushed a wonderful shade of peach and her eyes fluttered into focus, a dazed look still on her face. “Oh, my.” She licked her lips. “I think you’re right. Cindy’s pie is overrated.”
“I believe,” he said, shocked at the unsteady sound of his voice, “we should call it a night. For now?”
She nodded, smiling shyly. “For now.” She took a deep breath. “I think I’ll sleep very soundly.”
He traced his finger down her arm, and his breath caught again. “I’m not sure I will at all. But I’ll still be looking forward to tomorrow.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“What do you mean you’ve never had sex?” Carolina stared at her like she was an alien.
Emily paced back and forth across Carolina’s family room. “I know. It’s unfathomable. Go ahead, you can laugh now. Nobody knows this. I mean no-body. Even Aunt Millie thinks I’ve been to bed with a half dozen men. I’m a freak, Carolina! A twenty-eight-year-old spinster fuckin’ freak!”
“Now, wait a minute,” Carolina said, as she readjusted her seat on the sofa. “You told me you and Billy in senior year in the back of his dad’s Chrysler…”
“A lie,” she said. “He tried. I even decided to help him. Unzipped his pants, the whole nine yards. But he passed out, and I had to drive him home. I told his dad he’d tried to go out in the bushes to relieve himself and passed out, so I had a couple of guys bring him back to the car.” She placed her hands on her hips. “Would you tell anybody that story on prom night?”
“What about when you went up to community college? You said there was a guy one year ahead of you going for the four-year degree.
“I can’t even remember what name I made up for him,” Emily said, clenching her fists. “Also a bald-faced lie. The closest I’ve gotten to popping that damned hymen was when I was trying to use my first tampons. I may well have done it too because I really had a lot of pain and bleeding. But the only thing that’s ever made me have a Big O was a vibrator or me, myself, and I.”
“Oh, wow,” Carolina said. She stood and came over and hugged Emily. “Honey, I’m so sorry. Who’d think that these days we’d be consoling someone over not having sex before marriage?”
“Hell, Carolina, I’m twenty-eight. Who am I saving myself for? I have perfected the French kiss. I’m a real pro when it comes to using the tongue. I can bring a guy to his knees with my tongue.”
“I don’t think it’s his knees you’d be bringing him to,” Carolina said.
“Not the time to joke, here. Right now, I want to get laid!”
“Come over here and sit down and tell me why you think Nick all of a sudden wants to have sex.”
Emily, still breathing hard, sat down on the side of the sofa. “Okay, we were in the kitchen having dessert because the guys had just gotten back from the fire and were exhausted and dirty.” She sighed. “You know there’s something so sexy about a guy with dirt all over him. Like he’s out there toiling away just to make things right.”
“Oh, please,” Carolina said. “Wait until you have to do one’s laundry.”
“I’m already doing that.” Emily leaned back. “Anyway, I don’t know when it happened exactly. I think it was right after I mentioned Nick’s dessert was the sinful one, being it was Better than Sex fudge pie.”
“There you go.” Carolina nodded. “The word sex. You know men think of sex every three minutes. It’s a research fact. You just jarred the guy into overdrive.”
“Maybe, but later I even gave him the speech, you know, the one that I do, pathetically explaining why I’m not worth the trouble. Quirky, talkative, OCD…”
“Yeah, yeah.” Carolina nodded. “All the bullshit about being a good companion at a picnic. But how did you get to the conversation?”
“Well, after he’d almost choked on the pie, whatever happened next, I’m not sure.” Emily cocked her leg up on the sofa and grabbed her ankle. “He suggested we go to the Farmer’s Market because he wanted a ripe melon.”
“A melon?” Carolina’s face broke out in a wide grin. “A ripe melon.” She broke into hysterical laughter.
“What’s so funny?” Emily popped a few tissues out of the box on the end table and handed them to Carolina.
“What did they say then?” Carolina asked.
“Grady said he was having a hard time swallowing. I mentioned they both seemed to be because Nick had already choked on the pie. Then he made the strangest statement. He said, ‘Maybe we should calm down and take a look at what we’re trying to swallow and we’ll see it isn’t th
at hard to do.’” She shook her head. “I don’t understand it, but I remember it verbatim because I couldn’t figure out what they were really saying to each other. You know, like I’m not supposed to know but they do?”
Carolina was still convulsing with laughter, held barely in control. “Em, Daddy Blue has struck again.”
She turned some more and looked at her friend. “What do you mean?”
Carolina wiped her eyes. “Remember the speech he gave Andy out in the woods about asking what his intentions were, and then Andy proposed?”
Emily nodded.
Carolina chuckled again. “Well he has another one he tells from time to time about choosing a woman like a melon.”
“What!” Emily jumped up. “I’m being compared to a fruit?”
“A juicy, delectable, ripe one,” Carolina said, cocking her head sideways.
“One who has been left on the vine too long,” Emily retorted.
“One who is about to get eaten,” Carolina said, collapsing in uncontrolled peals of laughter.
“Up yours, Carolina.” Emily smiled. “Andy doesn’t happen to have any condoms left over around here, does he? Not that they did you any good.”
****
“You failed to kill the grapevine.” Kingpin, wearing an impeccable gray summer suit, blue shirt and red tie, stared down at Lieutenant from behind his mahogany desk.
“Sorry.” His second in charge shrugged nonchalantly, obviously not quaking today. “If at first you don’t succeed?”
“At least you have those Dazzle puppets dancing on a string.”
Lieutenant grinned. “Yeah. I’m quite proud of the timing on that. Wait’ll they have a hell-bent consulate official bitching in front of them. Then they will be chewing off their fingernails.”
“Be careful about that. It could bring snooping eyes where we don’t want them.”
“I understand.” Lieutenant stood back, straight and proud. “Did you check out the breaking news of all the women in Heaven’s Gate Church?”
“I did.” Kingpin nodded. “Very good. Should I say that Luke Lincoln is a godsend?” He chuckled. “The women were totally out of control. Innocent people suffered. I’m happy to see the law took care of things.”
Unforgettable Heroes II Boxed Set Page 135
