Finding Home (7 page)

The only certain thought she had was that she didn
’t want to look at, pick at or smell another crab.

The house was quiet. On the kitchen table were breakfast dishes. Phoebe fumed. She
’d told Maydean to wash up. Willie-Boy wasn’t in bed. Phoebe went along the path far enough to see that the doors to the welding shed were open. On the breeze she could hear the ping of metal on metal. That took care of the whereabouts of Gage Morgan.

She heard laughter and squeals.
Maydean’s cackle. Willie-Boy’s yelp. Dorie’s laughter was more musical. She found the youngsters lying flat out on the rickety wharf, their heads hanging over the edge. Willie-Boy was without his shirt. Maydean had cut off a pair of pants so short immodest parts of her were hanging out. “Maydean Hawley! Is this your idea of being mindful!”

“
Phoebe!” Maydean scrambled to her feet. “Lookit. We’re crabbin’. Dorie showed us how. You tie a chicken neck to a string—”

Crabbing!
“You wasted a good boiling chicken neck on a crab? Maydean, I oughta tear into you. And Willie-Boy was supposed to stay in bed. Throw them crabs back in the bay,” she ordered, trying not to notice the washer tub full of the things. “Willie-Boy, put your shirt on.”

“
I didn’t move much, Phoebe. I just laid down here. I feel fine.”

“
I’m not throwing my crabs back.” Dorie stood by the tub. “Daddy likes crab gumbo. It’s his favorite food ever.”

“
Did he say that?”

“
He said it every time my mother cooked it.”

Phoebe wasn
’t of a mind to compete with a dead woman. Neither was she of a mind to incur the displeasure of Gage Morgan. She reckoned if he was hungry for crab gumbo... “Tote that tub up to the back porch then. Maydean, you got dishes to wash. But first you put on some decent clothes. You’ve ruined a fair good pair of slacks, cuttin’ them off like that.”

“
I ain’t. Everybody wears shorts like this. If you’d buy me a swim suit, I wouldn’ta had to cut ‘em up.”

“
I’m going to buy you something, Maydean. First loose money I get, I’m goin’ to buy you a shroud. Now get up to the house, like I said.”

“
Since I feel so good, can I stay here and keep crabbin’ with Dorie?” asked Willie-Boy.

“
Since you feel so good, I reckon you can take a swat on your behind for not mindin’ me. Dorie too, for coaxin’ you outta bed.”

“
I wish I was home with Ma.”

“
I wish you all were home with your ma,” said Dorie, aiming at Phoebe. “You’re not my boss. My daddy lets me do what I want.”

“
Your daddy ain’t got rightful sense.”

“
I’m going to tell him you said that.”

