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else,
but heaven forbid it should be me. Maybe I should make an appointment."
    "You
just don't understand, do you?" her husband said with a resigned
sigh. "Never mind, babe. We'll go." He glanced apologetically at
King and Elissa. "Thanks for the invitation, even if I don't get the
drink. I'll call you in the morning, big brother."
    "Fine," King replied.
    "We
could go for a ride," Bess murmured to Bobby as he joined her.
    "A
ride? Are you crazy? I still have to go over bids!" Bobby snapped.
    Bess
started to speak, then seemed to give up. "Yes, of
course." She led the way to the door, calling over her shoulder, "Good night,
Kingston, Elissa." She didn't look at
either of them. She just kept walk ing out into the sultry evening
breeze.
    "I
don't know what in hell's gotten into her," Bobby apologized.
"She's been worse since we came down here. I can't very well stop
working, can I? I don't have time to entertain her; the oil market is too depressed
to support us. If we hadn't diversified a few years back into real
estate, we'd be living in public
    housing by now!"
He glanced at King. "She's so bored with everything lately. Suppose
I let her stay with you for a week or so while I fly back to Oklahoma
and catch up at the office?" he asked King in all innocence.
    Elissa,
standing at the door beside King, could feel him tense against her.
"Elissa and I are going to spend a few days with her people in
Florida," he replied
unexpectedly, his quick glance daring Elissa to
deny it "Not that Bess isn't welcome to use the house..."
    "No, I don't want her here
alone." Bobby sighed. "It was just a thought. So your people live in
Flor ida?" he added, smiling at Elissa.
    "Yes,
in Miami," she replied. This was unex pected. Surely King
was hedging, but the thought of taking him home with her made her nervous.
Her par ents
didn't approve of her fashions; they certainly weren't going to approve of her friendship with a man like King. They'd think he was a playboy. And for King to actually spend time around her eccentric
par ents! Her heart almost stopped.
But then she reminded herself that he was only playing for time, of
course. He wasn't serious.
    "What do they do?" Bobby persisted.
    "My father is a min—"
She caught it just in time, even before King unobtrusively pinched her. She jumped. "He's in ancient history," she
bit off, glaring at King. "And
my mother is a housewife."

56
    Diana
Palmer
    Fit for a
King
    57

Bobby nodded. "Any brothers or sisters?"
    She shook her head gladly. "No. Just me."
    "You'd
better get going," King interrupted, as if he didn't like the
interest Bobby was showing in her. "Bess will take the car if you
don't."
    "She will at that," he agreed. "Well, good
night."
    "Good night," King replied.
    Bobby
left, and a minute later the car roared angrily down the driveway.
    "They
don't seem ideally suited, do they?" Elissa asked quietly, watching
the taillights disappear among the palms.
    "They
used to be," King replied. "When times were hard, they were
always together, doing simple things like window-shopping or just walking.
Then, when the
money started coming in, Bess was like a kid
in a candy shop. She had to have all kinds of expensive things." He
sighed. "And Bobby wanted her to have
them. He worked harder and harder to give
them to her, but it kept him away from home a lot. When the oil market fell, he went into partnership in a small construction firm back home."
    He paused,
as if thinking, then continued pensively, "Bobby's always
felt obliged to compete with me. In recent years, he's tried even harder. That
means Bess spends too much time alone, and she isn't the kind of woman
who can just sit. She isn't even domestic. Too bad she and Bobby
never wanted children."
    He turned, missing Elissa's sharp glance. Didn't he
    know that Bess was
just hiding what she really wanted? Elissa was sure that the other woman
did want children, very much. He poured himself another Scotch.
"Want another?" he asked as an