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  At seven, she put her head down on the kitchen table in despair, which was how Amy found her a few minutes later.

  “Not going well?” Amy said. “Not to worry. I asked Phin if he’d fix the slow drain in the kitchen sink tonight after the Tavern. And once you get him in the kitchen, how hard can it be to lure him upstairs?”

  “I don’t lure.”

  “Concentrate, Sophie,” Amy said. “Your insignificant other will be back tonight. What are you going to do about it?”

  “I have no idea.” Sophie thought about Phin, and blushed in the heat. “Maybe he’ll just take over like he did last time. And the earth will move, and then we’ll both look beautifully moist without being too disheveled.”

  “You don’t want to have sex,” Amy said. “You want to have sex in the movies.”

  Sophie thought about it. “No, I want to have sex. I’ve been trying to call Brandon all day to break things off so I can have the mayor tonight without guilt, but he won’t pick up the phone.”

  “He knows you too well,” Amy said. “He knows you won’t cheat, so if he doesn’t give you the chance to dump him, you’ll have to be faithful.”

  “I don’t have to be faithful.” Sophie thought again about the night to come, and began to have doubts. After all, this would involve taking her clothes off in front of a semi-complete stranger. “But I probably will be anyway. I have no moves, and I don’t see the mayor making one on his own. He’s not the aggressive type. The only reason he moved last night was that we were sort of talking dirty.”

  “So do that again,” Amy said.

  “I don’t think I can,” Sophie said, looking at the mess on her screen. “I can’t even write dirty.”

  “It’s easy. Just say, ‘Fuck me.’ He’ll take it from there.”

  “ ‘Fuck me.’ ” Sophie tried to imagine saying that to Phin. It sounded so unlike her. “I’ll think of something else.”

  “Simple ways are best,” Amy said. “Go with ‘Fuck me’ and get that scene.”

  Oh, right, Sophie thought. Then she thought of Zane. The least exciting woman he knew, huh? Then she thought of the dock. And Phin. And the heat rose again. Fuck me. “Fuck me,” she tried out loud.

  “There you go,” Amy said.

  “Fuck me,” Sophie said again, and went upstairs to practice while she put on Clea’s pink dress.

  Chapter Six

  At nine that night, Phin sat in the booth across from Wes and watched Sophie, stuck at a table with the rest of the crowd from the farm. She looked as fuckable as ever.

  “Amy’s over there,” Wes said. “We should—”

  “No,” Phin said, still watching Sophie. “As soon as Amy realizes she needs you, she’ll come over here and we won’t have to put up with Frank and Georgia. Although since you gave her that showerhead, she may not realize that anytime soon. Never give a woman an appliance that replaces you. She’ll use it and turn on you.”

  “She’s smart as hell,” Wes said, ignoring him. “And she’s funny and sharp, and she lays it right on the line. I like her.”

  “Try to think about something else,” Phin said.

  “I went to see Stephen Garvey this afternoon,” Wes said obediently. “He said he was going to take care of the Dempseys’ car to avoid negative publicity before the election. He seemed to think I was there because you’d sent me.”

  “Me?” Phin frowned at him. “Why would I—”

  “He said he knew if he went after the Dempseys, you’d be vindictive and use it against him, you being so closely tied to the movie people.”

  “ ‘Closely tied’?” Phin said, his mind drifting to rope and Sophie.

  “His words, not mine. He’s up to something and it’s got something to do with that movie.”

  Across the room, Sophie stretched, and Phin lost interest in Stephen. “Maybe if I ask nice, Sophie will tell me about the movie.”

  Wes rolled his eyes. “That’s good. Concentrate on the important stuff. What happened to her being a dangerous woman to get involved with?”

  Phin watched Sophie nod at Frank. Forget him, come over here to me. “I’m not talking about getting involved with her. I’m talking about seeing her naked.”

  “I’m against you using Sophie for sex,” Wes said. “I like her. Also, I think she’s dangerous as long as Stephen’s got this movie thing going. Besides, she has a boyfriend back in Cincy. Amy says he’s a big-shot therapist.”

  Phin took his eyes off Sophie to frown at Wes. “That was a real hot conversation you had with Amy. Conversations like that will get you in the sack about in time for Y3K.”

  “Amy also said that, based on what Sophie tells her, the guy is extremely boring in bed. So you might be able to talk her into the naked part, but it would be a really stupid thing to do since she’s going to leave tomorrow.”

  “Since when did you become the Chastity Patrol?”

  “I like Sophie,” Wes said. “Do not seduce and abandon her or I’ll arrest you for something.”

  “Police brutality,” Phin said. “Which reminds me, if I get lucky with Sophie, can I borrow some handcuffs?”

  “You’ve still got the last ones you borrowed. Phin, I’m not kidding. Sophie deserves more than your hit-and-run, and Stephen’s too damn pleased that you’ve been out there twice. Just stay away from her.”

  “Hey,” Amy said, as she bounced into the booth beside Wes. “What’s new in crime and government?”

  Phin watched Wes turn toward her, his world a better place. Great, he thought. She’s going to leave and break his fucking heart.

  Across the bar, Rachel was standing, and Sophie looked unhappy.

  “Later for you two,” Phin said to them, and went to see what Sophie needed.

  ❖ ❖ ❖

  Half an hour earlier, Frank had sat down across from Sophie, friendly-drunk but not reeling, and said, “So how’s it going?”

  “Just great,” Sophie had said, pretending not to notice Georgia crawling into Zane’s lap beside them. It was difficult because she was also pretending not to notice Phin sitting across the room. She’d planned to play hard-to-get, but if that got her Frank’s conversation and Georgia’s seduction in stereo, she was going to get a lot easier very soon.

  Georgia said loudly, “You really are some man, Zane Black, you really are,” and Frank shrugged at Sophie and gave a little laugh.

  Five minutes, to be polite, and then I’m heading for that booth. “And how’s your life?” Sophie said, trying to make conversation, realizing too late that it was a dumb thing to ask at that particular moment.

  Frank drank some beer. “Oh, pretty good.” He started to peel the label off his bottle. “That’s all I ever wanted anyway. Pretty good.” He let his eyes drift over to Clea at the bar, laughing up at his son.

  “ ‘Pretty good’ ‘s not bad,” Sophie agreed, wishing there was someplace she could look that didn’t have evidence that Frank’s life was pretty terrible.

  “You know, growing up, I knew exactly what I wanted,” Frank said, expanding into contemplative used-car salesman mode. “A good job, a nice house, a pretty wife, a son, and two cars, a Jeep and a big luxury car to take the wife places. I had it all planned out by eighteen.”

  “Well, you got that,” Sophie said. “Of course, I’m guessing on the cars.”

  “I got it all,” Frank said. “And it is not a bad life, not at all. Except...” He looked over at the bar again and took another swig of beer. Then he leaned forward, and Sophie leaned forward a little, too, to get farther away from Georgia. “Did you ever one day look up and realize you’d been staring at the ground when there was a whole sky on top of you? Just one day, realize that there was more out there than you could have imagined?”

  “No,” Sophie said. She’d always known there was more out there than she could imagine, that was why she was so careful not to look up. Bat country.

  “By the time I was a senior in high school,” Frank said, “I had it all lined up. Even the job