Cavern closes at ten p.m. on Sunday nights, so it wasn’t work that kept her late.
“So, are you going to tell me where you were last night?”
Luanne turns a piece of bubbling, brown bacon in the skillet, a sly smile playing on her mouth. “Now, Ellie, you know a lady never tells.”
“A lady?” I ask, eyebrows raised in her direction.
“Alright, point taken. Still, a woman’s got to have her secrets.”
“Is that so? Hmm…does this secret have a name?”
Luanne forks the bacon onto a paper towel ready at the counter and turns to face me, her hand on her hip. “Well, I suppose he might. But I’m more interested in what transpired between you and the Harlow County dream-boats at the fair the other day. My sources inform there was a bit of a showdown at the OK Corral.”
I reach for the pot of fresh-made coffee, one of the many perks of Casa Luanne, and pour a mug full. “I was going to tell you, I just haven’t really seen you since then.”
“Spill it.” Luanne passes me a plate and we take our breakfast into the living room, relaxing onto our appointed seats on the sofa.
“Well, I told you Tim’s booth was going to be near Brook’s, right?” I say through a mouthful of scrambled eggs.
“You did. I take it he saw that as an opportunity to try and worm his way back into your life?”
“The guy is relentless. He won’t give up.”
“And Sam came around to throw a wrench in things?”
“It’s funny you should mention tools, actually.” I take another bite of eggs and bacon, remembering the way Sam tensed when Tim let slip about the honey-flavored body powder. If Brook could figure out how to bottle up that much pure manliness, she’d have enough money to realize her life-long wish of building a life-size Barbie dream-house.
“Sam wanted to explain the Roxy situation,” I say.
“Yeah, Hart mentioned she’s been causing a fair amount of trouble since her return. Apparently she’s broke, lost all her savings, and couldn’t land a job out there in Hollywood. He reckons she’s come crawling back to Sam ‘cause she’s got nowhere else to turn.”
“He didn’t really go into too much detail, under the circumstances, but he did tell me it’s over between them. He told me he wants to be with me,” I say, failing to hide the smile that overtakes my face at this admission.
“Well, well,” says Luanne, putting her plate on the coffee table. “Do you believe him?”
“Yeah, I do. It’s crazy, I know, but I really do believe him. He’s so different than Tim, than my dad, or any of the rest of them. He came clean, and he apologized for not telling me about her sooner. I don’t know how I finally found myself a winner; I just know he’s different.”
“Different how?”
“Like, when he’s looking at me, he’s really seeing me. And not the person he wants to see, but the person I really am. Of course, the truly amazing thing is that the person I am is slightly neurotic and a little bit broken, but he wants to be with me anyway. He makes me feel safe and happy.”
“And your other-worldly senses, what’re they telling you?”
“That’s the thing; they’ve been completely silent.” The absence of my psychic alarm bells whenever I’ve been around Sam James has had me wondering if maybe I’m losing my touch, but now I know it’s because when it comes to Sam and me, I don’t have anything to fear.
“Well, you can’t say fairer than that. I suppose now would be a good time for us to come up with a sock-on-the-doorknob plan for when he comes courtin’ you over here?”
“I think maybe we’ll keep those interactions at his place.”
“Well, don’t rule out the back of any old cars,” says Luanne as she moves off the sofa and to the kitchen.
I have to snigger at that one. But it’s not such a bad idea, really. Thinking of Sam and his prodigious bra-unhooking skills, I grab my cell phone, scroll until I get to the contact marked SJ Auto Body, and hit Send. After a long weekend at the fair, I’ve got the day off, and spending some time in the back of Sam James’ car seems like a pretty good use of my free time.
“SJ Auto Body,” says an unfamiliar male voice.
“Hi, I’m looking for Sam.”
“He’s not here at the moment. Had something personal goin’ on this morning. You tried him at home?”