Spare Change (Wyattsville #1)(18)

“I suppose,” he answered a bit hesitantly. “You mean for a vacation?”

“Un-uh,” She slid her hand along the mound of his stomach and reached for the bulge in his crotch. “I’m talking about forever,” she sighed, “You and me, pleasuring each other, night after night after night.”

Scooter, a man who fought hand-to-hand combat in the war and came away unscathed, was no match for Susanna. Once she ran her tongue along the edge of his ear, he forgot he had a wife at home; he no longer cared about the customers who would line up at the diner door looking for their morning coffee, and he never gave Benjamin a thought. Susanna could do that to a man. “When?” he asked.

“Tomorrow morning,” she answered, edging her hand toward his crotch. “I’ll come to work tonight, like nothing’s wrong, then tomorrow morning we’ll drive over to Norfolk and catch the ten-thirty train. Ethan Allen can meet us here.”

“The boy? He’s coming?”

“Well sure. You can’t expect me to leave him on the farm with Benjamin.”

For a fleeting moment, Scooter remembered his own son who would indeed be left behind, but when Susanna pushed her tongue inside his mouth, the thought was quickly forgotten.





Benjamin Doyle

I suppose I always knew a woman like Susanna could be trouble, but there wasn’t a damn thing I could do to hold back from falling for her.

She’s a woman who drives a man crazy with that body of hers; and she can please you in ways other women ain’t even dreamt of. The first time I laid with Susanna, I knew right then, I’d be craving her till the day I died. Maybe I should’ve realized such a woman wouldn’t ever settle down, but I figured once we was married and had a kid, things would change. They did. They got worse.

The kid, Ethan Allen, he’s a lot like her. They figure I’m blind, but I see them whispering secrets back and forth and I know damn good and well what they’re up to.

Susanna keeps filling the kid’s head with a lot of bullshit about going to New York, when the truth is nobody’s going nowhere. She’s got no talent and I got no money. How’s that for a shit-sorry life?





No Hell Like Home

When Susanna arrived back at the house, Ethan Allen was out in the field shooting at the groundhogs who’d been digging up what was left of the soybeans; Benjamin was in the yard, hosing a splatter of dirt from his new tractor. “Where you been?” he asked.

“At the bank,” she answered; her voice cold and sharp as a razor.

Benjamin gave her an icy cold look but stayed with the hosing.

“I wanted to withdraw my money…”

“For what?” he asked sarcastically, “A trip to New York?”

“It was my money! You had no right!”

“I got every right!” he shouted. “I’m your husband. I say what money gets spent on! This tractor’s more important than some jerkwater notion of you becoming a singer!”

Susanna scooped a rock from the ground and hurled it at Benjamin’s head. He ducked and the rock cracked hard against the side of the tractor. “Jesus Christ!” he shouted, then came running across the yard and grabbed hold of her hair. He all but dragged Susanna back to where the tractor was standing; “See what you’ve done!” he shouted and shoved her nose into the dent.

“You think I give a f*ck about this tractor!” she answered defiantly. That thing’s a worthless piece of shit far as I’m concerned!”

“Worthless? You call a tractor that cost more’n a thousand dollars, worthless?”

“I’d call anything you got an interest in, worthless!”

“I had enough of your mouth,” Benjamin said; then he raised his hand and whacked Susanna hard enough to send her sprawling across the yard.

Ethan Allen, who was walking back from the field, saw it happen. He took off running and came at Benjamin. “No, Daddy, no!” he shouted.

“Keep outta this!” Benjamin roared. He yanked the shotgun from the boy’s grip and smacked him to the ground. “You dare raise a hand to me, you’ll get worse than she got!” With a disgusted sneer he turned and strode off.

After Susanna had gathered herself from the ground, she went to the boy and said, “Don’t worry, we’re still going to New York City.” She told Ethan Allen he was to stay clear of his daddy until after dark, then slip off to the diner and meet her. “Scooter’s going with us,” she confided, “he’s gonna see to it we got everything we want, he’s even gonna take you to see that Yankee game you been itching to see.”

“Does Daddy know?”

“Shit no,” Susanna answered. “That’s why it’s real important for you to keep clear of him—one wrong word and the cat’s out of the bag.”

Ethan Allen nodded.

“And, don’t you pack no clothes. That’s a dead giveaway.”

“I gotta bring my mitt!”

“Okay, the mitt—nothing else!”

“What about Dog?”

Susanna gave him a look of disbelief. “No Dog,” she said.

“But, Mama…”

“No buts.”

“I can’t leave Dog here with Daddy,” Ethan Allen whined, “He’ll shoot him in the heart soon as he finds out we’re gone.”