“That’s because—”
“I know why now. T.A. explained it to me last night, but I could still see the hurt in her eyes. I think she hides her hurt feelings around you and the others.”
Sex Piston pulled out the chair next to him and sat down with a sigh, her anger forgotten.
“Everyone thinks that Fat Louise is the sensitive one, but she’s not.”
“T.A. is.” Dalton nodded, coming to the same conclusion. He hadn’t known T.A. that long, but he could sense the woman had a gentle spirit that she masked in front of the others.
“Why do you give a flip?”
Dalton didn’t know how to answer the point-blank question.
“I think T.A. is a sweet girl.”
She pinned him in his chair at his evasive answer. “That’s what you said about Cassandra Manning.”
“I think Lily is too. What’s wrong with that?”
“It shows me that you’re too stupid to know how special T.A. is, but that’s my opinion. That woman goes beyond being sweet. If I’m wrong and you’re the smart man everyone says you are, then you’d take the time to get know her better.”
“Sex Piston, I haven’t gotten over losing my wife. Right now, I have no intentions of becoming involved with another woman.”
She gave him a withering look. “Be real. You might still be in love with your wife, but sooner or later, the nights are going to become too lonely, and you’ll get tired of going out to get laid. When that happens, you’ll nab the first piece of tail that crosses your path. And you know what? When that piece of tail doesn’t give a fuck about you, I want you to fucking call me, so I can tell you I told you so.
“You think we don’t know T.A. doesn’t realize how important to us she really is? Dude, you’d have to get up early in the morning to get that past us. There isn’t one of us who wouldn’t die for that bitch, but what pisses us off is, no matter how much we tell and show her we love her, she isn’t hearing it from the right person who can make her believe it. Until then, we just pick up the pieces after every loser she falls for dumps her. So, do me a big favor. If you ever play that fucking game with her again, for God’s sake, ask normal questions, like how many vibrators she has, or what’s her favorite position to fuck?”
Her chair started to scrap back on the floor. Placing his hand over hers, he stopped her.
“Thank you. I’ll think about everything you said. Actually, it never occurred to me. I was with Oceane for over thirty years; she would have killed me if I’d had asked those questions.”
“Do that,” she snapped. “You sure aren’t getting any younger.”
Dalton laughed at her insult.
“I like you, Sex Piston.”
Her anger was still glinting in her eyes, but her tone softened.
“Don’t tell Stud. My old man gets jealous.”
“I bet he does. Stud didn’t strike me as a stupid man.”
“He’s not. He caught me, didn’t he?”
16
“May I have some more stuffing, Miss. Trudy?”
T.A. scooped a large portion with a serving spoon out of the heated metal pan and filled a Styrofoam bowl she had taken from the stack beside her.
“You want some more turkey and gravy to go with it? That stuffing looks a little lonely.”
“Yes, please.”
Picking up the tongs, she placed a generous portion of turkey on top of the stuffing, then smothered it with gravy.
“There you go, and don’t forget to come back for dessert. You don’t want to miss out on Charlie’s pumpkin pie.”
“I won’t.” Giving her a toothless smile, the older man hobbled to a table close by.
“Don’t you dare.” Charlie shook his head at her.
T.A. quickly glanced away from Lanie. “What?”
“Don’t ‘what me,’ missy. I can see those wheels turning in your head. Woman, how many times have I told you? You can’t help them all.”
Stirring the mashed potatoes, she avoided his eyes. “I can try.”
“When you’re in the poorhouse, you’re not going to be able to help anyone. What are you going to do then?”
She gave him a luscious wink. “Marry you.”
“No thanks. You’d feed everyone in the restaurant for free.”
T.A. shook her head at him. “Like everyone in town doesn’t already know they can get a free meal if they’re hungry.”
“At least I wouldn’t be giving it all away for free. All you have to do is pout, and I’m a goner. That’s why I’m here on my day off instead of catching up on my sleeping.”
“Sleep is overrated,” she teased. It was the first chance they had to chat since they arrived at the homeless shelter that morning at the crack of dawn.
She was tucking a strand of hair under her hair net when she had to blink her eyes at the man who was coming in the door.