“Not from my end.”

“You know, I looked up Hunter’s Landing on the Internet, and the place you’re staying isn’t that far from the casinos.”

“I’m aware of that.”

“So you should go. Gamble, talk to some people. You spend too much time alone.”

He thought about Meri, sleeping in the room next to his. “Not anymore.”

“Does that mean you’re seeing someone?”

“No.”

“You need to get married.”

“You need to get off me.”

Bobbi Sue sighed. “All right, but just in the short term.”

Jack hung up. He glanced at his computer, but for once he didn’t want to work. He paced the length of the spacious bedroom, ignoring the fireplace, the view and the television. Then he went downstairs to confront the woman who seemed determined to think the worst of him.

Not that he cared what she thought. But this wasn’t about her-it was about Hunter.

He found Meri in the kitchen, sitting on the counter, eating ice cream out of a pint-size container.

“Lunch?” he asked as he entered the room.

“Sort of. Not exactly high in nutrition, but I’m more interested in sugar and fat right now.”

He stared at her miniature spoon. “That’s an interesting size.”

She waved the tiny utensil. “It’s my ice-cream-eating spoon. I try to avoid using food as an emotional crutch, but sometimes ice cream is the only solution. I use this spoon because it takes longer to eat and I have a better chance of getting disgusted with myself and stopping before finishing the pint. A trick for keeping off the weight. I have a thousand of them.”

“This situation required ice cream?”

She licked the spoon. He did his best to ignore the flick of her tongue and the sigh that followed, along with the rush of unwelcome heat in his body.

“You pissed me off,” she told him.

Translation: he’d hurt her. Hunter was her brother. She wouldn’t want to think his friends had forgotten him.