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TO MOST PEOPLE, PINECONE Grove was little more than a stain on the map half way between Stoneville and Meerton. Even those who’d been there barely remembered it as anything but a place to slow their automobiles as they passed, or the place they turned if they were going to Pankerton. Most folk wouldn’t stop there.
Cassandra Porterfield stopped there though. It was a couple of years earlier and she was on her way to wherever in Hades the next road led. Stopping there was one of those things you only did when you needed to. Cassandra needed to. Her money ran out when she reached Pinecone which was at about the time the Brown Bull Lunch Bar ran out of women stupid enough to work there. A match made by fate, she once called it.
Staying there that long was something different. There wasn’t a week that she didn’t consider telling Jenna Thrash, the proprietor of the lunch bar, what she should do with her job, her town, and her sorry existence.
“Don’t say that out loud around here,” Marie chided as she leaned against the counter.
“Pinecone isn’t all bad,” Cassandra answered. “There’s you.”
Marie Schwartz was a well-tanned, brown-haired country girl who came to the Brown Bull most mornings to collect lunch and gossip before driving to her job at the timber plantation’s site office.
“I’m flattered,” Marie said. “But although those green eyes of yours are captivating, I’m taken. And besides, I don’t do blondes.”
“I didn’t mean that,” Cassandra said and handed her a mug of coffee.
“Well?” Marie asked. “Are you going to give me an answer?”
“To what?”
“Michael.”
“No,” Cassandra said. “I don’t care how well connected he is—”
“Well you should, Miss Porterfield.”
“Says the girl who’s connecting with a local copper.”
“Ha, Ha.” Marie sipped her coffee.
Melody Tyler came from the kitchen. “I got your sandwiches,” she said and put two rounds of something questionable held between slices of bread onto the counter.
“What do you think Melody? If you had Michael admiring you, wouldn’t it be worth your while cultivating that to get you a bit ahead?”
“You still tormenting Cassandra over that?” Melody rolled her dark brown eyes. “I thank the gods that Michael prefers blondes over redheads. If his eyes are on Cassandra they’re off me.”
“Girl’s way up in the world?” Marie teased.
“Oh please,” Cassandra snapped. “Like Jenna?”
“Lance can’t be too bad.” Melody smiled.
“Michael’s nice, but I’m not about to start snogging him,” she looked at Marie. “Girl’s way up in Pinecone? That’d be working at the site office and... what’re you grinning at?”
“You,” Marie said.
“What?”
“Snogging? What in Hades does that mean?”
“You know... kissing and... snogging. I can’t believe you don’t know that word.”
“You made that up.”
“No I didn’t.”
“Then where’d you hear it?”
“A couple stopped in for lunch on their way to Stoneville.”
“Where were they from?”
“I don’t know.”
“You just hear a word you never heard before and you know what it means?”
“Sometimes, when you hear how it’s used.”
“Well tell me this,” Marie took a sip of her coffee. “How far does this snogging go. Is it just kissing, heavy kissing, touching, rubbing. Is it done with your clothes on, or do you have to be—”
“It’s done clothed,” Cassandra said.
Marie raised the mug to her lips. “A lot can be done with your clothes on, you must know that.”
“Did your copper teach you that?” Cassandra asked.
“I think my innocent ears shouldn’t be listening to this,” Melody said and went back to her kitchen.
“Well?” Cassandra asked. “Are you going to give me an answer?”
“I need to get to work,” Marie scoffed the rest of her coffee.
“Come on,” Cassandra pressed.
“Ask him tonight,” Marie said. “We’ll be at the Federal. Maybe Michael can take you.”
“He’s taking you to the Feral? What was that about a girl moving up? He can’t even get you into the Timber Getters?”
“Of course he can, but Michael might one day get you into the Golf Club.”
“I don’t think I want to get into the Golf Club. When that man of yours decides you’re to be married, I think I’ll just pick up and go. I don’t... Alright. I’ll meet you and your fella at the Feral, after work.”
Marie smiled and left.
Cassandra turned to the kitchen. “It’s safe for your innocent ears, Melody,” she called.