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of the south?”  She pulled the tab, and it popped with a hiss.
    “Not a whole lot to tell.”
    “Yah, those with the juicy stories always say that.” She slurped a sip. “Fess up, or I’ll tell Morgan you said he’d look good in pink.”
    I was pretty sure she was joking but just in case… “I ran a small international shipping business. Made enough money to live happily ever after and got out.”
    “Uh-huh.” She eyeballed me from over the edge of her beer can. “And for shits and giggles you decided to move from Chicago to down here?”
    “I was tired of the city.” It was true. “I picked the farthest spot on a map without winding up in the ocean.” Also true.
    She took another swig. “You married?”
    “No.”
    “Got kids?”
    “No.”
    “You ran a shipping business?”
    “Yeah.”
    Jenny wiped her mouth. “My granddaddy used to tell folks he drove cross-state delivering Bibles. Every one believed him too, till he got caught with almost two hundred gallons of moonshine in his truck. So what did you ship? Drugs? Guns? Or was it desperate people?”
    “None of those. Ever.”
    “Then what?”
    “Art, jewelry, antiques, occasionally rare books. But my specialty was cars.”
    “Nothing else?”
    “I’m sure there have been a few odds and ends over the years but never guns, drugs, or people.”
    “Most folks don’t have those kind of ethics. Especially when they’re looking at money.”
    “It’s why I got out. Business was going in a direction I wasn’t willing to travel.”
    “You in trouble with the law?”
    “No.”
    “Ever been in trouble?”
    “I don’t have a record.”
    “That doesn’t answer my question.” She rocked back on her heels.
    “I’ve made enemies on both sides for my unwillingness to cooperate.”
    She smiled a little. “So I don’t have to be concerned about Morgan when he’s in your company. ‘Cause I sure would hate to have to shoot that pretty little ass of yours with a load of rock salt because you got him hurt.”
    I held up my hands. “I swear. You have nothing to worry about. There’s nothing like that going on between us. I was just helping him out, that’s all.”
    Jenny finished her beer and dropped the empty into the garbage next to the wall.
    “So you’re straight?”
    “No.”
    “Well, you don’t look stupid, even if you did fall for the whole toothpick thing. But like I said, everyone does, seeing how he’s so good with those big brown eyes and that sad little voice that can pull your heartstrings. Manipulating little shit, do you know how many times he fleeced me for money by pretending he needed a present for someone’s birthday party when he was actually buying dirty magazines from Billy Thomson up the road?” She tossed a disgusted glance in the direction Morgan had gone. “He knows how to play a person.”
    “I think I’ve realized that.”
    There was movement in the shadows, and Morgan stepped out. He tilted his head in my direction but didn’t lift his chin. His hand escaped his pocket and fluttered next to his ear. A spasm yanked his shoulder, and he turned away.
    “Boy, he sure does like you.” Jenny stuck her hands in her pockets.
    Morgan’s laugh mixed with the clank of tools.
    Jenny leaned closer. “And from what I can tell, you seem to like him.”
    “I do like him. Just not like that.”
    “Really?”
    Was there anything this woman couldn’t see? “It would be wrong.”
    She gave me a look. “Wrong? How do you figure?”
    Morgan rocked on his feet while he spoke to a redhead who joined him in the back. Instead of the floor, Morgan stared at the ceiling.
    I would have been a liar if I’d said I wasn’t attracted to him. Anyone who wasn’t blind would be. But at the same time, I couldn’t understand why Jenny didn’t agree with how I felt.
    Morgan’s strange movements and refusal to make eye contact made it obvious he wasn’t like other people. How could pursuing a relationship with him be anything but