“What did she find?” He gave a wry smile. “Wait. No. Don’t tell me.” He added a groan. “She saw my high school yearbook picture, didn’t she? Braces and lots of acne. Damn. That wasn’t a good look for me.”
Tabitha threw back her head and laughed. Partially in relief that Spencer wasn’t judging, and partially because…Seriously?The man thought he’d had an awkward phase? Yeah, right. She wasn’t buying into that one.
“Nope. It must not have been your high school picture, because she told me she thinks you’re cute.”
“She did? She does?” he preened.
Hah.Typical guy, wanting his ego not only stroked, but buoyed up with even more confirmation.
“Oh, come on. Do you or your brothersreallythink any of you are hard on the eyes?” Tabitha scoffed.
Spencer’s visage turned sheepish. “Okay. You got me. The lot of us might have been told a time or two that we’re, uh, above average in the looks department.” He dropped that subject quickly, clearly embarrassed by being caught out.
Curiosity over their previous conversation still filled his eyes, which Tabitha totally appreciated.
“What else did Sheila have to say?” he asked.
“She, uh, knows the names and ages of each of your brothers, and what they do for a living.”
Would that freak him out?
“Good for her,” Spencer responded with a chuckle.
“She was also sure that the brother who came to your rescue today wouldn’t have been Buck, but Vincent.”
“I can see where she’d make that mistake, with both of them being at sea.” Spencer shook his head, musingly. “Damn. That reminds me. I forgot to call and tell him I met you. We’ll catch him up, eventually. But back to Sheila. She’s good. Anything else?”
“Not much of interest. Like I mentioned before, she devolved pretty quickly from there into whether or not you like cats.”
“Ah, now I’m getting the picture,” he snickered. “Her brain slips down various pathways as she follows an information trail, but there are no fire-gates to redirect her, so she follows wherever her mental feet lead.” He wasn’t disparaging Sheila,simply stating a fact. “That’s not unlike a lot of people these days who disappear for hours down deep rabbit holes on their phones.”
“Yes and no,” Tabitha corrected, still pleased he didn’t see Sheila as any kind of freak. “Sheila can be a little more focused if she’sreallyinterested in something…or someone. Which she is with you,” Tabitha added a little tentatively. “After hearing that I…spent time with you last night, that you were integral to my rescue, and that I was looking forward to seeing you again,that’swhen the cat question came up.”
Spencer grinned. “I see. She’d already dug into my life, and then was dedicated to finding out if I’m worthy of her sister’s attention, re: cats. It makes perfect sense.”
“Really?”
He nodded easily.
Wow.
Now that Spencer had broken her sister’s behavior down into one simple sentence, Sheila having rummaged around in Spencer’s lifedidn’tsound all that unreasonable.
Making a swift decision, Tabitha decided to go for broke.
“Would you like to talk to her? Even though I already spoke with her while you were decompressing, I don’t want to deviate from our normal schedule where I call her every night around this time. She, uh, said, earlier, that she’d be interested in connecting with you.”
“Sure. I’m game,” Spencer smiled reassuringly, but Tabitha wouldn’t quite take him at his word. Not yet.
“Just a heads-up if you agree,” she added warningly. “She told me she’d be researching the Merchant Marine after I hung up, so be prepared to answera lotof questions.”
Spencer, rather than looking put off, actually grinned and made a gimme motion with his fingers toward the phone she’d just extracted from her pocket.
“Are you kidding? I’d love to have a chat with her about my job.”
Thatwas certainly a first for Tabitha.
When she did date—which wasn’t all that often—shealwayskept her man-friends away from anything to do with Sheila. Part of her had always assumed it was because she didn’t want to share her sister’s issues with any part-time lover. But now she realized that all this time she’d actually been holding back to screen Sheila from people who might judge.
