"Now, I can tell you been messing around a little, and I got nothing against that, but you two need to go home and do this kind of thing."
"We will." I nodded eagerly, and Bill managed a stiff inclination of his head.
"We're raiding a bar a few blocks back," the patrolman said casually. I could see only a little of his face, but he seemed burly and middle-aged. "You two coming from there, by any chance?"
"No," I said.
"Vampire bar," the cop remarked.
"Nope. Not us."
"Let me just shine this light on your neck, miss, if you don't mind."
"Not at all."
And by golly, he shone that old flashlight on my neck and then on Bill's.
"Okay, just checking. You two move on now."
"Yes, we will."
Bill's nod was even more curt. While the patrolman waited, I slid back over to my side and clipped my seat belt, and Bill put the car in gear and backed up.
Bill was just infuriated. All the way home he kept a sullen (I guess) silence, whereas I was inclined to view the whole thing as funny.
I was cheerful at finding Bill wasn't indifferent to my personal attractions, such as they were. I began to hope that someday he would want to kiss me again, maybe longer and harder, and maybe even - we could go further? I was trying not to get my hopes up. Actually, there was a thing or two that Bill didn't know about me, that no one knew, and I was very careful to try to keep my expectations modest.
When he got me back to Gran's, he came around and opened my door, which made me raise my eyebrows; but I am not one to stop a courteous act. I assumed Bill did realize I had functioning arms and the mental ability to figure out the door-opening mechanism. When I stepped out, he backed up.
I was hurt. He didn't want to kiss me again; he was regretting our earlier episode. Probably pining after that damn Pam. Or maybe even Long Shadow. I was beginning to see that the ability to have sex for several centuries leaves room for lots of experimentation. Would a telepath be so bad to add to his list?
I kind of hunched my shoulders together and wrapped my arms across my chest.
"Are you cold?" Bill asked instantly, putting his arm around me. But it was the physical equivalent of a coat, he seemed to be trying to stay as far away from me as the arm made possible.
"I am sorry I have pestered you. I won't ask you for any more," I said, keeping my voice even. Even as I spoke I realized that Gran hadn't set up a date for Bill to speak to the Descendants, but she and Bill would just have to work that out.
He stood still. Finally he said, "You - are - incredibly - naive." And he didn't even add that codicil about shrewdness, like he had earlier.
"Well," I said blankly. "I am?"
"Or maybe one of God's fools," he said, and that sounded a lot less pleasant, like Quasimodo or something.
"I guess," I said tartly, "you'll just have to find out."
"It had better be me that finds out," he said darkly, which I didn't understand at all. He walked me up to the door, and I was sure hoping for another kiss, but he gave me a little peck on the forehead. "Good night, Sookie," he whispered.
I rested my cheek against his for a moment. "Thanks for taking me," I said, and moved away quickly before he thought I was asking for something else. "I'm not calling you again." And before I could lose my determination, I slipped into the dark house and shut the door in Bill's face.
Chapter 5
I CERTAINLY HAD a lot to think about the next couple of days. For someone who was always hoarding new things to keep from being bored, I'd stored enough up to last me for weeks. The people in Fangtasia, alone, were food for examination, to say nothing of the vampires. From longing to meet one vampire, now I'd met more than I cared to know.
A lot of men from Bon Temps and the surrounding area had been called in to the police station to answer a few questions about Dawn Green and her habits. Embarrassingly enough, Detective Bellefleur took to hanging around the bar on his off-hours, never drinking more alcohol than one beer, but observing everything that took place around him. Since Merlotte's was not exactly a hotbed of illegal activity, no one minded too much once they got used to Andy being there.
He always seemed to pick a table in my section. And he began to play a silent game with me. When I came to his table, he'd be thinking something provocative, trying to get me to say something. He didn't seem to understand how indecent that was. The provocation was the point, not the insult. He just wanted me to read his mind again. I couldn't figure out why.
Then, maybe the fifth or sixth time I had to get him something, I guess it was a Diet Coke, he pictured me cavorting with my brother. I was so nervous when I went to the table (knowing to expect something, but not knowing exactly what) that I was beyond getting angry and into the realm of tears. It reminded me of the less sophisticated tormenting I'd taken when I was in grade school.
Andy had looked up with an expectant face, and when he saw tears an amazing range of things ran across his face in quick succession: triumph, chagrin, then scalding shame.
I poured the damn coke down his shirt.
I walked right past the bar and out the back door.
"What's the matter?" Sam asked sharply. He was right on my heels.
I shook my head, not wanting to explain, and pulled an aging tissue out of my shorts pocket to mop my eyes with.
"Has he been saying ugly things to you?" Sam asked, his voice lower and angrier.
"He's been thinking them," I said helplessly, "to get a rise out of me. He knows."
"Son of a bitch," Sam said, which almost shocked me back to normal. Sam didn't curse.
Once I started crying, it seemed like I couldn't stop. I was getting my crying time done for a number of little unhappinesses.
"Just go on back in," I said, embarrassed at my waterworks. "I'll be okay in just a minute."
I heard the back door of the bar open and shut. I figured Sam had taken me at my word. But instead, Andy Bellefleur said, "I apologize, Sookie."
"That's Miss Stackhouse to you, Andy Bellefleur," I said. "It seems to me like you better be out finding who killed Maudette and Dawn instead of playing nasty mind games with me."
I turned around and looked at the policeman. He was looking horribly embarrassed. I thought he was sincere in his shame.
Sam was swinging his arms, full of the energy of anger.
"Bellefleur, sit in someone else's area if you come back," he said, but his voice held a lot of suppressed violence.
Andy looked at Sam. He was twice as thick in the body, taller by two inches. But I would have put my money on Sam at that moment, and it seemed Andy didn't want to risk the challenge either, if only from good sense. He just nodded and walked across the parking lot to his car. The sun glinted on the blond highlights in his brown hair.