“You’re no intrusion. Mother will want you at the house every night for dinner and—”
“Absolutely not!” Gemma said firmly. “I’m here to do a job, and that’s what I’ll do.”
Colin gave her a teasing smile that she’d seen before. “The truth is that you want to read while you eat, don’t you?”
“Oh yeah.”
“All right. I’ll tell Mother she can’t adopt you. With our sister in California now, Mom doesn’t have a girl to lavish gifts on. But don’t be surprised if new shoes show up now and then.”
“Jean says I need a hairdresser.” She hoped that mentioning her would make Colin say something about their relationship, such as saying there wasn’t one.
Colin frowned. “Jean sometimes oversteps herself. I think your hair is fine. We better go in. The other two will leave in the morning.”
“I hope no one tells them they’re not getting the job until after we eat. It won’t be a pleasant dinner with Isla and Kirk being miserable, and Jean has done a lot of work.”
“Compassion for your enemies,” Colin said as he held open the screen door and Gemma slipped under his arm to go back into the kitchen. “I like that.”
“Sorry, but it’s actually self-protection. When you do tell them, I want to be locked inside your room at the top of the house.”
“Hidden away with my old sheriff’s badge?”
“Exactly. Is that what started you on your lifelong pursuit of being a sheriff?”
He smiled. “Mom loves to tell the story of how I wore that badge continuously from the time I got it for my second birthday until I was eight. She likes to elaborate on how she used to have to tape it on me while I was in the tub with my brothers. Someday when you two are alone, ask her about it.”
“I will,” Gemma said, and a little thrill ran through her at the thought that she was going to be there and could ask questions. “That’s what you wanted. You said there was something you’d wanted as much as I wanted this job. You wanted to be the sheriff of Edilean.”
His smile was so warm that she took a step toward him. “Yes,” he said softly. “You’re exactly right.”
Neither of them saw that across the room, Jean was frowning at them.
4
GEMMA LAY IN bed, staring at the ceiling of Colin’s room, and wondered if it was safe yet to go downstairs. Last night’s dinner had been awkward, and at times truly unpleasant. She’d said very little, only complimenting Jean on her food, but otherwise remaining silent. She was afraid that if she spoke she’d somehow reveal that she’d been hired for the job.
She sat beside Colin, Jean on his other side, and across from them were Kirk and Isla, with Lanny in the middle. Mr. and Mrs. Frazier took the ends. Young Shamus had, somehow, managed to escape the ordeal.
Isla dominated the conversation as she told amusing stories of what went on at the university. She and Kirk had received their masters from other schools, so they hadn’t been there nearly as long as Gemma.
Isla was a good storyteller, and everyone laughed at her portrayals of professors and students. It was only when she started on Gemma that things got embarrassing.
“Gemma is our resident student,” Isla said. “She’s been there longer than a lot of the professors.”
“We call her Mother Goose,” Kirk chimed in.
“Yes,” Isla said as she took a bite. “Gemma is nearly always followed by a gaggle of football players. They trail after her all across campus.”
“You should hear her!” Kirk said as he went into a falsetto. “ ‘Who is Mussolini and what is a fascist?’ ‘Who wrote the Declaration of Independence and if I hear “John Hancock” even as a joke that person will be benched.’ ‘Why was it impossible for the South to win the War Between the States? Remember what Rhett said?’ “
Gemma was glad when no one but Isla laughed at his impersonation.
“What you did sounds quite laudable,” Mrs. Frazier said to Gemma as she cut Kirk an icy look.
When he didn’t seem to mind, Gemma guessed that he’d figured out that he wasn’t going to get the job. But it looked as though he thought Isla had won.
As for Isla, all evening she could hardly take her eyes off Lanny. They kept exchanging quick looks, and twice Isla gave what could be called a giggle.
Both times, Gemma and Jean looked at each other across Colin. The second time, he said, “Am I in your way? Would you two like to be together?”