“You know where everything is. If you have any problems, just call. I just checked on Mag; she’s still sleeping. Dr. Price is going to text me when he gets here. I wouldn’t go, but Ema is driving Cash crazy. She’s determined to go ice skating, though Cash and I have both told her the lake isn’t frozen enough yet. We’re hoping she gets exhausted enough to give us a break from her demands. She gets more like Greer every day.” Rachel pushed back a swatch of hair in frustration. “Boys are much easier to deal with. Gabe is my little doll baby.” Rachel just had a baby a few months ago after losing one in a miscarriage. “He is asleep in his crib, so just keep an ear out for him.”
Jewell removed her coat to hang it on a hook beside the door as Rory came in the door.
“Hi, Rory. You here to keep Jewell company?” Rachel asked, putting on her gloves.
“Yes, seems a safer bet than the hill.”
Rachel’s face filled with consternation as her gaze shied away from Jewell’s.
“Yeah, well … that depends on whether Mag stays asleep. Good luck,” she muttered, rushing out the door and firmly closing it behind her.
Rory gave her a suspicious look at the way Rachel acted. “What did she mean by that?”
Jewell tried to look innocent, only to fail miserable.
Rory started for the door. Beating him to the exit before he could leave, Jewell plastered herself to the door and pleaded with him to stay. “Don’t go. If she wakes up, you can go in there,” she whispered, not wanting to wake the old bat who was in the bedroom just a few footsteps away.
Rory folded his arms over his chest. “You duped me to come along.”
Jewell put up her fingers. “Just a smidgeon. Mag probably won’t wake up. She didn’t the last time I came.”
Rory wasn’t appeased. “What does she do? She have Alzheimer’s or something?”
“Alzheimer’s would be a blessing where that ol—”
“Who in the fuck is doing all that gabbing out there?”
Jewell winced at the crackling voice shouting from the bedroom. Grabbing Rory by the shoulders, she turned him in the direction of the bedroom and gave him a push forward. “Go introduce yourself.”
Rory stared at her over his shoulder. “I’m not going into a woman’s bedroom I don’t know.”
Jewell made a twisted face at him. “Since when?” She gave him another shove. “Isn’t that what you do all the time?”
“No, it isn’t. They come to me.”
“Well, you’re moving up in the world. Consider this a house call.”
“Rachel, you trying to sneak another man into my grandson’s house? Ema, bring me my wheelchair. I’ma gonna see for myself who in the fuck …”
Jewell closed her eyes in misery. “Never mind. It’s too late. I have to go in there, or she’ll accuse Rachel of fooling around.”
Rory gave her astounded look. “Is Cash the big, blond dude ripped to hell and back with all the rings on his fingers?”
“Yes.”
“Who in the fuck would fool around on him? I only do women, but damn, I would give it serious consideration if he asked.”
Pure arousal hit her like a bucket of lava at the picture that entered her head. Then reality hit.
Morosely, she made her way to Mag’s room.
“He won’t. Cash doesn’t do men, either. He doesn’t do other women since he and Rachel got together.”
All of the good times she and Cash had had together in bed came back to her in a rush. She was going to have to get laid soon, or she was going to break and take Reaper up on his suggestion.
“Is Cash as good as I think he is?” Rory asked, trailing after her.
Dolefully, she gave him the truth. “Better.”
“Damn,” Rory wheezed out.
“Yeah.”
Putting off the inevitable wouldn’t make it any easier. Bracing her shoulders back, she entered Mag’s room.
The old woman’s eyes narrowed on her the second she walked through the door. “Whatcha doing here?”
“Rachel asked me stay here so she could go sledding with Ema.”
“She’ll give that girl pneumonia taking her out there in this weather.”
“I’m sure they are bundled up, so they won’t.”
“You have any kids?”
Jewell stiffened. “You know I don’t.”
“Then what do you know about raising kids?” the old bitch snapped at her.
“Nothing.”
“Didn’t think so. I heard a man’s voice in the living room. You sneak a man into my house to fornicate with while Rachel and my grandson are out?”
“No, I didn’t.”
The old bitch slapped her hand down on the quilt covering her. “I know when I hear a man’s voice!”
Rory spoke from the doorway. “We weren’t fornicating; we were talking.”
Beady eyes moved in his direction. “Who are you?” The old bitch’s voice had softened.
“A friend of Jewell’s. I’m visiting for the holidays.”
“Come closer where I can see you.”
Rory moved to the side of Mag’s bed.