“Later on, maybe. When are you closing, Johnny?”
“Around eleven, I guess. Manuel’s taking off about eight to go see that gal of his. Look, Ginny. Manuel and I were talking it over the other day. We made the deal with Scotty on that room of yours we share. Scotty set it too low. It isn’t right we pay you so little. Manuel and I, we figure the fair thing to do is bump it about fifteen a month.”
“I don’t want any charity, Johnny.”
“Charity, hell! I’m talking about fair.”
“Let me think about it, Johnny.”
“No need thinking. You’re on summer rates now. When the season is on you get twelve a night for that room. Know what that is? Three hundred and sixty bucks a month.”
“And look how you’ve helped. All the little jobs I can’t do, Johnny. And think of what it would have cost me to have men come out from town. Last week you fixed the electric pump. And Manuel painting all those ceilings for nothing. Let’s not talk about it, Johnny. Please.”
“Okay, okay,” he said softly. He looked through the office window. “More business, Ginny.” She saw his shoulders stiffen. “It’s that guy from Jax. Ferris.” He moved toward the door. “Whistle when you can use that beer.”
She stood in the doorway, heard Johnny Benton and Don Ferris say “Hi” to each other with exaggerated casualness. Don came to the doorway, held her arms tightly, kissed her on the cheek. “Hello, darling,” he said.
“Hello, Don. Surprise visit?”
2
Don made a wry face. He was a brisk, thin-faced man with dark hair, quick, shrewd, humorous eyes. “I should have phoned for a reservation, dear. Can I stay over?”
“Of course.”
“I really have something important to talk about.”
“Don’t you always?”
“Now be good.” He turned and looked quickly across the street toward the gas station. “Does he pester you?”
“Johnny is a good friend, Don.”
“He was a good friend of Scotty’s. I suppose he has some primitive idea of protecting you. Actually, I suppose I feel better having him close by. I’d refuse to permit you to stay out here alone.”
“Permit, Don?”
He looked at her quickly, grinned. “A manner of speaking. You have to forgive any — proprietary manner. Remember, I did propose three times before you married Scotty Mallory.”
“Excuse me, Don. Customers.”
They came in two cars, two elderly couples traveling together. They took sixteen and seventeen and seemed pleased with the accommodations. That left fifteen the only one empty, and Don wanted that. With a tired sense of freedom she came back from getting them settled and worked the switch that turned off the big lights and left the No vacancy sign gleaming. She looked across the way and smiled to herself as she saw Johnny hold up his arm and make a circle of thumb and first finger. She got the key to fifteen and handed it to Don.
“Would you like ice, sir?” she asked him.
“Enough to make a pair of drinks for us, Ginny.”
“I want to clean up, Don. And I haven’t eaten yet.”
“Let me take you into town. Benton will watch the place.”
“He does enough. I don’t like to ask him to do that. I’ve got enough here for both of us.”
“No. I’ll go into town and bring something back. Please let me.”
She thought for a moment. “All right, Don. And thanks.”
Ginny went in and closed the door to her room. She took a quick shower, changed to a yellow cotton dress with a wide belt. It was a dress that Scott had liked. So proud of me, she thought. So pathetically delighted with me. She brushed her hair and let it hang long to her shoulders the way Scott had liked it. She made up her lips carefully in the small mirror.
Just as she finished she heard somebody rapping on the counter. She went out and saw that it was the man from Ohio again. He gave her a slightly startled look. “Uh — you got any aspirin. My wife’s got a headache.”
“Just a moment, please.”
She went and got a tin of aspirin. “Two is plenty,” he said. “They work good on her. Do... do you manage this place?”
"I own it."
She saw the faint dull flush and knew that he was remembering the fifteen cents he had given her.
He coughed. “It’s a... nice layout. We’ll stop again sometime.”
“Please do,” she said, and smiled mechanically.
She saw Don swing his convertible in and park in front of fifteen. He got out with a big paper bag in his arms. He came into the office, gave her a quick bright look of approval.
“Take it right in, Don. On the table.”
“Some very special steak sandwiches, darling. Salad. French fries. Let’s put the hot stuff in the oven and have a drink first.”
She set the small table. He made drinks. He was quick in all his movements, sometimes almost catlike. She liked the crisp whiteness of his sports shirt, the good fabric of his slacks. Once upon a time she had very nearly said yes to him. But Scott had come along. She knew that Don sensed how tired she was. He made a special effort, she knew, to be amusing while they ate. The stiff drink had relaxed her. All the customers seemed bedded down for the night. The peepers were in full chorus. She heard the clattering roar as Manuel drove off to visit his girl.
After they had cleaned up, Don said, “Would we get eaten alive if we sit outside?”
“It might not be too bad.”
They went out and sat in the metal chairs on the grass near the florid beach umbrella. Their cigarettes glowed red in the dark. High speed traffic made ripping sounds in the night, stirring warmth against their faces.
“I want you to think over what I’m going to say, Ginny. I want you to consider it very seriously.”
“What is it, Don?”
“I know the amount of your mortgage. You can’t keep secrets from a lawyer, you know. And I talked to Ed Redling about this place. He’s one of the shrewdest real estate people I know. He thinks he can unload it for you, and get you out from under with about fifteen thousand free and clear.”
After a time, she said tonelessly, “I had six thousand saved and Scott had twenty-one thousand from his uncle. So we put twenty-seven thousand in it, plus a fantastic amount of work, Don.”
“Then admit that it was a poor gamble. Take your loss and get out.”
“Scott believed in it.”
“And because he believed in it — because he was wrong, a girl like you has to do coolie labor, wear herself out, get old before her time, to make something work that was a bad gamble from the beginning. Isn’t that being a little sentimental? Scotty had to buy the best in all departments. It gave you too big an investment.”
“I can make it pay off.”
“All right. You can make it pay off. What is going to happen? Just when your mortgage payments start to shrink to the point where you can make more than a bare living for yourself, somebody will come in and put a fancier outfit within a quarter mile of you. And then you won’t even get the fifteen thousand out of it. Ginny, you’ve got to trust me. I’m thinking only of your good. I guess it’s no secret that I want you to marry me. I want you to get off this highway and come back to Jax where you belong. This isn’t the sort of thing you should be doing.”
She laughed flatly. “Johnny says I’m bull-headed stubborn.”
“Let me tell Ed to go ahead with it, dear.”
She sat in the metal chair. The night air was getting cooler. For the first time in many days she was completely relaxed, comfortable. It was a strong temptation to let Don go ahead with it. And so much easier to be Don’s wife than — Scott’s widow. Don would get them a nice little beach house. Long lazy days in the sun. Just a few rooms to take care of. And sleep, sleep, sleep. Thousands of hours of it. It would be so blessedly simple. And he was nice. Quick and funny and nice. It would be cheating him, in a way.