Drizzled with Death(66)

“He mentioned you’re engaged to be married and that everyone at some sort of carcass exchange is impressed with your bride-to-be.”

“He told you all that?”

“All that and more. Apparently, she’s so flexible she’s practically a circus freak.”

“Are you jealous?”

“Why would I be jealous of being insulted like that?”

“I can’t see why any woman would be insulted by my compliments.”

“Are you sure? I know I’d die of embarrassment if my fiancé blabbed to anyone who would listen that I liked to get naked and twist myself into a knot capable of lashing a cruise ship to a dock.” Knowlton’s apple bobbed like he had hooked a blue whale.

“When you put it that way, it does sound a little embarrassing.”

“Does this girl know you talk about her like that? You might want to be careful or she might back out of the marriage.”

“I see what you mean.”

“When’s the wedding? I haven’t heard Tansey saying anything, and knowing your mother, she should be all a-dither planning and shouting the news from rooftops all over town.” Out of the corner of my eye I saw the net Graham was holding beginning to flutter like it was jiggling from some giggling. Silent and manly giggling, but giggling nonetheless.

“I haven’t told her about it yet.” Knowlton was having trouble lifting his gaze above my kneecaps. Which was a new experience. Usually I can’t get him to lift his eyes above my nonexistent bustline.

“To hear Tansey tell it, the two of you are still as close as the days you were taking up space on her insides. How could you deny her the pleasure of this news? Especially with such a special girl.” Graham must have decided to take pity on him.

“His descriptions of his fiancée wouldn’t necessarily make a good impression on a mother-in-law. A father-in-law maybe, but certainly not a mother.”

“That’s it exactly. I wanted them to be able to be close.”

“How is it that after all these years I had to hear about the love of your life from Graham? When Graham first told me you were engaged to such an extraordinary woman, I thought for sure he was lying to me. But since you aren’t denying any of it, I’ll have to go home and tell Celadon that you’re off the market and we’ll need to set our sights elsewhere.” Knowlton held out hope that if I wouldn’t marry him Celadon would even though she’d been married to her husband for years.

Knowlton shuffled his feet along the dirt for a moment before speaking again. “Uh, Dani, could we talk in private for a moment?”

“It doesn’t seem appropriate for me to be chatting tête-à-tête with a man whose heart belongs to another,” I said. He looked so miserable I was rapidly losing my anger at him. We all want to show off for our peers sometimes, to be the source of envy. The only thing I was still sore at him for was using my real name and besmirching it all over the state.

“I think I see one of those monkeys up in that tree way over there.” Graham gestured with his net and stepped quickly out of earshot. It was a small kindness to be sure, but a telling one, and it raised him in my estimation more than anything else I had seen him do so far. A look of relief flitted across Knowlton’s face as if a cop with the blue lights on had just barreled past him and had stopped a car a few ahead of his own.

“I lied, Dani. You know you and Celadon are the only girls for me. There isn’t anyone else. Please don’t tell your sister I have a fiancée. She’ll never give me another glance.” The only glancing around for Knowlton that Celadon had ever done was to be sure he wasn’t hanging around before she ventured to leave the house, but it wasn’t going to do anyone a bit of good to share that with him.

“Is that right? I hope you knew enough not to use some real girl’s name when you went around making stuff up. If what Graham told me was even half as colorful as what you’d been saying, I’d hate to be the girl anyone thought was involved in those stories.” I kept my eyes fixed right on his face as it turned the color of a male cardinal. He opened and shut his mouth several times but nothing came out. I think Graham had positioned himself downwind and was still able to hear a lot more than it seemed like he could, given the distance, because he picked that precise moment to show up and rescue Knowlton from having to come up with a response.

“So did you just stop in to help us lose a monkey or did you want to talk to me about more imaginary animal sightings?” That dropped his points back down to zero and gave Knowlton a terrific topic change.