Crazy For You (33 page)
“I stopped by Mom’s today,” she said as the cartoon came on—a black-and-white Woody Woodpecker about a cement mixer—and she snuggled down next to his shoulder.
Nick offered her a box of popcorn and said, “What’s new?”
“The cable company just added ESPN2 and the Golf Channel.” Quinn took some popcorn while Katie did her best imitation of a starving dog. “Dad isn’t seeing Barbara anymore because she was pushing for commitment, and he told her he’s already committed to Mom. And Mom and Edie went to a garage sale.”
Nick laughed.
“Which reminds me,” Quinn said, sitting up. “I saw Barbara today, and I swear to God, she looks like Princess Diana. Do you suppose she’s planning a trip to England? Should we warn Charles?”
“I don’t know and I don’t want to know.” Nick reached for her and pulled her back. “Barbara is not a good memory.”
“She is for some people. Lois threw Matthew out.” Quinn relaxed against him, fat with contentment. “She said she liked it better without him, and she’d never have known if Barbara hadn’t snagged him. She says she still hates her, but she’s stopped calling her the Bank Slut.”
“Nothing like a happy ending.” Nick looked past her to Katie, who had given up on the popcorn to peer out the open passenger window, looking for approaching trouble but fairly calm about it, as if she knew Bill was locked up for at least her life span. “Don’t let that dog jump out the window. We’ve paid for enough broken dog ribs this year.”
Quinn patted Katie’s rump. “She’s not going anywhere.”
Katie dropped from the window and turned her attention back to the popcorn. She took a limping step closer to them on the seat, whining pathetically.
“Have you noticed that dog only limps now when she wants something?” Nick said, and Quinn fed her a piece of popcorn and said, “Yes. Isn’t she smart?”
“No,” Nick said, and leaned over to open the glove compartment. “Popcorn’s bad for dogs. Give her a dog biscuit.”
“You keep dog biscuits in the glove compartment?”
“Don’t start,” Nick said and changed the subject back to something safer. “So how are Edie and your mom and dad really doing?”
“Well, as near as I could tell, Edie looks relieved, Mom looks smug, and Dad looks at the TV.” Quinn grinned at him in the deepening dusk. “They’re pretty happy, I think. It’s like things are back to normal after a really nice vacation. Oh, and Edie said the school board voted this afternoon to hire Dennis Rule as the principal.”
“Poor old BP,” Nick said. “If Bill had just won that tournament—”
“It wouldn’t have made a bit of difference.” Quinn tried to keep the satisfaction out of her voice, but it was hard. “He screwed himself on that one. When the super put the hiring committee together, he picked people who knew how the school worked.”
“So?”
“So he put Greta on the committee,” Quinn said, not even trying not to grin. “I would have paid to have seen Bobby’s face when he found out. Although I guess he wouldn’t have had much expression with his jaw still wired together like that.”
“So everybody’s happy,” Nick said. “Except for me.”
Quinn sat up, her heart skipping for a minute. “You’re not happy?”
He shook his head, but even in the twilight she could tell he was up to something.
“I was thinking we needed a change,” he said.
“Are you crazy?” Quinn said. “Life is damn near perfect and you want—”
He leaned toward her. “Beds, couches, walls, the kitchen counter, the backyard, the station bathroom.” He shook his head. “Same old, same old. We’re getting stale.”
His eyes were dark on her, and his body was hard and warm as he leaned closer, and he was exciting and dear and sure and everything she’d ever wanted. Quinn thought,
Damn, I’m a lucky woman,
but she kept her voice nonchalant as she said, “So what’s your point?”
He slipped his hand under her sweater as he leaned over to whisper in her ear, and she shivered as every nerve she had came alive. “Ever had screaming naked sex in the front seat of a pickup at the drive-in while the whole town around you watches a really bad copy of
Bachelor Party
and your dog eats your popcorn?”
“It’s time for a change,” Quinn said, and took off her sweater.
Copyright © 1999 by Jennifer Crusie Smith.
Excerpt from
Welcome to Temptation
copyright © 2000 by Jennifer Crusie Smith.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 98-37169
ISBN: 0-312-97112-5
Printed in the United States of America
St. Martin’s Press hardcover edition / March 1999 St. Martin’s Paperbacks edition / February 2000
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