TONIGHT, RIDING ON a high of lo mein and dumplings, Seth had hoped he could finally get some uninterrupted time with Emma. As usual, that wasn’t going to happen. He explained to her only that there was a problem he and Earl had to handle. Might take a while. She walked him to the door.
“Thank you for dinner,” she said.
He pulled her into his arms. She moved closer and wrapped her arms around his neck. He was hard as a rock and knew she could feel him against her. At the rate they were going, that was as close to sealing the deal as they were likely to get.
He hoped Mr. ATV came along peacefully. If the man resisted arrest, he might find himself with a black eye. Seth was not in the mood to forgive.
* * *
ALONE AGAIN, EMMA turned on her computer and started surfing the career opportunity websites, but the only jobs that sounded interesting were in places like Tulsa.
The problem was that she liked her previous job. But she also liked being here in her little house. If Seth were with her, it would be well-nigh perfect, small and decrepit as it was.
So much of her time in Memphis was spent on the professional part of her life. How many friends did she actually have who weren’t part of that world? Most of the people she’d gone to school with were married with children. Right now Emma didn’t fit in with them.
She and her friends at work talked almost exclusively about work, rather than their personal lives. They might go out for a drink occasionally, but not that often. And these days, maybe because they didn’t want to be associated with someone who’d gotten fired, they certainly hadn’t been heating up her internet with updates and gossip and asking how she was.
Still, she couldn’t stay here, much as she might—in certain ways—want to. For one thing, she couldn’t afford it.
She didn’t want to walk away from Seth. Not that she saw him all that often. Every time they settled down, one or the other of them had to leave.
She finished cleaning up the kitchen, checked on the babies and gave them some grapes, then went to bed. Alone again.
* * *
SETH WAS NO happier than Emma. When he climbed into the cruiser with Earl, he said, “I could learn to hate this guy.”
“Hot date with Emma, huh?”
“Might have gotten hot. Didn’t get a chance to find out.”
Earl snickered. “You’re crazy about her, aren’t you?”
“Crazy is the word for it. Why couldn’t I fall for some farmer’s daughter who knows how to drive a combine and milk a Jersey cow?”
“She’d have bored you spitless. Now, Emma is something else, even if she does wind up in the azaleas.”
“When she’s playing with the skunks, she’s not just beautiful, she’s luminous. I wish she’d look at me the same way. My rivals are skunks?” He ran his hand down his face. “She’s intimated that she needs a job soon. From what I saw at lunch, that Nathan guy would take her back if she wanted him to. Then there’s her dear old daddy. Knows everybody who counts and wants her back in Memphis. I don’t imagine he’d see me as son-in-law material.”
Earl turned away from watching the road to gape at Seth. “We’ve gone from wanting to get Emma into bed to marriage in one easy step? Hell, no, he doesn’t see you as a possible son-in-law. I don’t either. You know you’re in line for a big promotion, but that would mean more time riding a desk. You’d hate it.”
“Yeah, I would. I love the woods and the lakes and the animals. But if I took the promotion and a desk job, I could work in Memphis. That would solve one of my problems.”
“I can just see you duded up in a tux at some fancy party.”
“Hey, I’d look good in a tux. If I can rent one big enough.”
“That Trip guy would eat you up and spit you out.” Earl slowed down and cut his lights. “I think I hear our friendly neighborhood ATV.”
Two krumps came from the woods to their right.
“Yep. That’s a shotgun. Think he’s shooting at us?” Earl asked.
“Put your vest on,” Seth said.
“Aw, Seth…”
“I’ve already got mine on. Do it, Earl. Janeen would kill me if I got you killed.”
“And Emma would kill me if I got you shot. Okay, let’s see if Tyrell will come in peaceably. I’m gonna tell him that’s what his wife wants. I’d stop what I was doing if she told me to. Hand me the loud-hailer.”
In the end, their old friend Tyrell drove his ATV up to them. He had slung his shotgun down his back and seemed to be in high spirits. And very drunk.
“Hey, y’all,” he said cheerfully. “I ain’t doin’ one thing wrong. No, siree. I got my legal deer in the freezer. Just blowin’ off a little steam. I done paid my fines. Got me a new registration and all. Y’all want a drink?”
“Blowin’ off a little shotgun is more like it,” Earl said. “Folks do not like to have you digging ruts in their yards and shooting off guns in the middle of the night…”
“Aw, it ain’t no middle of the night and I’m shootin’ up in the air. But, hey, I’ll quit. Don’t want to upset folks.” He nodded cheerfully and started to climb back onto his vehicle.
Seth stopped him. “Tyrell, how about you borrow my phone and call your wife. Tell her where you’ve parked this thing and then you’ll take a ride into town with us. Tell her she can come get it and you tomorrow morning.”
“I’m kinda tired. I’ll just go on home and get me some sleep.”
Earl raised his eyebrows. “I believe you’d better come with us, Tyrell. You can sleep in the car driving into town. Here, call your wife.”
When his call was finished, Tyrell had sobered up considerably. He rolled his ATV onto the grass verge and climbed into the backseat of Earl’s cruiser. Before the two men had taken their places in the front, Tyrell could be heard snoring softly.
By the time the paperwork was completed at the Williamston jail and Earl dropped Seth back at his house, there were no lights at Emma’s.
His final thought before he dropped off to sleep was that the only way he’d ever get some alone time with her was if he kidnapped her.