“Got the munchies, do you?” Dana asked.
“What do you know about Marcus Green?” Harper blurted out.
“He’s a teacher at Frankston, where Brook goes to school. Why?”
“He’s havin’ breakfast with Tawny in the café right now.” Harper laid the stash on the counter along with a ten-dollar bill.
“Well, crap! He’s probably pumping her for information about me. We were in junior high together, and he came in here on Wednesday and wanted to know if I’d go to dinner with him sometime. There’s not a drop of chemistry between us, Harper. I look at him and see that long-haired pot-smokin’ kid.” Dana made change and handed it back to her.
Harper didn’t agree—not the way he was flirting with Tawny. “Well, he’s lookin’ at our younger sister with stars in his blue eyes. And I don’t think he’s got any visions of you. Sorry to burst your little bubble.” Harper crammed the change into her apron pocket with the rest of her morning tips.
“Good God, that’s downright creepy!” Dana raised her voice an octave. “He’s, what, fourteen years older than her? That’s cradle robbin’.”
Harper started for the door, but Tawny rushed inside before she made it across the floor.
“Hey, tell me about this Marcus Green. He says that he knew you in school,” Tawny said. “He’s got the most amazing blue eyes . . .”
“He’s too old for you,” Dana said flatly.
Harper leaned against a shelf and nodded. She didn’t have the right to give anyone advice, but she knew men. That guy was a mama’s boy. She could spot them a mile away. After the mother she and Tawny had, the girl sure didn’t need a controlling mother-in-law. But what did she care? She didn’t even like her sister—or did she?
“He’s thirty-four—that’s only twelve years,” Tawny argued.
“He’s my age, and I’m thirty-six,” Dana shot back.
“He was the youngest kid in his class and skipped third grade, so he’s thirty-four. I looked at his driver’s license when he checked in.” Tawny crossed her arms over her chest and glared at Dana.
“He asked Dana if she’d go out with him,” Harper said. “And now that I’ve delivered that note, I’m going back to work.”
Dana grabbed her arm. “Oh, no, you are not! You’re going to stay here and back me up on this. He’s too old for her even if it isn’t fourteen years.”
“He asked you out?” Tawny rolled her eyes toward the ceiling. “What did you say?”
“He didn’t actually ask me. He wanted to know if he could ask,” Dana explained.
Tawny frowned. “Well, that’s different, then.”
“It still don’t change the fact that he’s too old for you,” Dana said.
“Hey,” Tawny said coldly, “I’m not here to ask you to be a bridesmaid. There was just a flicker of chemistry between us and I wanted to know if he’s a decent man. All I did was sit with him at breakfast and drink a cup of coffee, for God’s sake.”
“And then he went home?” Dana asked.
“And then he went to cabin number six. He’s rented it until Tuesday morning. Said he wanted to get unplugged and have some peace and quiet over the long weekend.”
Well, dammit! Harper thought. She might have to set the place on fire or jam his door shut. If he really were a mama’s boy, it shouldn’t be too tough to scare him. Maybe she should wrap up in a sheet and scratch on his cabin window that night and see if he’d scream like a little girl.
Dana groaned. “That means he’s going to . . . crap, there he is.” She nodded toward the window.
“I’m going out through Uncle Zed’s quarters. He won’t mind.” Harper’s long legs made short order of the distance and she, right along with Tawny behind her, disappeared through the curtained doorway at the same time Marcus entered the store.
Harper stopped in the middle of the spotlessly clean living area and sniffed. “I smell Granny Annie’s perfume in here.”
“All I smell is smoke,” Tawny whispered as she stuck her ear close to the curtain in the doorway.
“What are you doing?” Harper took a couple of long strides and did the same thing. “Can you hear them?”
“Shh.” Tawny put a finger over her lips and leaned against the curtain a little more.
“What’s goin’ on in here?” Zed whispered right behind them.
He startled Tawny so badly that if Harper hadn’t grabbed her by the arm she would have burst right through the curtain.
“We’re eavesdropping,” Harper told him.
“On who?” Zed filled up the rest of the space when he leaned in to listen, too. “Is it Dana and Brook?”
“Nope, Dana and Marcus,” Harper answered.
Marcus’s deep voice came through just fine. “I need to talk to you about something, Dana. I was so tickled to see you at the school that day, and I have to admit that I had a pretty good-size crush on you in junior high school. I know I asked you to go to dinner with me, but I have to ask for that back.”
“You can have it back, but you are too old for my sister,” Dana spat out. “And this whole thing of you asking her out is kind of . . .”
“Kind of what? We are two consenting adults,” he said.
“It’s creepy,” Dana blurted out.
“Because I was going to ask you out first? Are you jealous? If you’ll go out with me, I won’t ask her,” he chuckled.
“Neither of us is going anywhere with you, Marcus,” Dana said through clenched teeth.
Well, at least her older sister had enough sense to know when something wasn’t right and to fix it, Harper thought. Poor Tawny must want a boyfriend pretty bad for that little short guy to appeal to her.
“Dammit!” Tawny hissed.
“Age is just numbers on paper,” Marcus went on. “I’m a self-proclaimed bachelor. All I’m lookin’ for is a good friend, and Tawny is old enough to make up her own mind. Don’t worry, Dana. I’m not going to throw her over my shoulder and elope.” Marcus laughed.
Harper clamped her mouth shut to keep from saying something obscene right there in front of Uncle Zed. Tawny had heard her swear like a drunk sailor before, but for Uncle Zed to hear her say the words that were on her mind—man, that would put a blush on her face for eternity plus four days.
There was a long, pregnant silence, and then Dana laughed with him. “She’s my baby sister. I get a little overprotective.”
“Bullshit!” Tawny hissed for a second time.
Harper put a finger over her sister’s mouth and frowned.
“Understandable. Then we’re good?” he asked.
“We are good, but I’m not changing my mind.”
Harper nodded and Tawny drew back her hand to slap her arm, but Uncle Zed grabbed it in a vise grip.
“Friends, then?” Marcus asked altogether too smoothly.
“You betcha. Need some fishin’ worms or minnows? I understand you’re here for the weekend.”
“I hate fish, and it seems a shame to spend a whole day catchin’ and releasin’, so no, ma’am, I do not want any worms or bait. I would like a six-pack of Coke and a big bag of potato chips. I get the munchies when I read,” he said.