Phoebe glared at the girl.
“I don’t hold with tattlin’.” She also didn’t hold with smelling high, which she did. “I’m goin’ to take a bath. When I’m done, that kitchen had better be spotless.”

~~~~

Soaped from head to toe,
Phoebe lay back in the big old porcelain tub figuring just how much of her money to put in Gage Morgan’s big, greedy paw. Like as not, he’d want the whole lot of it.

The way to get ar
ound that was to get up some romance. Men didn’t think straight once they were romantically inclined. At least, her brother Joey hadn’t. Soon’s Vinnie had her claws into him, he mooned, moped, thirsted and went off regular meals. All of that and the only thing Vinnie had going for her was a pair of endowments that she displayed by wearing tight shirts.

Phoebe got out of the tub, toweled off and stared at her reflection in the steam-misted mirror hanging on the bathroom door. She couldn
’t go much wrong by knowing what she had to work with—a smart woman used what was available.

Her brain was her best feature. But it was invisible to the naked eye. Gage Morgan didn
’t appear the type to be interested in a brain.

Wet, her hair clung in tight curls to her head. She fluffed it out. There were those who paid money at the beauty parlor to match it in color and style. She had it for free. That was one good point. Her neck was long and creamy, especially on the nape where the sun didn
’t get to it. All things considered, she had a nice neck. That was a second good point. Not counting her knees, her legs were shapely and strong. That made three good points.

Phoebe
’s gaze dropped to her torso. The only failing she had, if a body could call it such, was below her neck and above her thigh. It ought to be a sin for a man to judge a woman by what she had or lacked, from neck bone to thighbone.

She took a big shuddering breath and began to pull on clean jeans
and a faded shirt, tying the tail in a knot at her ribcage.

She
pinched her cheeks to give them color. Worrying about body parts made her less sure of herself. She didn’t like the feeling.

In the kitchen Dorie and Maydean were playing at doing dishes. Willie-Boy, they said, was watching TV.

On the back porch the crabs were blowing bubbles and warring among themselves. On the path to the welding shed, Phoebe stopped and admired a pair of gulls, wings spread wide, skimming the bay.

The sea gull knew all about its life from the moment it was hatched. Instinct told it everything it needed to know. The bird managed life without ever having a
single thought. The closer Phoebe got to the welding shed, the harder she wished she wasn’t having the thoughts she was having. She was thinking about sex. She had always been above such things. Up until she laid eyes on Gage Morgan she had thought that sex was the least of it. She foresaw now that she might have been misguided. She wished she couldn’t count every one of her ribs.

Emerging into the
welding shed, Phoebe looked almost pretty. The blouse knotted at her ribcage made a brave show; still bath-damp, her hair was frizzed into corkscrews, her unseemly thoughts kept her cheeks pink. Not wishing to be accused of sneaking, she hallo’d in her clear musical voice.

~~~~

Gage pushed his welding goggles atop his head which had the effect of making his hair bristle wildly. He watched Phoebe approach. He had mixed emotions about the situation in which he found himself. He’d taken in and fed a stray cat or two, but taking in stray humans was altogether a different matter. He was having trouble acknowledging that he had actually done such a thing. But he liked having his clothes washed, his food cooked, his house cleaned, Dorie looked after and kept from pestering him. Velma had never done that, but a man couldn’t speak ill of his dead wife. Any bad saying about Velma had to be slyly done by others, or he was put in the position of defending her.

Gage didn
’t like being put into any position that cost him money or loose words either. He leaned against the giant propeller he was repairing and waited to see which it was going to be with Phoebe Hawley.

“
I worked up a storm at the crab house,” she said by way of greeting. Gage looked good. Work sweat beaded on his brow and wet his arms, highlighting the thick corded muscles. If he was making-do with a woman, she thought, he’d sure have to take care to be gentle.

“
Seventy dollars worth?”

“
You’re a man what knows the value of a dollar, ain’t you, Gage?”

“
I am. Better than most.”

“
I figured that. A man owning all you do, keeping it up the way you do. Working hard. I said to myself, a man like Gage Morgan sure does know about a dollar.”

Agreeing, but growing skeptical, Gage nodded. Phoebe thrust out her hand.

“So, here’s a dollar on account. That leaves me owin’ you sixty-nine. Pickin’ crabs is some different from pickin’ cotton, but I got the hang of it now. Tomorrow I expect to double what I paid you today.”

Surprise made a whole rush of words leap to Gage
’s tongue. “A dollar is all you earned today!”

“
Nope. Made a tad more, but I got to keep some back for Willie-Boy’s medicine. Howsomever, if you want it—” He was looking as if he did. “Now that I got a job, I’ve got to find us a place to live. That don’t come for free. Most folks ain’t like you, lettin’ me charge room and board against housework and the like.”

“
I never said—”

“
I know you ain’t,” Phoebe rushed on. “Most good-hearted folks find words difficult. My ma’s like that. She’d give her house over to any stranger that pecked on the door and be so overcome with pity for the poor thing, she’d like as not speak two words from supper to bed. I noticed last night you’re a lot like that,” she added, making sure the corner she butted him into didn’t have any sideways leaks.

