Chapter 17

I wanted to hold onto Jack's arm on the way home but Bozo made that impossible. Jack did keep his arm around my waist, so that was almost as good. One thing for sure — it was a much better walk than the last one we took. Even if the brute made me clean up after my stupid dog.

When we got home, Jack leaned down and undid Bozo's leash and took it into the garage. He pulled the unused paper towels out of his pocket and put them on the workbench.

"That was mean."

"What?"

"Making me clean up like that."

"Hey, I told you. If you were going to let those kids feed him a bunch of crap, you were going to clean it up. Just making you responsible for your actions, Dear."

I stuck my tongue out at him. "I'll show you responsible." He reached out for me and I shrieked and ran up the stairs.

Bozo ran up after me, barking as if it was a game. I turned around at the landing and saw Jack walking towards the house.

"Where are you going?"

He pointed at the kitchen door.

"I can see that. Why?"

"I want to see if they found out anything about Charlie."

"Oh, yeah. Hang on." I ran down the stairs, a barking Bozo right behind me.

I reached down to pet him. "There's a good boy, Bozo."

Jack opened the door and we all went inside. The lights were still on but nobody seemed to be around.

"Wait here and I'll go see where everybody is."

"Maybe they went out somewhere."

"I doubt it. Mom's Lexus is in the garage."

Bozo had found Dino's water bowl and was lapping away. I opened the refrigerator and spotted a half dozen waters left over from the barbecue along side an equal number of canned sodas in one of the shelves on the inside of the door. I grabbed a water, took a good drink and took the now empty bowl over to the sink. Bozo acted like he thought I was getting him dinner the way he was dancing around behind me, whining every second or two. He looked disappointed when I put the bowl back where it belonged, but took a couple of tentative licks to make sure it was only water.

"You've had enough food to last you for a week, you stupid dog."

I heard Mom say, "Why don't you get yourself a bowl of ice cream and the two of you can share it."

I turned around to see her walk into the kitchen, followed by Jack.

"Oh, I COULDN'T EAT ANOTHER THING." Both Jack and his mother said it along with me.

Jack added, "Yeah, right."

I decided that subject had been exhausted. "Have you heard anything about Charlie?"

June said, "No."

Damn. Simple and abrupt. I felt like I should ask something, suggest something no one had thought about, but I couldn't think of anything.

"How's Mary doing?"

"She finally fell asleep. She kept coming up with all kinds of things that could be wrong, from everyone being killed and the bodies are inside the house somewhere Wanda couldn't see them to they went somewhere in the car and were in an accident and burned up. I had the news station on the radio for a while but they didn't mention anything. I think I was able to convince her they aren't all lying dead in the house because their car is gone."

"Poor Mary. I wish there was something I could do."

"Tell me about it."

Jack said, "Maybe they got abducted by aliens."

His mother answered, "You're not helping things, Jack.

"Let me call Daddy and see if he has any suggestions."

"OK."

I called the house and Wanda answered. She had told Daddy about them and he'd already called some of his friends at the area hospitals. He was still making calls on his cell, but she said she could get him if I wanted to talk to him.

"No, that's OK. Have him call if he finds out something."

June said "Here."

"Wand. June says to call the house. OK. Thanks."

I hung up the phone and went to the counter to get my water, but it was gone. I turned to look at Jack, just in time to see him tipping it up, drinking the last of it.

"Hey!"

"Hey, what?"

"You stole my water."

"It's OK, Dear. I'm just sharing it."

He just looked at me with a stupid smile on his face as his mother snorted into her hand.

I sat down across from Mom while Jack grabbed another water out of the fridge. He sat next to me and held it out, then snatched it away when I reached for it.

"Uh, Uh. Kiss first."

I tired to look stern, but I really wanted a kiss. The water I could take or leave. I leaned over and we kissed. When we were done, he opened the bottle and held it out to me. I held onto his hand and guided it up to my mouth, just taking a mouthful before letting go.

June sat there, looking at us, shaking her head.

"What?"

"You two have the weirdest mating rituals."

I wrapped both my arms around the one closest to me. "Maybe, but they're our mating rituals."

Jack stood up, pulling me with him.

"Come on, Jill. Time to go home." He kissed June on the cheek. "Let us know if you hear anything."

"I will, Honey. I'll call."

I said, "Good. You never know what mating rituals we'll be going through."

The stairs are just wide enough for the two of us to walk side by side. That's good, because we both had our arms around the other, and I didn't want to let go.

I don't know what it is about that dog of mine, but he's always in a hurry to get someplace. Open the door in the morning and he runs downstairs like he'll pee all over himself if he doesn't get down there quick enough. Now that we were going upstairs, he did his best to push through us. Why, I have no idea. It's not like he can open the door once he's up there or anything. Somehow Jack managed to make him stay behind us without getting knocked over in the process.

Jack opened the door. Bozo ran inside six feet or so, then waited to see what we were going to do. Jack motioned me in, then followed.

"Make sure you lock the door, Jack."

"Oh, I'm sure we'll be safe."

"Uh, uh. I want your body. No excuses. It's been too damned long."

He locked it, but said, "You little harlot."

"I'm not that little. And I don't charge for it, so I'm not a harlot."

"That's true."

"Did you know that word has had a bunch of different meanings over the years?"

"No, I didn't." He was standing against me, his arms lightly around me, resting just at the bottom of my waist, where my butt starts to swell out. He nibbled on my forehead with his lips, then each eye, then my nose. "Tell me."

"The Hebrew word that's used in the Bible means a strange person."

"Well, that fits you."

"Not that kind of strange. More like a foreigner."

He nibbled some more, threatening my lips but never coming quite close enough. "Tell me more."

"In the twelve or thirteen hundreds, it was a vagabond, a male. What they used to call a bum but we would call a homeless person today."

He used his face to lift my chin, then started to nibble on my neck. "Maybe the homeless rights groups complained so they changed it to mean a hooker."

"I don't know about homeless groups, but it took a while for that change. It changed to mean a juggler of either sex."

He put one hand on my butt, then used the other to undo the top button on my shirt, holding it open so he could nibble all over my collarbone and below. "So, then it became a lady of the evening?"

"Umm, Hmmm."

He undid another button and nibbled the top part of my breasts, the part not covered by my bra. "Maybe they had to juggle their clients."

"Maybe."

His tongue snuck into the crevice between my tits as his hand explored the back side of my shorts. "So, how do you know so much about harlots?"

"I don't know about harlots, just the word."

He had all the buttons undone; the knot under my boobs was the only thing holding the shirt closed. He turned his head sideways and nibbled the area between the bottom of my bra and the knot. The hand on my butt was the only thing that kept me from falling over. "So, why do you know so much about the word?"

"Daddy called me that after you and I met. I looked it up to see what he meant. He told me he was using it figuratively and I told him he could figure my ass."

He moved his hand back to join the other one. Both kneaded the muscles of my ass cheeks for a minute. "This ass?"

"Uuuhhhmmm. Jack? Take me to bed."

"Are you sure you don't want me to throw you over the couch? Do you on the kitchen table?"