“Should I be making her do back bends in public?” Travis asked, his eyes narrowed.
Joe grinned. “Heard about that, did you? Lucy can pole dance. I tell you, she can—”
“Don’t!” Travis said sternly.
“Understood,” Joe said. “The problem seems to be that you don’t know how to court a woman.”
“You’ve got to be kidding, old man. I’ve done things with women you’ve never even heard of. One time—”
“Not sex, boy! The only sex that matters is if you make the woman you love happy. You can do a threesome with half a dozen gorgeous dames, but if the one you love ain’t smiling at you over breakfast, you’re a failure in the sex department.”
Travis stood still as he thought about that, and it made sense. He bent back to the box but then straightened up again. “Just so you know, a threesome is with three people, not half a dozen.” He went back into the carton.
“Make her need you,” Joe said after a while. “Not want you, but deep down need you. Whether it’s to give her a foot rub at the end of the day, or to fix the kitchen sink, find an empty place in her life and fill it.”
“Does my mother need you?” Travis asked in curiosity.
“She can hardly thread those sewing machines of hers without me.”
Travis smiled at that. Since they’d first visited Edilean his mother had sewn, and she’d never had trouble threading anything.
Joe seemed to understand his smile. “Okay, so Lucy pretends she can’t thread the serger or change the needles. But she gave me pointers on filling out the form for the mortgage application. She even told me what to wear and what to say when I went to the bank. She helped me order everything in here, and she and Jecca picked out all the colors of paint and tile. Lucy made the curtains.”
“Sounds like you need her more than she needs you.”
“That’s just it!” Joe said. “She needs me and I need her. We’re twisted.”
“Intertwined,” Travis said.
Joe narrowed his eyes. “You may have been to school more than me, but I got the woman I’m in love with.”
“You have a point. What am I supposed to do with these pieces of metal?”
“I’m going to show you how to use a screwdriver.”
“My life is at last complete,” Travis muttered and picked up a socket wrench.
Eight
“Hello,” Travis said softly as he opened the door that led to Kim’s garage. She was bent over a sturdy workbench, looking through a lighted magnifying glass at something that appeared to be made of gold. “I don’t mean to intrude, but I wanted to apologize for yesterday evening.”
“It’s okay,” Kim said without looking up.
“No, it wasn’t. I was rude and . . . I guess I just feel protective of you, that’s all.”
“You and Reede both,” Kim said under her breath. Just what she needed, two brothers.
Travis was looking about the large room at all the equipment. There were deep shelves full of boxes, a couple of what looked to be microwaves, a large safe in the corner, a desk with a computer beside a foot-tall stack of fat folders, and three workbenches filled with more tools than Joe had. “This is some workshop,” he said. “You need all this to make jewelry?”
“Everything in here. In fact, I need a drafting table, but I don’t have the room, and it would get dirty.”
Travis thought that what she needed was some natural light. There were three little glass panels in the big garage door and one small window on the far wall. It was night out, but he’d like to see the stars.
Kim glanced up at him and did a double take. “What have you been doing all day?”
“I went to Joe Layton’s place and ended up unpacking boxes for him.”
“You have . . .” She touched the side of her head.