Page 91 of Road Queens
“Except he was an expert angler. He’d even written magazine articles about it—Cass got the writing bug from both her parents. It was weird he overshot once, never mind twice. So who knows? After her mom went to prison, Cass told me Iris toldherthat he caught her scribbling on the walls when she was little and spanked her. Couple of whacks, nothing over-the-top abusive or anything.”
“And?”
“Iris broke his wrist with a fish whacker—those little wooden bats people use to smack fish to put them out of their misery.”
“Whoa.”
“Yep. And he never touched Cass again. In fact, he left all the discipline to Iris after that.” Amanda paused and looked away. “I’m—I’m not sure why I’m telling you all this. I shouldn’t. I wouldn’t, if Cass hadn’t shared her story.”
“My sister says I’ve got the face of a bartender.”
“And the butt of a male stripper.”
He grinned. “People tell me things. And I don’t have to do anything with the info. I’m not sure if you heard, but I’m anex-cop.”
“Yes, it’s come up a time or ten. Anyway, since she’ll never know, and her mom might be an unreliable witness, Cass made a conscious choice tonotthink about any of it. Or to at least move on from it. And one of the ways she did that was to come up with OpStar.”
“Because you can’t save everyone, but it makes a difference to the ones you can.”
“Excellent. Paying attention when I talk is a real turn-on for me.”
“It’s from the starfish story,” he continued. “By Loren Eiseley.”
“Oooooh,” she mock-moaned. “Now repeat something else I told you. No, never mind, I don’t think either of us is up for another round just now. We’ll probably end up accidentally hurting each other.”
“I’m game if you are.”
Amanda’s smile faded and her gaze shifted. “Accidents. I don’t ... there’s something about that. I had a thought, but it slipped away.” Then her gaze sharpened as she smiled at him. “Thanks again for coming up and staying over.”
“Amanda—and I say this with every shred of sincerity I can manage in my exhausted state—you are most welcome. And the thought of leaving this bed anytime soon will probably induce a panic attack.”
She laughed. “Let’s try to avoid the panic attack angle and just be glad we’re together right now. Also ...” She wiggled her fingers in front of his face. “You’re dreeeeeeeaming. None of this is real ... real ... real ...”
“Don’t even joke about that,” he said fervently. “You’ve got no idea how often I dreamed of you. If I wake up—if none of this is real? I’m going to be pissed. Not least because it means I didn’t achieve the goal I set for myself when you helped my sister.”
“The goal of banging me?” she teased.
“Well, yeah, but also when I promised myself if I was ever in a position to help you, I would. Instantly. No holds barred.”
“Surelysomeholds should be barred.”
“Not one. Then I found out about Jonny Frank—”
“And it was the perfect opportunity to feed your obsession.”
“Er, yes.”
“I’m teasing.” She leaned in and patted his thigh. He shifted; even that mild touch was waking up his sleepy cock.The woman’s a walking, talking aphrodisiac.“I’m glad you reached out. Thank you for helping Cassandra. I’m embarrassed to be the last one to hop on the time-to-help-an-old-friend-in-trouble train.”
“You had your reasons.”
“And y’know what else? I’mstillmad at her, even though I’m glad she’s back.Ifshe’s back.” Her grip tightened on his thigh, and he let out a small yelp, and she shifted her grip. “Sorry.”
“She abandoned you and that was it, right? Not a card or a letter or a phone call or a Facebook post in five years? If Frank hadn’t turned up dead, she’d still be gone.”
“True. But I could’ve reached out too. I’m hoping when this is all over, she sticks around. At least, I think that’s what I want.”
“She lives half an hour away,” he reminded her.