His face was turning red. Embarrassed, Phoebe thought, slacking up on her misdirected charm.
“I’ll let you get back to weldin’. Seems like the kids caught enough crabs to cook up a mess of gumbo. After it’s to boilin’ I thought I’d clear out a patch behind the house for a kitchen garden. That is, if you ain’t got no objection. Not that I’d be here to see it a-growin’, but those potatoes I peeled yesterday had some good growing eyes. Seems a shame to let ‘em go to waste when they’re just itchin’ to sprout.”

Gage had so
much objection he choked on it. She was taking over his house, his land, his daughter, his... He surveyed Phoebe from under half-lowered lids. One dollar. She thought she had the upper hand. Thought she was fooling him. He was smarter than she was. He had to be. He was a man. A learned man, especially when it came to women. Velma had ripped him up one side and down the other with her ways. He hadn’t balked then, but he was balking now.

“
I don’t care if you stick peelings in the ground from here to Mobile. What I do care about is the seventy—”

“
Sixty-nine,” Phoebe put in since he’d pocketed the dollar.

“
Sixty-nine bucks you owe for denting my truck.”

“
I guess I could give you another dollar. Then mayhap we could call it even. The way you weld and bang an’ all, you could fix your truck yourself.”

“
I aim to. Seventy dollars’ worth.”

“
You sure are stuck on that figure,” Phoebe said with malevolent geniality. “What’re you gonna do, line them raggedy fenders with fur?”

Gage flushed darkly.
“I know the value of a dent. Get out of my shop. I’ve got a living to make. I want you out of my house. Taking in transients is for the Salvation Army.”

Phoebe
’s lips went numb.

Her dream was
crumbling. She was expending energy making her chest heave and flutter and Gage Morgan was oblivious to it. A romantic-minded man would notice, endowments or not.

“
We ain’t transients. You’re holdin’ us hostage by stealin’ my bumper smack off my truck. You think I like being here? Cleanin’ and scrubbin’ and cookin’ in the middle of a junkyard! You’re lookin’ at a body who was made for better things.”

Gage snorted.
“I’m looking at a body that’d have to put on two pounds to make it as a toothpick.”

Phoebe
’s heart tripped. He
had
noticed her heaving chest—and took it wrong. “You’re a vile-mouthed man, Gage Morgan. Hell-bound, certain.” Oh, but she was in the company of a man who needed educating. “I can’t wait until tomorrow,” she said, giving him a full blast of scorn. “I hope I make enough money to pay you triple on that blamed bumper. But if you keep aggravatin’ me, callin’ me names, I’m liable to get on the road, bumper or no. And if Willie-Boy goes to dyin’, it’ll be on you.” She drew a breath to go on speaking, paused and shut her mouth.

Gage passed a hand across his forehead, smearing the sweat and smut.
“Willie-Boy could’ve died all over this junkyard today. I had to run him out of here twice. He looks about as sick as an overfed puppy.”

Phoebe decided s
he was getting used to Gage Morgan’s good looks. So much so she was starting to see his flaws, things about him that could irritate. It wouldn’t take much for her to start thinking penny pinching was a bad thing. Then there were his eyebrows—they were all spiky. Not to mention that he was using up all
her
good points getting her angry at him.

“
If he came in here it was to get outta the sun. You should’ve made him sit still instead of chasin’ him out. Anyway, you can’t see his sickness. You got to listen for it.”

“
What I’m listening for is you to say goodbye.”

“
Hand over my bumper and I’ll holler it loud and clear.”

“
I was taken to the cleaners once by a woman. Made out a fool. It won’t happen a second time. Seventy dollars for that bumper or it can sit over there and rust to nothing.”

“
You’re a lucky man,” said Phoebe, grasping the impact of what he’d said, “if all that keeps you from dunce and fool is seventy dollars. I’ll get it up, never you mind about that. Even if I got to hang around here and put up with your un-Christian ways till doomsday.” Which would suit her just fine and then some. She turned away from him and sashayed out. Not caring if he was watching, not caring if she had yet mastered the hip rolling.