Jerry had already memorized the menu. While anyone watching him would think he studied the brochure carefully, his attention was actually on the patrons, and their various conversations.
The tiny hearing aid he wore had proven an invaluable tool more than once over the last few years. He’d paid big bucks for it, and the device served him well. People saw it and assumed he was partially deaf, and needed the device to hear.
He bit back his grin. Yeah, he needed it to hear, all right. With it turned up, and with a little bit of concentration, he could hear every damn conversation in the place.
Another waitress besides the pretty blond Michelle was bustling about, pouring joe, taking orders, and clearing plates.
He waited, and he listened. And then he heard it. The conversation was coming from a table near the back of the restaurant, where a lone older man was seated.
“Are you all done here, Mr. Parker?”
“I sure am, Cory. Great lunch, as always. Now just when is that pretty little Ginny Rose coming back to us? I know she’s only been gone a couple of days, but I miss seeing her smiling face when I come in here.”
“Ginny will be back soon, I reckon. I heard Kelsey say that Adam and Jake have gone after her all the way out to the Jersey Shore, and that they’d called and were due back early this evening.”
“Well that’s good, then. That Adam’s a good man, and a good Sheriff. I reckon that he and Jake will watch out for our Ginny and keep her and that fine son of hers safe.”
“Yes sir, I’m sure they will. Now, are you going to want a piece of pie today?”
“I’m partial to the sweet potato pie Kelsey gets in from the Ladies’ Auxiliary. I’ll have some of that, please, Cory.”
“Here’s your coffee, sir. Have you decided what you’ll have, or do you need more time?”
Jerry looked up and gave Michelle one of his best smiles. “No, I’ve decided. I’ll have the pulled pork sandwich, please.”
“Gravy on the fries?”
“Yes, ma’am.” Jerry handed the menu back to Michelle, and then appeared to focus on his coffee.
Something about those words, “Jersey Shore,” rang a bell with him. He stirred his coffee while his brain sorted through all its data and bits of conversation stored there, until he found it.
Hey, Deke. Hear you’ve got yourself a new piece. Hope she works out better for you than that last one did.
Don’t worry, I sure as hell learned my lesson there. Ginny has no family to speak of, so there won’t be any interfering sisters poking their noses in where they’re not wanted. All she has is that snot-nosed kid of hers and some relation or other, lives in New Jersey, someplace near the shore. But I don’t think she’s even met the woman. So that’s bonus for me.
Jerry added a bit of sugar and cream to his coffee, stirring it slowly. Well now. That information actually pleased him all to hell. This little fact-finding mission had been a damn good idea, even if he did say so himself.
He began putting everything together into two different scenarios. One he’d present to Deke, and the other he’d keep to himself.
He’d learned some pretty significant things, all in all.
He had his head turned toward the window, letting his eyes take in as much as they could of the view while his brain worked. Just slightly could he see the dining room reflected in the glass. He noticed his waitress approaching with his plate and some cutlery. The slight hitch in her step as she got closer told him that she’d just now seen his hearing aid.
He loved fucking with people’s minds, and decided to have just a bit of fun with her. He continued to look out at the view, his arm resting on the table in front of him. He heard her pause, and then a soft sigh.
“Excuse me, sir.” Michelle’s raised voice let him know she had indeed seen the device.
He jerked as if surprised by the interruption, then turned and gave her what he knew was a sheepish expression.
“Sorry. I was daydreaming, here. It’s a nice day today, and your town is pretty.” He moved to make room for her to put his lunch down. “That smells good.”
“Our chef is a very good cook. Enjoy.”
The food tasted as good as it smelled, and Jerry ate with gusto. He could understand why the place seemed to be doing good business.
Of course, it was the only restaurant in town, so that would be part of it, too.
He let his mind work on the problem of Deke and Ginny and how he could turn this situation to his advantage.
The most important thing he’d learned was that the Sheriff of Lusty Texas, Adam Kendall, had taken a personal interest in Ginny—he could understand that—and that the rest of the town seemed to consider her one of their own. That he didn’t understand, but it was what it was. Just because Deke called her a whore didn’t mean she actually was a whore. In fact, the one and only time he’d seen her he’d thought she was way too young and innocent for what his friend had planned for her.
So if the sheriff valued her, he’d do all he could to keep her safe. He’d done some research on Adam Kendall and the Kendall family. They were a big deal in Lusty, one of the founding families.
He’d bet they’d be willing to pay big for information leading to the arrest of one Deke Walters. All Jerry needed was a little time to finish forming his plan. He needed to keep Deke away from Ginny and yet know where the man was at any given moment. When the time was right, he’d bring his buddy in for the reward—but in a way that would look like pure dumb luck on the part of the cops.
Jerry smiled. There was one way he could make sure he had enough time and elbow room to maneuver.
Now all he had to do was to figure out
how
to get Deke out to New Jersey to chase his tail while Jerry finished his research and set things in motion. Jerry sat back, and grinned. He had the connections, the cost of return airfare, and a couple of hundred besides. It was cheap enough seed money for what he had in mind.
Yes, this recon mission had proven to be a very good idea, indeed.
* * * *
“It’s good to be home.” Ginny sighed as she set her suitcase down. Behind her, the door closed. Very conscious of the men who’d come in with her, she looked over her shoulder at them.
