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but ignoring me.”
    “Ignoring you? I’m here now, aren’t I?”
    She gave him a pitying look. “King Spencer, you are the densest man on God’s green earth. Why I ever thought for a single minute that you and I could get along is beyond me. Seems like our fate was sealed years ago when I beat you in that spel ing bee and you resented me like crazy. What’s been happening between us the last couple of years was apparently just some kind of midlife foolishness.”
    King bristled. “We’d been getting along just fine, at least until you got some crazy notion in your head about trying to take ten years off your looks.”
    King bristled. “We’d been getting along just fine, at least until you got some crazy notion in your head about trying to take ten years off your looks.”
    “You object to me wanting to look nice?” she inquired.
    Her tone was only mildly curious, but King spotted the minefield in the nick of time. “Of course not, but I thought you looked just fine before. You’re a handsome woman, Frances. Always were.”
    He’d always approved of a woman with a little meat on her bones, a woman who wasn’t afraid to look her age. This new, improved Frances had taken him aback. He was pretty sure the changes were meant to impress somebody else, since things between the two of them were decidedly cooler now than they had been. Just the thought of Frances with another man was enough to rile him, but it seemed like that was the direction things were headed unless he could figure out what was eating at her or who was stealing her attention.
    He regarded her with impatience. “Don’t know why you couldn’t see that I found you attractive. Didn’t I make it plain often enough?”
    She actual y had the audacity to laugh at that. “King, for a normal y blunt, plainspoken man, when it comes to you and me, you have always had an amazing knack for reticence.”
    King couldn’t have been more shocked if she’d accused him of cheating on her. “I let you know how I felt. You spent Sundays with the family. You came to Daisy’s wedding with me and to Bobby’s. I took you to bingo, for goodness’ sakes. What man does al that if he doesn’t have feelings for a woman? I even broached the subject of taking things to another level, but you brushed me off, if I recal correctly.”
    She nodded, her expression thoughtful. “Yes, I can see how going to a few bingo games would be a dead giveaway. I’l have to think about that,”
    she said, taking a dol ar out of her purse and leaving it on the counter. She snapped her purse shut, then slid off the stool and gave him an unreadable look. “I surely wil think about it.”
    She was about to walk away, when King blurted, “Have dinner with me tonight, Frances. Let’s talk this thing through. It’s not the kind of thing we can discuss with al these busybodies listening in.” He scowled in the direction of the owner. “Earlene’s already gotten an earful.”
    King’s breath lodged in his throat as he waited for Frances to respond. For a minute, he thought she actual y might refuse him. And maybe that was exactly what he deserved for being such a horse’s behind for al these months now. Daisy and Bobby had certainly told him so often enough. Even Tucker, who tended to avoid the topic of emotional entanglements like the plague, had put in his two cents on his father’s love life.
    “Where?” she said at last.
    King’s heart final y resumed a normal rhythm. “You name the place.”
    “The marina,” she said at once.
    “But—” He wisely cut himself off before he could protest that Bobby would spend the entire evening hovering over them and then reporting every last word they said to the rest of the family. Clearly that was exactly what Frances had in mind. She knew she had al ies in his kids, and she intended to make the most of that. “The marina wil be just fine. I’l pick you up at seven.”
    “Six-thirty wil be better. We have a lot to discuss.” She