Hold Me Close (Ryker Falls #5) - Wendy Vella Page 0,69
were her people, she thought, and now they knew about her, as did her family. Maybe Fin was right. It was like ripping off a scab; now the healing would start.
“Bob and Nancy got a chair delivered,” Miss Marla said, arriving with Mandy. They set up a table in the middle of the circle—or coven, as they had been called a time or two.
Fin, she noted, was frowning as he pushed the needle in and looped the wool at Mrs. Taft’s urging. He had no idea what turn the conversation was about to take. Maggs did, because Mandy had told her once what went on at knitting club meet-ups. She swallowed her smile.
“You need to focus there, sweetheart, you dropped a stitch,” Jack said. He took the needles and fixed it for her, then handed it back with a wink, as if he too knew what was about to take place.
“It had all these straps and things, and a lever that moved it in a whole heap of directions.”
“It’s a chair. How many directions could it possibly go?” Fin said to Miss Marla.
“Well now, Fin. They get at it all the time. This is just one more apparatus in a long list of them they’ve ordered from the inter web.”
“At it?” Fin swallowed, and to Maggs he looked a little pale now.
“They got two huge bottles of lube this time, and this gel that’s meant to heat up when it contacts skin,” Mr. Goldhirsh said. “Jed from the post office said the package had a small tear in one corner, so he had to open it to make sure there were no drugs being smuggled in.”
“Yes, because this is a hotbed for drug runners,” Ted said, wandering in with a plate of scones, and one of chocolate cake that had Maggie’s mouth watering. “You girls doing okay?” He snickered at Jack and Fin.
“I’ll have coffee, Ted, two sugars, please, and not too hot. I don’t want to burn my mouth.” Jack gave his friend a wide smile.
“Same goes, but one sugar, and if you could just add a sprinkle of chocolate on the top too,” Fin added.
Ted snarled, took the rest of the orders, and left.
“So let me get this straight, you guys are discussing the sexual habits, or should I say habitat, of Bob and Nancy Hawkins?” Fin asked. He had a bit more color now.
“They have a swing, Fin,” Mrs. Taft said. “That’s it, dear, you’re doing great.”
“I’ll be knitting a shawl like Jack in no time.”
“Or a nice bike seat cover for your Harriet,” Jack replied.
“They purchased handcuffs and a long phallic-looking thing that made a buzzing noise too,” Mrs. Taft added.
Fin choked on air.
They talked, laughed, and when it was time to leave, Maggie had to admit she’d enjoyed her interlude as part of the knitting club. She’d wasn’t sure it was for her, but still, she’d tried.
“Ready to go?” Fin said as the meeting wrapped up.
“I can walk, or get a ride with Jack and Rory if you—”
“I’ll take you home. I have to make a stop on the way, but that shouldn’t take too long.”
“I don’t mind—”
“Why do you have to fight me constantly? You’ve been in my car all day, and we’ve had hot sweaty sex—”
“Shut up.” Maggie looked around them as they stepped out onto the sidewalk again. “Hell, Fin, someone will hear.”
“And the problem with that is?” He looked pissed off for some reason.
“Look, Fin, I think we’ve established that what happened, shouldn’t have. Today has been crazy for me—”
“Which I played some part in, I get that. But what I did, I did because I thought you needed someone to force you out into the open.”
They walked together to his cruiser.
“Yeah, and while I don’t like the high-handed way you did it, I can acknowledge that now. But this whole letter thing has me spooked.”
“Big of you, and I bet. It has me spooked too,” he said, opening the passenger door and waving her in.
Maggie clamped her teeth together as he walked around to the driver side and got in.
“We’re not doing that again,” she added as he started the car.
“Yes, we are.” He didn’t pretend to misunderstand her.
“No, we are not.”
He simply drove through town in silence, then headed back down to what she called the residential part of Ryker Falls. The streets were lined with houses that when she first came to Ryker were almost empty. Fin pulled up outside one.