“Yeah, nonverbally he agreed. Also nonverbally he held your hand all the way back to the table, served your mushrooms first, kept touching you all through dinner, walked you to your car and texted you almost the minute you got home.”

Definitely needed to stop sharing so much with Deanna.

“It doesn’t mean anything,” I said softly.

“I got men friends and none of them squeeze my neck, rest their arm on the back of the booth we’re sitting in, touch my thigh, tinker with the bracelet on my wrist or walk me to my car even before I had Charlie, who would break their neck if they tried any of that shit.”

The first thigh touch wasn’t the last one last night.

And the tinkering with the bracelet thing had come after Margot had said she’d admired it. I’d told her it was my mother’s and about ten minutes later, after the dinner plates were swept away and before the dessert Margot insisted we have was served (and when I said I was too full, she decreed I could share Johnny’s, and when his arrived, she demanded I share Johnny’s, so I shared Johnny’s) Johnny had become fascinated with it.

Which meant I exerted some effort not to become fascinated with Johnny’s fascination with it.

By the way, I failed at this.

And by the way, Margot didn’t miss any of it.

Margot’s machinations weren’t hard to decipher. She elongated dinner to the point we’d closed the place down and she’d done it in an effort to get to know me better and force me to spend time with Johnny.

Dave hadn’t resisted, because Dave wouldn’t only throw his hanky over a puddle so her shoes wouldn’t get wet, he loved her so deeply, he’d throw himself bodily over that puddle.

That said, Dave was totally on board also to force me to spend time with Johnny.

Johnny hadn’t resisted for reasons I refused to think about.

That was, he hadn’t resisted until it became clear Margot didn’t care they were setting up the restaurant for lunch the next day and wanted us gone. She’d have talked to the wee hours of the morning if she could get away with it.

But I’d yawned.

I’d tried to be inconspicuous about it but Johnny had seen it.

Within two seconds the night was over.

No, I refused to think about any of his reasons.

Until now when Deanna was making me think of them.

“You need to ride this out,” Deanna advised quietly.

“Doll—” I began.

“Baby girl, no way I’d set you up for this kind of fall if I didn’t think it was worth the risk.”

“Three weeks ago you were telling me to be careful of getting in too deep with Johnny Gamble,” I reminded her.

“That was before the ten bottles of wine and the communication of his desire to do you against the wall of The Star.”

It was indeed before all of that.

She wasn’t finished.

“And three weeks ago Shandra hadn’t called him and forced him to take a good look at his life and what he had in it. You been spending the last two weeks cut up about something you wanted that was never meant to be. I think last night states clear Johnny Gamble spent the last two weeks the same exact way.”

“I can’t think of it like that. We’re friends. It may take some work to get to that place but we’re just going to be friends,” I stated firmly. “He heard about Kent and got protective because he’s that kind of guy.” I paused and then added, “And I had on a pretty dress.”

“Babe that dress is fine, and you look fine in it, and Johnny Gamble could want a piece of that action but Johnny Gamble would never go for that, say one word about it. For you and your peace of mind, to keep things where they need to be between you two, he’d control the urge, put it in the back of his mind and keep on keepin’ on. That is, he’d do that if he didn’t want a piece of what was in that dress because of who was wearing that dress. He might not have consciously intended to make you think about him doing you against the wall of The Star all through dinner, but I don’t think he’s too cut up about knowing you spent half that dinner thinking about him doing you against the wall of The Star.”

“That’s not Johnny, he isn’t like that,” I told her somewhat heatedly, the heat coming from defending Johnny.

“Precisely,” she retorted, reading the heat.

Sometimes I really hated when Deanna got things straight.

“My advice doesn’t change,” she announced. “Be careful. Look after you. But it also has changed because I know you, Izzy. I know how beautiful you are right down to your bones. I know that runs so deep, it spills out everywhere. I don’t know Johnny Gamble to throw him but I know enough to know the man isn’t stupid. He caught that. He caught your sweetness and he definitely caught your honesty, and he caught you being gentle about understanding where he was at and not ending it ugly but ending it compassionately, trying to salvage some part of what both of you felt brewing between you. Again, I don’t know Johnny and I also don’t know what happened to him and Shandra. But just like anyone else in Matlock, I paid attention because it was just something you pay attention to.”

She paid attention because she was nosy.

I didn’t interrupt her to share that. I also didn’t have a chance because she again wasn’t finished.

“And what I’ve seen of that man, what you’ve said, he’s a gentleman. He wouldn’t play you. He might have dinner with you and the family he’s got left in an effort to start this friendship you think you two are building. But he’d never, never, Iz, mix his signals like he did last night with you. He might be twisted up still, but he’s not playing games. His heart is telling him something and it seems to me he’s listening.”

“I can’t do this,” I whispered.

“Then don’t,” she replied. “If Johnny gets his head sorted and decides he’s gonna make that play, all I’m saying is, let him do it.”

I decided not to respond.

But my heart was still beating fast, warming up my entire body.

“I love you, doll, but I need to quit thinking about this and get back to work,” I said.

She nodded. “I hear you. But did you hear me?”

I nodded.

She gave me a gentle smile and stood, but she leaned into a hand on my desk and did it holding my eyes with her warm brown ones.

“Just to finish up, I was wrong about something else. You got your hands on a stray, baby girl. Lost and alone, maybe cast aside, definitely done wrong. And you’re Izzy Forrester. No one better at taking the stray out of the stray and giving them home. And also, Scarlett wanted Ashley. He went for Melanie. And Melanie was the finest being in that book. Even Rhett adored Melanie. Scarlett gets all the attention because the woman is the diva to end all divas. But there ain’t nothing wrong with being Melanie. Far from it. She was just as strong as Scarlett but a whole lot quieter about it, which is strength in itself. Johnny isn’t Ashley but I’m thinking he isn’t Rhett either. I’m thinking that Johnny Gamble is realizing that and because of it he’s realizing Scarlett wasn’t the one for him. He’s thinking he’s all about Melanie.”

“You need to stop it,” I told her quietly.

“So I will.” She grinned, pushing away from my desk. “Just to say, I’m also thinking this is going to be fun.” She kept grinning as she shook her head. “Don’t worry, I still got my eyes on you and I’m always here. This is still going to be fun.”