This wasn’t exactly turning out as Rebecca had visualized— somehow, she had ended up sitting dangerously close to Big Pants and playing bingo for Grandma. She’d done everything else, why not? Not that she was playing all that well—she hadn’t actually heard Grandpa say much of anything since she had made contact with Matt’s body and the deep-sixed memory of last Friday night was flooding all her senses again, just like it had last night when he called.
No more than five numbers had been called, but she’d already lost her place. And while she was desperately trying to catch up, Matt was sitting there, watching her mark her cards, his thigh pressed against hers as if this was no big deal, like he made women howl like hyenas every other day. Just casually letting his thigh burn right through her skirt, right through her skin and bone, right into the marrow.
“Missed one,” he said, and leaned across her, his head startlingly close to hers, pointing to a B-4.
“I know,” she lied, slapping his hand away so she could mark it.
“Can he slow this down a little?” she heard someone behind her grouse. “He’s going too fast!”
Everything was going too fast, spinning furiously around Rebecca’s brain, muddling her thoughts and all her self-preservation techniques.
“Amateurs,” Matt muttered, pointing to another number under the G column on Rebecca’s card. “You missed that one, too.”
Rebecca scooched up to the edge of her seat and quickly marked it. “Perhaps you’d like to get your own bingo sheet,” she suggested.
“Nah,” he said, and reached for one of two extra markers Grandma had laid out for an emergency, and marked another G number on two more of her cards. “I like playing yours. And you obviously need all the help you can get.”
That was definitely the understatement of the year.
“Here we go, folks! Here’s an N-32! Don’t believe we’ve had a 32 yet . . . not with an N, anyway,” Grandpa said.
Matt reached across her again to mark numbers, his arm inadvertently brushing against her breast. “Beg your pardon,” he said with a half-cocked grin.
Rebecca’s body responded to that brief contact with a gut-sinking shiver of anticipation. She tried to shift her chair away from Matt, but Grayson had wedged his chair in between hers and Jo Lynn’s so he could stand to draw pictures on the back of the bingo card sheets.
“Come on, Mork, you’re losing focus,” Matt said to Rebecca, and casually slinging his arm across the back of her chair, leaned forward to mark more. His spicy scent filled all of her senses and sent her into a cloudy panic.
“Give me the marker,” she demanded, holding out her hand.
“No,” he said, studying the cards.
“Look, these are my grandma’s cards, and if you screw them up—”
“I got the picture, thank you, which is why I am helping you. I figure if you mess this up, Grandma will shoot first and take names later.”
“Who am I shooting?” Grandma asked behind them, pushing and shoving her way down the aisle to get to her cards. “Okay, okay, I’ve got it,” she said, snatching the marker from Rebecca’s hand. “Y’all help Grayson or someone. What does that say up there? Jo Lynn needs to write bigger!”
“N-32,” Rebecca said.
“Will you lookie here? We got us another B. B-9, that is. As in, good news, Elmer, looks like that growth on your butt is beee-nign! That’s a B—”
“BINGO! BIN-GO, BIN-GO!” a man shouted.
“God—dam-mit!” Grandma cried, and threw down her marker.
“Mom!” Grayson gasped. “Grandma said a dirty word!”
“Don’t you worry, Boo-boo,” Grandma said soothingly. “God is punishing me as we speak.” She looked at Matt and smiled. “I still wish he hadn’t said it to the entire world, but I’ll tell you what—Elmer was right about the beans!”
“Thanks for the heads-up,” Matt said cheerfully.
Okay, so if a hole in the ground would please present itself, Rebecca thought. To make matters worse, Grandma dazzled them with one of her big I’ve-got-an-idea smiles that Rebecca and her sisters feared. She leaned across and gave Matt the once-over. “So, you work with Becky?”
Rebecca immediately stood up. “Grandma, will you watch Grayson? It’s time for Tom’s speech.”
“Sure, sweetie! You and Matt run along,” she said, grinning broadly as she turned her attention to the next bingo sheet. Rebecca quickly stepped around Matt, paused only to tell Grayson to stay put with Grandma Lil until she got back.
She paused in the middle of the room and looked around. “Where’s Tom now? I left him back by the sign-in table.”