The look in his eye didn’t change; in fact, it seemed to increase when he smiled, long and slow. “Give me another target.”
“Jeeeeem!” Katya said, and held out her arms with another of her blinding smiles.
Kate looked down at her and said, “I’m saving you from yourself right now,” and marched back to Bobby and Dinah’s table.
“Thanks, Kate,” Dinah said, receiving Katya in a four-point landing.
“My pleasure,” Kate said.
Bobby fished keys out of his pocket. “Come to dinner?”
“I’d like to,” Kate said, looking around. “I wanted to talk to somebody first-hey, where’d Ruthe and Dina go?”
Dinah followed her gaze. “I don’t know; I don’t see them. They must have left. Did you see John Letourneau trip over Dina’s cane?”
Bobby threw back his head and roared with laughter. “Did I! That Dina.”
“She didn’t do it on purpose, Bobby,” Dinah said.
Bobby roared again. “Given their history, who knows? And who cares anyway? It was fun to watch John Letourneau fall off his high horse. Dignity, always dignity,” he said, and started to laugh again. “Ever see Singing in the Rain, Kate? Best goddamn movie ever to come out of Hollywood.”
“About thirteen times, all at your house,” Kate said.
“We can watch it again tonight,” he said, waving an expansive arm. “After dinner. So you coming?”
She shook her head. “I’ve got to talk to Dina and Ruthe.”
“Caribou stew,” he said.
She wavered, always susceptible to an appeal to her stomach.
“Plus, you need a haircut,” Dinah said, giving her a critical look.
Kate shook her head. “I’d like to, but I really have to talk to Dina and Ruthe. It’s about Dan. Rain check?”
Dan appeared at the Roadhouse door just as Kate reached it. He saw her, opened his mouth, and then something behind her caught his eye. He smiled, then laughed out loud when Christie, in a floor-mounted launch of which Katya would have approved, landed against his midsection, her legs prewrapped around his waist, and planted a long, intense kiss on his lips. Kate stepped around them. As she passed, Christie raised her head and their eyes met.