“If you’ll give me a few moments to get us both unpacked?”
“I’ll help Benny,” Adam said.
“Then maybe we could go down to the restaurant for dinner,” Jake said. “I have a feeling you may have emptied your fridge before you left.”
“Yeah!” Benny smiled up at his mother. “I’m hungry.”
“Benny Rose, you’re
always
hungry, lately.” Ginny shook her head as she looked down at her son. Then she slid a glance to Jake and Adam. “Actually, I didn’t clean out my fridge. But I did leave on grocery day, without fetching anything from the store.” She could hardly believe they’d only been gone three days. That hadn’t been nearly long enough to visit properly with Maggie, but it had been long enough for a start. Ginny hoped she and her aunt would be able to become good friends.
She thought back to earlier, to leaving New Jersey and beginning the journey home. She no longer thought it strange that the brothers Kendall understood her moods so well. As Adam had driven her rental car back toward the airport in Atlantic City, he’d laced his fingers with hers and then kissed her hand. “We’ll visit with her again, baby. Just as soon as we deal with Walters.”
They both understood her, and wasn’t that a blessing? A part of her had felt as if, in going to New Jersey, she’d been running away. She’d really wanted to visit longer, but more, she’d wanted to come home—where she lived, and where she would stand tall, willing, if not entirely ready, to face her own personal demon.
Now she looked at three males, each wearing hopeful grins, and knew she’d made the right decision to come back home.
“Okay, let’s make quick work of unpacking, and then we’ll get something to eat.”
Even though she’d only been gone a short while, to her the apartment seemed a bit stuffy. The first thing she did when she entered her bedroom was to open the window.
Jake followed her to the door of her room, and then just lazed against the doorframe, his hands in his pockets, as if he hadn’t a care in the world.
“Do you realize this is the first time I’ve seen your bedroom?”
Oh, that deep husky voice, and a question that perched just on the very edge of naughty, sent shivers of awareness all through her.
She couldn’t prevent her face from heating as she let her gaze slide to the queen-sized bed, as she let herself, for just a moment, imagine sharing that space with two very sexy and naked Kendalls.
Her first few nights in Lusty had been spent out at the farm where Kelsey, Matt, and Steven now made their home. She recalled the second day, when she’d been leading Benny downstairs to the kitchen. She’d passed the master bedroom, unable to resist the temptation to look inside it.
She’d never seen such a huge bed in all her life.
Since then, she’d come to know that a lot of folks in Lusty had very big beds, showers, and tubs—accommodations meant to be shared by a group of three or more.
“Why, Miss Ginny, are you entertaining thoughts of entertaining Adam and me in that bed of yours?”
Both Jake and Adam loved to tease and flirt, although Jake had to be the most outrageous in that department. Usually, their small words, winks, and gestures just made her blush all the more, unable to get her mind to come up with a good comeback.
That didn’t seem to be a problem at the moment. “You know, the best thing about private thoughts is that they’re private. So I guess you’ll just have to
entertain
yourself thinking about what the answer to your question might be.”
Jake’s laughter, slow and deep, made her feel feminine and desired. A few minutes later, Benny barreled into the room, leapt, and landed in the middle of her bed. Adam joined his brother, and leaned against the other side of the doorway.
“Mom, hurry! You haven’t even started yet!”
“Boy howdy, Benjamin Joseph Rose, do you think Kelsey’s going to run out of food?”
One thing she could say for her son, he seemed to have a knack for knowing when he’d stepped near to or over the line. He looked up at her now, and she could see he was working hard to curb the eagerness that fairly raced through him.
“No, ma’am. Kelsey has lots of food. I just haven’t seen her or Tracy for a really
long
time!”
And Tracy, bless her heart, would have some special treat that she would say she’d made just especially for him.
Just thinking of the way her boss and her co-worker treated Benny filled her heart with the warmest sensation.
“All right, then. I reckon I best be about this quickly.”
It didn’t take her long to empty the simple bag she’d taken. A couple of the outfits she took out of her suitcase she hadn’t worn, so she tucked them away, walking between her closet and her dresser. She tried not to feel nervous that two watchful, silent Kendalls now knew which drawer held her bras and which her panties.
Their having that knowledge somehow felt like the most intimate thing in the world.
She suffered under their knowing smiles when she escaped to the bathroom. Closing the door behind her, Ginny leaned against it for a moment and sighed. Her face felt so hot to her. If she didn’t try and cool it down with a handful or two of cold water, folks at the restaurant would think she was suffering some kind of heat stroke!
She turned on the faucet and then bent over the sink. The cold water spilled into her cupped hands, and she quickly sluiced the chilly liquid over her cheeks. Reaching for a towel, she blotted the wet as she straightened and caught sight of her reflection in the mirror.
She looked…happy. Ginny couldn’t deny the twinkle in her eyes, or the very real fact that, embarrassed or not by the men’s sometimes sly, sometimes outrageous teasing, she was smiling.
She’d spent little time over the last several years looking at her own reflection. Mostly, she understood, because of what she’d known she’d find there—worry, fear, embarrassment, or outright shame.
Smiles had been missing for far too long.
Ginny considered the woman she was and the woman she was becoming as she let her eyes drink in her own features.
Now here’s a face I can like again
.