“Eighty-two, huh? Not bad. Not great. But not bad,” he said, addressing Scott over his shoulder. “Go on back there and speak to those young ladies. They’ve been all aflutter ever since you walked in. Make sure William knows you’re here.”
Scott ambled off, taking his cocoa with him.
“Girls won’t stay away from that boy,” Wes said as he watched Scott make his way down the aisle toward the video section.
“You cain’t be surprised,” Linda said. “He’s cute as the dickens.”
“They all seem to think so. Calling the house at all hours and hanging up if he doesn’t answer. Drives Dora nuts.”
“What do you think about his popularity with the ladies?” Marilee asked.
Wes’s gaze swung back to her, and he winked. “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”
She looked down into her cup and nervously searched for something to say. “Scott is doing well on the extra assignments, too. His writing has improved dramatically.”
“With you tutoring him, how could he keep from learning something?”
Several weeks into the fall term, Wes had approached her about tutoring Scott on Saturday mornings and Sunday evenings. For her services, he offered to pay her a modest stipend, which she’d tried to reject. He’d insisted. In the end, Marilee had accepted the offered fee and consented to help Scott with his studies, not only because she knew the importance of his scoring high on his college entrance exams but because few could say no to Wes Hamer and make it stick.
“I hope you think you’re getting your money’s worth,” she said to him now.
“If ever I don’t think so, you’ll be the first to know, Marilee.” He grinned at her, his eyes twinkling.
“Hey, Wes?” William called to him from the end of the aisle of baby care products. “I’ve got a free minute. You want to come on back?”
Wes held Marilee’s gaze for several more seconds, then asked Linda to add the two cups of cocoa to his account and left them to join William and Scott in the pharmacy section.
“That’s curious,” Marilee said, wondering what business the Hamers had with her brother.
But Linda was busy filling the order of another customer and didn’t hear her.
• • •
Lilly was still puzzling over how Ben Tierney knew she had a cabin on Cleary Peak when he asked testily, “Have you got a better idea?”
Being buffeted by the strong wind, she had to think about it for only a moment. “No. We should go to the cabin.”
“First, let’s check out your car.”
They made it to her car without mishap, although he was wobbly on his feet. She got in on the driver’s side. He pushed her suitcase aside and climbed into the backseat because the right half of the dashboard had been jammed into the front passenger seat. Once he had pulled the door closed, he removed his gloves and rested his forehead against the heel of his right hand.
“Are you going to faint again?” Lilly asked.
“No. We don’t have time for it.” He lowered his hand and peered at her over the back of the seat, giving her a critical once-over. “You’re underdressed.”
“Tell me,” she said through chattering teeth.
“What have you got in your suitcase? Anything useful?”
“Nothing warmer than what I’ve got on.”
Apparently wanting to judge that for himself, he opened the suitcase on the seat beside him. He rifled through her garments, heedlessly sorting through lingerie, nightgowns, socks, slacks, tops. “Thermal underwear?”
“No.”
He tossed her a wool sweater. “Put this on over what you’re wearing.”
She removed her coat long enough to pull on the sweater.