I see them walk into the Magnolia Room, the bar at the
Stonewall Jackson Inn where they first really started to get to know each other.
Austin is talking, Jeff is
listening, smiling faintly, his gaze taking in the nearly empty room. He spots
me, touches
Austin’s elbow.
Austin
breaks off what he was saying, looking a little wary.
For some reason I always think of Austin
as blond, but it’s Jeff who is blond. Austin
has dark hair and the boyishly pouty, unthreateningly exotic looks you’d
expect of a Calvin Klein underwear model – though he’s not remotely the pouty
type and his modeling days are long behind him. Jeff has a more straightforward
handsomeness. Those all American good looks that effectively sell so many pick
up trucks and pairs of Levis.
“Red or white?” Jeff asks and Austin
shakes his head, amused.
“Surprise me.”
Jeff goes to the bar and Austin
comes over to the table to greet me. We
get the preliminaries out of the way, and I ask, “Does he often?”
Austin is still
smiling, still wary. “Does he what?”
“Surprise you?”
He relaxes a fraction. “Yes. As a matter of fact, he does.”
The look he throws Jeff, now busily charming the lady bartender, is
affectionate.
“So how are things going? Where are you living now?”
Austin tunes
back in. “We’ve been doing the long distance thing, but as of last weekend…” he
expels a long breath, “we’re homeowners. We bought a house in Buckhead.” His
smile is happy, even content.
“So you’re relocating to Georgia?”
I admit that’s a surprise. I thought it was more likely they’d move north.
“It’s easier for me to relocate than Jeff. He’s got contacts
here, both in law enforcement and the community. It would take him years to
build that network up again. Whereas I can work from home a lot of the time.”
He shrugs.
“But you’re not living in Madison?”
“No.” There’s a pause before he adds, “Buckhead gives us
both a little breathing room.”
Jeff rejoins us. He sets a glass of white wine in front of Austin.
“Muscadine Supreme. From Georgia
Winery.”
Austin makes a
hm sound and gently swirls the wine to
release the bouquet. We watch as he sniffs the glass thoughtfully. He
hms again and Jeff smiles faintly,
tolerantly. He’s drinking beer which he raises toward me in greeting.
We wait as Austin
tilts the wine glass and checks the color. Finally he takes a sip. He
considers.
“So you’re still in the PI business, Jeff?” I ask as Austin
takes his iPhone out and makes notes.
Jeff nods.
“How’s that pay?”
“Enough.”
Of course, they’re not hurting for money. Austin
inherited a bundle when Harrison passed away.
“Have you solved any more mysteries?”
Jeff says briefly, “Every day.” Austin
looks up at that he and Jeff exchange funny little half-smiles. Private smiles.
“What are you doing now, Austin?”
Austin’s face
gets that closed look again. Guarded. “Writing mostly. Exploring the
possibilities.”
“Like?”
“He’s had a lot of offers,” Jeff says. “Anybody’d be lucky
to have him.”
Austin grimaces.
“I think he ought to open his own winery,” Jeff says.
“It’s not that easy, Jeff. It’s not just about money or even
land.”
“You could do it.”
Austin is
shaking his head.
“How’s Ernest?” I ask, since that seems like a safe topic.
Jeff chokes on his beer. Austin
bites his lip and tries not to laugh. He answers, “Ernest is building a rocket.”
“His second rocket,” Jeff says. “The first one blew up.”
“Do you see much of him?”
Austin says,
“He’s at school right now. But I try to see him every couple of weekends.”
“What does Ernest think of Jeff?”
Jeff says gravely, imitating Ernest’s adult-sounding tone,
“An interesting specimen, Austin.”
Austin laughs.
“He didn’t say that. Not exactly.”
When Jeff chuckles, his eyes crinkle. He drinks his beer and
doesn’t bother to argue.
“What do the assorted and various stepmothers thinks of you
two getting together?”
“Assorted and various things,” Jeff drawls.
Austin smiles
faintly, watching him.
“Do you ever see the Cashels?”
“Naw,” says Jeff.
“I met Cormac for lunch when he came to New
York to meet his publisher.”
“That was your good deed for the year,” Jeff responds.
“He’s okay.” Austin
shrugs dismissingly.
I say, “You know, a lot of readers thought you two wouldn’t
last.”
“Us?” Austin
seems genuinely startled.
Jeff’s mouth twists, but he doesn’t say anything. He seems
more interested in Austin’s
response.
“What’s been the biggest challenge for you?”
Austin’s brows
draw together as he considers. Jeff answers that one. “Trying to make it work
long distance. Plus Austin travels
a lot. This winter he was backpacking for a month in South America. I think I heard from him a total of three times. I
had no idea if he was alive or dead.”
Austin makes a pained face. “You’d probably hear if I was
dead.”
“That makes me feel a whole
helluva lot better.”
I interrupt, “What’s the most fun about being together?”
“All of it,” Austin
says.
Jeff meets his direct gaze unhesitatingly. “Yeah, no matter
how much time we spend together, it’s not enough. So we’re buying
this house onChatham Road.”
“Chinese wallpaper in the dining room,” Austin
says. Apparently that’s a good thing.
“What do you fight about?”
“Chinese wallpaper?” Jeff suggests.
“We don’t really
fight,” Austin says.
Jeff states, “We disagree
over Austin’s notion that it’s okay
to veer from his itinerary without letting anyone know, and that it doesn’t
matter if he forgets to check in for a week.”
Austin expels a
long breath but doesn’t argue. They’ve been over this ground once or twice. He
says, “Nobody has ever shot at
me
when I’m working.”
Jeff opens his mouth. I interrupt, “What have you each
learned from the other?”
Austin says, “To
phone home regularly.”
Jeff laughs. He says, “That the right person makes a
difference.”
“To what?”
“To everything.”
“He means sex.” Austin
is teasing Jeff. Jeff looks mildly uncomfortable, but that’s not the surprise.
The surprise is that Austin is so
relaxed that he can joke about something that was surely painful to remember at
one time.
Jeff says almost stubbornly, “I mean everything.”
Their gazes hold briefly. Austin
inclines his head as though acknowledging a point.
“What do you laugh about?”
Jeff says confidentially, “Well, when Austin
gets excited he has this little trick—”
“Jeff.”
Jeff laughs.
“Bastard,” Austin says without heat. Jeff is still laughing,
and after a moment Austin joins in.
Which answers that question – and probably all the rest of
them.
You can purchase them at that reduced price through Smashwords, All Romance Ebooks, and Amazon Kindle. Unfortunately the turn around time at B&N is too slow -- by the time they'd have the new prices approved and posted, the sale would be over! -- but you can buy epub format through Smashwords or All Romance Ebooks. 
