They screamed with laughter and made ugly menacing faces at each other.
“Oh, lordy, who’s going to clean up this mess?”
Marla lifted Skipper off the floor and stood him on the table. “He can do some of it. Have at it, Skippy.”
“If he pukes, you’re going to clean it up.”
“So, what else is new? Grab the paper towels. We can get the worst of it, then do a better job after we shower.”
Ten minutes later, Marla stood under the shower, Skip hugged to her chest. There wasn’t a hair on his little body that had escaped the ice cream fight. She’d never seen him so excited, and that probably wasn’t a good sign. She sighed and washed him from head to toe, not a huge task.
Wearing Charlene’s robe, she returned to the kitchen and had most of the mess cleaned up by the time her sister came in. She tossed Char a wet towel. “Rinse this out and hand me that clean one. I’m almost done.”
The doorbell rang. They stared at each other. Charlene shrugged and went to the door, Marla following close behind. She peeked through the peephole and jumped back, hand on her chest.
“Is that Francine?” Char whispered.
“Let me see. Yes, and that’s her husband behind her. I’m calling Dwayne.”
“No, don’t do that. I’ll call the police. Those people are nuts. They scare me.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Monday, Dwayne made phone calls, lining up future jobs, and then called on some previous customers to make sure there were no problems or complaints he needed to be aware of. He depended on referrals for future business. One disgruntled customer could be very bad news.
At the end of the day, he stopped by Cluny’s location to see if he’d like company for dinner. He hadn’t spent much time with Cluny for the last several weeks while he’d been obsessed with Marla. They usually made it a habit for at least one guy’s-night-out every week.
Cluny looked up from his desk. “Hey, Gunny, what’s up?”
“How about a few beers and some pizza tonight?”
“Yeah, right.” Cluny laughed. “We know the beer ain’t gonna happen, but pizza, I’m all yours.” He gestured to a chair. “I have a couple of phone calls to make. Should take less than ten minutes. You want to wait? Or you wanna meet at Angelo’s?”
“I’ll wait.” Dwayne sat and picked up a tattered and greasy copy of Sports Illustrated. The magazine was published the previous year. He snorted with disgust and tossed it back on the table. Cluny gave him the finger.
He’d been tempted to call Marla all day, but hadn’t. They both needed a little breathing room. She had business to take care of and so did he. She’d hesitated when he asked her about going to the ranch. It had rankled, but what did he expect? He sprang it on her out of the blue.
“Where are you?”
Dwayne’s gaze shot to Cluny who stood before him dangling his keys. He huffed his response, “Not here, that’s for sure. Ready?”
They were halfway through their first pizza and pitcher of lemonade when Cluny asked, “So how’s it going with you and the boss lady?”
Dwayne pressed his lips together and shook his head. “I’m in deep shit. I’m in love with her.”
“What’s wrong with that? I wish I was in love with somebody.”
“Are you kidding me? You get more women than any guy I’ve ever known. I don’t know how you keep them straight.”
“Not the same. I was in love once, it was great.” He grinned. “The sex is a shitload better when you’re in love.”
“When were you ever in love? And how come I didn’t know about it?”
“Remember Esther Grossman?” Cluny gave him a sly smile and waggled his eyebrows.
“You played hide the salami with Esther Grossman?” Cluny was a wellspring of surprises. How had he not known this? They’d hung out together since tenth grade. Esther Grossman was the hottest girl in senior class. Every guy in school wanted to get in her pants, including him.
“Oh, yeah.” Cluny’s expression was priceless.
“What happened?”
“Her papa married her off to a nice Jewish boy when we were doing our first tour of Iraq. The next time I saw her,” he held his hand out in front of his stomach, “she was out to here. Broke my heart, Esther did.”
“I’ll be damned. How come you never told me?”
“I’ll give you the low down on Esther if you share the dirty details about you and the boss lady.”
“No way, pal. Esther is ancient history, Marla is now.”
“Hell.” He grinned and threw down his napkin. “I’ll tell you anyway.”
For the next hour Cluny regaled Dwayne with colorful details of his sexual exploits with the sultry Esther Grossman.
Every now and then Dwayne would rear back and say, “No!”
Cluny grinned, nodded, and added another sensational detail.
Rosie gasped. “Oh, my gosh! How long did it take the police to get there?”
“A sheriff’s patrol car was making nightly rounds a couple of blocks away,” Charlene said. “Those nitwits were still pounding on my door when they pulled up with their lights flashing.” She shook her head and snickered.
“Wow. What did they say when they were caught red-handed?”
Marla sighed. “They weren’t actually doing anything illegal. Luke told some lie about looking for a guy named Homer Wilson, said he wrote down the wrong address.”
“The deputies weren’t buying that,” Charlene said. “Especially after Marla spoke up and told them Homer Wilson didn’t live at her house either.”
“It was obvious to the deputies they knew Char and me. And the fact they look like your average mug shot didn’t help their case.”
“Were they arrested?”
“No, they were warned to leave the area, unless they had a permanent local address. Otherwise, they’d take them in and run a check on the Wyoming license plate and Luke’s parole status. From the look on his face it was pretty clear he knew he could end up
