Free Joan Hess - Arly Hanks 04 by Mortal Remains in Maggody Page B

bus station, was staring at the wall, his lips moving just a little bit and his hand shaking enough to splatter the bedspread with drops of whiskey. He was a real odd fish, she thought before she returned to the business at hand, which was trying trying to figure out what Estelle was so antsy about.
    "What about Kevin?" she said, still whispering.
    "You know how you left Dahlia in charge of the bar and grill while you came out here to meet the movie stars before anyone else had a chance? Some of us had to change clothes before we could come over, but you just -- "
    "What about Kevin?"
    "Well," Estelle said slowly, making it clear Ruby Bee was going to suffer long and hard for upstaging some, "he found out that Dahlia's supposed to kiss one of these here actors -- when she's doing her role, naturally. I guess she didn't see fit to tell him beforehand, maybe on account of him being the jealous type. He upped and ordered her to give up her part. She didn't take kindly to being ordered to do anything, especially by Mr. Milquetoast hisself, so at the moment she's throwing pots and pans at him while he's scuttling around the kitchen like a gimpy cockroach, pleading with -- "
    Ruby Bee shoved the towels into Estelle's arm and took off for the kitchen. All the way across the parking lot she kept thinking how Estelle had wasted all that time rambling like a free-range chicken instead of getting right to the point -- the point being that the kitchen was now a battlefield along the lines of Little Big Horn.
    As she went into the barroom, she heard a crash that liked to give her a heart attack. Dahlia was shrieking so loudly that all the customers had given up trying to make conversation and were sitting there like they were in church. None of them looked bored, though. Every now and then there was a lull; Ruby Bee figured that Kevin was attempting to beg for his life, if not for her crockery.
    She shoved open the kitchen door in time to see a pie pan sail across the room. A cookie sheet followed, as did a second pie pan. Dahlia was huffing and blowing so hard her face was scarlet, and her hair, recently styled by Estelle to look neat if not inspirational, was going every which way. She was sucking in air so loudly Ruby Bee wondered how there was any left.
    "Dahlia O'Neill, you stop right this minute!" she ordered. "You, too, Kevin Buchanon -- wherever you are!"
    Dahlia had her fist wrapped around the handle of a glass pitcher. "Jest show your face, Kevin Fitzgerald Buchanon! Jest show your filthy, male-chauvinist face!"
    Ruby Bee grabbed the lip of the pitcher and held on. "I said we're not going to have any more of this! Didn't you hear me, missy?"
    Dahlia's thick white fingers relented, and Ruby Bee snatched the pitcher to her chest and retreated a few steps. As she did so, Kevin's face rose from behind the counter in the middle of the room. In contrast to Dahlia's scarlet complexion, his face was whiter than the towels in #4 and almost as nubby with beads of sweat.
    "I was just trying to reason with you, my sweetness," he bleated.
    "No, you was trying to tell me what I can and can't do."
    "But we're betrothed. You don't have any call to be kissing some man so that everybody in America can see you doing it." Dahlia put her hands on her hips and gave him a snooty smile. "Sez you."
    "But I'm your fiancé," Kevin continued, "and I'm the one what ought to say whether or not you go kissing some fellow. How'd you feel if I was to go smooching with Miss D'Amourre or that other actress?"
    Ruby Bee considered butting in, but instead busied herself assessing the damage to the kitchen (not too bad, mostly unbreakables, scattered around) and sopping up the conversation so she could repeat it later. After all, everyone in town took a genuine interest in the couple, particularly since they'd been accused of fornicating on a porch swing a while back. Ruby Bee had never believed one word of that.
    "Miss D'Amourre wouldn't smooch with you if you was