She'd been concentrating so hard she hadn't been looking at him, but when her eyes flitted up to his, she stopped cold. His eyebrow was up again, his chin down, his full, sensual lips in a tight line across his face.
"That's better. You act like I'm going to hack it off or something." He sighed in exasperation, squeezing her fingers tightly twice, then letting go. "I just wanted to emphasize what I'm saying. I'm not trying to be a hard-assed jerk. I care. I always have. I know you're not used to that, but you should be. I'm a part of your family—I'm the closest part of your family, physically and emotionally, unless I missed my mark."
He hadn't, of course, he was dead on, but Elodie was as unlikely to admit that to him as she was to cop to kidnapping the Lindbergh baby. He was the closest family member to her. The rest of the clan had moved away—they were all boys, and had wives and families of their own they were busy with. It wasn't that they didn't love her, they did. But they weren't there, and they didn't know, and as long as there wasn't some sort of an emergency, they didn't have much interest in knowing about all of her trials and tribulations.
They were seasonal family; Christmas and Easter, and the occasional birthday.
But April had been in the same town, and they had been automatically closer, and Clay was included in their relationship by extension. He was the closest family member to her, despite April's loss.
It was an entirely sobering thought.
"So," Clay continued as if she hadn't been dumbstruck at what he'd been saying. "When should we get together next week?"
Elodie had to suppress a snort. It wasn't as if her social calendar was so terribly full that she wasn't going to be able to fit him in between her couture fittings and her flower arranging classes. It was more likely that she wasn't going to be able to afford to see him more often—she was barely able to cover the lunches they had.
But she didn't want to challenge him; not here, and not now. She imagined he'd notice her absence when the time came. She could only hope that decorum would keep him from doing anything drastic—like spanking her—despite his threats. It wouldn't be right for him to spank her, even though she couldn't fight the desire of wanting him to do so.
Taking self-delusion to its highest level, Elodie sat back in her chair, mentally trying to finagle her barely there finances so that she might actually be able to afford to see him next week... depending on what bills she could put off paying, and how little she ate until then. "I don't know. You have more of a life than I do. You tell me."
They decided to meet and go to a movie the following Saturday afternoon. Clay had wanted it to be an evening show, but Elodie pushed for a matinee, which was less expensive.
The rest of dinner was much less intense. Clay got her talking about the water right issues the local farmers were struggling with, and television, and other relatively neutral subjects. She seemed to relax a lot, until he glared at her when she put the dessert menu down and announced she didn't want to have anything.
"Pick something. We'll split it," he fairly growled. "You look like you need a good solid meal and could stand to put on a few pounds. I've noticed that you have lost quite a bit of weight since April died. I understand it's a normal part of the grieving process, but, Elodie, you are literally skin and bones."
Seeing that he wasn't going to relent, she gave a little angry sigh, then reached for the menu again. They settled on a brownie sundae that was literally sinful—a slightly under done brownie with two scoops of vanilla ice cream, hot fudge and caramel sauce, as well as three big swirly spirals of whipped cream.
Chapter 6
Elodie groaned while tasting her first mouthful of the confection, and Clay found himself wondering if she sounded like that in bed. All of a sudden, he was rock hard, and that wasn't a condition he was used to being in lately. In fact, he didn't think he'd had an erection since April had died. It just wasn't something he thought about.
Clay was a one woman man, and that position had been filled for a lot of his life. He and April had been opposites in a lot of ways, but their sex drives and sexual interests had been perfectly matched. He had always had a very high sex drive, and April had more than met that challenge. Frankly, if he ever met and got involved with anyone else—not that he was looking, he wasn't—he could only see the quality of his sex life coming down a few notches from the incredible synergy he'd had with April.