bed last night. And this morning...well, that was good.”
“I’m just going to see my mother off,” he said. If she was trying to give him a kiss-off, she’d have to be more direct than that. “I’ll be back.”
She offered a teasing smile. “I was counting on it.”
He loved her smiles. They weren’t all the same. There was her smart-ass smile, her haughty smile and her I-just-got-sexed-into-bliss smile.
“Okay,” he said, oddly reluctant to leave her.
“Go. Before I drag you back to bed.”
He stood, pulling on his pants before he blew his mother off.
He stopped at the door and looked back at her. She was all tousled and inviting stretched out on the white sheets. She wore an I-want-more-of-you smile—definitely his favorite so far.
* * *
MERRILEE HESITATED, which was something she very seldom did with her husband. Bull had been not only her lover but her best friend for twenty-five years now, but when it came to blood relations, folks could be peculiar. Her husband was no exception. But she needed to talk to someone and he was the one. She would choose her words carefully.
He worked at the chunk of wood with his whittling knife and beat her to the conversational punch.
“What’s on your mind? You’ve been looking like you were ready to bust all morning. What gives?”
He knew her well, sometimes too well. It made getting away with anything darn near impossible. She’d left the airstrip to come over and talk to him.
“Well, yesterday—”
“I know. I’ve been waiting for you to bring up the business with Janie.” They hadn’t talked about it last night. She’d seen Bull’s mind going over it when she’d gotten back from walking Janie to Alyce’s bed-and-breakfast yesterday. But instead, they’d talked about the wedding and how much fun everyone had at the reception afterward. Light and easy conversation. The one thing she’d learned was it didn’t matter if you were lovers or husband and wife or best friends or a combination thereof, things needed to be discussed in the right time and space. Sometimes banal conversation cleared the air and paved the way for weightier issues later. And, while it wasn’t what she’d wanted to discuss with him, he obviously wanted to talk about his crazy sister now. Merrilee tried to keep a compassionate mind and heart open to Janie, but Janie made it difficult.
“Okay,” she said, opening the door for him to say what was obviously on his mind.
He shook his head, a frown planting grooves across his forehead. “I didn’t realize until last night just how Janie’s peculiarities...have affected her boys. I did a lot of thinking last night. I’ve been busy with my own life and haven’t really spent any time around the boys since they were teenagers. But I think her behavior has had a negative impact on Lars. I think her madness is the reason he went into bomb disposal—and the reason he won’t get serious with a woman.”
She’d been so focused on Dirk’s problems, she hadn’t thought about Lars.
“How’s that?”
“I have a theory that Lars likes to detonate bombs because then he’s the one who controls the explosions going on around him.”
“You’re probably right.” Bull was right about most things, although she hated to admit it sometimes.
He nodded. “I remember what it was like growing up with her. And I was her brother, not her kid. The least little thing could set Janie off and when she exploded...well, it wasn’t pretty.” He sighed. “I bet you got an earful tonight walking her back.”
“I did. I just listened and my only comment was about how weddings could be fun but they could also be very tense. Really, anything I said wasn’t going to make a difference.”
“That’s for damn sure. I told Lars the same thing tonight. He can say what he needs to say to make himself feel better but it won’t change Janie. What do you make of him and Delphi?”
Merrilee knew Bull well enough to know he wasn’t so much switching topics as focusing on something that was unfolding. Janie was who and what she was. “There’s chemistry for sure, and I’d say some pretty high walls, as well.”
“You know we Swenson men like a challenge. Their last name might be Reinhardt, but by blood, they’re Swensons.”
“Well, there is that.” Merrilee was impatient to get this off of her chest. “Speaking of challenges, I wanted to talk to you about Dirk.”
Her husband looked momentarily taken aback, which was most unlike Bull. “Damn, here I was thinking it was