“He won’t come back, Johnny,” I assured.

“You call the cops, Charlie and me. Say it, Izzy.”

I stared up close into his eyes.

“I call the cops, Charlie then you, Johnny.”

He didn’t move.

I didn’t either.

But eventually my mouth did.

“Is she back?”

“Oh no. Hell no.” His forehead rolled on mine as he underlined a negative I thought I understood, but when he went on I would find I did not. “She doesn’t get this. She doesn’t get us. We’ve talked about her all we’re ever gonna talk about her. She doesn’t get to be a part of whatever it is that’s gonna be the me and you we become.”

My breath caught.

What did that mean?

“How’re the dogs?” he asked.

“They’re good,” I forced out.

“The horses?”

“Good.”

“Wesley still singing?”

He was killing me.

I nodded.

“Good, baby,” he whispered, his gaze no longer focused on mine.

It had dropped to my mouth.

Oh God, he was going to kiss me.

Oh God, I was going to kiss him!

This couldn’t happen.

I wanted it, boy did I want it.

But it took a huge effort of will to survive it ending after two breakfasts, two dinners, one telephone conversation, one text exchange and lots of sex.

If there was kissing, more sex or more anything like that, I might not.

We needed to be friends.

We could not be lovers.

“Oh shit, son, sorry.” Both our heads turned (and I will note they did this without our foreheads disconnecting) to see Dave walking backward, hands up. “Could see you were shaken up at gettin’ that news about Izzy. Margot could too. She sent me out to check on you but now I’ve done that and you two look like you’re, um . . . good. You, uh . . . just get back to what you were doing.”

Johnny made another noise, kind of like his subdued roar of earlier, but this one was not indication of enraged fury but instead indication of enraged frustration.

After making it, he lifted his forehead from mine and called, “We’re coming back in, Dave. Tell Margot it’s good and I hope you all ordered the mushrooms.”

“Got you a beer, boy, mushrooms ordered, just take your time,” Dave replied, moving sprightly back to the front doors and through them.

There was a couple standing outside the doors, both looking our way.

“Hey, uh . . . Johnny,” the man called.

“Trev,” Johnny returned and it sounded like a grunt, a loud one that carried, but a grunt nonetheless.

The woman Trev was with gave a hesitant wave.

Johnny ignored her.

I waved hesitantly back.

That got me a hesitant smile.

I hesitantly smiled back.

“Babe,” Johnny clipped.

I looked back to him to see that he might have lifted his forehead but he was still close.

“That’s Francine and she’s the biggest mouth in Matlock,” he shared.

“Oh dear,” I murmured.

“Yeah,” he agreed. “She’s good people but good people with a big damned mouth.”

“Hmm,” I mumbled not wanting to be the talk of the town linked with Johnny when Shandra came back (if she wasn’t already).

“I’m thinking we need another conversation about where shit’s at with us,” he declared.

Oh my.

“Johnny, it’s the man you are to be protective but don’t let what happened with Kent color where we—”

“Kent is whatever the fuck Kent is. That dress is why we need another conversation.”

It really should be noted that I liked how much he liked my dress.

Even noted, I shouldn’t and furthermore, couldn’t.

I needed to tell him where I was with this.

“I’m not sure I can do just sex,” I whispered.

“Right,” he muttered.

I kept whispering. “I could do just friends.”

“Right,” he repeated.

“So maybe you can unpin me from the wall and we can go have dinner with Margot and Dave,” I suggested.

His hand that was resting on my hip slid up and I thought it would slide up but it only got to my waist before he squeezed in, let me go and moved away.

I guessed he was going to make a stab at being friends.

That devastated me.

It shouldn’t.

That didn’t change the fact that it did.

But he caught my hand and held it as he led me back to the table, and I found it odd as just friends that Johnny held my hand and when we were lovers, he hadn’t.

He stood solicitous to the side as he let me scoot in and he followed me immediately, but Margot wasn’t wasting a second.

“Do you have the situation with this unsavory ex-boyfriend of Izzy’s in hand, Johnathon?”

“It’s in hand, Margot. Izzy has it sorted and we have an arrangement if something comes up. So you can chill,” Johnny replied.

Her irate eyes turned to me. “I cannot tell you the number of times I’ve shared with Johnathon and his brother Tobias that I have not, do not, and never will chill. If a woman is upset they should listen and assure her and do whatever they can to sort the situation that’s troubling her. Not simply tell her to chill.”

“I do kind of have it sorted, Margot,” I shared.

“Kind of is not sorted, Eliza,” she retorted in a tone that made me fight back laughter, because she sounded like she’d known me all my life, not maybe twenty minutes, and she had the right to boss me around.

“Well, Kent’s proved to be a guy who does what he’s going to do but now I’m calling Johnny should he do more of it, so I think I’ll be all right, don’t you?” I assured her, not adding the cops and Charlie because I got the impression she thought Johnny could handle just about anything and that would help her to chill.

“Well then,” she huffed, reaching to her martini glass that was nearly frosted the liquid was so chilled and had three big fat olives in it, making me wish I wasn’t driving so I could have a martini. In that moment I sure the heck needed one. “I see it’s actually sorted so fine.”

“Is that vodka or gin?” I asked, reaching for my wine.

“Vodka,” she answered.

“If you like flavored vodkas, I make them and they’re really yummy. If you want to try them, I’ll bottle some and get them to you.”

She took a sip with her eyes on me the entire time I talked, and when I was done she slid my phone across the table to me with one hand, the other hand swinging her martini to the side like I would imagine a sultry bombshell from the sixties would do the same thing.

Except cooler.

“Then it’s good I already programmed myself into your phone. I also called myself so I have your number. So there’ll be no delay in you phoning me to invite me over for a vodka tasting.”

I hadn’t invited her for a vodka tasting but I didn’t share that because I loved the idea of doing that. Deanna would too. And she’d think Margot was a hoot.

“I’ll set that up right away,” I said.

“Excellent,” she answered, lifting her glass to me.

I lifted mine to her and we both took a sip.

“That right there, Johnny boy, you witnessed it. Your girl here accidentally just participated in the ritual that enters her right into the coven,” Dave declared.

Johnny chuckled.