but he was a friend, nothing more than a very good friend, which
was quite enough, given what her life was right now. “It’s getting
late. Adam, how about–”
He interrupted her smoothly, standing, stretching a bit. “I know,
Becca. I’ll be back over in a little while. I’ve got to get my stuff
from the Errol Flynn Hammock. It’s a great B-and-B. That guy
Scottie is a hoot. You want to eat out tonight?”
Becca and I were going to go to Errol Flynn’s Barbecue this
evening,” Tyler said, and now he was standing perfectly still, his
shoulders back, his chin up, ready for a fight, Adam thought, like a
cock ready to defend the henhouse against the fox.
Adam grinned. “Sounds good to me. I like barbecue. You bringing
Sam? I’d like to meet him.”
“Of course Sam’s coming,” Becca said, her voice firm as that of
a den mother faced with a dozen misbehaving ten-year-olds.
“What street is Errol Flynn’s Barbecue on,Tyler?”
“Foxglove Avenue, just across from Sherry’s Lingerie Boutique.
I hear that Mrs. Ella loves Sherry’s lingerie, always in there on her
lunch hour.” He shook his head. “It’s rather a scary thought.”
“I haven’t met Mrs. Ella yet,” Becca said, then to Adam,”She’s the
sheriff’s dispatcher, assistant, protector, screener, whatever–but I
know about every one of her pets for the last fifty years. Her job was
to save me from hysteria while I was waiting for the sheriff to come.”
“Did it work?” Adam said.
“Yes, it did. All I could think about was the beagle named Turnip
who died by running right off a cliff when he missed the corner
chasing a car.”
Both men laughed, and the male pissing contest that had nearly
made her take a kitchen knife to both of them was out of sight, at
least for the moment. She would have to speak to Tyler if it turned
out he was getting the wrong idea, and evidently he was. But didn’t
he realize that being her first cousin meant that Adam was no
threat? She didn’t need this. She could eat barbecue with them, she
supposed. Thank God Sam would be there.
Sam didn’t have much testosterone yet.
It was just after midnight. Tyler McBride was still hanging about
at the front door, and Sam was asleep in the car, his bright-blue
T-shirt and black kid jeans covered with the sauce from the pork
barbecue spareribs. The kid hadn’t said much–shy, Adam supposed
–but he’d eaten his share. He’d finally said Adam’s name
when he’d taken a big bite of potato salad, then nothing more.
Would the guy never give it up and leave? Adam took a step
closer to get him out of there when he overheard Tyler saying
quietly to Becca at the front door, “I don’t like him staying here
with you, alone. I don’t trust him.”
And then Becca’s voice, calm and soothing, and he could practically
see her lightly touch her fingers to Tyler’s arm as she said, “He’s
my first cousin, Tyler. I never did like him growing up. He was a
bully and a know-it-all, always pushing me around just because I
was a girl. He’s grown up into a real sexist. But hey, he’s here and he
is big. He’s also had some training, something like army special
forces, I think, so he’d be useful if someone came around.”
“I still don’t like it.”
“Look, if something happens, he’s an extra pair of hands. He’s
harmless. Hey, I heard from his stepdad that he is probably gay.”
Adam nearly lost it then. The laughter bubbled up. He practically
had to slap his hand over his mouth to contain it. The laugher
dried up in less than a second. He wanted to leap on her, close his
hands around her skinny neck, and perhaps strangle her.
“Yeah, right, sure,” Tyler said. “A guy like that? Gay? I don’t believe
it for a minute. You should stay with me and Sam, to be on the
safe side.”
She said very gently, “No, you know I couldn’t do that, Tyler.”
Even after that, it took her another couple of minutes to get
Tyler out of the house. She was locking the door when he said