And Boone saw that look. He hated to tell her that. But it was the truth. Porch and his boys were bad news, and he wanted them to know that he had his eyes on them. He wanted them to know that Charly Johnson was off limits.
They were fearless young men, but they feared Boone Ryan and Boone knew it.
“Stay away from them,” Boone warned Charly, “and they’ll stay away from you.”
“What makes you so sure of that?” Charly asked him.
“Because I’m here. They know you’re off limits now.”
At first, Charly wondered if the chief was overstating his power over those young men. But as she looked into his hard eyes, she realized he wasn’t overstating a thing. And she was pleased that he wasn’t. “Okay,” she said.
“Okay good,” he said, and then he stood erect and began opening his car door.
Charly was thrown. That was it? He came all this way to show those boys to leave her alone? He didn’t even know when she’d get there. “How long have you been here?” she asked him.
“Not that long,” was all Boone would say.
“And you came by just to remind those guys that you knew me?”
“Yeah,” Boone said. “Trust me, they needed to know that.”
Charly nodded. She wasn’t going that far to say she actually trusted him, but she appreciated him for sure. “Thank you,” she said. “You came all this way for that. That was kind of you.”
“Oh, that reminds me. I did come by for something else.”
“Uh-oh,” Charly said. “What else?” She somehow figured the something else was probably the main thing. “I don’t owe you money, do I?”
Boone laughed. “Nothing like that,” he said. “But I did come by to, yes, remind those fellars, but also to ask you something.”
“Yes?”
“What are you doing tonight?” he asked her.
She had planned to take a bath and read a book. She could have told him that, since it did qualify as something. But she didn’t go there. “Nothing,” she said.
Boone seemed encouraged by her response. “How about dinner?”
Charly was confused. “But you’ve already alerted me about the kids I need to be on the lookout for.”
“Not that kind of dinner,” he said. He wanted to make himself clear as to what he wanted this time. “It’s not about work. It’s going out, hanging out, having dinner. How about dinner?”
A part of Charly wanted to run away from him as fast as she could. There was a side of him that she’d only gotten glimpses of, where he seemed so domineering and obnoxious and mean to his core that it was disturbing in its harshness. Hurt people tended to hurt people, and he seemed to be the classic hurt guy.
But there was another side to him. The side that defended her at Rita Mae Brown’s house. The side that broke his own rule and allowed her to see Amos Yerkson. The side that took her to that hospital and stayed far longer than seemed appropriate. The side that was always asking if she was okay every time she saw him.
She went with that side.
“Dinner sounds good,” she said.
Boone nodded. He was so pleased that he wanted to smile. But he didn’t. Because as pleased as he was, he was also a little alarmed.
But when he was in, he was all in. They were going out on a real date this time. There would be no meeting him at the restaurant. “I’ll pick you up at eight,” he said, and got into his car before she could even bring up any I’ll meet you there nonsense.
She fully expected him, after he got into his car, to speed away the way he did at the Browns, but he didn’t. He, in fact, remained right where he was parked until she had gone inside of her home and locked her door. When she looked out of the peephole, he was just pulling off.
She leaned against that door after he had driven away. There was something about that man that was blowing her mind. Blowing. Her. Mind! But it was crazy. She was brand new in this town. She was working a job for people who didn’t even want her there. And she was falling for a guy who had all the markings of another womanizer just like Darryl was? It was insane!
But she still smiled. She hadn’t been on a date in years. Not once after her husband died, and hardly at all when he was living.
But she also knew she had to be real clear about what the chief of police asking her out on that date truly meant. In other words, it wasn’t that serious to him and she’d better not make it serious to her. It was just a date. That was all. It didn’t mean a darn thing to him in the long scheme of things, and it wasn’t going to mean a darn thing to her. But at least, she also thought, it was something to look forward to.
Instead of hopping in the tub right away, as had been her plan, she hurried to her bedroom, threw open her closet door, and began searching frantically but happily for just the right outfit to wear.
CHAPTER TWENTY
“What in blazes are you doing?”
Boone Ryan was standing in his bedroom mirror staring at himself, in the fifth designer suit he had tried on. The four other suits he had tried on, reviewed in that mirror, and rejected, were tossed all over his bed. He, too, was searching for the right outfit to wear. His cousin and the mayor of Hemingway, Freddy Ryan, had walked in amused.
“How did you get in my house?” Boone asked as he continued to stare at himself in the mirror.
“I have a key, remember? You gave me a key.”
“Remind me to take it back.”
“What in blazes are you doing?” Freddy asked him again.
“What does it look like? I’m getting dressed.”
“What’s the big occasion?”
Boone didn’t respond.
Freddy propped down sideways on Boone’s big poster bed, his big body half lying down, and looked at the discarded suits that covered the bed. “There must be fifty-thousand-dollars-worth of clothing you just tossed aside like this. Which is saying something even for you.” He looked at his cousin. “What’s going on?”
But Boone wasn’t ready to go there, not even with a cousin who was also his best friend. He just exhaled as if he was about to discard the suit he was trying on too.
Freddy frowned. “What’s the matter?” he asked him.
“I look fat in this thing,” Boone said.
Freddy couldn’t believe it. “What?”
“I look fat. I don’t want people to think I let myself go.”
At first Freddy just stared at Boone as if somebody had kidnapped his cousin. And then he broke out laughing.
“It’s not funny,” Boone said.
“Sorry, but come on, Robert!” Freddy said. “When in our lifetime have you given a flip nickel about what people thought? You throw aside these ten-thousand-dollar suits like you grabbed them from a picnic table at the Salvation Army. You shower, brush your teeth, but don’t even bother to comb your hair. You get a spit shine on your shoes almost every single day, but will wear mix-matched socks like it was no big deal at all. And right in front of the shoe-shine man! And you expect me to believe that you suddenly care what people think about you gaining a little weight?”
But Boone remained dead serious. He turned to the side. He smoothed down his suit coat. But no matter how he sliced it, he didn’t think he was looking his best. When he really wanted to look his best.