“Um, yes, sort of,” I say stupidly, squirming uncomfortably in my chair.
Hurley moves around the table and takes a chair next to Bjorn, his expression dark. He glares at Aaron, who appears oblivious.
“Sort of?” Aaron echoes.
“I’m separated and in the process of filing for a divorce.”
“Ah, well, that’s unfortunate for your ex but good news for me. Are you seeing anyone?”
I realize Aaron is flirting with me and apparently Hurley has figured it out as well because he shifts his attention to me and his glare intensifies. Despite the coldness in his stare, I feel myself warming beneath the heat of his gaze.
I hesitate for the briefest of seconds before answering Aaron’s question, my evil side warring with my good side. The evil side wins. “No, I’m not seeing anyone in particular,” I tell him, smiling. I start playing with my hair, wrapping a strand of it around my finger.
“Good,” Aaron says, “That means you can have dinner with me tonight.” His voice is warm and behind his eyes I sense something deliciously dangerous.
I smile and swallow hard, feeling my heart beat faster. A strange warmth courses through my body and centers somewhere between my thighs with a sensation like molten lead. I feel confused, unsure if these strange sensations are the result of Hurley’s stare, Aaron’s flirtation, or a combination of the two.
Before I can summon up a halfway intelligent response to Aaron’s invitation, Hurley jumps in and says, “I don’t think that would be a good idea.” Aaron and I tear our eyes from one another to give Hurley a questioning look. Hurley stutters a moment, turns a bright shade of red, and then adds, “It would be a conflict of interest, given Mattie’s attachment to the case involving your father.”
It’s a valid point. Score one for Hurley. “Hmm, yes,” I say, unsure if I’m relieved or disappointed. “There is that.”
Aaron looks momentarily distraught, but then he brightens and says, “Well, I guess you’ll just have to hurry up and solve the case then. I’m a patient man. I can wait.”
I’m not sure what to say to that. Aaron is a handsome and presumably wealthy man, who seems to have his head on straight, unlike his siblings. I can’t deny some small attraction to him but I’m not sure I’m interested in dating him. Still, I’m amused enough by Hurley’s growing discomfort to leave things open for now.
“I guess I better get to it then,” I say, hoping my words sound both noncommittal and vaguely promising.
Aaron and I exchange a long, innuendo-laden look while Hurley watches us and steams. The moment stretches out between the three of us until Bjorn, who has finished his pie, drops his fork onto his plate with a clatter, making everyone jump.
“That was good,” he says, leaning back in his chair with a self-satisfied expression. He looks at me and adds, “I’m ready to go now but I’m afraid my peter needs some attention first.”
Chapter 29
Though Aaron looks amused and raises his eyebrows at Bjorn’s comment, I offer no explanation. Instead, I say my good-byes and escort Bjorn to the nearest bathroom.
Within minutes I have switched the old urine bag over to the new one that Syph gave me, and after a brief demonstration on how to empty it, Bjorn does it himself without difficulty. He is delighted and I seize the moment by trying again to convince him to let me drop him at the cab office so I can go meet Sally Hvam on my own. But Bjorn is having none of it, particularly after I make the mistake of mentioning that it’s a luncheon meeting.
“Lunch?” he says, rubbing a hand over his stomach. “Sounds good. I am kind of hungry.”
I simply stare at him, speechless. I’m not sure if I’m worried or envious of his ability to eat everything in sight without gaining an ounce. Most likely it’s a little of both. The worry stems from the thought that he might have something physically wrong, like cancer, diabetes, or a tapeworm. The envy is because I would kill to be able to eat like he does without getting fat.
Resigned to feeding Bjorn yet again, I drive the two of us to the Home on the Range café where Sally Hvam is supposed to meet me. Though I’ve never met the woman, I easily pick her out of the crowd as soon as we enter the place. For one thing, she is the only woman sitting alone. But the primary clue is the license plate thing, though I’m thinking these tatas look more like 50DDs.
I steer Bjorn over and introduce myself. Sally stares at Bjorn with a suspicious expression. “Who’s this?” she asks.
“My chauffeur, sort of. It’s a long story. Mainly, he just wants to eat.”
Right on cue, Bjorn settles into a chair and says, “Where the hell is the menu?”
Sally hands him hers, which is nothing more than a computer-generated flyer folded in half. As Bjorn takes hold of it, his eyes settle on Sally’s primary attribute and a whole new hunger starts to show on his face. “Good Lord, woman,” he says. “If those ain’t made for nuzzling, I don’t know what is.”
“Bjorn!”
“It’s okay,” Sally says with a chuckle. “I’m used to it.”
A waitress comes by and delivers two more menus. As soon as she’s gone I open mine, zero in on a grilled ham and cheese sandwich, close it, and go to work on Sally. “So how do you know Luke Nelson?”
“I was your victim’s predecessor,” she says, “along with several other women.”
“Really?” For a second I think she means other women were murdered. Then it hits me that she’s talking about dating, not about Luke Nelson being a serial killer.
“Yeah, the bastard suckered me big time. I thought I was his one and only but I found out later he was stringing me along with a couple of other women. He was smart, I’ll give him that. He never dated two women in the same town. Made it less likely his sneaking around would get discovered.”
Ah, a serial heartbreaker then. “So how did you find out?”
She lets forth with a throaty chuckle. “Actually, it was a fluke that brought him down. We’d been dating for several months and he was talking about making things permanent and planning for the future, that kind of stuff, you know?”
“You thought he was talking about marriage.”
“Exactly! And I was pretty darned excited by the proposition, no pun intended.” Again she laughs at her own joke. “I’m in my late thirties and the fruit ain’t as ripe as it used to be, if you get my drift. I want to have kids someday and that window is closing pretty damned fast.”
Her comment makes me wince since I’m in the same boat. When my marriage to David was getting stale it didn’t seem right to think about having a child until we got things sorted out. Then he got someone else pregnant instead and the marriage ended. Now, like Sally, the big hand on my biological clock is hanging just before midnight.
“So I’m all worked up and giddy like a damned fool schoolgirl,” Sally goes on, making me smile. “I’d heard about this place at the Dells that does weddings and it sounded nice, so I decided to take a little road trip and go check it out. But my car broke down on the highway and I ended up having it towed into some little Podunk town. That’s when I got hit with the good news and the bad news.”
With perfect timing, the waitress chooses this moment to come and take our orders, leaving me in suspense. Sally and I both order sandwiches, but Bjorn goes for the pot roast plate with mashed potatoes, veggies, and carrot cake for dessert.
As soon as the waitress leaves, Sally picks up her tale where she left off. “So the good news was that there was a mechanic in Podunk who could fix my car. The bad news was it was going to take him a couple of days because he had to order a special part. Then there was more good news because the guy had a loaner he was willing to rent me for only twenty bucks a day. So I did the necessary paperwork and was getting ready to leave when I got hit with the next dose of bad news.”