Her chin went up. She met his eyes coolly. “Have to make a living somehow.”
He only realized he was frowning when her gaze slid away from his.
An unworthy cinder of hope flared hot in him: Had she stayed because of him?
It was both the best thing and the worst thing he could hope for.
“Thought you were leaving town for good, Glory,” he said shortly.
“Thought you were here at the Plugged Nickel on business, Eli,” she countered tersely. “And what I do or don’t do is none of your business.”
It would have felt like a slap. But he knew her. And he heard the hurt threaded through the anger.
A silent stalemate ensued. Silent, that was, except for the staticky sound of “Iron Man” attempting to battle its way out of a fried speaker.
“Okay,” he said evenly. “Did youtellthose gentlemen you couldn’t drink with them when you were on duty?”
“Mmm... Not in so many words. But I... well, I might have asked them to make their case in two sentences or less.”
“Why did you... You made them answeressayquestions?”
God help him, of all the things he ought to be feeling right now, he thought this was pretty damn funny. A bored Glory Greenleaf was a dangerous Glory Greenleaf.
“I didn’tmakethem do anything,” she pointed out quite reasonably, with a queenly little gesture of her hand. “Things were a little dull in here, and...” She shrugged with one shoulder. “I guess I got curious about what they’d say.”
He hesitated. “Whatdidthey say?” Nowhewas curious.
“Turns out Boomer is a Capricorn who just read a good book about the Lord he wants to tell me about, and he got a cat named Daphne to look out for the gophers in his garden. Dale is excited about his succulents and he likes to tinker with vintage automobiles, I guess when he’s not stealing them, and he says he’ll take me for a ride in one on the back roads because he knows some great views. Ramon’s uncle just kicked and left him a little money he wants to spend on me after he puts a new roof on his house.”
He took this in, bemused. In truth, these little tidbits about guys he’d known for most of his professional life, usually on the adversarial end of it, were kind of touching. But then people had always seemed to want to tell Glory things. They laid them down trustingly, like little offerings, at her feet.
But only people who had the patience or nerve to let their vision adjust to the sparks she threw off caught glimpses of how bone-deep kind she was.
He realized he was smiling. All of it was soherand just hearing it made the world feel righter.
She dropped her eyes. Funny, even though the lighting in that bar was hardly optimal, he could have sworn she was blushing.
A beat of silence went by.
“What about Leather Vest?”
Her head shot up. “Oh, you mean Cheekbones?” she said breezily, and just like that, Eli’s spine stiffened against a shocking rogue wave of black jealousy. “He’s God’s gift, and he told me in all seriousness that I should know from just looking at him that he’s the best thing that will ever happen to me and he can show me fifty ways to have a good time, wink, wink. I guess he thought bravado would make him stand out a little from the crowd. The knife scar kind of highlights his bone structure, wouldn’t you say?”
She met his eyes.
Challenging. Curious.
Glory being Glory.
“No,” he said, slowly, to let her know he knew exactly why she’d said it. “That’s not how I’d put it.”
She held his gaze a moment longer, then turned away and rubbed a rag on the bar, which didn’t need cleaning. The surface glowed her reflection back at her. That caressing motion made Eli restless.
“So... I guess it got a little out of hand there for a while,” Glory conceded finally, ruefully.
If Glory had a coat of arms, it would say, “It Got a Little out of Hand There for a While.” And right above that it would read, “I Got Curious.”
In the middle would be an image of her holding a guitar over her head like Joan of Arc carrying her battle standard to war. Because Eli was certain that if the world could hear her sing and play, it would be hers to command.