“Maybe.” She averted her eyes guiltily.
“Maybe? Like maybe who? No, don’t tell me. Your half brother Remy. He’s coming here, right?”
Charmaine nodded with a little gloating smile that turned up her red lips. Jimmy got his revenge by bringing up Rita the hottie waitress. Charmaine got her kicks popping these surprises on him.
I shouldn’t ask. I really shouldn’t. “Why?”
“He’s bringing a visitor.”
A door-to-door salesman is a visitor. The Three Wise Men were visitors. We do not get visitors at the ranch. “Would you just spill it, Charmaine? What is all this mystery about? Who’s coming?”
“Tante Lulu.”
He put his face in his hands and groaned.
“And—”
There was a long, telling silence till he raised his head and asked, “And… ?”
“And I think Remy might be bringing his new wife, Rachel, with him. She’s a Feng Shui decorator.”
“And that is relevant to me how?”
“She’ll probably have some ideas for Feng Shui-ing the ranch. She did a great job on my spa in Houma.”
Her wacky aunt and a wacky decorator! I think I’ll go slit my wrists now. “Aaarrgh! You call your aunt right now and tell her not to come. I don’t want a helicopter here. I don’t want your interfering aunt here. And I sure-as-hell don’t want a Feng Shui nutcase here either.”
“Tante Lulu hung up on me, and she hasn’t answered her phone since then. Don’t worry. They probably won’t come till tomorrow or the next day.”
Raoul stood and started to stomp off toward the front of the house.
“Rusty? Where you going?”
To the nearest cliff. Where I hope to jump off. “To find that St. Jude statue.”
“Why?”
“To pray. If ever there was a hopeless cause, it’s me.” And I’m getting hopelesser by the minute.
“Pray for me, too,” Charmaine called out, which he thought really odd. “I’m gonna need it.”
He wasn’t about to ask why. He was no moron.
Chapter 6
It was hot and wet and slippery…
Rusty was washing dishes and Charmaine was drying, at his insistence. Who knew dishwashing could be an erotic experience?
Every time Rusty dipped his hands in the sudsy water and ran a soapy sponge over a plate, Charmaine couldn’t help but admire his long lingers and the gentle way he handled the slippery plates. She remembered a time when Rusty’s fingers had been just as wet and sudsy and gentle, working their magic on her, in a bubble bath back in their tiny apartment. At the sweet memory, her nipples went hard and a soft pulse began between her legs, like a heartbeat.
Sometimes being a twenty-nine-year-old virgin is damned hard. Especially a twenty-nine-year-old virgin with a carnal memory. I better get out my born-again virgin vow and repeat it again… and again… and again. I will be pure. I will be pure. I will be pure. Charmaine smiled to herself at her impure thoughts.
“Charmaine! What are you dreaming about?” Rusty was staring at her, half-shocked, half-amused. Actually, he was staring at the front of her blouse, where her arousal must have been evident.
“Nothing,” she said, averting her face from his too-knowing eyes. Nothing that I want you to know. You’d pounce on me like a Cajun on a mudbug. “Tell me more about Jimmy and why he behaved so badly tonight.” Safe subject. Whew!
“He’s a troubled kid. He wouldn’t be here otherwise,” Rusty said, wiping his hands on a dish towel and leaning back against the sink. “At the least, he’s got ADD, an inability to concentrate very well without medication, and at worst, he’s emotionally disturbed.”
Charmaine nodded. “I understand, somewhat, but that doesn’t explain his outburst.”
“Frustration, pure and simple. I’m no psychiatrist, but my guess is he has difficulty succeeding in school. Not that he’s dumb or anything, far from it. Just that he learns differently, and some schools just aren’t equipped to handle special needs kids. Written tests, for example, are a major problem for him. Add to that, his mother dying.”
“So you offered to help?”
“Clarence asked for my advice, and we agreed to give it a shot.”
“Wasn’t that a lot to take on, with all that you have on your plate right now?”