Page 158 of Nothing More

Christ.Having fun.Seeing where things go. But the honest alternative was:He might be a traitor rat bastard who used me for sex.

But no, no. Not that. Anything but that. She couldn’t allow herself to think it, even though his hand had been damp with nervous sweat; even though he kept lying.

Her chest hurt.

“Ooh,” Teresa said, with an exaggerated wink. “Okay, I know what that means.”

“You girls are awful,” Joanna declared, only half-teasing. She moved around the island, ample hips swaying, so she could unwrap one of the platters of cookies. “Leave poor Raven alone.”

“I’m only curious!” Teresa protested.

“I think he’s hot,” Tracy said.

Magenta snorted. “That’s ‘cause you’re married to Blue.”

“I think he’s hot, too,” Tracy said, face flushing. “He’s just…not as young anymore.”

“And going bald,” Cindy said, sniggering into her wine glass.

“Oh, like Petey’s posing for Calvin Klein.”

Cindy’s mouth dropped open dramatically, face a flaming poster of offense – Raven thought it was only a little genuine – and Joanna said, “That’s enough.”

With Maverick still a bachelor, it was only natural that someone else’s old lady would step up to run the show, and Raven had the sense Joanna had her hands full.

She didn’t get dragged down into the muck, though. Put a fresh smile on her face and offered Raven a cookie. It had red and green sprinkles on top. “Here, honey, try one of these. Fresh made this morning.”

Raven’s stomach was churning with anxiety, but she accepted it. “Thank you.”

“There’s plenty more if you like it. You could use a little fattening up.”

~*~

“Don’t mind the girls,” Joanna said a half-hour later, when Raven had choked down two cookies, and polished off two much-needed glasses of wine. They were on the creaking, switchback staircase, headed for the bedrooms. “They just love a good story, and, well,” she paused, hand on the banister, to glance back at Raven over her shoulder, “some of the young ones seem to bring a new girl around every week. They’re dating – like you said, having fun, it’s only natural. But Toly’s…different.”

“Yes.” Raven forced a thin smile. “I know what you mean.”

“I don’t know if any of us thought he’d ever bring someone around,” she continued, either heedless of Raven’s discomfort with the topic, or determined to say her piece regardless. “And then he does, and it’syou– well, you saw Cindy’s makeup.” She chuckled. “You’re…glamorous.”

Raven winced. “That’s me,” she said, self-deprecating, and Joanna flinched in return.

“Sorry. I’m not trying to be–”

“No, it’s fine. It’s…an awkward situation, I suppose.”

Joanna frowned in a determined sort of way. “Well, it shouldn’t be. You’re family after all. Club family. Ignore all of us.” She shook her head. “I don’t suppose any of us know how to behave around new people.” She lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “It’s all the testosterone, you know. It’s just us five swimming in this big ol’ sea of balls, and we forget out manners.”

A startled laugh bubbled up in Raven’s throat.

“I really don’t understand why women run around on their husbands,” Joanna continued. “Isn’t one pair of balls in your life more than enough?”

Raven’s laugh burst free, an ugly cackle, and it acted like a twist of the pressure valve in her chest, a release of steam. “Most definitely. I have eight brothers.”

“God! That many? You poor thing. Here, I’ll put you in the fancy bedroom.”

Fancy proved to mean a charming four-poster bed, floral quilt, and a cute little café table and chairs by a window that overlooked the front lawn and its dazzle of holiday lights. There was no ensuite, but they’d passed an open doorway that revealed a clawfoot tub and two pedestal sinks. Her bags were already waiting on top of the hope chest at the foot of the bed.

Joanna went to the closet and came out with an armload of clean white towels, which she set on top of the coverlet. “We call itfancy,” she said, “but I don’t guess it is for you.”